What Alice Forgot: a Re-Read
Remember how I read What Alice Forgot last year and I pretty much have never stopped talking about it? (In fact, I just wrote a guest post over at Good Life Eats yesterday with five recommendations for books to read during the summer and this was one of them).
When the BlogHer BookClub announced they were doing this book, I jumped at the chance to read it again. And then I read it in a single day – even knowing how it was all going to play out, I couldn’t put it down.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love memory-loss books and even though a lot of the fun is watching them regain memories or deal with their lives when they can’t remember much of their normal lives, this one was just as fun the second time.
Of course, whenever you reread a book, different things stand out to you. I was more annoyed this time around with the Frannie storyline because. . .it’s just so unnecessary. And this time I knew from the beginning that it wasn’t a vital part of the story.
But her interactions with her daughter, Madison, just about killed me this time. I think I sobbed through every part that involved her (oh, could that be pregnancy hormones?). Having a child that’s a little older now, and watching how MUCH she wants my attention and admiration, just made the whole thing ring that much more true for me.
And, really, if I’m being honest, I ALWAYS like a good romance. So, how could I go wrong here? And would reading it again tomorrow be such a bad thing?
choose which books to read and my reviews are strictly my own opinions. If I think a book is terrible, I’ll say so. If I rave about a book, it’s because it’s one I’d give to my sister or my mom.
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for almost a year now. I just picked it up this morning, wondering if I might finally give this one a chance?… maybe after your post I will.
My husband doesn't understand reading a book you've already read. He makes the (valid) argument that there are so many books yet to read, why waste reading time on something you've already read?
I TOTALLY DISAGREE. Re-reading old favorites is such fun! Like sitting down with a good friend and getting to know her even better than you thought you did.
I completely agree with that – I'm definitely a re-reader. Not to say I don't read new things, because I do all the time. I just love to re-experience the whole thing, and I feel I gain different things from a re-read than I do the first time around.
I LOVE this book, but always feel weird recommending it because of all the swearing. Was it as bad as I remember? I tell people it's Australian and it's not that bad of a word there, but I'm probably lying because I actually have no idea.
I tell everyone about this book, and all the people who end up reading it tell me how much they liked it and how they are STILL thinking about parts of it. One friend (Desmama) said she would like to read it every year, perhaps around the time of her wedding anniversary. THAT is how good it is!
I read this book right after I read your first post on it, and I just loved it!!!! I too thought that the Frannie parts were almost random and completely unnecessary. I will definitely be re-reading this book one day! Thanks for your original review, otherwise I would have missed out on this great book!
I loved this book. I should definitely re-read it because I'm sure I would pick up things I missed the first go-round. Thanks for the recommendation! 🙂
Oops! I recommended this book as one that you should read, not realizing that you'd already read it… twice! Mea culpa.