Book Grief, but So Worth It

I took the morning off work {a much needed mental health break} to finish reading The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty and now have some serious book grief happening.

Have you ever experienced Book Grief?

Maybe I should define it as "book blues", the feeling of pure sadness when you read the final page of a really good book. This causes grief because you've gotten so caught up in the characters' lives that you are actually sad that your time with them is now over.

This grief may hit me harder than most because I spent so many years not know that books could do this to your soul. I didn't read as I child. I, honestly, never finished reading a chapter book until I was 30. My mind wouldn't allow me to concentrate long enough to get through a chapter. I always wanted to experience the feeling of being lost in a book and checked out so many novels through my elementary and middle school years, but always returned them unread. Oh, how I wish my diagnosis (Attention Deficit Disorder) had taken place so many years sooner. For many years I used my diagnosis as a crutch thinking that I couldn't read unless I was feeling the full power of my medication, but let me tell you Liane Moriarty has proven that theory so wrong!

The Hypnotist's Love Story is the fourth book for Moriarty's that I have become obsessed over and also the fourth that I have felt such horrible sadness when I read the last page. I know you can read books for a second time, Matt does it all the time, but I don't believe it will be the same. The characters are already fully developed in my mind. If you have read anything by her you know how that happens - she is an amazing writer with an even more amazing ability to tell stories from multiple perspectives.

So, take this post as a definite Friday Favorite and if you've never taken any of my other suggestions seriously, now is the time to start! Seriously! You have to do this favor for yourself.  You have to go {today} and get one of her books!

Now, you could start where I did with Big Little Lies. My friend, Emily, suggested I read it during a discussion about how our other friend marathoned through the HBO show {my mother did the same thing}. I am so glad I chose the read the book first {a lesson I learned from the Harry Potter series - and Hunger Games - and The Help} because, DANG, there is no way I would have read the book after watching the second episode {that I couldn't finish} of the Big Little Lies on HBO. No judgment on anyone who did watch it and loved it, but my inner Church Lady freaked out. I mean, seriously, I knew how Celeste and Perry "made up" in the book.  I have children - I know how that all works, but I seriously was not expecting to see that much of Nicole Kidman. I had to stop watching because I honestly couldn't hear the dialogue over Church Lady's rant about how "they always have to smut up simple loving things. It was perfect in the book, but this is just, well, not appropriate". Pray for Matt, he has to live with Church Lady more than he would like. I try to contain her, but she is a force to be reckoned with.

Back to the books! Now, I read Big Little Lies (486 pages) in the course of a weekend. Then, I ran back to Target (not the most economical place to purchase books) and grabbed The Husband's Secret. That one took a bit more time for character development, but again I got sucked in and mourned HARD afterward. The plot twists in both are AMAZING!

What Alice Forget was quickly purchased to get over my grief of finishing The Husband's Secret and I launched into a book that really did make me think. Of course, I can't find my copy of it - I probably lent it to someone. I hope they are reading it and loving it as much as I did. It's not my intention to ruin the sorry for you, but I have to ask, what would you do if you woke up one morning to realize ten years had passed and everything in your life had changed? It was so thought-provoking and, again, I mourned after that last page was read.

Then, The Hypnotist's Love Story, man, it's good. If you read it {or have read it} you will understand why I had a serious connection to this book and, no, it was not a connection I had to the stalker. Honestly, though, I did ask myself, "does driving by that guy's house every day on my way to college  freshman year count as stalking?" Yikes. Maybe it wasn't EVERY day.

Oh, Moriarty's use of the third-person and first-person perspective for these characters was, well, amazing {I have no other word to describe it - I might need to read a thesaurus next}. I finished the book an hour before writing this post and as I type I am living on the high of the story, but mark my words by this evening I will be so depressed that it's over.

I have just become a complete junky for her writing and I am actually contemplating which books in my library would get me the most money at Half Priced Books so I can go buy another one. I would have already purchased her newest book, Nine Perfect Strangers, but they didn't have it paperback at Target. That's the other thing about these books, the feel of the paperbacks - the ability to get so engrossed that I roll the pages back in my hand - something else Matt can't stand about the way I read books {he thinks folding corners is horrible and that it's uber sinful for me to write in a book}.

Again, do yourself a favor and take my {over 1,000 word} recommendation seriously. Get yourself one of Liane's book. I promise you will not regret reading any of them!