A Walk to Remember

Title: A Walk to Remember
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Published: September 1, 2004
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Every April, when the wind blows from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood...

This book was cute but it didn't make me cry like everyone said it would. To be honest I kind of figured out the ending once Jamie told Landon that he shouldn't fall in love with her and that her goal in life was to get married.

Now, I've never seen the movie. I have a hard time with Nicholas Sparks movies. I've never been able to make it through Dear John and the Notebook just doesn't make any sense to me. Why does everyone love that movie? It's so obvious what will happen ;) LOLZ! But seriously.... that's not going to stop me from reading it.

Because... I have found out that I heart Nicholas Sparks big time! HE's exactly what the doctor ordered when you want to curl up with a good book and just swoon.

And I can't believe this stuff is by a dude!! Like WOAH! I wonder if he like lies in bed with is wife and asks his wife, "So, Honey. If I had the dude pick up her cat and put him on her deathbed, do you think that would make my women readers tear up?"

I bet he does. Either that or he has really found his inner chick which amazes me. Or do all guys know this stuff? Why do they keep this side hidden from us? Oh wait... it's probably because I would make fun of them. Yes yes... better to keep it hidden and only show their rough and tumble side ;)

Anyways, I figured out the ending of the book but it was the very very ending that I had not figured out. I kind of thought the walk would be ONE LAST STROLL but it wasn't. That was pretty clever the way that was done.

I feel that this book would be great for grandparents. It's a very clean book but maybe a little too clean. I kept thinking that Jamie was a bit too much like Miss Melanie from Gone with the Wind. ALways seeing the good in everybody. But I guess since she's a preacher's daughter and doesn't have very long it's kind of in her genetic make-up.

I really wanted her to go eat peanuts with Landon in the cemetery. That would have been bad girl enough for me.

I really like Landon. It was a pleasure to get inside a boy's head and realize that even though boys do think about going to second base that some of them are happy enough just to hold hands. That is most awesome.

A WALK TO REMEMBER is an unfading memory. A story of an old man's first love and a young man's true calling. Set in the 1950s you really get a feel for how simple life was back then and yet how complicated some parts were. How simple we have it now and yet how complicated we make it.

It's totally cute and I recommend it to all who were picked on back in school. TO anyone over 50. And to the grandchildren who want to read about that time.