Book Club Review

Our book club recently met to review our latest read, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni. We sat around the Christmas tree enjoying chocolate martinis and appetizers and discussed this fabulous book!

I highly recommend this book! I could not put it down! What's interesting is that the story line is actually very simple. It follows the life of what many would refer to as an everyday person. The main character is extremely likable and you find yourself rooting for him as he endures life, some normal things and some not so normal.

The last page of the book (the epilogue), reads:

"There comes a day in every man's life when he stops looking forward and starts looking back.

Because of my father's circumstances, I had thought it a sad commentary on life, but I now understood that he was offering me his own gift, one that only time can provide. He was offering me the gift of perspective. My father was telling me that while we tend to remember the dramatic incidents that change history-Armstrong's walk on the moon, Nixon's resignation, and the Lona Prieta earthquake-we live for the quiet, intimate moments that mark not our calendars but our hearts: The day we marry. The days our children are born. Their first step. Their first word. Their first day of school. And when our children grow, we rememebr those moments with a touch of melancholy: the day they get their driver's license, the day we drive them to college, the day they marry, and the day they have their children.

And the cycle begins anew.

We realize it is in those quiet moments that each of us has the ability to make our lives extraordinary."

Life truly is short. This book made me think even more about what matters most to me and to not let the noise of the world interfere. If you are looking for a book that will warm your heart about living (and make you a bit nostalgic), this book delivers. It will make you realize that the simple life can truly be extraordinary!