Tuesday, February 3, 2009

My Review: Guide Me to Eternity

Seldom are there books in my life that hit me so hard that I am bawling, doing the ugly cry, or have that deep chest heart break.

This book did it to me!

This is a true story about a woman from Southern Utah, who tragically loses her husband in a drowning at Yuba Lake. And that is just the beginning of the book. She continues her story on from the death to his funeral to having the baby she was 5 weeks pregnant with, when he died. During these times, her husband visits her from the other side and brings her help and comfort along the way.

First of all, the story was too close to home. Her husband was an electrician (mine too), her best friend (mine too) and they loved to go boating (we did too!). I even read out loud to my husband the scene where Chris has to make the decision whether or not to save her drowning husband or her 3 children (all under the age of 5) from drowning themselves as they were running in the water after her. He even had a couple sniffles, although blamed it on the head cold he was suffering.

This book was a "cannot put it down until I finished it" book. I loved it! 2 things kind of bothered me: a. the way she talked about her husband bothered me a little like he was something extra special and she held him up on a very high pedestal. But after I thought about it, if I were to talk about Brian after he passed away, I would probably only want to remember his best qualities and talk about him the way Heavenly Father sees him. b. The other thing that kind of bothered me was that she does go into some personal spiritual experiences that to me would have been pretty sacred and not want to have lots of people read in a published book. However, I do recognize that it is her story and she will tell what she feels needed to be shared and that is her decision, not mine.

The author is LDS and her beliefs are very clear in this book. She does tell a very compelling story that I dare say, you must have a heart of stone to not be affected by it. It was well written, an easy read and a very beautiful love story. If you need a good cry, buy it today!

4 comments:

Ann Marie said...

Yay! I'm glad you read it!

This is one that really affected me also. Monica gave it to me like back in 1997, and I read it quickly, and now don't remember some things about it, so I may have to re-read it. I thought EVERYONE had read this book.
I 2nd your thoughts.. If you havent read it, I would!
It's for sure a tear jerker!!

{Mo} said...

It's been so long since I read this book, but I loved it. It was a different experiance for me reading the book and personally knowing pretty much everyone mentioned. And I (of course) like you and Ann cried and cried. I definately need to read this one again, but I think I lent out my copy and never got it back.... I'll ahve to get a new one. I'm glad you liked it :)

The Dorsey's said...

Mom called and told me about this book while I was at Target. I started bawling in the middle of the shoe section (long story, dogs ate Morgan's new shoes that matched Shae's and she was crushed).

So there I am crying in the shoe section and I had like three people come up to me asking if I was all right. Finally I told one woman the story and she too started crying. I don't think I can go back to that Target for awhile.

Thanks for finding this novel. I can't wait to read the whole thing.

Mackenzie said...

Wow...haven't seen this book for a number of years. I loved it back when I read it too. Such and amazing story of love and testimony. I will have to dig my copy up an give it another whirl.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails