Rain Rain Break the Window

Coming back into reality can be horribly startling at times. That's the best way to discern an excellent book from a simply okay book. It's the excellent books that make you forget where you are in time and space, entirely blocking out the clock, one could spend hours reading an excellent book and think it was only minutes. Perhaps, of course, in my particular office this may be a problem, but it's all worth it in the end.
I hadn't, in a very long while, read a book that made me forget myself, become absorbed wholly in the story, the plot of another world beyond my own. It's a wonderful thing when such books are found, they are to be treasured for their wonder and remarkability. I finished The Soldier's Wife today, it was one of few books that I have read that come from the "adult" section of our library. I've been, little by little, trying to transition myself over from the teen section, but it's a scary change, the teen section has been my home for nearly ten years now, I know those shelves like the back of my hand. It was really an especially odd time to choose that book to read because I am trying desperately to finish off a 2011 reading challenge, of which I pledged to read 30 books in one year. I have a number of books from my ever familiar teen section checked out, each of which I could finish in less than a day instead of the three that it took to finish this one. Yet it was apparently a good choice, The Soldier's Wife was much more wonderful than I could have anticipated. I read most of it on our office during breaks between shelving books, and the cliffhangers were horrible when I found that I had to leave again to shelve. But the last section of it, the last bit of that wonderful book, was stunning. The last time I cried over a book was back in July, rereading the Harry Potter series, but this book more than deserved the tears that were shed to it. I cannot spoil it for anyone, that would be more terrible than the worst of crimes. Let me  be the one to assure all readers, however, that I, at least, fell in love with this book. There were certain parts that I didn't approve of, which I expected after picking it out of the adult section, and there was one little plot tail at the end that has been a little overdone, at least in what I have read, but overall it was too enthralling, too engaging, to be put down for longer than absolutely necessary. It was after I finally read those last few words and closed the pages that I realized how much I had missed - the calm albeit dreary day had long since turned into a torrential downpour that threatened to break the window above me, and half the people from my office were gone, already having started another cart which I had completely zoned out of. These are the best kinds of books. For a few hours today, I was living on an island occupied by German soldiers during World War II. Those were certainly scary times.