Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: Remember the Sweet Things: One List, Two Lives, and Twenty Years of Marriage

The Story: This is the story of a marriage.  The couple, Ellen and Marsh, met later in life.  They had each been married and had children and been pretty messed up before they met each other.  They met at work and kept their distance for awhile. Then they didn’t anymore and they were married not too terribly long afterwards.

Before they were even married, Ellen started keeping a list of little sweet things Marsh did for her or cute little things that he said.  And there were a lot. She continued this list throughout their twenty years of marriage.   She would give them to him each Valentine’s Day and each year the list was pages long.  At the end of each chapter, she shared a handful from that part of their life, and they really were just simple moments that she had recorded.

The life that they shared was a full one.  They lived in different parts of the world, had a sail boat and could leave at will, and they seemed like they spent a lot of time just enjoying each other.

When Marsh got sick later in life, and started to lose it and forget everything, Ellen read the pages out loud to him so that he would remember.

What I Thought: I don’t always like full on love stories, and I don’t always like memoirs, but I’ve been feeling kind of mushy lately, so when I saw this in the library, I had to read it.

And I’m glad that I did.

My biggest complaint is that neither of these people seemed real.  Their life did not seem real to me.  They only worked through the first few chapters, and even then they never struggled for money or bickered over nothing.  Even when she mentioned, “oh, he was working a lot during this time,” she never really talked about how that effected their relationship.  I guess I’m just saying that the loving parts of their relationship would have seemed even MORE loving if I had seen a little bit of realness.  I love my husband more that I can even say, but just yesterday morning I got mad at him before he went to work because he left his popcorn bowl on the table and didn’t put his socks in the hamper the night before.  Maybe I wouldn’t put that in a book I was writing about us, but I would surely show that while we’re totally in love, we still have these normal, stupid issues sometimes.

Other than that, I was smitten.  I loved that they found each other late in life and that they really just savored the time that they had together. The lists that she made really were sweet, and a great way to honor her husband.  I loved that the lists had really serious items, and really light, silly things.

The lesson (for lack of a better word) of this book was a lot like that in Gilead.  That life is made up of these little, seemingly unimportant moments that just add up to a life.  So remember them, savor them, and share them. To just enjoy the simple things.

Conclusion: This is a Hallmark movie, in written form.  If you are in the mood for that type of thing, you’ll love it.  It’s light and sentimental and totally non-controversial.  If you want something rougher or more “real” or gutsy, look elsewhere.