The Longest Ride

Title: The Longest Ride

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Published: 2013

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 5 out of 5

What a wonderful book. Ira's feelings towards the love of his life and his wife of 73 years are very heartwarming. The story is about two couples Ira and Ruth and Luke and Sophia. 

Ira, a 91 years old driving on an icy road, loses control of his car and gets into a ditch. He hallucinates about Ruth sitting beside him and recollecting all the memories of their life from the day they met until Ruth died 9 years ago.

Luke is a cowboy who is managing a ranch with his mother after his father died. Sophia, who is a senior in Wake Forest College meets Luke in a local rodeo show.  They meet as friends and then fall in love with each other.

Both couples who have nothing in common, separated by years, yet somehow their lives converge with an expected ending.

Favorite lines from the book:

• After all, if there is a heaven, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you.
•  Trust people, until they give you a reason not to. And then never turn your back.
• If we’d never met, I think I would have known that my life wasn’t complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn’t know who I was looking for.

The Language Of Flowers

Title: The Language Of Flowers

Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Published: 2012

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 1 out of 5

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. (Goodreads)

I started this book with great enthusiasm, but the book never kept me glued! Completed about half of the book, but the story failed to captivate me!

The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment

Title: The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment

Author: Deepak Chopra

Published: 2009

Genre: Spirituality

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Ultimate Happiness Prescription shares spiritual principles for a life based on a sense of your “true self” lying beyond the ebb and flow of daily living. Simple daily exercises lead to eliminating the root causes of unhappiness and letting a deeper level of bliss unfold. (Goodreads)