What's that one book that's been on your list forever? You should read it, there's a reason it's still on the list

We all have those books, the ones we think sound so intriguing that get added to our reading lists, and by the time we get around to them we have no idea what the book is about anymore or why we added it?

“The Last Runaway” was one such book for me, with it’s compelling title, I added it after searching lists of amazing books, or books everyone should read on pinterest a couple years ago. And yet, when searching the library for my next read I kept putting it off...probably because I couldn’t remember what it was about.

This past week I moved my quarantine from my own apartment in LA up the coast to my parents house. Surrounded by the bookshelves of my childhood, where I found many a good novel to fill the hours I felt I could breathe again.

Family has always been a very large, very important part of my life. My family had dinner together every night, we spent every Sunday having family time together. I lived at home and for a year after graduating college. When I finally did move out I was never further than a couple hours from my parents, and my visits were never more than a couple months apart at the absolute longest.

Going the last 8 ½ months without seeing my parents, without being able to hug them. Without perusing the bookshelves in their home and curling up on the sofa with yet another borrowed novel. A piece of me was missing.

I found myself wandering through their home, looking through the shelves, finding novels I had read in school and after. Novels that I’d read multiple times, curled up in the same green glider that used to sit in our “library” (a corner loft area of our home) in my childhood home. I felt myself surrounded by comfort as I ran my fingers over the familiar titles.

As usual there were new additions since I last checked. If anyone reads more than me, it’s probably my Mom. Laying on a shelf as if waiting for me to pick it up, not having quite found its permanent resting place on the shelves sat a familiar title. One I know has been on my list to read for ages, One I have no idea what it was about.

I’ve been struggling for new reading material, trying to conserve money, fearing germs and being limited to how tired my eyes get after all the time I already spend staring at a screen. I decided to take a break from the library ebooks on my phone and finally read this novel, laying there begging to be read.

...Why did I put this off for so long? This novel is incredible. It’s not the longest novel I’ve ever picked up, though it has a decent weight to it...and yet the next afternoon my son comfortably installed with a show to watch I finished the book.

There are certain time periods in history I’ve read a lot about, 1) the holocaust 2) Henry the VIII 3) The civil war. I think I’m drawn to these time periods because I want to understand. How things such as slavery and the holocaust were allowed to happen. That being said I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel in the civil war era (loosely) that was from a perspective of someone other than a slave. While I understand they are the ones who can tell the tale of their suffering the best, I did find it interesting to see what life as an outsider was like. The life of someone who hadn’t grown up in America with slavery and only wanted to help. A person like me trying to understand how anyone could be that cruel, that uncharitable.

I loved Honor’s character. She really lives up to her name. While she did run away in the beginning of the novel, I actually find her choice to go to America a brave one. Yes she was running from the shame of being jilted by her fiance but she chose to go to a country across the sea with only her sister, knowing she may never come back, she may never see her parents again.

I could hardly handle 8 months without my parents, and I was still talking to them on the phone or video chat every week. I almost burst into tears when I hugged them last weekend. I would not be strong enough to sail away from my family knowing that I will never see them again. That takes guts and strength.

Honor did not let anything conquer her. No matter what situation she was put in she continued to survive and live by what she believed was right. I was pumping my fist in the air, loving how brave Honor was, and the best part is that she didn’t even know it. She didn’t have the presence of mind to think of herself as brave. She was too busy keeping her head up and pressing forward.

Maybe it’s just me but her family forbidding her to follow her convictions really pissed me off. Her husband being too afraid of his own mother to realize the gem he was married to. Pissed...me...off!

Anyway I highly recommend this one, I had to force myself to put the book down and go to bed so that I didn’t stay up all night on a weeknight reading the entire book in one sitting. If it’s on your list, get it in your hands and off that list asap you won’t regret it.

“The Last Runaway” by Tracy Chevalierhttps://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Last_Runaway/W-lVDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0