Lunch In Paris: Fond memories revisted

It was actually a perfect time to read 'Lunch in Paris' With my 30th Birthday looming over my head and me having a mini-freak-out session. It was actually wonderful. Reading the memoir, it took be back in time when my husband and I were dating. Not technically Boyfriend-girlfriend, but just kind of figuring out and seeing if 'this is it' for us.
As I read about the nooks of Paris that the author went, I remembered the crazy lunches, weekend getaways, random trips we both made while 'sorta dating' and making very fond memories. SD and I are bitten willingly with travel bugs. No complains. We lived the farthest possible away from each other, diagonally opposite in US- I was enjoying my sunny California and he the four season filled East Coast! But the distance only made us grow closer.
With time some details have been forgotten but not the meals- I still remember the Thai food we had, our first meal together- He ordered some ugly coconut milk filled dish and I hated it. I vowed to never let him order my meals again. I remember cooking a surprise dessert for him. An Indian dessert which takes over two hours of cooking time. I made it and excitedly asked him to eat it. As he took the first morsel in, I exclaimed- "Oh no, I forgot to add sugar" Yes, no sugar in dessert.
The meals, the smells, the trips, the conversations all came alive as I snuggled in my Comforter and read 'Lunch In Paris'.

Note: I was sent this for guilty reading pleasure as a member of From Left to Write Book Club at no cost to me. However the views expressed are solely mine.

From Left to Write Book Club: The Kids Are All Right

The title itself is appealing: The kids are all right. As I was reading this book, different emotions stirred up inside me. Some scary, some relieving and some very very close to real life. If something were to happen suddenly to me.. then what. It re-instates the discussion that SD and I have been having for awhile. Let’s make sure our papers, our wills, our accounts etc are in order. Both of should know where is what in terms of the bigger things in life. Scary thoughts, but very realistic. We both call it symbiotic.
The book talks about an uncle who just turns and becomes greedy the minute the father is gone and wants to lay his hands on anything and everything possible. Hah.. it comes down to money. And I don’t want our life's earning to go to a random stranger while our kids struggle to make ends meet. We are sweating our blood over work to ensure better future of our near and dear ones.
The beauty of the book was in the part: The truth is always twisted. Every person of the Welch family remembers the incidents based on their memories. It’s there truth and its twisted for the other person. So true.
SD and I talk about this very often. I always say: There are two sides of every story. This book talks about that: how four kids cope up with sudden demise of the father and then the mother. They turn out to be all right. They turn out to be closer and though life was not what they had imagined it to be.. things have a way of working them out.
Recently, I was reading Lakshmi's post about her health and the fall which was not so pleasant. One thing which struck out to me was... She only talked about the silver lining. It is very true, in every situation, there is a silver lining. We just miss it.
In the long run, everything happens for a reason and its always for the better. A lot of times, it just takes a while for us to realize it truly was for the better.
This book re-instated that.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the From Left to Write Book Club. We write posts inspired by the books, not reviews. When you read this book make sure to keep the tissue book handy. Trust me.