Log #8

Title of the novel: The Life List
Author: Lori Nelson Spielman


There are two more things that are crossed out in Brett’s list. Have a dog and be a teacher. She named her dog Ruby, and together they moved out of her mother’s house and found an apartment to live in. On the other hand, one of Brett’s students, Sanquita, was giving birth while her body condition wasn’t in a good state. At the end, Sanquita passed away, yet the baby survived. Besides the tragic news, Brett finally found her real father: a kind and warm-hearted man, and she also learned that she has a little sister who is twelve-years-old.

I think romance takes a magnificent place in this novel. Personally, I don’t like to read romances, and I pushed myself to read through the romance plot faster than I read any other pages. However, I learned that she almost has an affair with Brat, attorney of her mother, yet she stopped herself before she put too much feeling into the relationship. Aside from that, Brett also met a man, Herbert Moyer, introduced by her brother. Their relationship is well and healthy.

Five months has passed and she still has five more on her list. I’m somewhat worried that she couldn’t make it in a year, yet it seems like everything is going better and better with her list. In fact, I think it’s a bit too smooth. I have a feeling that there will be something big follow up in the storyline, maybe a huge plot twist which will make the readers want to scream because they aren’t expecting it coming as reading the novel. I get excited every time when I pictured what would it be in the next chapters; I’m hoping there will be some intense stories going on since I think the last chapters are a bit easy to predict. For example, Brett found her father, the loss of friendship with her friend Megan, etc.

Nevertheless, I’m pleased to see Brett’s emotional growth. In the beginning of the story, she is depressed, unsure, pessimistic and dead inside. Now, Brett is happy, confident, positive and much more “alive.” Brett is doing what she really wants in her life, and no matter how many times she fails, she comes back up and works harder. This is the type of person I look up to.