I can’t wait to update my allconsuming list on this book. It’s not just a book, but I am working hard towards my 25 books/year wish. =D

This is a twisted story following the events of an ordinary family who just won one hundred ninety million dollars. How do you spend the money if you just won the lottery? For a father who is obsessed with and famous for Civil War research, and a boy who has a fancy wish list of how to spend the money, no matter how hard they try to live or pretend to be normal, nothing is quite the same again.

There are relatives who rarely visited before show up at the door. There are local and foreign people asking for donation, charity, even in the form of pretending to be a starving kid in some remote areas of the world. There are news people everywhere trying to put them on the spotlight. An abandoned baby left at the door. A biological father that the boy was never aware of, who wanted parental rights of the boy now after his wife had left for 10 years and died for a few years before.

Strangely, with all these going on, the boy’s mind was never too confused. I guess that is the nice part about being a child, that the world can be simplifed to a way that he/she can understand..

I really liked the chapters about Bobby Lee kidnapping Teddy. It was a realistic portrayal of a person’s character changes, from a calm father to an alcoholic abusive man. Those chapters about Theo’s changes in behaviors, attempting to be a better loving father were very touching, too.

When I was finishing this book, I realized another miracle just happened to me. I cheated without a shame!! I read the reader’s digest version instead of the original, yet I enjoyed the book quite a bit. I haven’t read any romance novel for a few years, and I am glad that this one wasn’t bad. The little miracles in the story touched my heart. I even cried when I was reading the passage about Natalie came back to Martin that Christmas to show the true meaning of love… It was touching.

I have read Blink and The Tipping Point. The tipping point is a very interesting idea of how something very subtle can tip the epidemics of suicides, smoking, business, and so on. But the author is way too repetitive in his words, which makes the reading slightly more boring than Blink.

This is another movie that makes me feel that I am not sure what I think about it after watching it. It’s a good movie, with realistic portrayal of a love relationship and the struggle it brings. Jim Carrey’s role is quite unlike his usual comedy/crazy face/physical mishap type of characters. All in all, I like it.

But I am still not sure what to think about it. It gave me mix feelings when I was watching the end credit scrolled. I was not “touched.” I was not “stunned.” I just sat there on the couch after the movie was over, trying to relate it to my own messy life. If I knew being with somebody would most likely end up this way, would I do it again?

I don’t know. I really don’t know. If you knew the most likely outcome of a relationship is frustration, disatisfaction, distrust, to the degree that you wish none had ever happened before. If you knew that because you already had been through it once, would you still risk all the pain to love someone? I still don’t know the answer. Would you?