The Last Christmas Ride: a review
The Last Christmas Ride is based on the true story of Edie Hand. While browsing the aisles of SAMS I noticed the rustic cover and picked it up to see if it might be as interesting as it looked. Yes, I’m shallow. I sometimes judge a book by its cover. The “based on a true story” caught my eye. After reading the synopsis I was even more intrigued. The true story took place in northwest Alabama. There is something special about reading books based in your home area. It quickly became a must purchase item.
Now if you have been around here for the last month you know it has been difficult. If you haven’t, check out my first post of 2008. Given the title I knew that there would be tears when I read this book and honestly I had been feeling a little dehydrated. I put the book aside and focused on getting Christmas done. Feeling emotionally stable I picked it back up just after Christmas. It was truly a sweet read.
Cumberland House Publishing has a great summary:
The story begins with the four Blackburn children in an idyllic setting on a northern Alabama farm. Their days are filled with horse riding, wild adventures, elaborate fantasies, and climbing to the top of a nearby Indian mound to dream about their futures. They can hardly anticipate what will happen to them. more…
The Last Christmas Ride is a realistic story of life’s journey. Life isn’t perfect, there will be ups and downs, and we will not always get what we want. I have often used the phrase, what does not kill us makes us stronger. I would like to think this is true. Edie’s story is one of idealism turned realism. Such big dreams were formed as the children played all day, coming home as the light of day fades. They rode together, played together, and dreamed together. As they grow older they begin to realize how life sometimes gets in the way of big dreams. This is especially true for Edie as she has to take charge after the death of one, then another brother. She attempts to achieve her own dreams, then the focus is on the dreams of her son. Time after time Edie receives life’s lesson of self-sacrifice. The final lesson comes when she goes home to care for her last brother, who is dying from a brain tumor. It is during this time of care that Edie helps Terry take his last Christmas ride.
When Terry dies a few days later, Edie realizes that her grandmother was right. Our ride through life has its rough places, but we can do much good along the way if we stay strong enough through faith and rely on our family. She vows never to take life for granted or to be too busy to enjoy the ride in her journey through life.
How many times do we go so fast in our day to day that we fail to enjoy the ride? We have a list of all the important things to accomplish and enjoy, but we get so busy trying to reach each accomplishment that we fail to relish the satisfaction of accomplishment.
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Relaxing to the sounds of: Colbie Caillat - Oxygen
via FoxyTunes
January 02 2008 06:24 pm | Books
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Oooh, I want to read this book!
~Allison
Kwizgiver’s last blog post..hmmm…
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 am
That sounds like a very neat book - need to add it to my “To read” List
Thanks!
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Neat sounding book, but when was the last time Alabama had a white Christmas? I like to read Christmas books during the holidays, but didn’t get around to it this year.
sage’s last blog post..New Year Snowfall
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Give it a try Kwiz and Nicole. It is a a quick warm/fuzzy read.
Sage, the last time I lived here (9 years ago I think) we had an ice Christmas.
People were w/o power and had to grill Christmas dinner. I haven’t seen a good snow in at least 8 years, and that was one state over at the end of January.