This past Tuesday the Bookies gathered to discuss Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.  This is a book that will be hard to discuss here without spoilers so I will keep this light.  To see a review with more detail and a spoiler page, see my review of Me Before You here, and for another great review by our Queen (front and center in picture), see it at her blog By Book Or by Crook.

A brief synopsis of Me Before You: (Setting – London village)  Louisa Clark has recently lost her day job and at 27, still living at home but trying to get moving on life – this is not cool.  She applies for a temporary position at a nearby castle for a rich boy who is not wheelchair bound due to an accident.  Extremely unqualified, Louisa is shocked when she is given the job.  Will Trainer (ie. “Rich boy”) is a bitter 30 something.  He once had the world at his finger tips; skiing with friends, trips to beaches and around the world… now confined to the limitations of movement and a chair.

Louisa (probably due to her lack of professional training for this type of work) will have none of Will’s attitude.  At first she is careful and shy but soon finds she is dealing with a sort of spoiled whiny baby who’s toys have been taken away.  By Louisa calling Will out on this, Will develops a respect for Louisa and a friendship slowly grows.

Louisa soon discovers why her job taking care of Will is temporary and this knowledge changes everything.  Now Louisa’s drive is to show Will that this new world of wheelchairs and limited movements is worth living in – and she only has so much time to convince him.

The Bookies rated this one fairly high.  We seen “5” ratings out of people who rarely if ever give 5’s.  (We rate on a scale of 1 – 5, 5 being the best).  A book such as this brought out (as I had hoped) some deep discussion.  We discussed choices and when do family and friends have a right to step in, and if they do – how much is permissible… how much is too much.

We were surprised to learn that we have a girl in our group who has a relative that has a similar story of living a full vibrant life and then an accident causing her to become a quadriplegic.  To actually hear about someone who has gone through this was interesting and brought the book even more fully in focus.

Of course… we had food and wine with our discussion 🙂

Why is this a great book for book clubs? 

There is great discussion points within this book.  Hard questions come to the surface that will make for a lively and passionate discussion on both sides.  If you like books that can get a rise of emotion out of your group let me say this is a book that will do just that.