A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

This book deals with the feelings that a friend of a missing girl has. Unlike in the book The Lovely Bones it is unclear if this friend, Jenny-May has been murdered, abducted, or just gotten lost and died of starvation. Not knowing causes pain, maybe more pain than dealing with the hatred that fills a heart after a murder. The not knowing where lost things/people are and the heartache this causes people is the basis of this book. It was interesting to think about the reactions and lives of friends in the same age goup as the missing child. The main character Sandy becomes tragically flawed and an obsession over missing things seems like a natural consequence to having a next door neighbor friend suddenly show up missing and never heard from again. Really it's every parents nightmare no matter if you kid is little or big. I can easily empathize with the characters in the book and pray that I am never forced to really live in this kind of nightmare. Aubrie having wondered off for 40 minutes was enough flood of emotion for me. The rate at wich people's are reported missing all around the world was quite staggering. I wondered what the real statics are. It's also interesting to think about memories being eventually lost. The memory of someone's laugh or smell or smile. It's true these are lost with the passing of time. I wish I could teach my children to have outstanding memories. People with near photographic memories are genius and while I don't expect that of my children giving them the gift of a strong memory seems very important. So should I commit to regular practice? Yes, but as of yet I haven't made it a high enough priority. There always seems to be so much to do. I diegres, the book was great.