THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY by Robert James Waller ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A timeless romance, aged up but young at heart. Written as a ‘true story’, finding out (spoiler alert) it’s entirely fictional actually makes it more realistic in some funny way. It all happens so perfectly, benign corniness and existential speeches, that the cynic in me is relieved it’s a fabrication so the reader in me can focus on an accessible and dreamy love story.

I needed a book in a hurry when I grabbed this, something quick to boost my reading goal before the 31st, and this is probably the shortest book in the house. I felt like a Nineties mom leaving it on my nightstand and reading it in the recovery room after my wife gave birth to our first child (!!!), but damn if it wasn’t easy to hold in one hand and focus on while I held my shiny new daughter with the other. I wanted to laugh off the fact these characters are just-past-their-prime lovers, thinking I would see past their almost adolescent adoration and courtship. And maybe that part of me is like the rest of the world not seeing life like Robert Kincaid does. But they got me by the end.

Regret may be the most powerful of emotions. Missed opportunities are a harsh reminder that life is short, so why not be happy? Take a chance? I don’t know how much I believe a spark like Robert and Francesca’s exists out there, but I do believe that sometimes moments — the most rare and special — find you and almost dissolve the veil that lies between us and whatever put us here. Whatever our purpose is. And in those moments, you have to let it take you. Francesca chose not to, beyond her week-long peek, and in that her story becomes legendary.