The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinksi (Come Share Your Life List!)
In The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinksi June Parker attends a Weight Watchers meeting that will change her life – but not how you would think. She gives a ride home to Marissa whom she’s only met for the first time that night. As Marissa reaches behind her for a taco soup recipe (which our host made for our book club – yum!), a dresser comes off a truck in front of them causing the car to roll and killing Marissa. Yep, what a way to start off the book and what a guilt trip for June.
June does go into a downward spiral but the book really begins as she’s starting to get on with her life by deciding to complete Marissa’s list of twenty things that she wanted to do before her next birthday. A list which June found and took from Marissa’s purse the night of the accident. Some of the things are seemingly silly, like go braless for a day or kiss a total stranger and others are more difficult like change somebody’s life and show your brother how grateful you are him.
The Next Thing On My List is June’s journey as she attempts to complete each item. Along the way she finds romance, career fulfillment and how to live again. It’s a fun, quick read that while it has a great message – live your life instead of watching somebody else live theirs – doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I did find some of the book unbelievable. Like June’s relationship with Marissa’s brother, mother and grandmother. I would think that it would be very awkward to be friendly with the person who killed their family member despite that it was an accident. In the aftermath of the accident, they don’t take the time to find out more about each other or details about the accident, which I found odd. When June comes back into their life with this list of Marissa’s they are curious of course but act as more casual bystanders. I think something needed to be done slightly differently with that aspect of the book but what that solution is I honestly don’t know.
Overall, a quick read that doesn’t leave me feeling heavy afterwards. And with some of the heavy hitting issues that I like to read about it’s nice every once in a while to read something that doesn’t get me down. It’s not a book that I’m running out and telling everybody that they HAVE to read it because it’s SO good but I enjoyed my time with it.
And of course, one can’t help thinking about their own life lists. I’m a list maker. My husband’s a list maker. Making lists are just plain fun. My lists would be different if I were to put time limits on them like one year, 5 years, 20 years or a lifetime. So I came up with something that seemed reasonable for the next 10-15 years. And from the looks of it I need to also come by a cash load somehow as my list involves spending a lot of money!
- Go on a cruise.
- Vacation in Thailand.
- Take the Advanced Master Gardener class (a four year program).
- Read all the Newbery books.
- Remember every Birthday for a year.
- Decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees as a family.
- Take out my large 4×5 camera and start shooting again.
- Vacation with the family to Yellowstone, Redwoods, Southern Utah.
- Go to Disneyland and stay in a nice hotel instead of cheapest we can find.
- In fact, don’t let the cheapest always be the deciding factor. Allow myself to treat myself well without feeling guilty about it.
- Buy a bed.
- Take family to Hawaii to visit the family.
- Have another baby (or two).
- Snorkel but be brave enough to go more than twenty feet out from the shore.
- Digitize all of my negatives.
- Get a massage.
- Go on an African safari.
- Do volunteer work in Africa.
- Get involved with helping refugees here.
- Go skinny dipping (yikes my parents & in-laws read my blog!)
- Book a flight last minute and just go!
- Take my boys fishing.
- Learn sign language.
- Cook a turkey.
Now, it’s your turn! What are five things that you would like to do in the next ten years? Spill it!
Links of interest: Jill Smolinksi website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction, Chick-lit
Publisher: Three Rivers Press. March 25, 2008
Paperback , 304 pages. ISBN 0307351297
The Next Thing On My List is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
Category: Adult, Book Reviews, Fiction
Tags: book club, chick lit, neighborhood book club, published 2008
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hm, five things I want to do in the next 10 years…
- Add on to my current degree
- Dramatically decrease the size of my TBR pile
- Actually start using my camera to take pictures again
- Attend BEA at least once
- Go on an Alaskan cruise
Random list, but it is basically first things that came to mind! I enjoyed reading yours. If I went into more detail I would probably have to come into a lot of money, too…
on November 5th, 2009 at 4:50 amI have trouble making a list! If anything it would be too long. Briefly:
- Visit France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, and China.
- Attend BEA next year and as many years after as I can.
- Attain British citizenship to make our lives easier.
- Think about & get a PhD in history.
- Have a baby, or two.
- Get a cat.
- Buy a house.
I think that’s enough! Looks like I need money too …
on November 5th, 2009 at 5:00 amI am a major list maker too! I have heard a lot of people really love this book! I’m going to add it to my ever-increasing list!
on November 5th, 2009 at 6:19 amIt’s great that a somewhat mediocre book could inspire you to make your list! I guess that is the power of reading. My 5 (more like 5000 but I will limit it here ha!).
on November 5th, 2009 at 8:56 am1. Jump out of an airplane on my 50th birthday
2. Learn how to surf
3. Go back to volunteering with hospice
4. Take my son fishing and camping
5. Go to Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Italy
It sounds like it has a few major problems and the plot isn’t entirely new to me but it still seems like a nice read.
1. Go to Disney World
on November 5th, 2009 at 10:11 am2. Read all the books I own
3. Get over my fear of cars and learn to drive
4. Paint and decorate all the rooms in my new house
5. Take a road trip
Hmmmm there is sooo much,
Travel around Europe
on November 5th, 2009 at 10:44 amGet my masters
Move away from New England for a few years
Go on a cruise
buy a house/condo
Okay, here you go:
1. Get my YA book published and a couple picture books
2. Go to Europe (leave the North American continent)
3. Start doing successful school visits
4. Have a baby
5. This last one is hard for some reason–Move to St. Louis or Kansas City–there thought of it.
on November 5th, 2009 at 10:46 amI’ve had this book on my pile for a long long time and it’s turn never seems to come up! Lists fascinate me too. Love see everyone’s here!
Five on mine:
1. Travel in Europe… as many countries as I can.
on November 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am2. Do NaNoWriMo at least once.
3. Get all our home video movies onto DVDs and also make fun compilations from them.
4. Live in the UK for a summer.
5. Record my parents’ stories, then write them down.
I have seen this book in the library.I might pick it up next time . Thanks for the review.
on November 5th, 2009 at 11:04 amIt sounds like the book starts off with a bang! I’m glad to see it’s not too heavy. The item “buy a bed” on your list intrigues me.
on November 5th, 2009 at 12:00 pmI love your list! In fact, I’m getting inspired by some of the comments here. But I will not be jumping out of an airplane… ever!
on November 5th, 2009 at 3:43 pmI love your list. Here’s a start to mine.
on November 5th, 2009 at 9:50 pmCompete in a triathalon
Learn sign language
Organize and declutter my whole house
Put in new flooring in our house
Read War and Peace
Ok, so Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl did a life list a while ago, and I was SO INSPIRED that I did my own, blogstyle. I tried to think of a hundred things, but then it just became about adding things that I didn’t really care about doing. So I pared it back down and now it stands at 41 things, to be added to as I see fit.
Anyhoodle, it’s here: http://ontheintarwebs.blogspot.com/
on November 6th, 2009 at 10:01 amI have this book on my shelves, but I never get around to it.
My list:
on November 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm1.decide if I want another baby and have it, or not.
2. Go to Italy
3. Move into a house with a studio room for my sewing.
4. Find a new job.
5. Read or get rid of half the unred books in my home.
This book sounds intense. I think it’s hard coming up with lists of things I’d like to do, but I think I can come up with at least five!
1. Travel to Egypt…I love ancient historical sites.
2. Get my PhD just for me, not for $. (Ha, ha. Who does that?)
3. Read all of Rushdie’s, Erdrich’s, and Kingston’s works.
4. See Starry Night by Van Gogh. (This has always been a dream, and last time I was in NYC, it was out on loan!)
5. This one’s simple…organize my den & garage. I’m probably less likely to do this one than any of the others! LOL.
Great post. I hope we can all achieve a few of the things on our lists!
on November 7th, 2009 at 1:28 pmThere are so many things that I would like, but that is just life.
1- Go on a cruise
2- Go to Disneyworld
3- Have new furniture that all matches
4- Buy a home
5- Have another baby
These are the things that are pretty impossible at this point in time, but I’d like them all to be a reality someday.
on November 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pmI read this book last year and also found it to be light but the title and the story line intrigued me….
my list of to dos?
1. Continue to serve with street kids and kids who live in the dump in Honduras as often as I can
2. Takes classes to learn Spanish
3. Go to Harry Potter Adventure Park when it is open in Florida
4. Complete a century bike ride (100 miles in one day)
5. Attend BEA
on November 8th, 2009 at 10:40 pmI liked this one too, but like you, it wasn’t one I ran out and recommended.
And do go on a cruise! I would go on another one in a heartbeat.
on November 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pmI would like to get a job that actually paid me enough to live on my own, go to Egypt, write a book, go to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and attend a super-fancy ball.
on November 10th, 2009 at 11:36 pm