Chasing Fireflies

Lately I have been trying to read books that branch me out of my regular type of book. Normally I read crime novels by J.A. Jance, James Patterson, Sue Grafton or Catherine Coulter, but I was trying to find books that told other types of stories. I saw someone say that 'Chasing Fireflies' by Charles Martin was a great read so I thought I would give it a try. I have to admit that this book was a bit difficult for me to read at times, I am not the world's best reader and I usually need a book that keeps me going from beginning to end and this is why I like the crime novels, the suspense keeps me going. But this book jumped around a lot and you weren't really sure what story was the main story, but by about half way through you were inthrawled in all the stories and wondering what was going to happen to everyone.

Chasing Fireflies is a novel about three different 'men'. One about a man who came from a wealthy family accused of a crime he didn't commit and lost all his worldly things, including his reputation because of it. It is about the boy he took in and raised as his own, who grew up wondering who he was and where he came from and never stopped searching for the answers to his life and that of the man who raised him. It is about a boy who is left and rejected and is taken into the family of these other two men. I have no experience with the foster care system and do not know what it is like to be rejected in the degree that these people felt in this book but I think we all feel that we are searching to figure out where we belong at times.

This story is a wonderful life lesson story it teaches us so much. I have a few quotes that I absolutely love from this book but this is my favourite, 'If God can make a firefly's butt light up like a star, then anything is possible. Anything.' This quote tells us plain and simple and tells us so truly the way life is. Anything is possible and we need to see past ourselves to see that it is true, the 'father' tells the 'son' that whenever he thinks that life is too big for him, or that he can't accomplish something to think of the firefly and remember that anything is possible.

'You take the bad with the good, rise up through it. Live in the mist of it. It's the bad that lets you know how good the good really is. Don't let the bad leave you thinking like there ain't any good. There is, and lots of it, too.' This is the moral of the story as I see it...the 'father' in this story has had a hard life, even though he came from priveledge and wealth that was all taken from him and he lived a life he worked hard to have. But even though from an outsider's point of view and even from the 'son's' point of view he was robbed and he should be angry about how bad his life was, he says that the bad has made him appreciate the good. He states at one point that even though he has seemed to have lost everything he has lost nothing because he has everything he could want. Yes he lost his money and the love of the town folk, he has the love of a wife, his 'son' and has the life that matters to him. And I think this is what I took from this story, look at what you have and not what you don't have. Not all of us can be rich but is it money that makes us rich?

If you are looking for a book that reminds you that no matter how bad your life might seem there is a silver lining this is the book to read. This is a heart felt genuine story that has a lot of bad but reminds you no matter how bad life is there is a good side. And even though the happy ending in this story isn't a princess ending it is still a happy ending, and reminds you that you have to make your own happy endings and even though you might not end up the princess in the castle with everything your heart could want and more, you might have the happiest life of all.