All The Numbers by Judy Merrill Larsen

Why I read this book:
This was our book club book for August.  My friend Mandy bought us the opportunity to get not only autographed books from the author but also a phone chat with her at our book club meeting. This benefited the victims of the recent floods in Nashville. Needless to say we were very excited.

Characters:
Ellen- The main character in this book. She is a divorced mother of two young boys. From the very start of this book Ellen left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't like how the author introduced her to us and it was impossible to get past my sour feelings for her. That being said she feels very real. I don't dislike the writing of the author, I just don't like this character.
Daniel- This was Ellen's older son. He is in his early teens. He seems to be a pretty "normal" teenage boy. It seemed to me that he was excluded throughout most of the book. But I feel like he also felt believable in the role. He wasn't too perfect or too mature for his age.
James- He was 11 years old when he was hit by a jet ski and killed. The boy riding the jet ski was just a teenager himself.
Tim- He is the boys father. He doesn't play a big role in this book, but you do get some of his and Ellen's history and you get to briefly see him in the father role.
Anna and Sam- Ellen's friends and owner's of the lake house that they were all staying at when the accident happened.

My thoughts:
I read this book while traveling. It made me cry in the airport and on the plane. Crying in public is not something that I like to do. I will admit that anytime I read one of these child tragedy books I get very emotionally involved. I can't help but put myself into the role of the mother. A part of me feels a very real part of that pain. I don't know how to read this type of book any differently.I do think that I would shed many fewer tears if I could figure out how to separate myself from that.
My favorite part of this book comes in the title. The story behind that in the book is that when the boys were little and Ellen would tell them that she loved them they would ask how much. They would count up as high as the boys could at that age and then Ellen would tell them that she loves them all the numbers. I thought this was very creative and had one of those why didn't I think of that moments. When talking with Judy I was able to ask her how she came up with the idea for that. She said that she used to say that to her children when they were younger. She said that she put a lot of her real life into her writing.
I was very impressed in talking with the author. I have never gotten the opportunity to do anything like that before. She was very kind and listened to and answered all our questions. I was even able to talk to her about my feelings on Ellen. She very graciously said that she feels like she is doing her job if she writes a character and people have strong feelings for them be it good or bad. I feel that this was a once in a lifetime experience. I am grateful for the generosity of Judy Merrill Larsen and also my friend Mandy.

Would I read this book again:
I would not read this book again. I would like to clarify that is it not because it is not a good book, because it is. It's just impossible not to get caught up in the sentimentality of this book.