Hello, friends! My name is Sarah and today we're talking about The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.
This is one of the books are my October TBR list
 and was recommended to me by
several friends over the last year and a
half and all I can say is WOW. When I
finished reading it, that was literally
all I could say. This book is incredible.
Narrated by a dog Enzo, the
story follows the life of Enzo's
owner Denny and his family seen
through the eyes of his dog. We start
all the way back from when Denny picked up Enzo 
as a puppy and follow their journey together
through all the tears of joy, sorrow,
heartache and more. The title comes from the fact
that Denny is an up and coming racecar
 driver who is particularly known for
his ability to race in the rain. Racecar
 driving as a metaphor for life is a
huge theme that is seen throughout the
novel. And the idea of racing in the rain—
of racing in less than ideal conditions
that, if you are not careful,
could easily throw you off course if you
do not keep yourself grounded, know who
you are, where you stand, could
easily throw you out of the race
completely—is a huge metaphor for the
things that Denny and by extension Enzo
experience throughout the course of the book. 
Enzo is one of the most endearing,
heartwarming, and wonderful narrators that
I have encountered in a long time. He
describes as having the soul of a human
 and the body of a dog, and as a result, he
is only able to observe the things that
happened around him and not comment
on them. Because of that he has an incredibly
intuitive, introspective view on all of
the things that happened to Denny and
the rest of the family throughout the
course of the novel. And pretty much any
human has so much that they could learn
from this wonderful, amazing, fictional
dog. Like I said, racecar driving as a
metaphor for life is something that is
used repeatedly throughout the novel, and
though I am admittedly not well-versed
 in racecar driving as a sport,
what I do know about driving in general, 
his comparisons are spot on.
In the story, Denny and his family encounter
some particularly unexpected and painful
super difficult, heartbreaking situations.
And the whole time Denny is having to readjust
and correct and, you know, fix the direction
that he's going. And the...just the metaphors,
all of the various ways that Enzo
talks about how racecar driving is like
life...even though I've never watched a
racecar race in my entire life,
I absolutely absolutely adored the
comparisons and the...just the meaning
behind that sort of thought process. One
of the lessons that I personall gleaned from this
book, aside from all the wonderful
metaphors about racecar driving in
general and racing in the rain, is that
there is great power in simply observing
and simply listening, and you can learn
so much about people and about
situations if you're not constantly
trying to insert yourself in a situation
or in a conversation and Enzo has
given me a wonderful reminder that I can
learn so much more about the people
that I love and the things that are
happening if I just take a step back and
observe and watch and ponder those
things that are happening, and don't so
much feel the need to insert myself into
a situation. Truly, truly this book was
absolutely incredible. The pacing, the
character development, the description and
the story itself were amazing.
I gave this book five out of five stars
because when I finished it, like I said,
literally all I could say was "Wow." I had
no other response. I was just completely
overwhelmed by the beauty, both of the story
itself and of the quality of writing in
this book. This was my first Garth Stein novel
and, I mean, if all of his book are like this, then
I am definitely a fan. Well, there you have it,
friends. That's my review of The Art of
Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I hope
you enjoyed hearing my thoughts. If you
have read the book, please let me know in
the comments. I would love to hear your
thoughts. Thank you so much for watching.
Once again, I hope you enjoyed this video
and I will see you next time. Bye!!
I don't know what I talking about beause 
the cat was trying to eat bread off the counter.
