The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin tells the tale of a widowed bookseller who is slowly killing himself and his business on the rural Alice Island. His life takes a shocking turn and his spiny heart slowly turns to mush.  I found this a super readable book and it is definitely super duper quotable, but it just didn't ring true to me. Cynical people don't just turn into non-cynical people literally overnight.  It's sort of schmaltzy and overwrought in general.  It's probably appropriate for me right now when I'm a bit all over the place emotionally, but I think if I'd read this book at another time, I would have definitely come down harder on it.

If you're a reader, though, this book is aimed directly at your heart.

1. "By the end of the dinner, the greater truth of their incompatibility had been revealed. Perhaps it should have been obvious from their inability to reach consensus on an appetizer or from his main course admission that he disliked "old things" - antiques, houses, dogs, people. Still, Amelia had not allowed herself to be certain until dessert, when she'd asked him about the book that had had the greatest influence on his life, and he'd replied Principles of Accounting, Part II." (page 6)

Ha ha ha!  My job is currently housed in the College of Business and I'm surrounded by people who don't read fiction. It's been a challenge. Reading is so fundamental to my life that I think it would definitely be a dealbreaker for me on a first date if someone couldn't name at least one book beyond a book they read in school that had impacted their lives.

2. "They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books?" (page 18)

This is why book clubs are so powerful. You learn so much about what people notice, comment on, love, and hate when reading.

3. "...the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life." (page 41)

I recently purchased six jigsaw puzzles and every weekend I pull one out. That is four more jigsaw puzzles than I have done in the last decade of my life. It turns out Dr. BB and I are a good puzzle team. I like to sort pieces and he likes to take hard sections and puzzle them out. But I would generally never spend free time doing puzzles because, you know, I have stuff to do.

Even reading this book was a welcome diversion during *these crazy times* but I think if had read it a year ago in May, I would have been irate and less amused by the preachiness of the novel.

4. "You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?" (page 87)

It's such a good question.  Seriously, ask all of your loved ones. You'll get good book recommendations and learn about those who are in your life.

5. "...who is the size of a grasshopper and has the personality of a praying mantis..." (page 144)

I just try to keep alive the tradition of keeping track of the animal-related metaphors in the books I read. (This was describing an elderly woman.)

6. "From his point of view, the only thing worse than a world with big chain bookstores was a world with NO big chain bookstores."  (page 216)

I have a daydream that I go to a Barnes and Noble, order an iced coffee at the Starbucks,purchase a new release, and sit on a couch and read and drink and read and drink.  I can't see a time when this will be something I do comfortably, so it's going to be have to remain just a daydream.

Words I looked up:

Vidaloo: popular Indian curry dish

Bumptious: self-assertive or proud to an irritating degree