A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin

I first discovered The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry when I noticed it was the subject of the cover story in a publication at my local library.  Before looking too carefully at the description, I was convinced it was going to be a memoir (which is ironic since. . .oh, you'll just have to read the book!). Upon realizing it was fiction, I wasn't sure it would be the kind of book I might enjoy, but the information given in the article made it sound interesting, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I finished it last weekend, and I loved it!  Although it's two hundred and fifty-some pages, it's a pretty quick read.  A bookstore owner, one A.J. Fikry, who lost his wife in recent years, is struggling to find a reason to care about anything in his life, when a new sales rep for Knightley Press shows up at his store.  Life takes some unexpected turns from that point forward.  Along the way, a book is stolen, an unexpected guest arrives, and a somewhat successful author event occurs, among other things. Being an analytical person, I appreciated how every little detail and event played a part in the story and resurfaced later.  As a whole, the novel is a beautifully crafted tail of love and friendship.  I highly recommend it. Happy reading!

Quiet

Today, I had intended to present to you, dear readers, a book brief on Quiet by Susan Cain; however, I failed.  I have no idea where this month went, but wherever it went, it took my ability to finish this book with it.

Even though I'm a couple of chapters away from finishing, I still highly recommend this book.  In it, Cain details scholarly research that suggests introverts may be biologically wired differently from extroverts. Through interviews she conducted and seminars she attended, Cain explores what it means to be an introvert in a world that is decidedly extroverted, and how society as a whole can benefit by embracing what its quieter members have to offer.  An introvert myself, her insights have helped me to better understand myself.  Introverts tend to be more sensitive to stimuli, less able to multitask, and better able to process information in solitude.  I'm looking forward to what insights the rest of the chapters hold.

On Such a Full Sea

Recently I finished On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee.  The novel is not one that I would have stumbled upon on my own; rather, I was inspired to check it out from my local library after hearing a story on NPR's Weekend Edition.

Set in a dystopian America sometime in the not-so-distant future, the book follows the journey of Fan, a young woman searching for her missing boyfriend, Reg.  The America in which they live is divided into three distinct societies:  the upper class Charter villages, the self-contained working class cities, and the lawless counties that lie outside the walls of the other two.  Striving for perfection in health and lifestyle, the Charter villages rely on the high quality food produced in cities like B-Mor, where Fan and Reg are from.  Peoples living the counties are left to fend for themselves, growing their own food, providing their own services, and finding their own ways to survive in the midst of an ungoverned territory.  Little movement occurs between the three sections of society, but nevertheless, the reader follows Fan as she leaves B-Mor and journeys into the counties, encountering physical injury, an outcast veterinarian, and a dangerous family of performers along the way.  Her journey continues inside the walls of a Charter city, where she finds herself unwillingly serving a childless couple, keeping a doctor company, and uniting with a brother she has never met.  Slowly, over the course of the novel, the details of Fan's life inside B-Mor, and the affects her departure has on the city she left behind, are revealed as the residents of B-Mor itself tell her story.

One of the underlying themes of the book is the phrase "where you are." Fan lives in the moment.  She doesn't plan for anything.  Instead, she improvises as she goes, remaining in a situation until she sees fit to move on, and then letting whatever happens next happen without complaint. This really struck a chord with me because it reminds me of the struggles I've had since my college graduation, trying to live where I am even though it is not where I envisioned I would be.  I've been living as if this time in my life is a lost era.  It's as if my goal has been to get to the end of this period of time instead of learning from it and growing through it.  So while I thoroughly enjoyed On Such a Full Sea from start to finish, it has caused me to look at myself and where I am.

A Book Brief: Gulp

I'm a terrible person:  I start reading a book, and then I never finish it.  I check it out from the library, only to return it once I've reached the renewal limit.  So it's a pretty significant feat that I've finished TWO books in the last month or so.

I first learned about this book while listening to an interview with the author on NPR.  Long drives back and forth from school are made so much more enjoyable by talk radio.  At any rate, I learned some interesting things from listening and it sounded like an interesting book.  Then, I was in the library one day and I happened upon a copy of this book.  Why not? The interview was engaging, maybe the book will be too.  And so it came to pass that I checked out Gulp by Mary Roach.

In a nutshell, its about all the things you ever wanted (or didn't want) to know about human digestion, from the smell of food all the way down to how it's expelled.  It would be easy to make such a topic rather dry and textbook-like, but Roach's style is quite the opposite:  I thoroughly enjoyed her stories of people she met and experiences she had on the way to writing this book.  From the dog food industry to what may have killed Elvis, Gulp is an adventure in topics not normally discussed in polite circles.  And it made me chuckle on more than one occasion.

So if you're up for an in-depth exploration of your innards, I highly recommend Mary Roach's Gulp.