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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

By Gabrielle Zevin

Published 2014

Read Dec 2025

It’s not clear to this reader how she chose to get this audiobook but she is glad she did.  The only other Gabrielle Zevin book this reader has encountered is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.  In that book she used the story of three young people that develop and sell video games to give readers some insight into that industry and people who inhabit it.  In this book she uses the story of a mismatched group of people to give readers some insight into independent bookstores and the publisher agents that sell them books.

While some have found this book to be too predictable and somewhat sappy, this reader does not share this opinion.  Several characters must reset their lives after experiencing tragedy.  Their reset is generally neither very pretty nor quick.  The author does a good job of honestly showing their flaws and misguided steps.

When we meet A.J. Fikry, he is a 39-year-old widower who is mourning the loss of his wife, business partner, and love of his life, who perished in a car accident.  He’s drinking himself to sleep each night and thinks that drinking himself to death may be a good path for him.  He and his wife were both in literature PhD programs and not enjoying them when his wife suggests they open a bookstore in her hometown—Alice—which is on Alice Island, an island off the New England coast that is only reached by a ferry.  During one night of mourning, while passed out from drink, Fikry’s beloved and very rare copy of Tamerlane, a book of early poetry by Edgar Allen Poe (the writer at the center of his unfinished PhD thesis) goes missing and thus his “nest egg” for retirement.    He is well described as an often-surly book snob which doesn’t help his store’s bottom line.   He is quite mean to the new publishing rep for Knightly Press after the previous rep died.

A major change in Fikry’s life happens when a two-year-old is left in his store with a note “please take care of her”.   Her drowned mother is found washed up on Alice Island’s beach. The inconvenience of the required ferry trip for the social worker assigned to the case means the child spends a weekend with Fikry who decides to be her foster care provider.  Yes, the reader needs to accept that this proposal actually flies, but so what—it’s a fictional novel!

Other significant characters include:  1) Chief Lambiase, divorced from his high school sweetheart who wasn’t actually a sweet person,  who investigates the case of the drown woman and abandoned child;  2) Ismay, the sister of Fikry’s dead wife, a school teacher who is unhappily married to 3) Daniel Parish, a one-hit author; and 4) Amelia, the publisher’s book rep and a book lover. 

Each chapter has a short note from A.J. about a book.  We eventually learn these notes are for Maya, the little girl he eventually adopts.  There are plenty of book references that book lovers will likely appreciate—recall this it the Storied Life of our protagonist.

This was certainly an enjoyable read.  Amid the book references and story about a bookstore, a major theme is relationships and their importance in our lives.  The relationships that the characters develop enable them to live richer lives than they had before and to get through past and present tragedies.  This reader gives this book a recommendation TO READ!

PS The reader of the audiobook that this reader enjoyed was perfect for this book. 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

By Karen Joy Fowler

Published 2013

Read March 2016

This reader must admit she’s not sure how she came upon this book.  The title was intriguing and the cover was bright.  Wow that’s about it!  This reader was fully virginal about the book’s characters, plots, and the interesting plot twist revealed about 1/3 way into the book which will not be revealed. 

What this reader will tell you is that Rosemary, the narrator of the story, is quite clear she’s starting in the middle of the story and will come back to the beginning later.  In the middle, Rosemary is a dilatant student at UC Davis.  She tells us that both her older brother, Lowel, and her sister, Fern, stopped living with the family for some unspecified reason(s).  She and her parents moved from the house they had all lived in to a smaller house and that in-between she stayed with her grandparents.  During that in-between time, she wasn’t sure why she was there or whether she would see her parents again.  So now this reader was fully engaged—what happened and why?

Before we learn that we are introduced to some characters that Rosemary meets via a chance encounter.  These characters are clearly not people her parents would be enthusiastic about, but Rosemary is apparently lonely and engages with them. 

All of the characters we meet are drawn as “full-bodied” meaning brimming with interesting histories and facets but are all flawed, damaged, or both. This makes for engaging reading as well. Fortunately for Rosemary and the reader, Lowell briefly comes back into Rosemary’s life, and we start learning why we’re all beside ourselves.

This reader won’t spoil anymore of the book.  Unfortunately, after the plot twist occurs, the book dragged a bit for this reader but eventually got back on track and this reader completed the book quite quickly, wanting to know what was coming after the middle of the story. 

This reader wouldn’t put this book at the top of a “must read” list but it’s certainly an interesting read.   

Stone Yard Devotional

By Charlotte Wood

Published 2023

Read Nov 2025

A woman takes a break in a small convent near where she grew up.  She is taking a break from her work of trying to keep species from disappearing from the world and apparently from her marriage.  She ends up staying—moving from the guest dormitory to the main dormitory over time.  She isn’t staying for religious reasons of any sort.  She only slowly realizes that the various prayer times that interrupt the women’s daily work might actually be the real work of the convent.

In contrast to vanishing species, the area suffers an amazing plague of field mice that have apparently been driven to the area due to some unnamed climate thing.  The women slowly learn they need to protect their food in glass vs bags or plastic jars to keep the mice from devouring it.  They buy and set countless traps and devise other ways to lower the population of mice. Our narrator has the task of purchasing the various equipment.  All without interrupting the work.

Two other major things happen at the convent:  the remains of a former sister who had been lost in Thailand have been returned to them and the sister who accompanies the remains, Helen Parry, is a former schoolmate of the narrator.  Helen Parry has gone from being a bullied child to an internationally known activist in climate issues.  The narrator is much more impacted by her arrival than are the others.

Over the course of the book, we learn a few things about the narrator, but the cause(s) of her despair and desire to drop out of her former life are never fully revealed.  Instead, we hear about her slow acclimation to life at the convent as a non-religious but apparently accepted resident.  The writing enables the reader to slow down and consider this life as well.  It’s not surprising that this book is making a lot of “best of” lists.  This reader will continue to read Wood’s work. 

Shred Sisters

By Besty Lerner

Published 2024

Read Dec 2025

This is Lerner’s first novel although she’s published some non-fiction previously.

Lerner uses the younger sister, Amy, to narrate her life and the impact her older sister, Olivia (Olly) has on her family.  Olly, whose love of adventure and out of the ordinary behavior is interesting to her parents until she reaches her teen years.  Then her behavior becomes very concerning, and her parents realize they can’t do much about it.  She begins stealing, leaving home for extended periods of time, and more.  Olly is hospitalized for a while but it seems to have little impact on her erratic behavior.  Eventually, her parents split, in part because they disagree on how to deal with Olly, her father remaining supportive and dismissive of anything “wrong” with Olly and her mother being less so. 

In the meantime, Amy is growing up.  Her good behavior and excellent grades win her no accolades from her parents who are worn out by Olly.  She was bullied in school, but switching to a private high school helps.  She graduates from college and begins a graduate program.   When she doesn’t get a grant to continue the scientific work to which she’s devoted herself, she chooses to leave the program and science.  She eventually becomes a successful editor for a publishing company. 

Over time, Olly’s erratic behavior leads her into sex work and later convincing her parents to help her start a business; unfortunately, but perhaps predictability, she steals the start-up money and vanishes again.  She’s in and out of their lives which becomes increasingly complicated for everyone.  Amy eventually understands that Olly likely has bipolar depression but this is never discussed by the family. 

This book does a great job of showcasing the very difficult situation that families face when a member has a mental illness and doesn’t allow themselves to be treated–why would they when the mania is so much fun and the meds take that all away.  

This reader enjoyed finding a sympathetic character in this book, Amy.  She suffers many disappointments, makes some poor decisions but accepts their consequences and gets on with life, and faces continuing obstacles as the only sibling left to deal with Olly after her parents pass.  Lerner didn’t over-romanticize anything about Amy’s life and accomplishes providing a character that the reader can truly like. 

Lerner is a literary agent and an editor, and it really shows.  This reader is getting more sensitive to editing – overdrawn text, inconsistencies, etc.  It’s interesting that the author chooses editing as the career in which Amy excels.  Unlike some books that have a book editor as a character, this book was very well written and edited–crisp and so engaging that reading was complete in two days.  

This reader highly recommends this book for both reading and especially discussing with a group.  There is much to discuss—the characters, the quality of the writing, and the situation it depicts.  Society interacts with mental health issues as little as possible, and this book helps us understand what it’s really like to have a mentally ill member of the family. 

Culpability

By Bruce Holsinger

Published 2025

Read Dec 2025

The driver for this novel is an accident that occurs when a self-driving car hits and kills a couple but leaves the occupants of the self-driving car completely or relatively unharmed.  The person “driving” is Charlie, a seventeen-year-old lacrosse star, who is on his way to a championship game that is the last of his high school career.  He is heading off to the University of North Carolina which has recruited him for their team.  Sitting in the front passenger seat is his father, Daniel, a first-generation college graduate who is a lawyer.  He is writing a memo for his job while Charlie is driving.  Sitting in the second-row seats are Charlie’s mother, Lorelei, and his sister, Alice.  Lorelei is a highly published researcher and consultant in the area of AI.  She is busy working as well when the accident occurs.  Alice is the middle child and is the occupant who yells when she sees a car coming into their lane.  This is the act that causes Charlie to take the wheel which precedes the accident.  Izzy is the youngest child and is lounging in the third seat while texting with her beloved brother, Charlie as he “drives”.  Izzy suffers a broken leg.  Alice suffers a concussion and is hospitalized overnight.  Everyone else survives with only a few bruises.

To get away from the trauma of the accident and relax a bit before Charlie heads to UNC, the family rents a house on an inlet of the Chesapeake Bay they had rented the year before.  They aren’t left alone, however, as accident investigators want to talk to Daniel and Charlie.  Daniel obtains a lawyer who tells him he can represent only Charlie or Daniel but not both. 

The question is:  who or what is culpable?  Charlie who apparently overrides the AI and had been texting?  Daniel for not noticing that Charlie was texting?  The AI for not avoiding the accident?  Something or someone else?  It seems there are many secrets that the family members hold that may be relevant.

In the meantime, more troubles arise.  Father Daniel is upset that the beautiful farm across the small inlet from their rented house has been replaced with a huge home and a security staff protecting the property of a wealthy businessman, Monet.   Why the over-gentrification of their peaceful vacation area?  Father Daniel is further upset when son Charlie becomes involved with Monet’s daughter, Eurydice, and the family is invited to a party at the Monet compound.  You’ll need to read the novel to find out the rest of the complications. 

Modern themes abound in addition to the major theme of culpability of fatal accidents involving self-driving vehicles:  impact of travel sports on families; impact of wealth on decision making; relationships of dual career spouses, especially if there is a perceived “imbalance” of capabilities; fragility of life as we know it.

It’s interesting to this reader that for most of the books she’s read recently she doesn’t particularly find any of the characters very sympathetic. It’s true for this book as well.  We spend most of our time learning what father Daniel thinks and does.  He is far from sympathetic in this reader’s opinion.  He’s not communicating with his wife well.  He’s failing to connect with his son who is not behaving as he would prefer.  He drinks heavily often, sometimes driving under the influence.   

Although the book is a very quick read and at times feels a little superficial, there really is substance for rich conversation with others about it. 

Finding Grace             

By Loretta Rothschild

Published 2025

Read Nov 2025

This is a debut novel for Rothschild.  You won’t learn much about the plot from this essay as this reader believes that reading it without knowing anything about it is advantageous to the reader.

The protagonist of this becomes a widower when his wife and daughter are killed in a bombing.  Most of the book takes place starting a few years after the bombing and follows the widower and his young son.  There are occasional flashbacks which are printed in italics to aid the reader in know it’s a flashback. 

Rothschild uses an interesting device: The protagonist’s wife narrates much of the novel from her position in heaven.  She is able to see what’s happening and we hear much of the action from her “viewpoint”.  We also are privy to the husband’s thoughts directly from him.  We see the other characters only through their actions as communicated by the wife or the widower. 

The majority of the book’s tension is built on a secret the husband is keeping from almost everyone regarding a woman he has met.  One good friend knows the secret and urges the widower to reveal it, but he doesn’t and weaves an increasingly complex web of “facts” created to keep his secret safe.

There is a fairly large cast of characters, one group surrounding the widower and one group surrounding the new girlfriend and, of course, they begin to intersect.  There are many topics that aren’t discussed within the groups and certainly not between the groups. 

Parenthood, managing one’s own grief, supporting a friend through their grief, and communication are big themes of this book. 

There is a fair amount of description of sex between the widower and his new girlfriend which this reader didn’t find necessary.  Perhaps the editor/publisher thought this would be a draw for some readers, but this reader found it somewhat distracting and certainly led this reader to wonder about whether the new couple’s relationship was built on anything besides sex. 

The setting is London, although the book feels pretty American.  This reader thought that perhaps the author now lives in the US, but she splits her time between the UK and Italy.  That likely explains an Italian connection.  There are a few “British’ words and few obvious “British” cultural elements, but not many which again may be an editor/publisher’s suggestion to enable sales.  There are a large number of references to modern day singers as well as “classical” artists.  This reader did not connect with most of the singer references which may suggest the author is directing the book to an audience younger than this reader.  These references may impact the longevity of the book. 

Overall, a pretty fast read.  It will be interesting to see how this author’s career develops.