Book Review - The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Not something I'd have picked up by myself (title and cover both aren't very... pick-worthy... ) but thanks to other bloggers, I'm glad I read this :)

I bet pretty much all of you would enjoy reading this charming story - it's about an independent bookstore owner (A.J. Fikry) and his family and friends... and people who love to read! There are quite a few references to other books and authors in the book, including Jeffery Deaver lol :)

I thought the ending was a little quiet, but I suppose it is fitting to A.J.'s personality. I thought I'd get a bit more emotional when reading this, but I didn't.

3.75 Stars but bumped to 4 Stars because it leaves an impression, more so than other novels I'd read this year.

Some quotes -

You're a good reader, and you'll probably see it coming. (Is a twist less satisfying if you know it's coming? Is a twist that you can't predict symptomatic of bad construction? These are things to consider when writing.) (p160)

We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone. (p249)

We are not quite novels... We are not quite short stories... In the end, we are collected works.. He has read enough to know there are no collections where each story is perfect. Some hits. Some misses. If you're lucky, a standout. And in the end, people only really remember the standouts anyway, and they don't remember those for very long. (p249)





Note - The book was borrowed from the library.



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.

Book Review - The Skin Collector (Lincoln Rhyme #11) by Jeffery Deaver

The Skin Collector (Lincoln Rhyme #11) by Jeffery Deaver

Readers who had been following this blog probably knows that Jeffery Deaver is one of my favorite authors in the murder/mystery genre, especially with his Lincoln Rhyme series. The Bone Collector is probably his best known novel, and this is a sequel of sort (well it's not really a continuation of the story, but references were made quite a bit).

I was going to re-read The Bone Collector (even if I hardly re-read) but the library copy came before I had a chance to. I hardly remember what happened... but that's okay.

This is more like a 3.75 Stars book but I'd bump it up to 4 because this is better than the other recent Deaver efforts. There probably isn't as much character development as I'd have liked, but most of the characters are like old friends anyway, so I appreciate Deaver didn't make too many redundant introductions; though it still has enough details for those who hadn't read the series before. I did enjoy reading this - with lots of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. At least something fun to read when I don't have to use my brain too much :)


Note - The book was borrowed from the library.



All reviews and posts are copyrighted by Christa @ Mental Foodie. Please do not use or reprint them without written permission.