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

"Bookstores attract the right kind of folk. Good people like A.J. and Amelia. And I like talking about books with people who like talking about books. I like paper. I like how it feels, and I like the feel of a book in my back pocket. I like how a new book smells, too."
                     -Police Chief Lambiase, from the novel

This is a beautiful story of love and its transformative power. It included humor, romance and mystery. Somewhere I had read that it was a love story for book lovers and I have to agree. There were dozens of references to books, many of which I had never heard of but some that I have read. The story centers around a bookstore and there is even mention of Chief's Choice Book Club, reminding me of our Page Turners' Book Club.

Main character and owner of Island Books, A.J. Fikry is a very unhappy man at the beginning of the novel. Still mourning the accidental death of his wife almost two years earlier, he is drinking too much and has become quite a curmudgeon. When a valuable book goes missing from his collection, he is even more distraught. But suddenly he receives a gift with no idea how it will change his life.

I was intrigued by A.J.'s reviews of short stories interspersed throughout the novel. Near the beginning of the book when he is telling Amelia what he doesn't like to read, the list is humorously long. She asks him what he does like and he answers, "Everything else."

I loved the part where Mrs. Cumberbatch "complained" about The Book Thief, a novel our club really liked when we read it several months ago. We had also read The Paris Wife very recently. (We didn't like it so much.) Some of the children's books mentioned were very familiar to me: The Monster at the End of This Book, Caps for Sale, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil T. Frankweiler, and the Narnia tales. I must find out if The Late Bloomer by Leon Friedman exists. If so it will go on my list since it had a significant role in the plot.

The characters were well-developed for such a short novel, each with some good qualities and some with past secrets. One of those secrets led to a surprise ending. At least it caught me unaware.

I look forward to seeing what the Page Turners have to say tomorrow at our meeting. I am rating it a 5. I think it is one I will remember for a long time and probably want to reread.
-----------------------------
Only 6 ladies attended our meeting. Many regular members were out of town and otherwise engaged. That's pretty typical of summer meetings. We happily welcomed two new members and had a stimulating discussion of The Storied Life....
The average rating was 4.6 with votes of only 5's and 4's. One member found Maya's precocity hard to believe and another reader was a bit upset with the cavalier way that Marian was treated and that Ismay got off scot-free with her indiscretion. I can't say too much more---don't want to be a spoiler! We agreed that Alice Island was a perfect setting with its isolation accentuating small town life. The sign above the porch of Island Books reads "No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World," very significant to the setting, theme and plot of the novel.

We spent some time discussing the increasing popularity of e-readers and the disappearance of independent bookstores, a subject introduced in the story. We all see advantages of e-books but miss browsing through favorite bookstores of the past. Ironically, I first spotted The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in a small bookstore in Mendocino, California, where one of the employees had written a glowing recommendation.

Oh, best I can figure there is no such book as The Late Bloomer by Leon Friedman. If someone out there knows different please clue me in!

Stress Fracture by D.P. Lyle

"The sad truth is that a high body count helps solve these cases. One scene, even two or three, rarely offers enough evidence to identify the perpetrator. But as the horrors pile up, each scene and each victim adds another sliver of evidence that later rather than sooner sticks together enough to close the loop. When the loop does close, when the killer is captured or killed, when hindsight kicks in full force, you always...always...ask yourself why you didn't close it sooner. Why the final one, two, three, pick a number victims weren't saved. Seems like it's always that way. I hate it, but what are you going to do? It is what it is."
                          -Dub Walker, from the novel

This is the second novel I've read by D. P. Lyle, a Huntsville High School class of '64 classmate of mine. The first was Hot Lights, Cold Steel which I enjoyed several months ago. With a 50th reunion coming up I remembered I had wanted to read another so I grabbed a copy of this one at the library and started in, with hopes of meeting the author at one of the get-togethers. Stress Fracture did not disappoint, in fact it turned out to be a page turner; I finished in just a few days.

Main character, Dub Walker, forensic expert and police consultant has his hands full in this thriller. He is baffled by a series of murders, more violent than any he has encountered. And one of the victims was a former sheriff and close friend, making it quite personal. At times the perpetrator seems cold and rational, at other times, madly out of control. The investigation led by Walker and his friend, Tommy Tortelli of the Huntsville Police Department, seems to lead eventually to an experimental drug being tested in cases of PTSD. I don't want to spoil the plot, but suffice it to say you may be more respectful to telemarketers on the phone after reading this one!

I will give this novel a rating of 5 and will look for more by this author, especially featuring Dub Walker, as I've come to know and like this character. I have gotten such a kick out of Lyle's setting of Huntsville, AL, my hometown, with his frequent mentions of streets, restaurants and other landmarks so familiar to me. In Stress Fracture there's a mass shooting in Parkway Place Mall where we have browsed and shopped many times.

I did get to meet author Doug Lyle at the reunion. I spoke with him briefly; his attention seemed much in demand. I didn't have a chance to ask him why the pages of the two books have what looks like ink splotches. I've wondered if that is to represent blood spatter. I had planned to buy one of Lyle's books and have him autograph it but neither of the large local bookstores had any available. It seemed a shame to me that a local author's work would be so hard to find.

Joshua by Joseph F. Girzone

"Each person looks at life through a different vision.  Three men can look at a tree. One man will see so many board feet of valuable lumber worth so much money. The second man will see it as so much firewood to be burned, to keep his family warm in winter. The third man will see it as a masterpiece of God's creative art, given to man as an expression of God's love and enduring strength, with a value far beyond its worth in money or firewood. What we live for determines what we see in life and gives clear focus to our inner vision."
                    -Joshua, from the novel

I am not sure of the genre of this book but I would call it Christian fiction. At first I thought I wouldn't like it because it seemed simplistic and a bit schmaltzy but the plot engaged me after all. I would rate it a 4. The subtitle is "A Parable for Today" and it is an apt description. The story reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows, "Joan of Arcadia," which sadly ended a too-short run years ago. The premise of the series was the appearance of God in many different forms to a high school girl, named Joan, who became a prophet of sorts in her town of Arcadia. The theme song contained the lyrics, "What if God was one of us? Just a stranger on the bus?" It made me wonder about where, when and how God appears to folks like me. Joshua did the same, only the book more than hinted at Jesus returning as a simple, loving man to a modern-day small town. You certainly know the story of Jesus' life from the Bible. How would it look if it happened today? Read to see the author's vision!

My followers know I begin every post with a quote. I jotted down ten possibilities before I settled on one. Any of them would have been just as poignant. Some were from scripture but many were Joshua's opinions shared with the town folk. For example, after I read, "Take the Christian denominations. It is not their following of Jesus that makes them different from one another. It is the denominational practices that you (religious leaders) have created that make them different from one another and keep them apart. This has brought ridicule on Christianity and destroyed the united influence you could have on the world." Amen, to that, I say!

I would recommend this to Christian readers, particularly, but I would hope others might read it and find it life-changing. I think the author may have had hopes of just such an impact.

Cleopatra, A Life by Stacy Schiff

"Whether or not Caesar had considered annexing Egypt he had clearly discovered that Cleopatra was in many respects similar to her country: a shame to lose, a risk to conquer, a headache to govern."
                           -from the book

Well, they say there is a first time for everything and this is the first Page Turners book selection I did not finish in the 6 years I have led the group! I COULD have finished it but decided there are SO many books out there to enjoy and I was NOT enjoying this one. In fact I found it pretty boring. I forced myself to read three chapters, 81 pages, and that was all could take.

One must give credit to the author for her amazing research into an intriguing woman but one whose background is pretty obscure in places. She quoted historians like Plutarch and Dio and really knew the history and geography but that was the problem. The book read more like a history textbook than any other biography I have ever read. I would give the book a 2 because of the thorough preparation and what must have been a time-consuming task.

I did learn some things such as the common practice of incest in the aristocracy of this culture. Cleopatra was married to at least one brother and this was apparently quite acceptable, even encouraged. There was also a great deal of violence within families. I was surprised to learn the term "pharaoh" meant "the greatest household" in ancient Egypt. This helps a bit in the study of the Bible.

I would recommend this one to academic types, especially those who teach ancient history. I guess I just read too much historical fiction and was hoping to see Cleopatra as a bit more human.

Roses Are Red by James Patterson

"Was it part of what kept me on the job? The adrenaline spike that wasn't like anything else I'd ever experienced? The uncertainty of each new case? The thrill of the hunt? A dark side of myself? What? Good occasionally triumphing over evil? Evil often triumphing over good?"
                     -Alex Cross, from the novel

I read this one in right around 24 hours! Does that tell you anything? Of course, most of that time I was on and off airplanes getting home from the west coast. I can't think of a better way to make the time pass more quickly than engaging in a real page turner! This one gets a rating of 4 from me. It's a good murder mystery if you can stand some very graphic violence.

I had not read a James Patterson in quite a while. Most of his books would not give our book club much meat for discussion. He writes well enough to keep the reader involved but the plots are pretty forgettable. There is not a lot of literary value, in my humble opinion.

I REALLY like Alex Cross, the main character in a great many of Patterson's novels. He seems very heroic to me, but very human, as well. In Roses Are Red, he is dealing with some serious personal trials when he gets caught up in trying to solve a series of bank robberies and cold-blooded murders. A villain who calls himself the Mastermind is orchestrating these crimes and seems to be uncatchable. Along with FBI agent Betsey Cavaliere, Alex is taken on a long and winding road of clues and false alarms until he is led to a home for the mentally ill. Many a time when I thought I knew what was going to happen....bang! Another twist! The surprise ending was one of those; a perfect example of dramatic irony!