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

2/60 | Started 01.05.23 • Finished 01.13.23 | 5 stars


[Late posting this one as I was on a significant wait list for the hard copy.]


I just love this book.


But me-also-thinks my latter-day reaction speaks to the necessity of encountering stories at precisely the right time in our lives. Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.

It's beautiful and heartbreaking and lovely and painful. There's delight and sorrow. But above all there's love. A love only found between a father and a daughter that are placed together by "fate." The love found in words expressed on a page.


“Friedman gets at something specific about what it is to lose someone. How it isn’t one thing. He writes about how you lose and lose and lose.”

I can't say too much. It's easy to give the story away as it jumps right into the action. Pick this one up and you won't regret it.


“I love you,” she says with a resigned shrug. “I want to leave you with something cleverer than that, but it’s all I know.”

The Silver Balloon, by Susan Bonners

10/60 | Started 02.13.23 • Finished 02.27.23


Another read-aloud that Carolyn enjoyed very much. She was intrigued by the idea of a note on a balloon and someone finding it (obviously it's not something we can replicate - oh well). Her favorite part was Gregory seeing the balloon in the coffee mug on the mantel at the end of the book.


The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad, edited by Jennifer Trafton

9/60 | Started 12.02.22 • Finished 02.27.23 | 4.5 stars


SUCH a fun book! I love pretty much everything The Rabbit Room puts out. Almost all the stories were short without being too short, very engaging, and offered some measure of humor. The illustrations were also well done. Some of our favorites were stories that "included" the missing or damaged parts of the manuscript.

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