Book Club Recap: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

I love my book club. I always look forward to spending time with the lovely ladies and enjoying snacks, wine, and books. This book club we enjoyed some red wines, and one of them was a Fifty Shades wine (if you’re curious, it was delicious).

A.J. Fikry is probably one of the characters the girls and I love most so far in book club. We think his quirkiness makes him endearing and interesting, and we love how he Googles things about raising a child (because let’s face it – we do it too).

We talked about the type of legacy we want to leave with our children. I think there are a lot of us who thought about making a list of books we hope our children read. I said it would be a hard book list to make because there are so many books that have left an impression on me. The discussion on legacy even led us to a discussion on baby books we’ve yet to complete because our lives as mothers are crazy.

My book club loved this book, and those who didn’t finish it before the meeting were told to do so at their earliest convenience because that’s how special The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is to all of us.

 

 

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
written by Gabrielle Zevin
published by Algonquin Books

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Be sure to check out Gina’s 5-star review here. 

About the book – from Goodreads: On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage is the motto “No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World.” A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means.

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island-from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

If you belong to a book group, please tell us about what you’re reading in the comments.