The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
Ratings264
Average rating3.9
I don't understand why this book exists. A man loses a book then adopts a baby and loves the baby and develops a crush on someone. I assume more occurs but I've already spent three hours on this and it's so emotionally overwrought about the dullest, most mundane occurrences – like the little girl taking dance classes and not being too great but not that bad, either – that it's unbearable to continue pretending that anything is actually happening. Scott Brick's weepy narration doesn't help, either.
Fikry is a perfectionist whose personality proves self-limiting. While never completely reforming, he grows significantly even marveling at his own changing attitudes. Other characters are interesting and varied. I enjoyed reading, but found a few of the plot points a bit depressing. Well-written with a very satisfying ending.
Very sweet story about a life well life lived and the beauty of community centered at a bookstore. It moved along at a steady pace and I really enjoyed it.
I really like this story. It’s heartfelt, and people are truly people. AJ has to be the character that I most hated at first… then he became a benchmark for other characters. No man is an island, and this book is a universe.
Summary: A. J. Fickry is the owner of the only bookstore on Alice Island. He has a reputation for being a bit gruff, especially after the death of his wife, and, with publishers hoping to sell to him, difficult to please. A series of surprises, however—a new rep from a publishing house, the theft of a very valuable item, and a baby found in the bookstore—cause (or one might argue, force) A. J. to soften up and come out of his shell.
“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.”
I don't understand the hype. It was weird. As other haters of this book have said, the book doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Sometimes it sounds like a comfy old classic but then there's randomly a bunch of melodramatic elements like the car crash and cancer and stuff and the characters will randomly swear a bunch and then not again for another 100 pages. It didn't make sense. Also, it was very sentimental but in a bad way (at least for me) it felt very cliched especially at the end. Maya kind of pissed me off but I can't really say why she's just really snobby (like her stepdad). I was skimming his stupid “deep” prose about life and love and stuff. Also the time jumps were muy confusing and the romance skipped too many steps. They met then suddenly its been 4 years and they're both single now, they kiss then we skip like 3 or 4 years and he proposes then we skip again to the wedding. There's no time for development because they keep skipping. Just wasn't the right book for me.
Too, too sad! Why did it have to be so sad?! It was the best book for book lovers, the best book if you want to be sad!
“The words you can't find, you borrow. 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”
I wanted a light and wholesome read. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry has that in spades, but it is also a bit bittersweet, and left me very emotional.
It is a story about people who love books, to the people who love them. A beautiful story about finding roots and rediscovering the love of living, surrounded by those you chose as family.
“We are not quite short stories. In the end, we are collected works.”
Gabrielle Zevin is indeed a great writer. I loved the structure of this book and how it ended up being a collection of works, where we can see the supporting characters have their short stories as well.
“We aren't the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on”
I don't have much to add as I find myself emotionally drained, yet again. I liked it “enormously”!
I liked the character of AJ Fikry, the heartbroken bookseller on the fictional Alice Island off the coast of Massachusetts, who takes in the 2 year old foundling left in his bookshop. He's prickly and barely even trying to cope after the death of his wife and business partner, Nicole, in a car accident. However, I was disappointed by all the worn out tropes in the The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. Without spoiling it for anyone who wants to read the book anyway, I thought a little bit about the chapter headings and made an educated guess about what was going to happen. Unfortunately, I was right.
There were enjoyable parts that were not predictable, though. The author's booktalk and reception that goes ridiculously sideways is one that I thought would be developed further on, but it wasn't. Developments concerning the parentage of the foundling were surprising to me, and were developed a little later in the book. Gabrielle Zevin's lovely dialogue writing kept me reading even when I was pretty sure I knew what was going to happen. I enjoyed the book, but I wanted it to be more than it was.
What a fantastic story, I reread this book and fell in love!
AJ Fikery was such a lovable character despite his tendency to be pretentious and awkward. I love the evolution his character goes through and was rooting for him the entire book! The idea of living above a bookstore and owning it is so magical and made me desire the quaint town living.
I highly recommend this book not only for all the literary components but for the fantastic character development.
I loved this book! It was a short, sweet, read about the fictional life of A.J Fikry and gave you hope, sadness and compassion. The author did an amazing job taking a bitter man and throwing things his way that helped him grow as a person and ultimately helped him lead an amazing life. I would highly recommend this book for anyone in a reading slump.
Kjøpte denne fordi det var en roman om bøker, samtidig med broderen, som også liker bøker, og fordi jeg trodde det var en New York-roman. Den handlet om bøker, men ikke om New York. Dette er en lettvint og overfladisk lesehygge om en liten krets mennesker på en øy i Marthas Vineyard-landskap som opplever oppturer og nedturer og hvor det viktigste er å være greie med hverandre. Den er ikke så fæl som halvparten av anmeldelsene skulle tilsi, ikke så fantastisk som den andre halvparten skulle mene. Boken følger et grep som Amelia, en av hovedpersonene trekker fram tidlig i fortellingen: Ingen ting dukker opp i teksten som ikke skal spille en rolle før eller senere. Sånn er det også her, og litt av poenget med å lese boken er å gjette seg fram til hvilken rolle de ulike elementene kommer til å spille.
Fort lest, men noe sier meg at jeg ikke glemmer denne så fort likevel - på tross av dens utrepgede banalitet.
A cozy little story about the life of a small town book store owner which fully changes after a baby gets abandoned in his store. It's a story about choices that we make and the people that we choose to have around.
Even though there are some heavy themes, the underlining message and theme is hopeful and happy.
Books and the love of reading are an essential element to the story and are elemental in every characters life, and that's where I couldn't connect in the same way. I like reading, but not in the same life fulfilling way and I'm not as literary as all those characters.
It's cute... but the plot is highly based in the “A Simple Twist of Fate” movie from 1994. The ending is different, but the premise is pretty much the same.
I read it in my e-reader, won't buy a hardcopy of it.
#savethetrees
This was a good read and I enjoyed the writing style. Something about it keeps me from calling it great though... the characters are likable, but not necessarily lovable. It almost feels as if they are kept at an arms distance throughout the entire book, so you can never really know them as much as you would like. Still, I would recommend it to friends as a fun, quick read.
“A place ain't a place without a bookstore, Izzie.”I have a soft spot for books about books. Last year's [b:Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore 13538873 Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1) Robin Sloan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1345089845l/13538873.SY75.jpg 6736543] landed on my favorites of 2020 shelf. This book wormed its way onto my favorites of 2021 shelf. It's sweet, heartfelt, very at-face-value, but I loved it all the same.AJ Fikry owns a bookstore on Alice Island. He purchased this bookstore with his wife, but in the way of these sorts of literary books, she's no longer in the picture. He's...sort of let himself go since, but maintains the bookstore (and a sour disposition) out of loyalty to the idea. He left the store unlocked one day while he was out, and comes back to find a small child, abandoned with a note asking for the owner of the bookstore to take care of her, because the mother wants the child to grow up around books. This is Maya. The book follows the unlikely pair as AJ remembers what it's like to be, well, a person with human emotions again, while caring for this abandoned child. The book is fairly straightforward, funny in spots, but the dialogue is a little simple. A few twists occur, monkeywrenches in AJ's life that he has to navigate, and there's plenty of witty remarks about books and authors. I really felt for Maya, who grows up without knowing who her parents were, who grows up around books and develops a love for them, who grows up wanting to write them. None of that describes me, but I can imagine how difficult such a background might be for a child like her. I can't really put my finger on why I loved this book so much, except that I did. The stories are funny, sad, heartbreaking, uplifting, in the way that books in the general fiction category tend to be. It's not deep, not thought provoking in the hidden meaning sort of way, but I did leave the book feeling sad, and any book that leaves an emotional reaction with me is a good book in my eyes. The ending touches on one of my personal fears about growing old, and maybe I projected a bit much. A good, quick read for people who love reading books set in old bookstores.
Not a groundbreaking book by any means, but so nice and pleasant. Exactly what I was looking for and was able to read it in a day.
Amazing literary references throughout the book made this story so engaging to a bibliophile/short story fanatic like myself. And, A.J. Fikry's whole life seemed truly unpredictable. I never knew where the book was going next. I liked that. And it touched me emotionally, which books rarely do.
I suppose my one freakout about this book had to do with the ending, which I won't spoil here. However, as someone who has had a few medical issues of a similar nature, it made me worry. That aside, it's a truly well-written book with just the right number of words and characters to make it detailed but not exhausting.
What a charming, touching novel! It came into my life as a surprise, and it was just what I needed.
A.J. Fikrey is the kind of character to whom I immediately feel a kinship. He is a “book person,” which is my favorite kind of person. Most of what he believes and says resonates with me. In my favorite line of the book, Fikrey thinks, “They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books?” My sentiment exactly!
Fikrey begins this novel as a cranky widower who seems not to have much hope that his life will ever hold any happiness for him again. Then, he finds a unexpected gift in his bookstore that changes his outlook and his life for the better. Fikrey gains a reason to go on and live again. His journey from this point on is enthralling and uplifting. I couldn't put the book down.
This book has claimed a place on my bookshelf among my favorites. I cannot wait to read it again in the future!