☺️☺️☺️☺️This was really lovely. It was perfectly written (seriously, Gabrielle Zevin has mastered using the English language), and heartfelt. It was a little sappy at times, but it felt appropriate. I loved the span of this book - over a decade of fascinating stuff happened. And I loved the setting - a book store on a tiny island. I loved the emphasis on books and love and trying to be a good person. I'm not giving a 5/5 simply because I don't think it did anything particularly new, and didn't m...

I love getting books from Netgalley. You never know what you are going to get. It might be a complete dud or it might be something like this book. A book that sweeps you up. A book that makes you want more. I sit up tonight reading this because I just couldn't stop. AJ Fikry is a snarky man who owns a bookstore. Every bookworm's dream, and he is a major bookworm. "Despite the fact that he loves books and owns a bookstore, AJ does not particulary care for writers". AJ has a rare book worth e...

This is the most precious, adorable, cutesy-wootsey bunch of tripe I have ever read in my life. How is this book so popular? It's cliché after cliché after cliché ad nauseam. Ugh.A grumpy-grumpy bookseller who is a widower leads a sad and lonely Scrooge-like life until a chubby, perfect, articulate, beautiful baby is left in his book shop and teaches him to love and live again! Excuse me while I go vomit in the corner. Then to top it all off (view spoiler)[he gets brain cancer and his loving (ne...

Well shit this was good...If you're looking for a fun summer read, a book that will make you laugh and cry, grab this one!Just wish there wasn't a spoiler for The Awakening :/

Every word the right one and exactly where it should be. That's basically the highest compliment I can give... ...and I am truly glad that it didn't took me so long to read it!!! The words you can't find, you borrow... Maybe I could find the words but honestly, that first quote from this wonderful book was the right way to compliment it. And to do that, well I quote a second one too. And you will find several quotes in this review since honestly, this is one of the most quotable novels tha

What can I say?This novel was the ruination of me.. and I couldn't be happier. Sometimes when i love a book to pieces, it is easy to write a review and sometimes it is difficult. For this novel, the latter is true. I lack the adequate language needed to evoke the emotion that The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry stirred within me. You can't help but fall in love with the curmudgeon, bookseller A.J. I don't know if I've ever loved a character more than him. Although the plot was simplistic, the subtlet...

I’m starting to think I’m the only bibliophile on earth who didn’t care for this book. After everything I’d read about it, I didn’t think it could possibly fail to be fantastic. For me, though, it tips way too far into chick lit and YA territory, and succumbs too often (and too early) to schmaltz and melodrama.Now, there are certainly some good points. A.J. himself, an independent bookseller and just-coping widower, is a delightfully irascible character with some decided literary prejudices that...

"There ain't nobody in the world like book people." It's a bit embarrassing to admit how emotional this book made me. I'm not even a fan of Zevin's work; I quite liked the concept behind Elsewhere but not the execution, and I pretty much hated All These Things I've Done. But this book is just so warm and funny and bittersweet. It speaks to the thing inside me that has always loved books, will always love books, and has allowed my life to be swept in certain directions by my love for literatur

I wanted to like this book, the writing was good and the characters were interesting but I just couldn't. I know that A.J. is the one being critical and snobbish about what entails good writing or literature but it just felt like I was being lectured to and god I resent being told what to do so much, also I think short stories are rarely good so I want to fight A.J. At one point also there's this passage about how if you see something mentioned in the beginning of the book you want it to come ba...

Book on books, with additional books in the back upon request.

SOS.HELP. THE SITUATION IS DIRE.I can’t stop reading books about bookstores.A book about a bookworm will do in a pinch, but really bookstores are the only way to go. And it’s gotten so grim that I’ve resorted to rereading books I read a few years ago and vaguely remember being pretty good but had no intention of rereading.Luckily, in this case, it turned out to be better than pretty good.I read this in between a couple of romancey fluffy things about bookstores, which really were more vessels fo...

A town isn't a town without a bookstore.while it's true that this is the literary equivalent of a stone skipped over a pond, it's a pretty damn charming stone. reading about other booknerds, even when they are better described as bookcranks, is delightful to me. A Novel Bookstore, Salamander, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, etc are among my favorite books. are they the best books ever written? nah. but they have characters whose sensibilities are so close to my own, it's hard not to feel a lit...

This is not a perfect novel, but it is filled with bookish charm and easy grace. I picked up The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry at just the right time. I wanted something light and entertaining, and (hopefully) with a happy ending. And that is what I got, with the bonus of lots of literary references, some small-town whimsy and even a little romance.A. J. Fikry is a cranky bookstore owner in New England. His life is in a rut: He lost his wife, his store is struggling and then his rare copy of Edgar

There's joy in my heart and a skip in my step today after closing the last page of this jewel of a book. A must for book lovers and booksellers alike, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is an affirmation of the love of books and reading and how they meld lives together. A.J. Fikry, is the owner of the independent bookstore, Island Books. Fikry is grieving the loss of his wife, sales are down, a rare book worth scads of money is stolen from the shop leaving him irritable, and irritating. Frankly he's...

This is definitely a new favorite of mine! Such an incredibly charming story.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance reading copy.I shouldn't have read this. A book marketed as "heartwarming" is never for me. But I read it anyway because I love books about books so much, and it sounded so good! Based on the book's description and marketing, I know that it's meant to really appeal to book clubs and librarians and bookstores, and I think the author is doing everything humanly possible to kiss up to those groups without delivering anything with any depth. I don't think it...

5+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.Once in a while a book comes along that captures your heart and soul- where the characters become like friends and family, and a part of you wants to pack a bag and travel to that magical place forever. At the start you just know it is going to be something special- by the end you feel physical pain knowing that these people are gone from your life...One day you may pick it back up to

*4.5 Stars* — because how can any bonafide book-nerd not adore this quirky and heartfelt tribute to literature!I don’t know about you, but I could dwell inside the richly entertaining mind of one A.J. Fickry forever. Or at least every other weekend. Because that’s exactly what this novel simulates: a casual stroll through the mind of a complex, yet vastly simple middle-aged widower whose outlook on life has deflated. Life has knocked him down, as it tends to do, and A.J. finds comfort in th...

I'll start off by saying this isn't a bad book so I don't want to discourage people from reading it. It just did so many things that I didn't like. What I did like:- The writing is beautiful. Zevin had thoughtful prose and she had that slow, personal pacing that my favorite author, Fredrick Backmen has in his books. - The characters were easy to fall in love with from the start, despite their (intentional) flaws. Getting invested in these characters and their stories was not difficult for me at

It's entirely possible that I'm as much of a curmudgeon as A.J. Fikry. Reading a book about a bookstore and books and the people who love them seemed like a can't-miss proposition. And, in fact, there were parts of this book that I liked very much: the police chief who unexpectedly turns himself and most of his force into readers; the subplot with the theft of Poe's Tamerlane: Poem; the brief chapter intros where A.J. talks about various stories. But overall the novel just felt a lot more superf...