As attractive as the trip to Sydney, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry has a rich account of an island without too many visitors. Studded with a handful of cottages, Alice Island has not much to offer, not to mention the very infrequent ferry services. Nothing really. Until A. J. Fikry came with the idea "A place is not really a place without a bookstore."
He opened a bookstore on the island. Which means? A story telling us how we love, and why we read.
Year after year, book after book, A. J. Fikry's bookstore transformed the life of many, including an orphan being abandoned on its floor with a stuffed Elmo. Then a cop, who had been considered a slow learner who got mostly C's in English class, turned out to love the genre of crime fiction. It's testimony to the adage that you know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?
On my flight back, I finished the last chapter of this remarkable novel and came up with another idea that we know a lot about a child - and her parents - from the answer to the question, What inflight games does she play on the plane?
(Answer for my daughter's choices: Hangman and Sudoku.)
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