“You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?”

This book was so cute. Another reviewer — I think on CBR, might have been Goodreads — astutely pointed out that the main character would have hated it. Absolutely true, but I’m much less curmudgeonly, and thought it was adorable.

“We are not quite novels.
We are not quite short stories.
In the end, we are collected works.”

A.J. Fikrey owns an independent bookstore on tiny Alice Island. Books have always been a major part of his life, but recently his life has been pretty bad: his wife died, his store isn’t doing well, and his most prized possession has been stolen. Shortly after the theft, A.J. leaves his store unlocked one night, and comes back to something pretty spectacular.

This book is cute, sometimes sad, slightly sappy and I really liked it. It’s FULL of literary references, quotations and musings. I loved that a lot of recent works get mentioned, along with classics. A.J.’s little write ups of short stories made me actually look up and read a few (it has been way too long since I read A Good Man is Hard to Find). If you like people who love books and curmudgeonly book store owners, check it out for sure.