What is your favorite book?

Ain’t that the truth? It’s a line from the latest addition to my keeper shelf:  The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry.  Though I can’t say what my favorite book is which is, in itself, a comment about me. I suppose I look for a book to answer some pressing need I have at the moment and if it does that, then it’s my new favorite. Now, push come to shove, if I were given the deserted island scenario, then I guess I would choose the Bible. Mostly because it’s really thick and would take a while to get through, and because it would remind me of so many other books I’ve read and because it would inspire me to write a few of my own and because it’s really a lifelong study on character motivation.That all aside, there is another line  from The Storied Life  I want to share: “It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us, but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable.” The quote practically defines my core value in my own stories. My people move from being alone to finding home. Home is, in the life of my stories, in a small town.A. J. Fikry, under the tender care of his creator, Ms. Zevin, is taken through the same realization. The curmudgeonly bookseller of Alice Island, A. J. Fikry is gifted a baby on his doorstep and through his connection to her again finds family, love and community. It is an age-old trope, its use a curtsy on the part of Ms. Zevin to Story Herself, a recognition that every life is a story, and that a life well-lived is a story well-told. (For a storyteller, it is the other way around.)Anyway, read it. It works better for those who love books more than people. You’ll understand why.