The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

by Gabrielle Zevin

“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.”

There ain’t nobody in the world like book people. It’s a business of gentlemen and gentlewomen.” “I wouldn’t go that far,” Ismay says. “I don’t know, Izzie. I’m telling you. Bookstores attract the right kind of folk. Good people like A.J. and Amelia. 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.”