#greatreads – Rosepoint Publishing

The Storied Life of A J Fikry: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin #AudiobookReview #bookclub #TBT

Book Club at the Y - March

Editors’ pick Best Literature & Fiction

Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Fiction (2014)

Another one I would not have chosen on my own. I love the way this book club is introducing me to good contemporary literature with multi-layered characters in unusual and unique settings. This one on fictional Alice Island, which is a ferry ride from Maine. A movie followed in 2022 by the same name and filmed on Cape Cod.

My Thoughts

The loss of his wife has left A J Fikry in a spiraling downward trajectory to ruination. He owns a bookstore, which he now detests, is losing money, doesn’t eat properly or at all, and drinks to excess. He rejects the publisher’s sales rep and suffers the loss of a rare book apparently stolen that he’d counted on.

Then someone leaves a two-year-old in his store with a note begging him to take care of her.

I had a difficult time with this audiobook. Not because I couldn’t find the beauty in the prose or the lessons it serves, but I found it profoundly emotional sometimes to the point of being depressing. Nor did I feel the ending made it all okay. Yes, I understood the character’s rationale better, but it didn’t make it a happy ever after.

I found a deeper investment in the precocious child, the policeman, and Ismay, and wasn’t thrilled with the direction turned for A J. The twist did catch me by surprise, but, again, only seemed to me to be another sad point in the well-plotted novel.

Many thanks to our local well-stocked library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own as well as my interpretation of the consensus of the book club participants.

Book Club Thoughts

The publisher provides specific questions for discussion at the book club, ably kept on topic by the facilitator.

Discussions by the ladies found that most were delighted with the book and cited the short length as a positive. They thought the choice of the bookstore an excellent one made by the mother for a number of reasons. They enjoyed the character of the sales rep, Amelia Loman, while I thought it didn’t particularly sound like an obvious counterpart. The book club ladies were in agreement about the way the character of Ismay is written and got into a lively discussion when the twist is revealed. And…there again, they thought it was a satisfactory ending while I was left with what I thought was an unfulfilling conclusion.

Book Club Rating

It should be noted that this novel was also picked up as a major motion picture in 2022, starring Lucy Hale and Kunal Nayyar, and is now showing on Netflix. I was surprised by how much the movie borrowed from the book, particularly dialogue. There is a small plot omission but the addition of the time stamps helped since the narrative spans some sixteen years and wasn’t immediately obvious in the book. The acting was great and I was surprised that I found more emotion in the movie than the book. It’s a good adaptation and the small nuanced changes smoothed transitions.

Book Details:

Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Narrator: Scott Brick
Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Kobo

The Author: GABRIELLE ZEVIN is the New York Times and internationally best-selling author of several critically acclaimed novels, including The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Young Jane Young. Her most recent novel is Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a selection of the Tonight Show’s Fallon Book Club, the winner of the Goodreads Choice Award, a finalist for the Wingate Prize, and one of the best books of the year, according to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, the Atlantic, Amazon.com, Oprah Daily, Slate, NPR, and many others. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is now a feature film with a screenplay by Zevin. Her novels have been translated into forty languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Countdown by Sara Driscoll #BookReview #policeprocedurals #NetGalley

NYPD Negotiators Book 5

Book Blurb:

Following their terrifying ordeal as hostages of domestic terrorists, NYPD Detective Gemma Capello is back in the negotiator chair, while Detective Sean Logan, healed from injuries sustained saving Gemma’s life, has resumed leading an A-Team tactical unit—just in time for their next challenge . . . perfect for fans of James Patterson and David Baldacci.

It’s New Year’s Eve, Manhattan is alight with celebration, and Gemma and Logan are hoping for a relatively normal night amid the revelry. But that hope is shattered by a 911 text from a luxury yacht somewhere in busy New York Harbor. Below deck, a college student working aboard is hiding from a hostage taker. The student reports that the crew was ordered to join the guests. Gunshots followed.

The yacht party, hosted by billionaire venture capitalist Lucas Horner, includes local government officials and some of the city’s wealthiest, most influential people. Gemma and her team hypothesize that Horner, an infamously arrogant hustler, has burned someone financially—someone who now wants revenge.

Once the Aviation Unit identifies the yacht and its location, Logan and his team are transported through the brutal winter waters toward Liberty Island. Gemma finally connects with the hostage taker and learns of a cryptocurrency ransom demand—and a chilling execution plan if it’s not fulfilled by midnight. But Horner is refusing to pay. And Gemma senses things aren’t adding up—because beneath the unnerving scenario lies an even more twisted plan, layers of deceit—and a captor with nothing to lose.

My Review:

It’s New Year’s Eve but a call to Gemma Capello, hostage negotiator, has been called out on an unusual location and a unique situation. Detective Sean Logan of the NYPD Emergency Services Tactical Team will join her as the two units work together to save the persons taken hostage aboard a luxury yacht owned by a coldhearted billionaire.

Gemma has been proven successful in getting into the head of the hostage taker before. The hostages include the employees working the party as well as the guests of the host and the host himself. The location of the captives presents a singularly rare problem in that, besides the number of perps involved is unknown, the approach by water and boarding will take a multi-sided strategy.

The owner refuses to pay the cryptocurrency ransom, which has been given a time frame of midnight. It is the terror-stricken call from a college student subbing for a crew member who secreted himself below decks that forced the initial immediate action and call to multiple available teams.

As the author creates an atmosphere of the harbor water with frigid winter night winds and the tension inside the cabin, Gemma begins to feel a deep sense of loss in the hostage taker as he fails to communicate.

The pacing escalates through negotiation, well-plotted through multi-layers of emotions and objectives. The characters radiate the apprehension, the uncertainty, the concern, and the sweat under pressure.

The last book I read in this series was Book 3, Lockdown. I’m not sure this one could be read as a standalone, as I missed Book 4 and there was obviously something major that occurred with Sean and Gemma that only now finds them getting back into full service.

The narrative appears to be growing in the complexity of scenarios and the characters are more fully developed, especially the relationship between the two. The inner workings of police tactics are descriptive and informative, interesting, the capability of technology amazing. If you enjoy intelligent storylines with engaging characters, this one will fill that bill.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars