Storied Lives
"We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone." Reading is a form of connection. Connection with the characters, connection with the author, connection with ourselves. When I am at a loss for words, I borrow them from books. I imitate an author's style in an attempt to sculpt my own voice. Aside from their lexicons, books provide comfort in times of loneliness; they act as a venue for debate, discussion, and empathy. To put it simply, words provide companionship.
The Storied Life of A..J. Fikry depicts the unlikely ways in which books can influence the people we meet, the friendships we form, and the directions our lives take. The character of A.J. Fikry experiences life in part through the stories he reads. It is through a single book that he comes to admire his future wife Amelia, and through a stolen collection of rare poems that he is gifted his daughter Maya. In my own experience, while I tend to bond with the characters of a novel, as weeks and months pass I slowly forget their names and storylines. What remains is the new outlook I hold on life because of what I read. Reading another person's words is like picking their brain, seeing a small bit of reality from their perspective. It broadens horizons and inspires ideas. Without language, the colors and sounds of our world would dull. Ideas would be lost. Innovation would halt. As a writer, I am learning that it takes a lot of courage and humility to share your words with strangers. I admire authors who create characters that emulate not only their own personalities but the personalities of previous characters, borrowing something from the previous generation while contributing new information to the upcoming one. As A.J. Fikry surmises in the final pages of this novel, people are "not quite novels" and "not quite short stories" but are rather "collected works". Author Gabrielle Zevin created A.J. Fikry as a mixture of Silas Marner, Mr. Darcy, and herself. The complexity of Fikry and the novel's other characters is what makes this piece a great work of art. Both thought-provoking and a page-turner, this book is for people of all ages who are inspired by books and the stories that help shape their own.
I read the majority of this novel while curled up on my couch, waiting for the sun to make an appearance through the fog. Welcome to June weather on the coast. I frequently had a mug of Trader Joe's Well Rested tea in hand and occasionally a vegan chocolate chip cookie. My family swears by the following recipe; it is faster, cheaper, and just as delicious as "regular" chocolate chip cookies. And perhaps it is marginally healthier.
[adapted from Dreena Burton's blog]
1 1/4 cups flour (AP, whole wheat, spelt, G-free blend, etc)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup maple syrup (or 1/4 cup honey)
1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup olive oil (or coconut oil)
1/3 cup chocolate chips (non-dairy if you want it to be strictly vegan)
Mix together 1 cup of the flour, powder, soda, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Then add the maple syrup, molasses, vanilla, and oil. Lastly, mix the chocolate chips and last 1/4 cup flour together and add this to the mixture until just combined. Bake at 350° for 8-9 minutes. Let sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.