Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence
Nonfiction
2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Read by Stephanie Spicer
Finished on January 6, 2018
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)
Publisher's Blurb:
Librarians spend their lives weeding - not weeds, but books - books that have reached the end of their shelf life both literally and figuratively. They remove books that patrons no longer check out, and they put back books they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties - everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly. We hear her love letters to The Goldfinch and Matilda as well as her snarky break-ups with 50 Shades of Grey and Dear John. Her notes to The Virgin Suicides and The Time Traveler's Wife feel like classics that are sure to strike a powerful chord.
Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on feminism, culture, health, poverty, childhood aspirations, and more. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover's birthday present, stocking stuffer, holiday gift, and all-purpose humor book.
Before we moved to Oregon last year, we spent quite a bit of time going through all our belongings, choosing the items we couldn't live without and discarding the extraneous clutter that we both had accumulated over the course of not only our married life together (30 years!), but of our entire lives. When I first started reading as an adult, I wanted to keep every single book I had ever read, but as the years progressed (and my insatiable appetite for new books continued to grow), I knew at some point I would have to get rid of some of my beloved books. Moving has always prompted us to purge a lot from our stacks, so we got to work, sorting book by book until we had a manageable amount to take with us. Now that we're all settled in, I can glance at my bookcases and see all of the books I have yet to read, as well as all my favorites, which I swear I'll read again one day. Reading Annie Spence's love letters to the books in her life has nudged me to do just that.
I listened to the audio version of Dear Fahrenheit and I couldn't stop walking, it was so entertaining! I'm sure I got strange looks from passersby as I chortled with uncontrollable laughter, walking along with my headphones on my head. I enjoyed the book so much that I bought a copy to read again, this time with my Post-It Notes in hand. (The downside of listening to an audiobook is the inability to mark passages to share in my reviews, so I'll just have to add an update to this post after I've read the book a second time.) I want to share the book with everyone in my book club and send copies to my former co-workers at Barnes & Noble. This is a great choice for book lovers of all types. Laugh out loud and nod-your-head in agreement stories, especially if you've worked in a library or in a bookstore.
A librarian's laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of letters to the books in her life.
Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, writes letters to books, not only at her library but also at home, at her neighbors, at cocktail parties—everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, we read her love letters to Just Kids and Frog and Toad Storybook Treasury, as well as her break-ups with The Giving Tree and Dear John. Her notes to The Goldfinch and The Time Traveler’s Wife feel like classics. Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on everything from women’s psychology to gay culture to health to poverty to childhood aspirations. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover's book. (From the author's website.)
A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan
Fiction
2015 Simon & Schuster
Finished on September 23, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)
Publisher’s Blurb:
For fans of I Don’t Know How She Does It and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?.
In A Window Opens, beloved books editor at Glamour magazine, Elisabeth Egan, brings us Alice Pearse, a compulsively honest, longing-to-have-it-all, sandwich generation heroine for our social-media-obsessed, lean in (or opt out) age.
Like her fictional forebears Kate Reddy and Bridget Jones, Alice plays many roles (which she never refers to as “wearing many hats” and wishes you wouldn’t, either). She is a mostly-happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. She is not: a cook, a craftswoman, a decorator, an active PTA member, a natural caretaker or the breadwinner. But when her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in—and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up which promises to be the future of reading, with its chain of chic literary lounges and dedication to beloved classics. The Holy Grail of working mothers―an intellectually satisfying job and a happy personal life―seems suddenly within reach.
Despite the disapproval of her best friend, who owns the local bookstore, Alice is proud of her new “balancing act” (which is more like a three-ring circus) until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up and her work takes an unexpected turn. Readers will cheer as Alice realizes the question is not whether it’s possible to have it all, but what does she―Alice Pearse―really want?
A Window Opens is another one of those books with eye-catching cover art that I simply could not resist. Egan’s debut novel is a fairly quick read and one which book lovers (and those working in the book biz) will enjoy. I laughed out loud and I may have shed a tear or two. As Marysue Rucci (Vice President and Editor-in-Chief, Simon & Schuster, Inc.) says, “…reading A Window Opens is akin to reading the work of Anna Quindlen—like spending precious time with your brilliant, brutally honest, funniest, and most observant best friend. You never want the evening to end.”
As with all bookish-type of books, I loved the bookseller chatter about current recommendations:
Susanna: How are you guys holding up? Thinking of you constantly.
Me: The cousins are skim-board phenoms, taking the island by storm. Adults are more subdued; nice to all be together. You?
Susanna: The usual. College kids quitting for a better offer, so basically on my feet all day, ringing up Fifty Shades of Grey. What is it with that book?
Me: Ya got me. I’m halfway through The Light Between Oceans and LOVING IT.
Susanna: That one’s selling like hotcakes, too, thankfully.
And the joy of working in a bookstore:
When I arrived for my first day of work, visible rays of light crisscrossed through the store, turning the shelves into a rainbow of spines: thick, thin, shiny, matte, striped, printed with small pictures and designs, lettered in gold. The effect was dazzling. I already knew the bustle of the Blue Owl on a weekend afternoon, or after closing with customers in work clothes lingering over platters of Triscuits and cubed cheese. But, I realized, this was my first time in the store before it opened and, instantly, I knew it was the best time to be there—the bookseller’s equivalent of watching your kids sleep. I could feel the peace in my bones.
In addition to the book chatter, the novel also deals with the loss of a family member, which I found to be spot-on. I found myself nodding my head in agreement on more than one occasion.
On platitudes:
One by one, the guests left my mom’s house. They promised to check in soon and made us promise to let them know if there was anything they could do.
News flash: nobody is going to give you an assignment. Just do something.
Amy, the daughter of one of my mom’s tennis friends, worked quietly in the kitchen, sleeves rolled up, brewing pot after pot of strong coffee and stowing Mass cards and sympathy cards in a straw basket so my mom could read them later. Even though our mothers had been friends for decades, we weren’t friends; she’d been a few years ahead of me in school. Up until this point, most of our contact had been through families she’d babysat for, whom she passed along to me when she lost interest watching 227 alone on Saturday nights. I knew Amy was a teacher now, and the mother of toddlers, which meant that she’d lined up both a sub and a babysitter of her own so she could take coats and arrange crudité platters for our family. Her kindness was mind-boggling.
Final Thoughts:
I wasn’t planning to keep my ARC of A Window Opens, but after thumbing through it while composing this review, I realized that it was really an enjoyable read and that I’d like to at least attempt to find time to read it again someday. I enjoyed the smooth conversational style of Egan’s writing and anxiously await her next novel. Fans of Jojo Moyes, Liane Moriarty, and of course, Anna Quindlen, are sure to enjoy this smart and humorous novel.
From the New York Times Book Review:
Egan has an eye for the absurdities of the corporate workplace and an ear for its preposterous jargon: “drilling down,” “onboarding,” “action item,” “noodle that over.” And she’s very funny on the cultural chasm separating Alice, who is in her late 30s from her savvy younger colleagues in their “statement glasses.” As Alice puts it, “Sometimes I felt like one of the Danish au pairs I made plans with on the front lawn of the school – understanding but not understanding.” These workaday passages are further enhanced by the presence of two delightfully loathsome villains.
About the Author:
Elisabeth Egan is the books editor at Glamour. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Self, Glamour, O, People, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Huffington Post, The New York Times Book Review, LA Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times; and Newark Star-Ledger. She lives in New Jersey with her family.
