The Measure by Nikki Erlick

The Measure by Nikki Erlick 

Read by Julia Whelan

10 hours, 57 minutes

Published June 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers

Publisher's Summary: 

Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.

It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.

But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.

From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?

As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they'll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn't have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.

My Thoughts: 

The Measure was recommended to me by my aunt (and another aunt and two uncles!). I originally started it in 2023 but didn't get it finished so restarted it when it became available, making it the first book I read in 2024. Let's start with what didn't work so we can finish with the good stuff, shall we? 

What Didn't Work for Me:

• I'm sorry to say that I didn't really find myself emotionally attached to any of the characters, possibly due to the relatively large number of them (there are far more than eight, as the summary would suggest). 
• I felt like Erlick worked too hard to make her cast of characters diverse. Black character? Check. Gay couple? Check. Evil politician to contrast to empathetic characters? Check. 
• The ending felt rushed to me, even though I understood why Erlick skipped big periods of time at the end. 

What I Worked for Me: 

• This book is genre defying. Is it science fiction? Not really. Is it dystopian? No. Is it magical realism? I wouldn't say so. I like a book that can't be pigeonholed. 
• Why can't it be genre defined? Because it's a unique way to write about ideas that we think about all of the time. 
• This one would make a great book club selection and I'm pondering whether or not to move it into my club's 2024 line up. There is so much to discuss! How would you live your life if you knew you had decades ahead of you? Would you take risks, knowing that you couldn't be killed? Would you take better care of your body, knowing it needed to take you into your 80's? Would you commit to someone who had a short-string? And what if you were a short-stringer? Would you quit your job and do all of the things you thought you had a long life to do? Would you have children, knowing you wouldn't be there for them for very long? Do you end your own life to avoid a potentially painful end? And what of society? How would people treat each other if they knew? And would you want to know?
• At first I was annoyed that we were never going to find out where the strings came from. But I realized that where they came from was not the point. How they impacted lives was. 
• Clearly, this book made me think and you know that I'm always going to like a book that does that. 

Happy New Year!

I do believe I have, for the first time ever perhaps, managed to time my reading (maybe because I haven't really been reading) so that I can start a new book as the new year begins. Bloggers (and maybe all readers, I can't remember if I cared before I started blogging) put a lot of stock into which book we read first in a new year. It really hasn't mattered to me. It's never been an indicator of what I'll read for the year...until this year, I think. This is the year that I'm going to really try to allow myself read only the books that suit my mood. It's only fair to the books, it's only fair to me. So this year I'm starting off which something a little lighter than my usual read, Bonnie Garmus' Lessons In Chemistry. If I'd just told you that title, you might think I was reading something scientific and important. But just one look at that cover tells you the this book is something entirely different. And, honestly, I can't wait to start reading today!

Oh, and you might want to get your hands on this one sooner rather than later - Brie Larson has already optioned it and an Apple + series is in the works. How's that for a debut work?!

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

Published November 2020 by Dial Press Trade

Source: checked out from my local library

Publisher's Summary:

It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist—the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.

My Thoughts:

You know, I used to be up on what books were coming out; I knew which books to request advance copies of or to put on my library hold list ahead of publication. In the past few years, not so much. The beauty of that is that periodically I discover that a author who's books I've enjoyed has a new book out already that I The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was released in 2012 (although it took me until June 2013 to read it). When I reviewed Joyce's Perfect, three years later, I called Harold Fry charming, intimate and thoughtful. Of Perfect, I said that it was more sad than charming and had a greater sense of tension. In Miss Benson's Beetle, Joyce brings all of those things together. 

Sure the quirky female who doesn't fit in anywhere as a lead is starting to become all too common place and I couldn't help but wonder, when I started this book, if I could possible grow to love yet another misfit. The answer, I quickly learned, is "yes," in no small part because almost as soon as we are introduced to Margery, we feel sorry for her (can we just talk about how cruel girls can be?!). You can't help but cheer for her as she finally takes charge of her own life and sets off to fulfill her lifelong goal. 

As soon as Enid Pretty enters the picture, this could have been nothing more than a buddy story filled with hijinks. And that would have been a perfectly enjoyable book. But remember that tension I mentioned before? Joyce builds that up on a couple of fronts. There is a darkness to this book and, as with all of Joyce's books, not everyone is going to live happily ever after. 

As I was with Harold Fry, I was impressed with Joyce's ability to paint pictures of her characters and her settings. In addition to that tension building, Joyce also touches on a number of themes that keep this from being a "lite" read: homosexuality, suicide, depression, the effects of war. This would make a good book club selection. It certainly made an excellent first book of the year choice. 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Published May 1989 by Faber and Faber
Source: purchased this one with my own dollars

Publisher's Summary:
Stevens, the perfect butler, and of his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the “great gentleman,” Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness,” and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.


My Thoughts:
I have been meaning to read this book since I saw the movie adaptation and realized it was based on a book. Last year I finally picked up a copy but then, as with almost every classic book I own. When I realized, at the end of 2019, that I had only read 3, yes 3, classic books all year, I decided I needed to kick off 2020 with a classic and I consider this one a modern classic.

Because I saw the movie before I read the book, I read the entire book hearing Hopkins' voice as Stevens. I was impressed with Hopkins performance when I saw that movie; having now read the book, I'm even more impressed with the way he perfectly captured Stevens in a way I'm not sure any other actor could have.

How to make this quiet, introspective book sound interesting, though, for those of you who may not have seen the movie, who may wonder how a book about a middle-aged man reflecting on his life as  an English butler might be worth picking up? I did what I always do when I'm in a quandary like this - I hit the internet to see what people smarter than me had to saw about the book. I was more than a little surprised to find that not all of the reviews were glowing. And not in the way of "too slow moving for me" or "I just didn't get it."

Kirkus Reviews, for example, had this to say: "...yet there is something doomed about Ishiguro's effort to enlist sympathy for such a self-censoring stuffed shirt, and in the end he can manage only a small measure of pathos for his disappointed servant." What? How could you not feel pathos for a man who has spent his entire life trying to live up to a certain standard, who has spent decades believing he was serving a man worth his admiration, who suddenly discovers that he has wasted his life? But this is Kirkus and I so often disagree with them that I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The people who award the Man Booker Prize disagreed, I guess, since they gave the book their award in 1989.

I'm with the Man Booker Prize people.

It's not a long book but also not a book you can race through. You may feel like it's slow going, as you read. But it's important to pay attention, to absorb what you're reading. You are watching a man wake up to what his life has really been, what he has lost, and what he can do to make his life better. I'm so happy to have started the year with this book; it has set the tone for my reading this year.

First Book of 2018!

Sheila, of Book Journey, is once again hosting First Book Of The Year; and I am, once again, slow to post!

Although, clearly, I took my picture bright and early this morning, before hairbrush and makeup and still wearing my nightgown (ok, let's be honest, I have been known to wear my pj's well into the afternoon, on occasion). And, yes, I know I was meant to have read this book by the end of 2017. But...best laid plans and all that. So, my first book of 2018 will be Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd!

The First Book of the Year 2017

Sheila, of Book Journey, is once again hosting First Book Of The Year, asking readers to share what will be the first book they read in 2017.  This is always a tough choice, but even more so when I think about sharing it with you. Not like you wouldn't have figured it out anyway (duh, sidebar). I'm not sure how much the first book I read in a year really sets the tone for my reading year (although I did open 2016 with a nonfiction book and it did serve as a good kickstart on remembering to  read more nonfiction last year. I spent a good part of an evening last week considering my choice. I knew I wanted it to be fairly short (although I have every intention of pushing myself to read big books this year) and I decided I liked the idea of kicking off the year with nonfiction again. This is also the year that my bookclub's theme includes the word "feminism." I just so happen to own the perfect book to fit all of those requirements.

This year's first book is...drumroll, please...

Lindy West's Shrill! Because this is the year I want to get loud and make my voice heard.