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    Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life
    Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life
    Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life
    Ebook233 pages3 hours

    Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life

    By Annie Spence

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A librarian's laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving collection of love letters and breakup notes to the books in her life.

    If you love to read, and presumably you do since you’ve picked up this book (!), you know that some books affect you so profoundly they forever change the way you think about the world. Some books, on the other hand, disappoint you so much you want to throw them against the wall. Either way, it’s clear that a book can be your new soul mate or the bad relationship you need to end.

    In Dear Fahrenheit 451, librarian Annie Spence has crafted love letters and breakup notes to the iconic and eclectic books she has encountered over the years. From breaking up with The Giving Tree (a dysfunctional relationship book if ever there was one), to her love letter to The Time Traveler’s Wife (a novel less about time travel and more about the life of a marriage, with all of its ups and downs), Spence will make you think of old favorites in a new way. Filled with suggested reading lists, Spence’s take on classic and contemporary books is very much like the best of literature—sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes surprisingly poignant, and filled with universal truths.

    A celebration of reading, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is for anyone who loves nothing more than curling up with a good book…and another, and another, and another!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 26, 2017
    ISBN9781250113887
    Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life
    Author

    Annie Spence

    Annie Spence has spent the last decade as a librarian at public libraries in the Midwest. She lives in Detroit with her husband and son. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is her first book.

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    Reviews for Dear Fahrenheit 451

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Everyone who reads voraciously should read this book. It was both fun and insightful to read the authors letters to the books many of us have read and loved, liked, or hated...some we may never have finished. It was like taking a walk down memory lane if that Lane was a bookshelf.
      Very entertaining!
    • 3/5
      Definitely a book for a younger set. The "goodbye" letters became old after the first five...but they went on for half of the book. Then she suddenly stopped writing the "letters" but continued her critiques using other vehicles, such as reporting on interaction with library patrons. Her language was too "millennial" for this 69 year old. I gave it an extra half-star because she did mention some books I added to my list.
    • 3/5
      Back in my late twenties I considered returning to school for a degree in library science. My BA in English was not getting me very far in the late 1970s economy.It made sense, after all, for when I was a girl hanging around libraries I imagined being the book answer person. Patrons would shyly come to me, uncertain and lost, and I would give them instructions on how to find that end-of-the-rainbow treasure of The Perfect Book for their reading pleasure.I dreamt of being intimate with books, knowing them deeply, freely dispensing of my fount of wisdom.Over the years I have known many librarians in many small Michigan communities. But I never joined their numbers. Instead, I grew up to blog about books. I still get to freely dispense my fount of whatever, but sans salary.When Dear Fahrenheit 451 appeared on NetGalley, it caught my eye right off, and I put in a "Wish For It" request which, I am grateful, Flatiron Books granted. I was happy to learn that author and librarian Annie Spence is a Michigan native who grew up in Metro Detroit and who currently is a librarian in Metro Detroit. I do love supporting Michigan and Detroit area authors!Subtitled, Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks, a Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life, this bookish memoir includes letters to specific books and short essays on "Special Subjects" including Books about Librarians, Good Books with Bad Covers, and Turning Your Lover into a Reader. Spence adopts a casual writing voice, dealing out jabs and jokes, gushing paenes and sage advice, never boring or dull. Spence's love of books and what they have given her is celebrated, but she also reflects the truism that we fall out of love with some books and others leave us flat.The books Spence addresses are varied, many of which I have not read and frankly, I skimmed some letters to books I don't know at this time. This is not a book you must read cover to end, you can pick and choose, returning to it now and then. At other times she piqued my interest in a book I had not read, like Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, set in Detroit; I have only read the author's Middlesex and The Marriage Plot.There are letters to Color Me Beautiful and The Hobbit, Wicked and Cannery Row, Blood Meridian and Matilda, the Harlequin Spinner Rack at the library, and the Public Library Children's Section. She addresses problems all readers share: I'd Rather Be Reading, Excuses to Tell Your Friends So You Can Stay Home With Your Books, and He's Just Not That Into Literacy: Turning Your Lover into a Reader. Book suggestions are offered with short reviews of books on a theme, and the Books I'll Never Break Up With includes her "forever bookshelf" loves.Spence has written an extended love letter to books and libraries, extolling the joy of reading. It was great fun to read.I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed the first part of this. Annie’s notes to books are witty, sometimes snarky, and entertaining. If the book had ended here, I’d have given it 4.5 stars. The second half is a slog of book recommendations and summaries that I did not find nearly as enjoyable, and found rather tedious, to be honest.
    • 5/5
      This might be my favorite book of the year. NO LIE! I related to this book on such a personal level. Not just because I'm also a librarian, but her opinion on books, hilarious asides, and love for her profession made me want to become best friends and join a book club with her. For real. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is composed of a bunch of letters written to novels, authors, and series that evoked a strong response from the author. They weren't all positive, some were negative, but ALL of them were witty, funny, and well written. The book manages to be informative, inspiring, and personal without being too judgey which can be a hard line to stay on. My reading list just got longer (alright alright I'll check out The Virgin Suicides!) and I can't wait to read whatever else Annie Spence decides to write.
    • 4/5
      This was a super cute collection of notes to books that Annie Spence has loved over the years or is culling from the library collection. I ended up annotating it, though I hadn't intended to at first. But suddenly there was a pen in my hand I was underlining something. Mostly I went through and left little smiley faces and LOLs where she made me laugh, but there are some important passages underlined and my commentary on certain books here and there. I also picked up several recommendations from her lists (could pick up more but my TBR is already infinite, so I wasn't trying to look into every book she mentions). I also love her new term for cock blocking, which is Mr. Darcy'd. I would certainly recommend this and if I weren't so lazy, I might even consider writing a few letters of my own!
    • 5/5
      Public librarian, Annie Spence, writes letters to the books she loves (both personally and professionally), break-up notes for the books she's weeding from the stacks, and also hands out some reading suggestions for various people and moods.As a public librarian myself, large chunks of this book had me cracking up or nodding in agreement although I think it has appeal for those who aren't in working in the field. As a book about books it is, of course, very dangerous for adding titles to your to read list. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I love books about books, and this is now one of my favorites. Spence writes with snappy flair and made me laugh out loud quite a few times. She also left me with more than a dozen new entries on my "to be read" list. Highly recommended for book nerds everywhere.
    • 4/5
      Dear Annie,
      You have saved me from my book slump. You understand what it’s like to dedicate your life to the library, and have infused your pseudo-literary-memoir with so much humor and relatability that this Midwestern library worker wonders whether she might have crossed paths with you at a workshop or on Twitter. (I’m pretty sure we order the same drinks at the bar.) I want to share your witticisms with my bibliophile friends, especially those who admit we’re all snobs but still can’t get enough of our favorite fanfiction tropes. Thanks to you, my TBR list has grown. I’m grateful, but I may not forgive you for that.
      Let’s be friends,
      Jessica
    • 4/5
      So very readable! Each letter to a book about to be weeded is only a few pages, so once you've got the sense and tone of the letter, it's finished and you are curious about the next one, so you start reading it and the cycle repeats. I can't remember the last time I couldn't put a book down to go to sleep! Delightful. The books about ones I read were spot on. The comments about libraries, librarians, patrons, and library activities were all spot on consistent with what my other librarian friends have said. I laughed out loud more than once. I feel like I can trust Annie's judgement about other books for my to-read list based on her accurate reading of our books in common.My favourite letters: nope, too many to mention. Okay, Grey, Time Travellers Wife and Wicked were very memorable.So worth reading!
    • 3/5
      I liked it even though she and I disagree on a number of books and I didn't feel the need to rush out and read any of the books over which she rhapsodized. It probably should have been a paperback original, though or maybe a simultaneous hardcover/paperback release. It's the sort of cute, gifty concept book that a few people will buy in hardcover, but that would be an easy handsell in paperback.
    • 3/5
      A love letter to books from a voracious reader and librarian. You can get a few good suggestions from it, if you want to. The book is small and can be something you read in between something else. The author truly is a lover of books - I can't imagine the number of books that she read in her life (and she is probably only in her early 30's!)
    • 4/5
      This fun little book by a librarian is comprised of letters to books (the first ~3/4) and lists of book recs (the last ~1/4). I enjoyed the letters more than the lists, but some of the lists were good too. Most of the letters are humorous, and while Spence occasionally used her humor to be just a little meaner than I really dig, for the most part, this was a lot of fun to read and made me laugh out loud quite a bit. A nice spin on the genre of personal books about books.
    • 5/5
      Caveat for some: For a very few books there are spoilers, and in one or two cases I consider them major. I normally hate spoilers but for some reason I didn’t care here and I don’t remember their details now that I’ve finished the book. I think I remained unperturbed because except for one or two books, I’d either already read the books or think I will either never read them or won’t read them for a very, very, very long time. It was actually wonderful to read her takes about the books I have read. 5 stars! 5 stars! 5 stars! 5 stars! 5 stars! I love this book! What a joy it is. It’s one of the most entertaining books I’ve read for quite a while. It’s so much fun. It’s a clever, hilarious, well written, and a “Why didn’t I write this?!!!” book.It’s a hoot (and a good resource and interesting) from start to finish. Even reading the Contents page had me laughing and eager to read the book’s very short esssays. All the pieces are short, many very short, and that makes this book easy to read for short periods of time and when concurrently reading other books. That said, it was addictive and hard to put down. There are two different distinct sections and enough variety of tone and content that reading it cover to cover would have been pleasurable too, but I did read it at the same time as I was reading other books. I did add some books to my to read list because of books mentioned in this book, though sometimes I chose not to stop and write down future book ideas. It’s not as htough my to-read list needs more books and I’m trying to get more discriminating about which books to add to it. These pieces did remind me though how I rarely find alcoholic beverages/drinking stories amusing, and there are several of those included. Luckily, they’re a small enough portion of the book that I wasn’t bothered; it’s just they weren’t parts I particularly enjoyed.
    • 4/5
      Librarian Spence writes letters to books in her life, books she adores, others she doesn't, and some are just letters to tell a book how much annoyance it's caused her at the library. She apologizes to Marquez's Of Love and Other Demons for sending it home with a reader who came looking for something in the Fern Michaels style, tells Wicked that she tried to love it but couldn't, and writes to the entire Miss Marple series, calling it "the romping unicorn of the Mystery section" because it appeals to such a cross-section of the public. She tells Misery-"You are...disconcerting. Something ain't right with you. A writer held prisoner in the home of his number one fan. I thought I could handle it....Not to mention that, just to freak my ass out more, you gave her my name."It's a fun little book, and many of the titles she writes to are pretty obscure, which is why she's explaining why they are being weeded out. A good nightstand book.
    • 3/5
      These types of books mostly don't work for me, but I somehow keep trying. Some fun letters, though, non-the-less.
    • 4/5
      If you don’t have a best friend who is a librarian, get this book. Anyone who loves to read needs to find a librarian who likes to read the same books. I was lucky: a librarian found me and got me reading again after college. I haven’t stopped reading yet. And whenever I’m stumped about what to read next she can take a peek at my Goodreads To Be Read (TBR) list and pick out a half dozen good books. Actually, she can do it off the top of her head. For those of you who aren’t besties with your local librarian, Annie Spence is trying to fill that void with “Dear Fahrenheit 451.” In this book Spence writes love letters to books she is seeing on her stacks. Some are love letters. Some are break up letters. All are recommendations to readers. She covers everything from children’s lit to female sexuality books.This is a cute, quick read that will fill up your TBR pile faster than a visit to a bookstore. The one thing I wish the book had was an index that listed all the recommended books and cross-referenced it to the chapter in which it was discussed. I would’ve loved taking such a list, photocopying it, and crossing out all the books I’ve already read. I would have thought a librarian would have loved an index like that as well. One thing book lovers like to do is check off books from a list. I tried to make my own list but I only covered some of the fiction books. Thanks to Spence I added 148 books to my TBR pile. And you can tell that some books were discussed in length while others were quick one sentence recommendations.I may never read most of the books recommended by Spence but I know my librarian friend and I will have great discussions about them in the future. I love those discussions. I’m looking forward to them almost as much as I’m looking forward to reading and discovering new books. So if you don’t know what to read next check out this book and ask your librarian what she thinks of it. You may find some great reads and if you’re truly lucky you’ll find a great friend, too.
    • 5/5
      I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. The entire time I was reading it those words were running through my head over and over and over. Most of the book is letters written by Annie Spence to various books, many on the shelves of libraries where she has worked, or book-related items she has encountered. The last fifth or so of Dear Fahrenheit 451 contains books recommendations, excuses for staying home so you can read, books about librarians, and her all-time favorite reads. Upon finishing the book, my first impression was how well-read Spence is. It’s truly impressive the range of books she covers in this gem. My second thought is that I wish we were friends. Her humor, quality of character, thoughts on various books, open-mindedness, and her absolute love of reading shone through on each and every page. In addition, she references things like The Cutting Edge (one of my all-time favorite movies), loves Frog and Toad and does not like Nicholas Sparks or Twilight. There are places we diverge: I love To Kill a Mockingbird (she does not), and I am not sure her all-time favorite book, The Virgin Suicides, would be for me. But those are minor details.Dear Fahrenheit 451 is clever in so many ways. First and foremost, the format is of the book is ingenious. Next, Spence signs each letter to her respective subject with a closing word or more frequently phrase that directly ties in with her letter. Writing to a book on popcorn that was written in 1976 and is headed to the library book sale, she signs off with “Stay A-Maize-ing”. Ending a letter to a book from the 1980’s about finding your color palette, she ends with “Stay Golden (unless you’re supposed to wear silver tones)”. Last, the top of each new letter contains the broad subject matter and author of the book (if the letter is written to a book) and then includes a witty reference or two for the more specific subject matter. In the letter written to the Twilight Series, the second description says “Me, Bite” and in her letter to a Cathy Cartoon Collection, the description is “Chocolate and Feminism, Aack!”. I didn’t pick up on how clever those were originally, and I had to go back and re-read the ones that I missed. Dear Fahrenheit 451 ranks at the top of my list for 2017 reads, and I plan to re-read it again very soon. When I do so, I am sure I will pick up on references that I missed the first time around. The beauty of the format is that it is easy to go back and re-read certain letters when there is not time to read the entire book. I cannot recommend this book highly enough; it is a sheer joy to read. Thanks Flatiron Books for providing me with a copy of Dear Fahrenheit 451. All opinions are my own.
    • 5/5
      The first half of this book contains short letters that Midwestern librarian Annie Spence has written to several dozen books she’s come across in her life. Some of them are declarations of undying love, some of them are breakup letters, and all of them are very funny and sweet. They remind you how books can make you feel on every level – the excitement of recognition when you see a cover, the sweet heartache when you finish a great book and can never read it for the first time again, the sneering cynicism when you come across a far-outdated non-fiction book. The second half of the book is fully just book recommendations. Books to read in pairs. Books to read when you don’t want to go out and socialize. Fat books. Skinny books. Books to give to people who don’t like books. At first I started writing down the ones that looked intriguing but eventually I gave up and ordered a copy of this book for myself.
    • 5/5
      Author Annie Spence, a librarian in Chicago, writes letters to all sorts of books - from Fahrenheit 451 to Twilight at a garage sale, to a copy of Cannery Row she finds in a bathroom. About two thirds of the book are letters, and the final third is a unique set of book recommendations. The book is fairly short and the structure makes it really easy to pick up at put down at odd moments throughout the day or reading before bed. Annie's funny, candid, and sometimes irreverent. Book lovers and fellow librarians will find themselves nodding along with her - the letter on Bill O'Reilly's "killing" books and how patrons want them all shelved together had me cracking up with recognition - whether or not you share her taste in books. Reading this feels just a little bit like talking books here on LibraryThing, with all the quirks of personality and taste but a shared love of books that bring us together.
    • 3/5
      Very funny at times, the premise behind Dear Fahrenheit 451 doesn't really hold up for the length of even a short book. I did enjoy the first two-thirds of the book a lot, but the book lists (and extremely shorthand descriptions of them) became pretty mind-numbing as they went on and on...and on.
    • 4/5
      A snarky librarian addresses letters to books she’s known and loved, hated, etc. I’ve been hearing about this one everywhere, so I picked it up and zipped through it in an evening. What they said about it is true: it’s fun, funny, and will make your reading list explode. It’s obvious to me that Spence and I have different taste in books, but I get the feeling that we could have some really interesting conversations about the spots where our reading overlaps. More than making me want to read at least some of the books referenced, this made me want to browse my personal shelves and have some conversations with my own old favorites.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed the letters but the lists were not my cup of tea although I did find myself jotting down a few of the titles. I did find myself chuckling out loud to the author's wit. I'm glad to see some of the situations involving librarians is truly universal.
    • 5/5
      I love this book. After reading 75 pages, I put it on my "Favorites list." For any book-lover, making decisions about which books to keep or give away is difficult. All the arguments for and against go through one's mind. Annie Spence goes a step further and shares her reasons for keeping or "weeding" particular titles. I want to read some of the books that she can't part with. I share her opinion about many of the titles she wants to get rid of. I, too, am tempted to interrupt when I hear a group of people discussing a book that I have read. I didn't particularly benefit from the section on "Assistance to Readers" but it was fun to read just for her take on various titles and the humor involved.
    • 4/5
      This is a quick, fun read - more of an indulgence - and if you like the same books the librarian-author does, it'll be right in your wheelhouse. But what is delightful at first, the concept of apologizing to books that must be weeded, grows a bit tiresome. However, the writing is sassy and witty, and there are numerous suggestions of books and authors new to me. It should give every librarian, book club member, and book lover a new activity to enjoy.My favorites: a riff on why The Hobbit gets boring without women; appreciation of and props to: An Education (made into an incredible movie) by Lynn Barber; Ghost World, the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes (also a fine movie - is a pattern emerging?); Dangerous Liaisons (book and movie again); and The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett.
    • 2/5
      I wished for this book and my wish was granted. I was so excited to start reading and then the disappointment set in. I don’t usually have a contrarian nature but after reading several reviews I seem to be the odd man out.While Ms. Spence is certainly “outrageous in the most relatable way” and had a very clever idea, the proof is in the execution and that is where it fell apart for me. Her constant use of unseemly and inappropriate language was humorous in the first instance but became too familiar and altogether unnecessary. I am all for sex and nudity when it enhances a scene, line, story, but used gratuitously it becomes boring, irritating and shows a lack of depth.So, “after surviving all that shit” (author’s words) I closed the book with no new book recommendations.Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an ARC.
    • 4/5
      This was -- somehow -- a fun read, even though I haven't read let's say 90% of the books Anne mentions. It would definitely be a better read for someone with a wider taste in books (I'm coming to terms with being a terrible reader). But even without context, her "letters" were pretty funny.The only part I skipped was the set of book recommendations at the end... I've got enough that I'm not reading, already.I did leave with the intention of reading more celebrity biographies -- plus a photo-note of her "Crazy Surreal Shit in an Otherwise Mundane Setting" list, because that is right up my alley.
    • 5/5
      I won this ARC in a GOODREADS giveaway. The title says it all! What a wonderfully unique presentation. This book is witty, quirky, and was a pleasure to read. I will be sending this to my sister, the Librarian!
    • 4/5
      Public librarians who work with adults will recognize and relate to Spence's casual and irreverent thoughts on encounters with patrons and with library collections. She absolutely nails the reasons and emotions that go into de-selecting books and the sometimes difficult, sometimes awesome opportunities to suggest books to readers. Along the way, she talks about a lot of great books, well known and less known, so be prepared to add a lot of authors and titles to your TBR list.
    • 4/5
      Fun listen! However, I will need to get a copy of the book because I need to take notes on so many of the books she recommends!I'm a book lover, and I am currently volunteering at the public library, so I really enjoyed the library references. I also read all kinds of book reviews and have list upon list of TBR books so this was my kinda book!

    Book preview

    Dear Fahrenheit 451 - Annie Spence

    I.

    Books—The Letters

    Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

    —Mark Twain

    Rule number one: Don’t fuck with librarians.

    —Neil Gaiman, Gaiman’s online Journal, 2004

    FICTION—Tartt, Donna

    —Growing Apart

    Dear The Goldfinch,

    We’ve grown apart. Or, I guess, you’ve grown apart. Like, physically. Your spine is torn to crap. The hardest part about this? I’m the one who did it to you. I love you so much, Goldfinch. Your language, your emotion, your suspense. Needless to say, the author picture on your back cover is the main reason I started parting my hair down the middle.

    So I recommended you to everyone. I broke the Librarian’s Reader’s Advisory Code, which is to base your reading suggestions for a patron on their previous preferences, not my own. I broke it for you, Finchy. I recommended you to folks checking out Sylvia Browne dead-people-talking books and patrons asking where the Amish fiction was shelved and people who told me the last book they enjoyed was Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, which is, sadly, every third adult male who comes into the library. I’m not saying you won the Pulitzer because of me, but you may want to think about adding one more name in the acknowledgments when the next edition comes out. You feel me?

    Unfortunately, your hard exterior couldn’t protect you from the reality of the world outside these shelves. It was bound to happen. You’re nearly eight hundred pages. And about a gazillion people cracked you open. Eventually, you cracked too. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have sent you home with people who are used to reading mass-market paperbacks. That’s something I have to live with.

    I know you are a book that only feels fulfilled when being read and admired. You’d be too ashamed to sit next to your other copies as busted up as you are, and there’s nothing book glue can do for you now. You don’t smell or anything, if that’s a consolation. I’m taking you home with me. You’ll sit right next to your old pal The Little Friend, on a browser-friendly shelf above the record player where my friends will look at you with great reverence before declining to borrow you because they are too busy to read (I know, they’re fools). I’m the only one who truly knows you well enough to notice how fragile you are on the inside. No one but you and I will ever see the duct tape holding you together or the DISCARD stamp on your title page. I promise you that.

    Seriously Forever Yours,

    FICTION—Tolstoy, Leo

    —Classic Russian Literature

    —The Bachelor

    —Choices

    Dear Anna Karenina,

    I feel like I don’t even know you. Maybe that’s why I find it so difficult to say: I’ve been seeing someone else.

    Geez, I’m sorry. I know I’ve led you on. I asked my friends about you. I checked you out more than once. You came home with me. You stayed for a month! But while you were on my coffee table, looking so earnest and so very long, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was in my bed. And then some Megan Abbott mysteries. And then Dolly Parton’s autobiography. Twice.

    I tried, I really did. Once, I even picked you up and held you. I kept you on my lap while I watched The Bachelor. And you made me feel better. Like I wasn’t just some faceless citizen of Bachelor Nation. I read Russian literature! I thought to myself. I’m just smugly observing this show until the next commercial, when I will begin my scholarly analysis. But then I kept watching through After the Final Rose.

    Anna, I don’t have one unkind word to say about you—because I haven’t read you. Perhaps, it’s just not our time. There will come a day, probably, when I get a hankering for a bleak 864-page novel translated from Russian. But until that day, back to the shelves you go.

    I tried to look up goodbye in Russian, but it’s really hard to spell. So, just—

    Goodbye,

    FICTION—Eugenides, Jeffrey

    —Creepy Stories

    —Creepy Love for Creepy Stories

    Dear The Virgin Suicides,

    Congratulations on your fifteenth consecutive year as my favorite book. To mark this commemorative anniversary, I’m writing you a love letter. It’ll be moony goony nonsense compared to your perfection, but the thing you’re perfect about is conveying imperfect love. So even though this is going to look a little bit like pen puke, I hope you’ll appreciate its sincerity.

    Here goes.

    I love that you have no plot and an electric story at the same time. The five Lisbon sisters commit suicide in the suburbs of Detroit; their neighbor boys loved them and couldn’t understand them. We know that in your first few pages. Nothing else happens. Except everything. Except tiny beautiful moments of arms barely touching, and records playing over the phone, and sad math teachers, and goal-line chalk striping a beautiful girl’s back—all of the minutiae that composes lives and somehow adds up to death.

    I love every one of your fucking golden sentences. They are slam-you-shut-and-clutch-you-against-my-chest sublime. The description of the adornments that spill around the teenage girls, and the entire swooning Trip Fontaine passage, oh man, I wanted him to save Lux Lisbon so bad. Then, that last paragraph made me want to collapse on a fainting couch and linger for the rest of the day with your delicate memory.

    I love that after I read you, every time, my own everyday movements and the quotidian moments of my life feel more beautiful. That’s the mark of a lovely book. You make me want to never look at my phone again—to abandon Facebook in favor of old astronomy books and nature guides. I just want to brush my hair languidly in front of the mirror, sift through old costume jewelry, hold hands, and listen to way more Bread.

    It’s more than that, though. I feel like you get me. Like, get me. I don’t feel like you were written for me. I feel like you were written FROM INSIDE OF my psyche. The hazy gaze with which you look back on suburban Detroit is the same lens I was spying through growing up. My folks having moved from Detroit to rural mid-Michigan before I was born, those cities and the people left behind were a dreamy, mysterious world that existed in the Before Time of my parents’ lives.

    I was enamored with and naive of downstate, as we called it, in the same way your narrators were always reaching for and never quite grasping the Lisbon sisters. The fuzzy aura that Trip saw surrounding Lux echoed the one I saw glowing around my older cousin Melanie when she came to visit from Detroit. The music the boys play for the girls after Mrs. Lisbon makes Lux burn her records was the music my dad put on our record player, and when he listened he got a far-off look in his eyes.

    When I left for college, a whopping forty-five minutes away from home, I found myself drawn to the city girls in my dorm hall. Girls who called their purses bags and had gone to foreign countries for senior trip. Who had been to concerts that did not take place at the fairgrounds. Who owned hair straighteners and manicure kits. Who took for granted all the music and art and stories that grew from the same place they were from. These girls often felt compelled to give me life advice as they smoked next to their open windows, because they could tell I admired them and because they found the podunk homecoming queen vibe I gave off endearing. Absolutely all of it was terrible advice. But I don’t mind because eventually one of those smoky window conversations, where I let them pretend to be Carrie from Sex and the City and wax nonsensical, led me to a conversation about you, V.S. I’d never heard of you or your movie, further cementing my charming rural bumpkin reputation. Anyway, they let me borrow you. From your first paragraph I knew that, finally, I could identify that feeling of reminiscing for a place I had never known but felt connected to. It felt like

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