One day recently I was reading reviews of a book that had been recommended by a friend whose taste in literature sometimes aligned with mine but diverged just as often. Whenever she recommends a book, I hit the internet to read the thoughts of others before deciding if the book in question is one I think will hold my interest enough to warrant seeking out a copy. I was on the fence about the one she’d most recently suggested, and the reviews were equivocal, so I was inclined to bypass it for the moment considering the scads of unread titles currently under my roof. But then I got to this one:

There is so much that could be said here, but instead I’ll write these lines and trust you to read in between them: You’d better believe I bought that book immediately.