I am just so annoyed with myself for gobbling up these stories in the span of a couple of days and now I've eaten them all! But I just couldn't help myself! They are wonderful stories and the book an excellent follow to the author's previous story collection: Once.

I read Once earlier this year and waffled, when attempting to give it a fair review, between giving it a four star rating or a five, ultimately saying that I would give it a 9 out of ten. I loved those stories too and went back to read my own review of them. Gosh, I even love my own review. Here's what I said about Once in August of this year (Yes, I am so conceited as to post it again here!)

I compared the characters in Once to peregrine falcons, hard-wired to fledge. I can continue that analogy with The Big Dream in so far as, once fledged, our characters are still madly flapping to keep themselves in the air.

The characters in The Big Dream stories are all connected by their work and all that comes with the territory: communal fridge, staff birthday or charity "events", health benefits or lack thereof. All work for Dream, Inc., a magazine publisher. Some of our characters are only just fledged and have just started working, assigned to a cubical in a wall of empty cubicles. Others have been there a while and have their own cubicle by a window. Moving up in the company means you might have a card board door to your cubicle or even a nameplate which means the cleaning staff recognizes your importance and will deign to vacuum your office if it looks like you expect that, even though the floors only get vacuumed once a quarter according to the schedule.
Despite their flapping though, these characters are not birds, they are delightfully and pathetically, agonizingly and stubbornly and laughingly human beings. And it was Rosenblum's ability to so perfectly capture the humanness of her characters despite their being trapped in the big anonymous cage of Dream Inc. that so charmed me. I loved these people! Felt for them, scolded them, laughed and wept with them.

Everything I would want in a book!

I'll be taking this book to our meeting tonight. We have a book box to fill. If it doesn't go in the box and someone else doesn't take it home, I'll leave it on the shelf in the loft.

To the finder of this book:
Welcome to the wonderful and wacky world of BookCrossing! Here you'll find a unique and worldwide community of book lovers sharing their books. This book is now yours! Read it, enjoy it. Keep it or pass it on to someone you know or even release it back into the wild as I did. If you make a journal entry (either anonymously or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this book will be notified by e-mail and can follow this book on its travels. BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address) and it's a whole lot of fun!

I was so so about the book. Some of the characters I really didn't like and I had trouble figuring it out at first. The 'Dream' organization is disturbing - it reminds me of my employer sometimes and the issues I am dealing with, with them.

I am taking this to the meeting at Cravings to see if I can find a new reader for it.

I am taking this to the August meeting at Cravings to see if I can find someone to pass it on to.

Taken to the November meeting: Ten Big ones. I read about big things in general this month.

To the finder:
Calgary has an active group of BookCrossers that meet to swap books and discuss book crossing every second Saturday of the month at 11am at Cravings Market on Fairmount Drive SE. We always love to meet new crossers, so please join us any time you like!

My pick at the BC meetup.

It was annoying to determine the relationships of the characters as they moved in and out of the narrative. There wasn't a story other than a progression of employee cameos with their odd character quirks.
There was a term that I did like; a maintenance generalist, a modern term for the maintenance guy.

Taken to the Calgary BC Meetup today.

Safely in my hands

I pursued through this book hoping to find one that resonated with me. But alas didn’t really!

I am taking this book to our monthly bookcrossers meet up at Cravings - the second Saturday of every month- to pass on to the next reader.

Just got this book at last meeting. Haven't read it yet.

At Dream Inc people struggle to do more than their jobs. The company downsizes and people struggle

Returned to me, as they thought I brought it from Winnipeg. Will save for the Canada Day release challenge, either this year or next.

Missed the Canada Day release challenge and I am moving so just releasing!

To the finder:
Calgary has an active group of BookCrossers that meet to swap books and discuss book crossing every second Saturday of the month at 11am at Cravings Market on Fairmount Drive SE. We always love to meet new crossers, so please join us any time you like!