Registered by solittletime, Portland, Maine, USA on January 23, 2011. Pre-numbered label used for registration. Paperback.

Reserved for a wishlist RABCK for 6of8.

Wishlist RABCK to 6of8 in appreciation of a very kind offer.

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Wow, what generosity! Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to reading this and to meeting you at the convention!

I am still pondering how I feel about this book. It was an interesting expose of personal growth and being aware of the lives around you and how much you do and don't have in your life compared to others. But I am not sure I am satisfied with the answer and the ultimate "why" of it all. To some extent it is very realistic and certainly makes Ed's story the same as all of ours (for those of who do find out the "why", are we ever satisfied with the answer?). But, darn it, that is why I read books. I liked the characters for the most part, but could have done without all of the strong language. I think the message involving the Italian restaurant was the most powerful and probably the most life-changing for Ed in its way, but I found the one involving Melinda the most personally satisfying.

This is definitely one of those books that I will be mentally chewing over for a while. It is possible that after additional time and thought, I will revise my rating of this book upward.

As long as this is still on Melydia's wish list, I will pass it to her at the next meet-up. If it's not, it will go home with whomever wants it.

"A book is a mysterious object, I said, and once it floats out into the world, anything can happen. All kinds of mischief can be caused, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it. For better or worse, it's completely out of your control." -- Paul Auster

Taking this to the next BCinDC meet-up at Noodles & Co in Rockville, to be hand-delivered to Melydia, since it is on her wishlist.

Received from 6of8 because it was on my wishlist. Thanks! :D

I've finished reading this but I want to release it right away so I'll edit this later with a review. Spoiler: it was really good.

Edit 5 Sept 2013:

Underachieving taxi driver Ed Kennedy lives a pretty uninteresting life until one day he receives a playing card with three addresses on it. After visiting these addresses, he learns that he must can change these people's lives for the better. As the weeks go by, he receives more cards with more situations to put right. The individual situations themselves are wonderful to read, and I liked and sympathized with Ed. However, the ending left me a bit sour. I was unimpressed with how the mysterious card-leaver was revealed. Still, the book was quite good up to that point, so it's certainly possible that other folks would really like the somewhat unconventional resolution.

Acquired from melydia on our first meeting. Yay!

Oh! Hi, solittletime, and six!

"It was really good" is not a spoiler. :-P

This book came to me just as I had run out of fiction, so it was a welcome escape and unexpected soul food. I enjoyed everything except the denouement, which seemed to stretch the boundaries of belief much more than, say, the mystical explanation I was expecting, would. I hope I put those commas in the right place; I know the previous readers will have my guts for garters if I didn't.

Set in a rough and blunt Australia with no mercy, our central character is a quintessential loser in whom I feel I have much in common. This kid's in stasis, not sure what to do with himself, though as a non-driver (yet) I think taxi-driving is pretty cool as a job, actually, and not to be compared with writing, which as everyone but writers knows is not a real job. But, since I can't tell him that and couldn't even if he were a real guy and not a character in a book, it's up to him to realize he has worth.

The instrument by which this is accomplished is neat. As a series of seemingly impossible tasks is laid before him, including tasks he doesn't know what the heck he's supposed to do, he rises to the occasion and, supported by people he realizes do love him, he comes into his own. I didn't realize this was YA until most of the way in, but that's ok. YA books are often better than OA (old adult) books. I found it particularly telling that he dreaded the last suit of cards and it wasn't what he thought. What, in life, is what we think?

So yes, there were bits of this that made me uncomfortably examine my own failings, and less uncomfortably reminded me of my own strengths. Perhaps it's weird that I identified so well with a 19-year-old boy, but nobody ever accused me of being normal after, say, about the age of 17. ;) I live a life in which I have almost completely stopped making plans because they get messed up by external stuff, and I this kid is forced into such a situation. He does pretty well. I give him three cheers and a pat on the back, but the value in this book is in making you realize that everyone, somehow, has value and can be helped to find it.

Left it on the free pile at the RTR.