This week has been a bit of an up and down experience as a reader. Some days I have been voracious and simply could not put down the book. Other days, I had to force myself to hold on long enough to meet my personal goal of 30 minutes of reading each day. I know that what is happening in other areas of my life impacts my reading; I recognize it, but I don’t necessarily have to like when things happen over which I have no control.
Enough about that. What am I reading at the moment? This week, I’ve been working through The People We Keep by Allison Larkin. The novel is one of the July selections I picked up through my subscription to the Book of the Month. The People We Keep explores the concept of the family we choose versus the family into which we are born. April is a 16-year-old living in rural New York. Her mother left when she was a child. Her father has moved in with his new girlfriend and her young son, leaving April to fend for herself alone in a motorless motor home.
Thankfully, April is not entirely alone. She has found a surrogate mother in Margo, the owner of the local cafe. Matty is her teenage boyfriend and the one she thinks she will marry as soon as he graduates, especially now that April has dropped out of school. When April has a massive fight with her father and soon-to-be stepmother, she decides that enough is enough. She sets out with the few things she can shove into the car that she has stolen and the songs that are the soundtrack of her life and leaves “home”. Her adventure takes her to Ithaca with the hopes of settling down and making a new life for herself. Things look good for April until a secret causes her world to fall apart, so she hits the road again and runs.
The People We Keep is not just a story about April’s running from place to place. Instead, it is a story about the people that come into April’s life and become her chosen family. Along the way her chosen family is built; this non-traditional family is populated with graduate students and professors, humble bar and restaurant owners, and fellow musicians. She experiences pain and loss as she trusts some undesirables. The novel is truly a coming-of-age story.
Currently, I am just over halfway through the novel. I am not entirely sure where things will end up for April. I hope that she makes her way back to Ithaca to face the fears that caused her to run. Either way, I’ll continue to read this week to find out how April’s story concludes. Then I’ll begin working my way through the next book waiting to be read.
Reading for Me 
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