Over the weekend I finished No Two Persons by Erica Baumeister.   It’s for my “other” book club.   The author refers to it as a connected collection of short stories, but it really didn’t feel that way.   Alice is the first character we meet – she is an author – and in the rest of the stories we meet those who read her book.  Even though it was clear that it wasn’t a novel in the traditional sense, it felt like much more involved than a random group of short stories.

Even towards the beginning it seemed that the various people in the book were connected in more ways than just being readers.  I was keeping track of them in my head and when I got finished, I realized I really wanted to see those connections on paper.  So I pulled out my markers and post-it notes and made a chart.  Nothing fancy, but it did the job.   The two smaller post-it notes are fairly minor characters but since they both touched more than one life in the book, they got added.  Miranda got two lines because she had a “give back” connection to Alice.  I can’t say more without it being a big old spoiler alert.

Language in the book was wonderful; I really felt like I got to know each of the main characters and what was motivating them.  None of the individuals felt stereotypical – Baumeister did a good job of making them real to me. 

It was a pretty quick read because I was really drawn in from the beginning and I’m recommending it highly.  5 stars.  Absolutely sure this will make the Top Ten list this year.

Do you like charts?  Have a favorite kind?  Pi charts?  Venn diagrams?  Bar charts?   Scatter charts?  Remember the last time you MADE a chart?