Thoughts 
by Gabrielle Zevin, Alfred A Knopf 2022, 401 pages
Challenge: for March 2023 Tournament of Books
Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; friendship, gaming industry
Type/Source: Hardcover, loaned to me by a friend (thanks SuzP!)
What It’s About: Sam, age 12, is a lonely boy in a hospital, recovering from a car accident with extreme long-time physical and emotional repercussions when he meets Sadie, age 11, and they become friends, bonding over games. They are both smart, both go to Boston from California to attend college, and both are ambitious to create their own game, together. They grow up in the process. It all reminds me of the motto of Kansas, “Ad Astra per Aspera” Latin for “to the stars through difficulties.” This is about the creative process, captures a particular time for a unique industry, but basically, it is about love and friendship.
Thoughts: I had that comfortable feeling of being in the hands of a talented writer. I believe that the thread-count of this one exceeds her prior novel that I read (and enjoyed but seemed, fluffier, rather than tight?, AJ Fikry – which, by the way, Zevin wrote the screenplay for and subsequent film has been adapted! Who has seen it?!)
A truly enjoyable read. Lots of lovely vocabulary words that were fun to look up. Trenchant, collogue, sere, nihilism, echt, ersatz…
Rating: Five slices of pie. One boring mention of (pizza) pie and that is good enough:
“Sadie hadn’t eaten since the plane that morning, and she ended up eating almost the whole pie.”
39%
Finally, just want to share a fun link that a dear friend brought to my attention (Thanks Stef!)
Stuck on Your Novel? Bake a Pie! “Cliche Chicken Pot Pie”
Care's Books and Pie 
This has been on so many “Best Of” lists! I loved The Story of A.J. Fikry (read it twice), so I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this new release.
Thanks for the link. I’ve always wanted to make my own chicken pot pie and this recipe sounds delicious!
Lovely! I love being a Pie Ambassador. Happy Holidays
I’ve seen this on a lot of year-end lists, too. The gaming aspect isn’t appealing, but that doesn’t seem to matter to many readers. Hope to get to it in 2023
Ah, just think “work” – it could almost be any industry. But I do wonder about the bias that comes with “gaming” – My advice? (uh oh) Disrupt, confront and analyze those biases! 😉
This is on my TBR so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it so much even if there wasn’t much pie in it. And happy you liked that link! 🙂
This is on my list! Glad you enjoyed it so much.
Care, I gave this five slices of pie, too!