Welcome again to Third Thursday Staff Recommendations! This still-new blog features staff member reviews of their favorite books. This month, Autumn K. shares a book she hopes you will read. Thank you, Autumn!
“I was an awesome cricket.”
Milo has lived 9,996 lives. He’s experienced life as a warrior’s son in Mesopotamia, an early colonizer of Mars, and, yes, even as a pretty awesome cricket.
Some lives were full of happiness, wealth, and cloudless skies; others held unending heartache and darkness. Even so, living is a heck of a ride. Why get off?
Michael Poore, author of Reincarnation Blues, explores the endless possibilities of being reborn and trying to get it right—whatever that means. Though Milo often makes the most of his lives—exploring sacrifice, suffering, moderation, intimacy, and knowledge—he hasn’t quite reached enlightenment. And he’s running out of time: Humans only have 10,000 tries to get it right before being thrown into nothingness.
Reincarnation Blues is a great novel for just about anyone, and you can’t say that about many books. The genres of fantasy, sci-fi, literary fiction, and history are all satisfied by at least one of Milo’s many lives, and romance is found between visits to Earth as Milo falls in love with Death herself—or Susie, as she prefers to be known. Nobody liked to be called Death.
Overall, this novel is a crazy and often hilarious ride through one man’s quest to understand the point of life. Give it a try. No, seriously—give it a try, because, honestly, I just really need to talk through the ending with someone.
You might also enjoy:
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore –
Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They’re even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie’s doing okay; until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.
It’s a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody’s gotta do it.
The O'Fallon Public Library News 