I’m liking it okay so far; it’s a bit patchy and occasionally a bit forced, but how could it not be, honestly. It’s making fun gym reading for me on the elliptical.

What a charming book about … an ordinary life. It’s earthy, calling out random observations about funny, little things like:

• The strongest memory of a retiring co-worker was his plucking a half-eaten tuna sandwich out of the garbage can… six years ago.
• The nurse preparing to draw blood saying You’ve got great veins. As if that was a legitimate compliment
• Contesting a parking tocket on the grounds of good karma.
• How one’s birthday is preceded by a day of anticipation mixed with dread; the actual birthday has many phone calls and “Happy Birthday” renditions; the day after everyone is ‘half as nice’ (by contrast), then you have 362 or 363 regular days

There are pictures of phone numbers squeezed into a torn printout, anecdotes of her dry cleaner, and serendipity with her word-of-the-day calendar.

I enjoyed it.