Review, Book

I had been meaning to pick up Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life for some time now. And, like most things that fall victim to my procrastinatory tendencies, I was quite happy to have finally acquired and read it.
Take your basic ordinary life. Chronicle various bits of it. Categorize those bits and arrange in encyclopedia form. That is the basic premise of the book, and on that level alone it would be interesting. And yet, in the midst of this well worn format, Rosenthal slips in the bones of a narrative, a story of family, love and occasional tragedy (or near misses) intermingling with the daily routine. In other words, the quintessential themes of life.
It's an easy read, but not in the simplistic sense. It's more along the lines of thinking, on just about every other page "I've done or seen or felt that." This allows Rosenthal to make an almost immediate and I daresay chummy connection with the reader, and from that point you just want to sit and devour the rest of the book.
Rating: Straight Flush.