Trending
A couple of months ago, I wrote that I was eagerly waiting for Jimmy Fallon to begin his Book Club selection. In the past, and really, he's only done this twice before, Jimmy would talk about a different book each night, usually in July. On Friday, after the show aired, viewers could vote on Twitter for the book that they thought they wanted to read for the Fallon Book Club.
I don't have Twitter, but I wanted to see which books would be talked about and which book would be the big winner. Sometime in August, the author appeared and Jimmy interviewed them.
Not this year! This year, Jimmy Fallon's gone big. Jimmy's gone Oprah on us! He chose the book. And this year, his book club pick has an FBC sticker on it for Fallon Book Club.
Even though I would not have voted, I wanted the anticipation of reviewing the books. Of having a choice of books.
Oh well. This year's Fallon Book Club pick is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It's gotten rave reviews on Goodreads; most everyone on Goodreads loves it.
I'm going into it with an open mind. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a picky reader.
This is the story of Sadie and Sam, two young people who meet when they are kids in the late 1980s and bond over video games. The story spans about 30 years (well, it is 416 pages long!) and follows their lives as they fall in love, fall out of love, and have careers that involve gaming.
I'm interested in reading this book for two reasons. First, Gabrielle Zevin writes a few chapters of this book from a second-person point of view: you did this and you are doing that. Nobody writes like that, aside from the old Choose your own Adventure books that I read when I was a kid. She does this when she drops the reader and the characters into a video game world.
I'm not that far in the book just yet, so I don't know how this will be. I am in no way a gamer.
The other reason that I'm interested in this book is because Jimmy Fallon assures me that this book is a romance but also a thriller. I'm not holding onto too much hope that there's a murder mystery buried in here. But the thriller part may surround the history of gaming design and coding.
Gaming and technology is a cut-throat industry, or it was in the beginning. I'm hopeful that it shows a true account of what it is like for a female coder in the early days of gaming.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is the famous quote of Macbeth's from the play by Shakespeare. I'm curious to know if the title has some significance. The quote signifies a meaningless life.
The main concern I have is the 416 pages. The audiobook is 14 hours long! After 300 pages, I get bored. Especially if a book isn't holding my interest. But I am determined.
I'll let you know whether or not I like this book. Gabrielle Zevin will appear on the Tonight Show sometime in August.
•••
Susan Miriello is the Executive Director of the Mifflin County Library. She is currently reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.