The Story Collector is a book in my favorite genre. The title was the first thing that interested me. I love things that relate to a library or books. The word story in the title and the picture on the front of the book both captured my interest. The second thing that made me perk up was the fact that the story was set in Ireland and had the customs of the Irish and some of their beliefs and the Gaelic language imbedded in the story. I am not Irish, but would have liked to be. I also appreciated the two parallel stories going on in the book. We see and understand the changing of the morals and customs that occur in a hundred year period. Anna is facing young adulthood and all the good and bad that it entails. Sarah is facing the grief process and becoming a women who starts to believe in herself. The story was totally believable to me, as any person's life can upend their intentions. I liked the fairy tales that wondered through the story and how different people needed more coaxing to tell their stories. Even when people were telling their stories, they were showing the culture of Ireland. I totally enjoyed The Last Bookshop, so I knew I'd love Evie Woods previous book. I'm looking forward to her next book.

I could not put this book down once I started reading it. The format of the 12 days in the long life of Issac was brilliant. It made me review my life and try to pick out the most pivotal points I would have included in a book like this. I particularly enjoyed the conversations of Agnus, Issac and Bo. It gave comic relief to the book and reinforced that our personalities do not change that much as we age and mature. It shows the complexities that life throws at us and how we need a core of people to help us through. Mr Yates was able to dial down to the emotions of his different days and show the reader how it affected Issac. I was rightly horrified with the USS Houston chapter and it stayed with me for a long time. I also liked the My Autobiography page at the end of the book so that I could go back to it and see the time line that Issac used and the exact dates. This book was a well written, thought provoking book that stays with the reader.