So I've Taken Up Smoking

 Just kidding. I would never. 

 But that is the title of the latest book I've read. Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney is a little (under 300 pages) book about a young girl coming of age and figuring out herself in NYC, of all places. 

A debut novel, Sweeney takes us up to Crab Island, Maine where Miranda's mother has disappeared (and presumed dead) and her dad is so caught up in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses that he often forgets himself and Miranda. Mr. Blackwell is a local jack of all trades fisherman who takes Miranda under his wing, including braiding her hair for her, teaching her about boats, and making sure she goes to school. Where would Miranda have ended up without Mr. Blackwell?

As she gets older, she's more awkward around people and chooses to forget to take the college exam. She has no real purpose in life and no one seems to be concerned about that. Except Mr. Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell and Miranda's dad had a fight so Mr. Blackwell has been absent from Miranda's life. But he's still looking out for her. He offers her a job with him after High School is over. When she tells her father, he suddenly gets her a job typing in NYC with two of his friends, Robert and Walter. Off she goes to New York.

Miranda is a tentative person, a bit backwards due to her upbringing, but determined to see New York. For someone so awkward, she makes friends with Ana, the coffee cart lady and Nate, teacher at the Institute with Robert and Walter. As Miranda tries to figure out who she is, who her dad was, and why she's stalled in life, her friendships take on greater meaning. Finding out who her dad really was from Robert and Walter makes her see him in a whole new light.

This was a sweet novel, and a quick read to boot. The writing is so well done, descriptive and beautiful, you'll end up re-reading passages over just to savor them.