Review: Be aware of wonder. Highly recommended!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2014
I really liked Everything I Know — and that's saying something after it had made me feel physically ill for the first few chapters. I'm a teacher myself and some things that happened in this story must certainly be every teacher's nightmare.I admire the way Josh Lanyon writes his characters so real, flawed and multidimensional. Some of them behave badly, almost unforgivably so, in this story. It's human to screw up, we all do it sometime, and it's such a blessing if you find a person who's still willing to care for you and give you another chance after he has seen you in your absolute worst behavior. I always enjoy witnessing how Josh Lanyon's characters fall, get up and grow during his books.There are lots of things that I loved about this story. I enjoyed the way the secondary characters were drawn sharp-eyed with colorful crayons. I especially loved Connor's friend and co-worker, Pip. I also adored the way Lanyon used the quote from Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten throughout the book. I thought that reflecting the story with that quote was brilliant. All in all the story left me pondering over some fundamental things about teaching, pedagogics, education and economy.But the main thought the book left me with is about taking chances. Maybe it's true that in the end we only regret the chances we didn't take? I wish I had as much courage as the main characters in this story have.A sweet, romantic novella with unexpected main couple? Maybe. For me this was so much more. I highly recommend it. Only — be aware of wonder.