BOOK - BE FRANK WITH ME by JULIA CLAIBORNE JOHNSON (2016) (NO SPOILERS)

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5! 

BE FRANK WITH ME is DELIGHTFUL. It may have particularly resonated with me because I visualized FRANK (the main character) who is apparently "on the spectrum" as a replica of SHELDON in YOUNG SHELDON, one of my favorite half-hour TV shows. If you've watched THE BIG BANG THEORY, the main character is SHELDON as a grown-up.

It's the FICTION BOOK CLUB pick for later this month at our local Independent Bookstore. I love the books they choose since most are ones I've either not heard of or would not necessarily choose for myself. It won the AUDIE AWARD FOR BEST FEMALE NARRATOR (2017). 

Anyway, IT WAS TIME for some LIGHT READING and this book "hit the spot". Only 287 pages, made it a breeze to read through and easy to pick up each day. 

Each of the characters (there are only 4) was quite well-developed. 

• FRANK - a 9-year old boy
• MIMI - Frank's mother - a writer
• ALICE - (the NARRATOR) - MIMI's Assistant to watch over FRANK
• XANDER - their handsome and charming "handyman"

I felt sorry for FRANK because of the bullying by his peers, yet I LOVED his creativity, his "reasonings" and his mind's ability to store ZILLIONS of FACTS.

I won't tell you any more - READ this for yourself and let me know how much YOU enjoyed it.

Here are just a few quotes to entice you.......

Pg 12

     I reread Pitched as coursework in Twentieth-Century Lit when I was a junior in college, soon after my mother died unexpectedly of undiagnosed heart disease. It was a different book to me then. That time it tore me apart. I confessed in class that I'd cried my eyes out when I finished.

     "You realize now," my professor commented drily, "that youth isn't wasted on the young. Literature is."

Pg 180

     "It must be exhausting to be so sure of yourself all the time," Mimi said. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, Alice. Being perfect doesn't make people love you."

Pg 181

     I know from my time in New York that anger can be an exhilarating tonic that lifts some people over life's rough patches. 

Pg 206

     "So when I change my clothes, do I do it in a phone booth?" Frank asked. 

     "Nope. Backseat of the station wagon. We won't look."

     "Good. Phone booths are hard to find these days......"

Pg 279 - Frank helping Alice after she fell down 2 steps - scraped her knees

     "I'll get the Band-Aids from your purse," Frank said. By then the kid was as familiar with the contents of it as I was. Then he instructed me to sit on the toilet while he took off my shoes and socks. He held my hand while I stepped into the tub and sat down on its edge. "For once it's a good thing you were wearing shorts, Alice," he said. "Because if you'd had on long pants, they'd be torn all to pieces. That would have been bad. Pants don't heal the way skin does."

JOAN