Little Fires Everywhere

​What’s it about? When the Richardson family of Shaker Heights, Ohio meets Mia Warren and her 15-year-old daughter Pearl- all their lives change dramatically.  The Richardson’s have always lived a life of comfort and privilege- that is until Mia arrives.  Mia is an artist whose way of life is completely opposite of the Richardsons.  The contrast of the two families is very illuminating! What did it make me think about? As many good novels do- this book makes you think about what actually makes a family.  Is it genetics?  Is it love?  Is it culture?  No easy answers in this book. Should I read it? If I had just received a gift card for the holidays then I might splurge on this novel.  I must admit to starting this book at the same time I picked up an 8 week-old puppy so I had to read it in little bits.  Usually this is the kiss of death for a book.  Somehow this novel survived, and more importantly it made me think.  What an interesting book this was to read over the holidays! Quote- “The girls he’s grown up with in Shaker- and the boys, too, for that matter- seemed so purposeful: they were so ambitious; they were so confidant; they were so certain about everything.  They were, he thought, a little like his sisters, and his mother: so convinced there was a right and a wrong to everything, so positive that they knew one from the other.  Pearl was smarter than any of them and yet she seemed comfortable with everything she didn’t know: she lingered comfortably in the gray spaces.”