What I’m Reading: The Fifth Avenue Story Society

Everyone has a story. From the time we’re little, we think about what future chapters of our story will be like. Remember the game M*A*S*H? No, not the television show, though I’m a fan of that too. The game.

I believe the letters stood for Mansion, Apartment, Shack, and House. In addition to those stellar choices, names of people you would marry, what job or car you’d have, or how many children you’d give birth to were added to the paper before you determined the number you’d use to cross out items. You’d work through the list, marking off options until only one remained in each category. Voila. You instantly knew what kind of life you were destined to enjoy.

I don’t know about you, but my life turned out nothing like any M*A*S*H game I ever played. Consequences of choices, some my own and some of those around me, created a life I never imagined. I’ve had some really great things happen, and I’ve had to face really painful things through the years. God’s worked in me through the good and the bad, and He’s used each circumstance to write my story in ways I couldn’t have foreseen.

Seeing our story develop can be beautiful and frustrating and exciting all wrapped up in one. The Fifth Avenue Story Society by Rachel Hauck does a wonderful job capturing all these feelings as she shares the story of her characters’ lives.

Brought together by a mysterious invitation, five strangers. No, three strangers and two exes, gather in a private library room every Monday night to share food and try to figure out why they were chosen as part of the society. As they spend time together, they slowly share parts of their stories with the other members keeping the whole story only for themselves.

Growing friendship leads to sharing of their lives outside the society and challenges each one to look at the true story they’ve written for their lives to that point, how it differs from the story they tell, and what they want to write for their futures.

The Fifth Avenue Story Society seamlessly weaves the individual stories of Lexa, Jett, Chuck, Ed, and Coral into one. It leaves readers considering their own stories, and shows us that our tales are also intertwined with those of the people we meet. And it doesn’t forget to remind us who the real author of our stories should be.

https://www.amazon.com/The-Fifth-Avenue-Story-Society/dp/B07TVF4K4D/ref