A Million Little Pieces

Yes, Modern Girl is heading to book club again...this month we read James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, which, by the way, should be required reading for, well, everyone.

Stark, raw and anything but sugar-coated, Frey's account of pulling himself up from a life hovering so desperately close to death brings the sheer torment of addiction to light in a way that veritably transcends his own words. In so doing, Frey gives readers what amounts to a guided tour of the infinite black hole that - whether we care to admit it or not - lies latent in the soul of every human being. He is, as it turns out, one of the few people brave enough to take us there -- leaving us, for a while, to ponder the contrived nature of our own behavioral tenets, not to mention their immutability.

Beyond all that, however, A Million Little Pieces is also one of those books that holds you transfixed from the first word to the last, leaving you more than a little sorry to have reached the end. Luckily, he's just released a follow-up, My Friend Leonard.

p.s. Oprah hit it out of the park when she chose this for her own book club. Check out interviews, Q & A and Frey's appearance on Oprah here.