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Book details

Among other things, I've taken up smoking

by Aoibheann Sweeney

Published 2008257 pagesISBN 978-0-1431-1341-6

"Miranda's father has always seemed to her as elusive and impenetrable as the thick New England fog that surrounds their isolated home. Just after she was born, her parents moved from chaotic Manhattan to a tiny sea-misted island off the coast of Maine so that her father could work on his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses." "Not long after, her mother took the boat out, disappeared into the fog, and never came back. Miranda grew up in the lonely house on Crab Island caring for her brilliant but troubled father and sustaining herself with fantasies fueled by stories of ill-fated, lustful nymphs and vengeful gods that he read to her from his manuscript." "Serious and soulful, her only true friend was Mr. Blackwell - a fisherman who helped her father adjust to life on the island all those years ago, and whose relationship with him is - like so much else about her father - complicated and mysterious." "When Miranda graduates from high school, her father announces that he has arranged for her to travel to Manhattan to stay with friends from his old life, and Miranda embarks on a journey from one kind of island to another - a journey that will finally reveal the truth about her father's past and open up her world in ways she cannot begin to imagine."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, LGBTQ+. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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Full BookenDeX details

What the reading experience may hold

A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.

Themes to notice

Fiction · LGBTQ+

Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.

Content notes

No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.

Reading experience

Balanced tone · Steady pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.

ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.

No plot details

Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.

Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
Among other things, I've taken up smokingAoibheann Sweeney
Powerful4.4/5

This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.

Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read257 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 2008
Primary categoryFictionAlso cataloged under LGBTQ+
ISBN-13
978-0-1431-1341-6
Language
English
Edition record
OL26259939M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
  2. Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
  3. What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.