Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton
#58 in my 2007 book challenge was Pretty Little Mistakes, by NPR’s Heather McElhatton. It’s a grown-up choose-your-own-adventure book. From the first page, the reader makes choices and follows each life story to one of 150 possible conclusions–homeless person, successful doctor, meth addict, and volcano researcher are just a few. My favorite ending involved a child with Down syndrome. That segment was lovely to read, but also interesting to consider in light of the choices that led there. Though a lark at first, the book is an exploration of free will vs. fate, with myriad imagined deities and afterlives (or lack thereof) thrown in for good measure. Not for those who want a complex main character and a linear plot, but entertaining and even at times provocative.