Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane

RULES FOR VISITING by Jessica Francis Kane starts slowly as readers meet May Attaway, a woman who has just turned forty and works as a gardener at the local university.  She lives with her father and names her possessions – Grendel for the suitcase, Bonnie for the car, for example. May muses frequently about others and the qualities of neighbors and friends, saying, “there are ironies everywhere [that] the world does not allow you to talk about even half as much as you’d like.” Generally happy with her life in the outdoors, she has to decide how to use a month’s leave and chooses to visit four friends because, as she says, “I was interested in figuring out who I was with other people and why that person was hard to be.” The ensuing adventures include many lists of wry observations and references to literature, culminating in May’s own numbered list of rules for visiting: “Do not arrive telling stories about the difficulty of the trip; always bring a gift . . . and send a thank-you.”  RULES FOR VISITING received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. Select this title if you are in the mood for a gentle, contemplative read featuring a quirky heroine.