“When you look back on your own timeline, there’s a sharp spike somewhere along the way, some event that changed you, changed your life, more than the others. A moment that creates a ‘before’ and an ‘after.’”

Emma receives a phone call from her “dead” husband Jesse, informing her that he is alive and coming home. This is a life-changing moment for Emma, in the same way she once believed his death was. This quote not only highlights the gravity of the moment, but also sets up the central conflict of the novel: the love triangle between Emma, her husband Jesse, and her fiancé Sam.

“They said ‘Travel the World by Reading a Book.’ […] Whenever I picked one of them up, I would be struck by how perfectly they symbolized exactly what I resented about that bookstore. I was going to travel the world by actually traveling it.”

The bookmarks in Blair Books have remained unchanged since Emma’s great uncle’s time, and they symbolize all the things she is trying to escape. She does not want to be tied to Acton forever by her family’s expectations, with no room for change or exploration. The bookmarks, along with the bookstore itself, point to the theme of Identity Formation in the Face of Expectations.

“I couldn’t imagine what it was like to be him, to have something you were so passionate about that you actually needed to make yourself take a break from it. I didn’t have any particular passion. I just knew that it wasn’t  my family’s passion. It wasn’t books.”

Emma is amazed by Sam’s passion for music. At this point in her life, she does not feel as strongly about anything; however, her active distaste of books points to her determination to develop an identity independent of her family. Once again, this calls to the theme of Identity Formation in the Face of Expectations.