I did it again: two random books that on the surface couldn’t be more different, read back to back, and they go together like barbecue and Copper River Salmon.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was reading A Mountain of Crumbs. Throughout the book, author Elena Gorokhova recalls how she came to crave a chance to make her own decisions and a bigger life outside of the claustrophobia and pretending of the Soviet Union. The realization comes slowly, over time.

A delivery of another book came on Saturday and I picked it up to look at the front and back covers. And then made the mistake of reading chapter one. I finished it in the wee hours of Sunday. The book is Matched by Ally Condie, the first of three books about a girl named Cassia who discovers that a planned life, no matter how stress free, isn’t as good as a life of uncertainty that you make for yourself. The realization comes slowly, over time.

I did it again. A memoir of life behind the Iron Curtain. A dystopian novel for young adults. And they go together. Go figure. I have another 50 pages in the first book, and 6 months until the next book in the Matched series comes out (unless I can snag an advance readers copy — anyone? Bueller?). Next up is The Emperor of All Maladies, a biography of cancer. I’m thinking the chances of me chancing on another book that “goes” with that is slim. But you never know…