My book club chose The Measure (2022) by Nikki Erlick for our October 2025 read, and we had a great discussion! The premise is that one day, everyone who is older than 22 receives a box at their front door (later, you receive a box when you turn 22). On the box is an inscription that states “The measure of your life lies within.” Inside the box is a string–everyone’s is a different length, and as the world investigates the strings, you find out that it can predict how long you will live, down to a few weeks.
Almost immediately humans do what we do–and create divisions and a hierarchy based on the length of a person’s string. “Short-stringers” are seen as unstable and risk-taking, while it seems that those who don’t open their boxes because they don’t want to find out are in the minority. Some people use the strings for political gain, and others to do things they might not have done before, like become pregnant as a surrogate because they know they might not otherwise have the chance to have a child.
The story is told from the perspective of eight characters, each of whom have interactions with the others, with a variety of perspectives of mostly white Americans. (There are a couple of main characters who are not white.) There was a smattering of straight and queer couples, family members, and friend groups that formed. Relationships blossomed and failed because of the strings. I did enjoy it, and had no trouble following along with whose perspective we were in at any particular time, even though I listened to it.
It raised so many questions–would you want to know how long you have? Or would it be better to live your life without that knowledge, as humanity has always done? As a 20+ year breast cancer survivor, I probably would have enjoyed the first 2-3 years after diagnosis with a lot less anxiety if I had known I would be around to raise my daughter through college, but that might have changed my parenting style quite a bit, so maybe knowing might not have been best.
I thought The Measure was well worth reading, and would be an excellent choice for book groups. It was also completely weight-neutral.
Reading While Fat 