This book took me completely by surprise. I bought it as Audible’s deal of the day on a whim a while back, after quickly skimming the description. I like books about readers. That was pretty much all the thought I put into it. I think I decided to read it mainly because it was a lighter looking book that was close to the top of my library. So on two counts, I could just as easily not have discovered this book – or not until I heard others talking about it, at least.
It’s the story of two lonely people. The first is an older widower, Mukesh, who has just lost his wife – an avid reader. After she dies, he comes across the last library book she borrowed, and likely the last book she ever read. He’s never been much of a reader, and never really understood why his wife spent all her spare time reading. He much preferred to watch nature documentaries. But, missing her desperately, he decides to read the library book (The Time Traveller’s Wife) in an attempt to feel closer to her. And it turns out to be exactly what he needed. It not only connects with him deeply, but suddenly opens up a whole world of reading to him. He decides that he must return the book to the library, much as he wants to keep it, but that he also wants to try to find another book to read.
Never having been a reader or gone to the library, he doesn’t know how to navigate it – either in terms of locating books that might be like the one he just read, or knowing which to read. He goes to ask the librarian for help, which is where we meet the second main character.
Aleisha is a teenager who ended up working at the library because it was the best option available to her – but she’s not a reader. She doesn’t read for fun, she can’t recommend books and doesn’t really want to be nice to people. (How she ever got the job in a time when librarians are being made redundant and book lovers looking to work with books are desperate for opportunities beats the hell out of me, but I guess it was a necessary suspension of disbelief for the story to work.) So when an old guy comes and asks her if she’s read The Time Traveller’s Wife and if she can recommend to him another book he might like, she’s rude. She tells him she can look a book up for him if he has a title, but other than that he’s going to just have to go and look around. The interaction does not go well.
But from there, she does try to make amends. She comes across a reading list while searching for random items in books before returning them to the shelves, and decides maybe she’d like to try reading. She grabs the first book on the list – To Kill a Mockingbird – and ends up loving it. After initially being rebuffed rebuffed when she tried to approach Mukesh, she sticks with it and puts the book on hold for him, arranging to be there on the day he will come into the library to pick it up. When he does, she tries to tell him about the book, and convinces him to give it a try. He loves it, and when he brings it back he asks her for another recommendation, and their relationship starts there.
Through the two characters’ discovery of reading, we also get to meet other people in their lives. Two people in Aleisha’s family are also readers, and she’s able to slowly connect with one through her reading. Mukesh has a granddaughter who loves to read, and he begins to look for ways to connect with her through reading as well. We come to understand more about each person’s life, their background, the people who surround them, and how much they both needed someone who could show them kindness and caring. This aspect of the book I thought worked extremely well, and I was very invested in them by about the mid point of the book.
Of course disaster strikes, and the two characters have to navigate a difficult situation, one from the centre of it and the other from the outside trying to help. Things get dark, and there’s a chunk of the book I found quite difficult to read as it had a stifling feeling to it and made me feel a bit panicky. So trigger warnings should definitely be checked for this one if you have sensitivities. I won’t say how things end up because spoilers, but I will say I’m glad I didn’t give up on it and that I finished the whole book.
Is this book perfect? No. Some of the characters’ traits are overdone, some plot points (like the job as a librarian mentioned above) aren’t realistic, and a few things are a bit too tidy, but for (I think) a debut novel, this was definitely a great read. I’m glad to have read it, and it did hit the spot of what I was looking for when I decided to give it a try. It even inspired me to re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages! And, as you know, I just love reading about books and readers, so it was right up my street. Definitely one I’d recommend for anyone who also enjoys books about reading, a story that maybe requires suspension of disbelief, and maybe gets a bit dark, but mostly is a sweet, charming story of friendship and the power of books to bring people together. I’ll be interested to check out what Sara Nisha Adams writes next!
An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.
Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.
Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.
When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. – Goodreads
Book Title: The Reading List
Author: Sara Nisha Adams
Series: No
Edition: Hardback/Audiobook
Published By: William Morrow
Released: August 3, 2021
Genre: Fiction, Family, Mental Health, Isolation, Reading
Pages: 373
Date Read: July 17-19, 2022
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.07/5 (35,943 ratings)
We have this book in our Book Club at the moment and I can’t wait for it to be my turn to read it. It really does sound like a brilliant read and your review was lovely.
Have a good week ahead!
Elza Reads
Oh that’s quite a coincidence! I hope you enjoy it. I was glad to have read it, but I did go in without any expectations, so it wasn’t super hard to exceed them! I’ll check back and see if you review it once you’ve read it (or feel free to hop over here and link to your review once you’ve finished)! I hope you have a great week as well!