The Reading List

June 28, 2021
Adams’s winsome debut follows a widower who takes up reading in order to honor the memory of his wife. After Londoner Mukesh’s wife, Naina, dies, he picks up the book she was reading before she died, The Time-Traveler’s Wife, hoping “to turn the black letters and yellowed pages into a letter from Naina to him.” When he later returns the book to the library, he meets the restless and prickly 17-year-old library worker Aleisha, who reluctantly took the job after encouragement from her troubled older brother, also a bookworm. As time passes, Mukesh and Aleisha become good friends, with Mukesh and his granddaughter, Priya, joining in on a reading list Aleisha found tucked in a returned book, which includes such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, and Beloved. When the creator of the list is revealed, there isn’t much in the way of surprise, but it gains emotional resonance after Adams links the list to a late-breaking tragic event. Adams is a brisk and solid plotter, and has an easy hand with creating characters who are easy to root for. Readers will be charmed and touched. Agent: Hayley Steed, Madeleine Milburn Literary.

July 1, 2021
An aging widower and a lonely teenage girl form an unlikely friendship by bonding over books. Aleisha works at the Harrow Road Library in North London not for her love of books, but because she needs the money. When Mukesh, an older man who's recently lost his wife, visits the library seeking a book recommendation, Aleisha has little to offer. As he pushes for a suggestion, she becomes defensive, even rude. She regrets her behavior almost immediately, but she's more focused on difficulties in her home life, including her absentee father and her mentally fragile mother. Even so, when she stumbles on a handwritten reading list tucked into a just-returned book, she impulsively uses it as a way to apologize to Mukesh, recommending the first book, To Kill a Mockingbird. She also decides to read every book on the list herself, rationalizing that it will help pass the long days in the library. When Mukesh returns to tell Aleisha how much he enjoyed Mockingbird, they decide to create an impromptu book club. It seems this budding relationship is just the thing to save Mukesh from his continued grief over his late wife. Meanwhile, Aleisha begins relying on Mukesh as the only stable adult in her life. When Aleisha's family suffers a devastating event, Aleisha looks to Mukesh to help her pick up the pieces, but he's not sure he's the person she needs. Full of references to popular and classic novels, this debut focuses on reading as a means of processing and coping with challenging life events. The author deftly captures the quiet and listless vibe of ill-fated libraries everywhere. Told from the perspectives of both Aleisha and Mukesh, as well as a sampling of other characters, the story shows an insightful empathy for difficulties faced at divergent life stages. The author explores many difficult topics with grace, like mental illness, grief, abandonment, and self-doubt. Although the pace starts off slow, things pick up in the later pages and reach a satisfying conclusion. A quiet and thoughtful look into loneliness, community, and the benefits of reading--suited for true bibliophiles.

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July 1, 2021
A recommendation list of eight novels is making its way around the small town of Wembley in the UK, impacting the lives of Mukesh, a widower who never quite understood his wife's love of books, and Aleisha, a young library worker who feels trapped by both her job and family responsibilities. It also touches others in the community who weave in and out of the story, but nobody seems to know who the mysterious list writer is. This moving debut demonstrates the power of novels to provide comfort in the face of devastating loss and loneliness. After a rocky first encounter, Mukesh and Aleisha soon bond over the reading list, and between the messages each book has for them and despite their differences, they find the strength to meet their challenges head-on. The story shifts between the list's first appearance in 2017 and Aleisha and Mukesh's meeting in 2019, with relatable characters and a heartwarming tone throughout. Readers who enjoyed Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop will find themselves drawn in by this book.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 13, 2021

DEBUT London-based widower Mukesh grieves the loss of his wife Naina and passes his days in routine loneliness. Seventeen-year-old Aleisha is working in her local library for the summer, escaping the troubles at home and tamping down university anxiety. When Mukash visits the library to return a book for his late wife and hoping to use reading to connect with his young and alienated granddaughter Priya, Aleisha gives him a list of novels she discovered in a returned copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. As Aleisha, Mukash, and then Priya read through the list together, their lives open in surprising directions, demonstrating once again the enriching qualities of the novel. VERDICT This thoughtful and heartwarming debut joyfully joins Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Antoine Laurain's The Red Notebook, and Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop as yet another homage to the power of books and reading. An absolute delight to read, it will be catnip to book groups craving a story to remind them why we read and how very important libraries and book shops are.--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA

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