About the Book:

Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane’s day that when Arthur doesn’t show up one morning, she’s instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.

Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden…and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur’s gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.

My Thoughts:

Rating: 5 stars

Why I chose it: It was on sale for five dollars, which is a terrific bargain for an audiobook, and I liked the idea of listening to a story about a book club. Books about books!

Themes: Friendship, loneliness, reading, books, libraries, books, books, and more books.

For fans of: Feel good fiction that focuses on finding friendships in unlikely places.

The good: This whole story was a delight. I’m not usually a fan of the ‘old curmudgeon’ (don’t get me started on A Man Called Ove), but Arthur grew on me and fortunately, the story was told from multiple perspectives, so there wasn’t an over doing of Arthur and his negativity and rudeness. Each of the characters were so different to each other and the narrator of the audio book did a wonderful job of capturing their voices. The book focus, as in, the actual book chat about the books the book club were reading, was divine. There’s a couple they read that I haven’t, which I now want to. I also really, really love books that deep dive into the wonder of reading and how impactful books can be on a person’s life. This was explored so well within this story and demonstrated beautifully in many ways.

The not so good: Honestly, I liked everything about this one.

In brief: When librarian Sloane risks her job to check on an elderly library patron who has failed to show up to the library at his usual time, she sets in motion a change to not only her own life, but to the lives of several others, all of whom end up forming a book club as a way of banding together to care for an elderly man who is alone in the world. As the story progresses, what becomes apparent, is that the kindness of strangers can move mountains when even just one person won’t take no for an answer. This one is a love story of a different kind, that of friendship, where age is no barrier and everyone, no matter their background, can bond over a common cause and a good book.