Helpful Score: 2
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams broke my heart and then mended it in the best possible way. I'm thankful the many glowing review and comments on Bookstagram encouraged me to read this amazing debut sooner than later. Trigger warnings: Depression, suicide.
The Reading List is a tribute to the power of novels and the importance of libraries and is full of bookish goodness, familial love, found family, and a mystery. The story was partly inspired by the author's grandfather who found a connection with his granddaughter through books. Through a found list of eight book titles, readers follow the "birth" of two avid readers who are in very different circumstances: Aleisha, a 17-year-old girl who struggles to find any setting where she feels "at home" and Mukesh, an older widower who is mourning the death of his beloved wife.
Supporting characters include Mukesh's three "helpful" daughters, his adorable book-obsessed granddaughter, Aleisha's mother who is struggling with depression, and her older brother who assumes the primary caregiving and home management roles in the absence of their father.
I enjoyed the audiobook which is narrated by Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting whose accents perfectly reflect the British and Indian ethnic origins of the characters. To fully appreciate the text, I slowed the speed to 1.0 which was delightful to savor the author's emotion-filled prose.
I haven't read many of the titles on The Reading List, but it's now a bucket list goal to do so.
The Reading List is a tribute to the power of novels and the importance of libraries and is full of bookish goodness, familial love, found family, and a mystery. The story was partly inspired by the author's grandfather who found a connection with his granddaughter through books. Through a found list of eight book titles, readers follow the "birth" of two avid readers who are in very different circumstances: Aleisha, a 17-year-old girl who struggles to find any setting where she feels "at home" and Mukesh, an older widower who is mourning the death of his beloved wife.
Supporting characters include Mukesh's three "helpful" daughters, his adorable book-obsessed granddaughter, Aleisha's mother who is struggling with depression, and her older brother who assumes the primary caregiving and home management roles in the absence of their father.
I enjoyed the audiobook which is narrated by Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting whose accents perfectly reflect the British and Indian ethnic origins of the characters. To fully appreciate the text, I slowed the speed to 1.0 which was delightful to savor the author's emotion-filled prose.
I haven't read many of the titles on The Reading List, but it's now a bucket list goal to do so.
Helpful Score: 1
This one started out very strong. There are a lot of delightful moments in this story. The two main characters are fully developed and engaging. Mukesh is a joy and he made me smile quite a lot. The love of reading, and how reading can shape a life, pours through. I appreciated the passion for reading that is expressed in this book. It was interesting to read how each book on The Reading List impacted the different characters in different ways.
The reasons I give it 4 stars instead of a higher rating is that there is one element of the story that is left vague and unexplored regarding our main character's brother. I won't say more than that as to not spoil anything. Also, the emotional impact of the flashbacks with tertiary characters is not as strong as it could be.
Overall, an enjoyable read.
The reasons I give it 4 stars instead of a higher rating is that there is one element of the story that is left vague and unexplored regarding our main character's brother. I won't say more than that as to not spoil anything. Also, the emotional impact of the flashbacks with tertiary characters is not as strong as it could be.
Overall, an enjoyable read.
Helpful Score: 1
Sometimes you read recurring hype about a particular book and you think to yourself, "It sounds good, but I've been burned more than once by reading over-publicized books. Maybe I'll read it. One of these days." Then sometimes a certain book keeps appearing on your radar, and you actually hear its siren call, a call that really has nothing to do with hype or publicity, and you know you should read it. That's what happened to me when I kept hearing praise of Sara Nisha Adams' The Reading List. That little inner voice of mine said, "Read this one now."
What made this book different? Number one, I've been compiling reading lists almost from the time I learned how to write. Number two, I had to know what books were on this particular list. Three, when I learned that the book was about how certain books can change your life, I was all in for I, too, have read transformative books. Reading the right book at the right time is powerful. It can change the way you see things. It can shine a spotlight on the dark gnarled knot of a problem and help you see the solution. It can help you to understand and to empathize with other people.
All this and more happens to Aleisha and Mukesh in The Reading List. Aleisha and her brother Aidan are trapped in a nightmarish situation with their mentally fragile mother. Mukesh is mourning the death of his beloved wife and has three overbearing daughters who make him wish he'd lost his hearing first instead of getting a collection of aching joints that don't want to work properly. Mukesh's wife was a voracious reader. So is his granddaughter Priya. In order to have a better relationship with Priya, Mukesh decides to go to his local library where he meets the initially boorish Aleisha. It takes a while, but the magic finally does happen.
Watching the friendship of these two very different people blossom through reading the books on a list is wonderful. It brought back so many memories of my own. Of growing up in a village library where my mother was the librarian and I was allowed to help. Of sitting in the back at the table to do my homework and listening to the patrons who came in to check out both the newest books and the latest gossip. And of reading in the quiet and being transported by one book after another-- reading of wonderful places to visit when I grew up, reading of fictional characters who became family for a rather lonely only child, and of learning to observe and to understand more and more of the world and the people around me.
There are moments in The Reading List that made me laugh. There are moments that made me cry. If you're a reader, you need to read this book. If you're not a reader, I won't ask why you're reading this review, I'll just hope that you crack open a copy of The Reading List, and maybe... just maybe... you'll see the light and join the rest of us on our journeys.
What made this book different? Number one, I've been compiling reading lists almost from the time I learned how to write. Number two, I had to know what books were on this particular list. Three, when I learned that the book was about how certain books can change your life, I was all in for I, too, have read transformative books. Reading the right book at the right time is powerful. It can change the way you see things. It can shine a spotlight on the dark gnarled knot of a problem and help you see the solution. It can help you to understand and to empathize with other people.
All this and more happens to Aleisha and Mukesh in The Reading List. Aleisha and her brother Aidan are trapped in a nightmarish situation with their mentally fragile mother. Mukesh is mourning the death of his beloved wife and has three overbearing daughters who make him wish he'd lost his hearing first instead of getting a collection of aching joints that don't want to work properly. Mukesh's wife was a voracious reader. So is his granddaughter Priya. In order to have a better relationship with Priya, Mukesh decides to go to his local library where he meets the initially boorish Aleisha. It takes a while, but the magic finally does happen.
Watching the friendship of these two very different people blossom through reading the books on a list is wonderful. It brought back so many memories of my own. Of growing up in a village library where my mother was the librarian and I was allowed to help. Of sitting in the back at the table to do my homework and listening to the patrons who came in to check out both the newest books and the latest gossip. And of reading in the quiet and being transported by one book after another-- reading of wonderful places to visit when I grew up, reading of fictional characters who became family for a rather lonely only child, and of learning to observe and to understand more and more of the world and the people around me.
There are moments in The Reading List that made me laugh. There are moments that made me cry. If you're a reader, you need to read this book. If you're not a reader, I won't ask why you're reading this review, I'll just hope that you crack open a copy of The Reading List, and maybe... just maybe... you'll see the light and join the rest of us on our journeys.
