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Two narrators, a male with an Indian accent for Mukesh, Sugar Arya, and a female with a British, Tara Divina, made these characters stand right out. Of course, the author made all the characters very real in her writing!

In the beginning of the book, characters find a reading list, each finds the same one. The two characters with the list that we follow closely are the widower Mukesh. He's still struggling a year after his beloved wife passed away from cancer. The other main character is Aleisha a 17-year-old on her summer break from school. She's found a job she feels just doesn't fit her very well, she works the desk in a small local library. She isn't even much of a reader but her brother, whom she loves deeply, encouraged her to take the position, it was always a favorite place of his. They work together to help their mother who is suffering a mental breakdown.

I loved the discussions (without spoilers) of the books, I loved the library and the need to save it from being closed. What can I say, I'm a retired librarian! Plus I loved the characters, they will stay with me. I'm happy to say that I read all but one of the books on the list but the way they affected the characters' lives, makes me what to read them again and I never re-read books because I have such a huge TBR.

I loved this book as well. I think it made my top 10 the year I read it.

Great review Barbara. I agree 100%. This book was a real surprise. There are a lot of light weight books with similar set-ups and I like them, but this one is in a whole other class. It has one big dark turn in the middle that I won't forget. It led to a powerful book club discussion. I think this might be the group's favorite read.

I really enjoyed their discussions too - they had such interesting insights about books that I loved or want to read.

This has been one of my favorite books this year.

I've recommended it to my DIL and her book club. My son tells me they've chosen some stinkers lately so I hope this clears that up!