“The Reading List” - Sara Nisha Adams

 

📚 tl;dr read this book!

📚 I stayed up way too late with this one and it’s not even a thriller! TRL will resonate with passionate readers and lovers of libraries in the most wonderful way. It’s full of characters that are relatable and lovable, each with their own quirks and battling demons as disparate as grief, loneliness, mental health struggles, and finding ones purpose in life.

📚 Of all the many things I loved about TRL, my favorite is that the reader’s relationship with Aleisha develops alongside Mukesh’s.

📚 Adams arranges chapters by book title, and alternates between the POV of different characters. The narrative centers on a mysterious reading list that connects characters and plot lines, and influences the lives of these Wembley residents. 

Here, the library is a safe space for community members - some of whom don’t even realize how much they need the comfort of books with worn pages as a refuge from life’s uncertainties.  Adams writes “re-reading these words in this order transports [the reader]” - recently, this was “The Moor’s Last Sigh” for me. In TRL, we bear witness as characters who already have our hearts, gain insight, solace, and companionship through these books.

📚TRL opens with Aidan facing inner turmoil while at the Harrow Road library. He is in possession of a stranger’s reading list. We don’t know whether he came by it by chance, or whether the stranger jotted it down expressly for Aidan who is obviously trying to lose himself in a book.

📚 TRL connects relationships of all types: familial, romantic, platonic. It was both gripping and incredibly touching. I thought the plot device of the reading list was charming, and the characters well-written. I highly recommend this book - it’s one of my favorites!