'Ive always thought it's wrong to judge books or people blindly',says Sara,our protagonist and I couldnt agree more.
So here I am again and this time its.......
A book about books!!!!Who can resist that?!
Any book with books on the cover grabs my attention and when I saw this one,I wanted to start reading it immediately.Such was the allure!
I am so thankful to NetGalley and the publishers,Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a copy.
This story is about Sara Lindquist, from Sweden who corresponds with an elderly American woman Amy Harris from Broken Wheel,Iowa,through letters and book exchanges.Sara is a bookaholic and has two thousand books but just three friends,so when the bookshop where she worked in Sweden closes down,Sara decides to travel to Broken Wheel to go meet Amy,a kindred spirit.However she arrives only to learn that Amy had been ailing and has just passed away.The townspeople insist she stay at Amy's house and refuse to let her pay for anything.In a bid to repay their kindness,Sara decides to do what she does best,she opens a bookstore with Amy's books.Does she succeed in unleashing the magic of books in Broken Wheel?And does her brief vacation lead her to finally believe in exciting possibilities and real-life fairy tales?
My Views
So what is this book really about?
A)A book-lovers refuge
B)An escape from reality
C)A heart-warming story (i hate the word chicklit.....wait is that even a word?! :-/)
D)All of the above.
I think it was more of A) and B) and a bit of C) which points to D) as the correct answer.What I liked most about this book was that it spoke about the power and magic of Books.It makes us believe (however briefly it might be) that as long as you have books and money nothing could be a catastrophe :)I came across so many loved and read titles ,right from Stieg Larsson,Georgette Heyer,Dan Brown,Helen Fielding to Fitzgerald,Twain,Dostoyevsky and Marquez.Sara's opinions about most of them got a smile on my face.
Isnt it true that life does follow certain set patterns in books,you can be whoever you want,wherever you want!Books are the perfect excuse to do nothing,make no decisions.I loved Sara when she spoke about books and I could understand the way she felt about them.
She feels the same way as I did about school libraries too,we both think they are -Uninspiring!Twenty copies of the same book,as though everyone should be reading the same thing :( Took me back to my school days when I used to stroll through the school library ,looking at all the wonderful titles,I was never allowed access to.I could only stand and look at the locked cabinets.Yes thats how it was like in those days at my school.I could only dream about what was in those books until I started making my own library.
There was a story though,amidst all this talk about books,which was just about nice.But it was compelling enough to read till the end.The townsfolk are whimsical,funny -at -times characters with issues of their own and though it dragged a bit,there was a healthy dose of book talk to compensate for it.
It was heartening to see them read the books they did.George,a recovered alcoholic takes a fancy to Bridget Jones and the Shopoholic series!A little girl who loves dragons finds a book about them.The face of the town changes with the new bookstore and it does succeed in transporting one to Broken Wheel with its old-world charm for a brief time and one likes being there.
It is a feel-good book and I expected nothing less.
Besides it just reiterates what I always say 'Theres a person for every book and a book for every person'.
I rate it a 4 out of 5.
