Play Book Tag discussion

This is one of those books that based mostly on a quick glance at the book's blurb and the very colorful cover had me thinking it's going to be a light entertaining read, meaning I was initially disappointed as it doesn't exactly start off all light and amusing. Fortunately, the characters evolve and the story builds slowly and steadily, settling into your heart before too long. It's quite an impressive debut novel. While I wouldn't categorize it as light, I would definitely call it entertaining and often enough humorous.

The main characters are the elderly Mukash, a lonely, still grieving, widower who is struggling to connect with others, especially with his granddaughter who loves to read, and Aleisha, a 17 year old girl whose obligations to family have created an isolating burden on her young shoulders. These are two lonely souls. Neither is a reader either.

There is an actual Reading List that Aleisha finds one day in a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird of a selection of classics, the first book on the list being the one in which the list was found. Mukash finds a forgotten library book that his wife was reading before she died, The Time Traveller's Wife. It is through these finds, which they each elect to read, that Mukash and Aleisha that leads them to meet, form a friendship over books that ultimately leads both of them out of the stasis in their lives, ones enriched by friendship and reading.

It's hard to say much more without giving away the plot. Let's just say you encounter humor, kindness, loss, tragedy, heartbreak, and most of all friendship. There's also camaraderie, good food, and books, lots and lots about the books from the Reading List whose plots and characters serve as a frame for the story. I was personally particularly thrilled to see A Suitable Boy as one of the books. It fit in perfectly.

The Reading List itself is a full character, whose journey and even creation is at the core of the story, one revealed gradually, in a very satisfying way. Each book also becomes a full character, each book also providing to Mukash and Aleisha something important at the moment it was being read. In the afterward, the author provides a list of books that served that function in her own life. Has me contemplating what books I would put on such a list. First one that pops into my mind is Persuasion. Will I make my own reading list to share with a 'just in case you need it' heading? Maybe.

I actually have read just about all the books on the list and in fact, how the characters individually reacted to the one or two I have not previously read has me deciding they need to move to the top of the TBR.

Steeplechase - slice of life 11x
BWF - letter R - Europe 17x

I remember having a conversation with you about this book as I was reading or shortly after and that you read A Suitable Boy shortly after I finished this book.

I really loved this book.

Booknblues wrote: "I remember having a conversation with you about this book as I was reading or shortly after and that you read A Suitable Boy shortly after I finished this book.

I really loved this book."

I remembered having the conversation but didn't remember it was about this book, which has been in my Nook ebook TBR Tower for a long time. I read A Suitable Boy in December 2021.

I read The Reading List in December 2021!
I just double checked and it made my top 10 for that year.

I haven't taken the plunge and read A Suitable Boy yet.

Oh, it's a wonderful historical soap opera of a family drama wallow! Total page turner and for sure one of my favorite all time reads.

I think it would make a great summer read.

I really loved this book too. It led to a great book club discussion.

I also liked how she wove the importance of libraries to a community into the story.

My F2F book club discussed this in the last couple of years.

I think this would be a fabulous book club book.

My F2F book group also read this and we had a great discussion. It hit all the right places for book lovers.

I really like this one. Although the plot is obviously very different, it made me think of Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows as I was reading it.

This was one of my favorites last year.

Glad to see you enjoyed this one too, Theresa. I think friendship over books is something we practice here!

Hannah wrote: "I really like this one. Although the plot is obviously very different, it made me think of Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows as I was reading it."

Yes! I can see that!