Time To Fall In Love With Books

Reprinted from auburnpub.com

Time to Fall in Love With Books

Summer is officially over and now it’s the season to fall in love with books. This month’s Book Report takes us to three different eras from the past with books that have flown under the radar.

If you just can’t let go of summer, Suzanne Rindell’s sweet Summer Fridays will keep the summer vibe going. The novel takes place in 1999 New York City, when AOL was the hot thing. 

Sawyer works as an assistant at a publishing house and is planning a wedding to her live-in college boyfriend Charles who is beginning his career as a lawyer. She is not so much planning a wedding as allowing her future mother-in-law to completely take over the wedding planning.

Charles is working long hours with his attractive colleague Kendra. This doesn’t really bother Sawyer until Kendra’s boyfriend Nick sends her an email insinuating that Charles and Kendra are having an affair.

Nick and Sawyer strike up an online email friendship, which leads to Nick joining Sawyer on her summer Friday lunches in a local park. Sawyer and Nick have a platonic relationship, but could it be more? Does Sawyer have more in common with Nick than Charles? You’ll have to read Summer Fridays to find out. Fans of the movie You’ve Got Mail will be delighted.

I liked the New York City setting here, and the characters are interesting. I read Suzanne Rindell’s historical novel The Other Typist and loved it, and Summer Fridays is very different from that book but just as wonderful.

Madeline Martin takes the reader to WWII England in The Booklover’s Library. In Nottingham, England, Emma is a young widow with a seven year-old daughter Olivia. The war against Germany is just ramping up, and Emma is having a difficult time finding a job, as widows and married women are discouraged from working. 

While Emma is able to secure a position at the Booklover’s Library in a chemist shop, she must hide the fact that she has a child. They live in an apartment building, and we meet some of the other tenants, including a grumpy older man and an older widow who is willing to care for Olivia part-time.

As Germany begins to bomb England, a program begins where people are encouraged to send their children to the countryside becasue it is thought they will be safer from the bombing that is happening in the cities. 

Since Emma must work at her job to support herself and Olivia, she makes the difficult decision to send Olivia to the countryside to a family she doesn’t know. Olivia sends Emma letters begging to come home, and Emma struggles with the decision she made.

Martin does an incredible job putting readers in the shoes of Emma. As we read, we wonder what would we have done in Emma’s place. The author also paints such a vivid picture of life during war in England. 

The author did a great deal of research into the lending libraries found in chemists shops at this time. I was fascinated by Emma’s job and found myself wanting to learn even more about them than I found in the Author’s Notes at the end of the book. If you liked historical fiction, The Booklover’s Library is one you will definitely want to read.

For the Nonfiction fan, Scott G. Shea’s All the Leaves Are Brown shares the true story of the rise and fall of the 1960’s super group The Mamas and The Papas. 

Shea traces the beginnings of the group, starting with a detailed biography of the group’s leader and songwriter John Phillips. We follow John’s story from his childhood as the son of a military man, through his troubled teen years, and his love of music.

Along the way, John (who was already married) falls in love with a much younger Michelle Gilliam, and eventually they end up with Canadian folk singer Denny Doherty and the vivacious and amazing singer Cass Elliot to become the Mamas and the Papas.

Shea shares the ups and downs, the love triangles, the rampant drug use (that part just astonished me- so many drugs!), the talent, and the incredible music they made during the last part of the 1960s. The Monterey Pop Festival that John Phillips created with others is described in great detail and I found that very interesting. 

After reading All the Leaves Are Brown,  I immediately put on a Mamas and Papas playlist and wow, they were fantastic. This one is for fans of 1960’s music, Fleetwood Mac, and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six.

Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell- A

Published by Dutton

Trade paperback, $18, 432 pages

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin- A

Published by Hanover Square Press

Trade paperback, $18.99, 432 pages

All the Leaves Are Brown by Scott G. Shea- A-

Published by Backbeat

Hardcover, $32.95, 422 pages

The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin

The Booklover's Library by Madeleine Martin

Published by Hanover Square Press ISBN 978 13350000392

Trade paperback, $18.99, 432 pages

From the publisher:

In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.

When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

My thoughts:

I truly enjoyed Madeline Martin's Last Bookshop in London (my review here ) and so I was happy to hear that her newest novel  The Booklover's Library also has books at the heart of the story.

I had never heard of lending libraries located in a chemist shop in England. The system of A subscribers (who pay a higher subscription price and get first selection of the newest and better books) and B subscribers (who pay less and get the new books after the A subscribers have read them) intrigued me. I also found it fascinating that the library workers had to take a rigorous aptitude test. As I manage a used bookshop located in a branch of the New York Public Library, I was so involved in this part of the story.

As the story went on, I became very invested in Emma and her young daughter Olivia's story. As a widowed mother who had to work to support her child, Emma struggled with her decision to keep Olivia home with her in a city that may be targeted by German bombs or send her daughter off to the countryside with strangers and then with her estranged in-laws. I empathized with Emma and would not know what to do in that situation.

Fans of WWII historical fiction should definitely put The Booklover's Library on their To-Be-Read list. Martin clearly did her research (as she details in the Author's Note at the end) and she draws the reader in with her relatable characters and the situation they find themselves in. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2024 Blog Tours.