Ha! Here’s July’s book done, only a few days late.
This one is from my most recent book sale, back in November or December where I got a whole bag of books for $6. Admittedly there was not much on sale, so I think it ended up being $1 per book, but they were all hardcovers and fairly recent books.
We’ve already done one book from this sale–no, two, the blah mystery and the newer Mary Downing Hahn–so, hey, maybe I’ll actually get through all the books within a year of buying them. That would be the first time ever.
I am a sucker for books with book-related things in the title. Library of this or that, Book of something, etc. I don’t read a lot of contemporary books but I have this year, probably because they’re low stakes and feel-good, and this year sucks.
Title: The Library of Lost and Found
Author: Phaedra Patrick
Genre: Contemporary/general literature
Publication Year: 2019
Pros: Feel good-y
Cons: Predictable, some really awful characters
Also the cover copy made me believe there would be a mystery element to the story, and if there was meant to be, well, I figured it out REALLY EARLY and then that whole thing was lost.
The Library of Lost and Found follows Martha Storm, community do-gooder and library volunteer. Martha is a hard viewpoint character at the beginning of the book, because she’s such a pushover, ready to do anything to help someone out, and everyone else in her small town has figured this out and exploited it.
The book is told mostly in Martha’s point of view, though there are occasional chapters from her mother’s point of view in the past. These chapters always include a story Martha wrote as a child, which are nice and a key point in the book.
One night, after Martha has pushed all her stuff to the library from her house only to find the event she was hosting has been cancelled, she discovers someone has left a package for her on the library steps. (Also, I am not entirely clear on whether or not Martha works at the library in some capacity or just volunteers, and apparently none of the other reviewers on Goodreads are either. I’m pretty sure she just volunteers, because she talks about her parents leaving her some money and she keeps applying for jobs at said library. Which really makes the whole thing worse, with the being taken advantage of.)
The package ends up being a book of her stories from childhood, with a dedication to her from her grandmother, who died three years before said dedication. Or so she’d thought.
There’s not a lot of heavy lifting here. Family secrets are predictable. But it was easy and quick to read, and I mostly enjoyed the experience. And it is fun to watch Martha’s transformation.
If you need something feel-good to read and don’t mind not seeing anything new, I’d recommend this one.
Hope your August has started well, squiders. See you Thursday!
