When Aleisha discovers a crumpled reading list tucked into a tattered library book, it sparks an extraordinary journey.
From timeless stories of love and friendship to an epic journey accross the Pacific Ocean with a boy and a tiger in a boat, the list opens a gateway to new and wonderful worlds – just when Aleisha needs an escape from her troubles at home.
And when widower Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha introduces him to the magic of the reading list. An anxious teenager and a lonely grandfather forming an unlikely book club of two.
I discovered this book through Twitter months ago, and the blurb just wouldn’t leave my head. I ended up asking my library to order it in for me so that I could find out if it really was as good as it sounds.
In many ways it was even better.
The Reading List did multiple things for me personally; It provided escapism, it made me smile and feel, and it inspired me to read ‘the reading list’ which this book focuses on.
To Kill A Mockingbird
Rebecca
The Kite Runner
Life Of Pi
Pride And Prejudice
Little Women
A Suitable Boy
Beloved
I suppose it is semi-criminal that I have never read Rebecca, or Little Women – so despite my never ending TBR, I am morally oblidged to add them. I am both excited and resigned to the fate of never actually finishing my TBR list, since books and book people only seem to add more treasures to the hoard.
Both Mukesh and Aleisha are likeable, realistic, flawed characters who bond together unexpectedly, recognising in each other a little of themselves, though they wouldn’t be caught admitting it to start with. The Reading List takes two non-readers through a journey of some of the best books ever written, and shows us how two people can both take the same message, or completely different messages, from the same books.
I absolutely adored this book, and the relationship that grows between the two of them and their families.It tackles some difficult topics around grief, bereavement and making changes in yourself, but it does so very well. Sara Nisha Adams wrote strong and relatable emotions into her book and they utterly transported me.
She also presents the reader with the magic of reading – the peek into other peoples worlds and minds, the way that characters can spring alive from the pages. I strongly suspect that most people who have found their way to a blog about books will recognise the joy and magic that she is describing, and I can only recommend this book in the strongest possible terms.
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