Aliza Fogelson

SO, in this #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo moment, why on *EARTH* pick up a privileged white lady's story of how Becoming A Mother and fulfilling the needs of her wacky New England neighbors for light reading and doing it all by herself dammit!!?

Because it was deeply silly and mostly fun and, while *extremely* not in step with the moment, I needed it right now. No, I don't have a lot of patience for Motherhood Completed Me stories. And she named her victim, I mean adoptee, TERABITHIA for show more fucksake, which is as cruel a piece of child abuse as anything I've ever heard! But Dodie's the kind of silly little child in a woman's body that would, in fact, feel that way.

That said, Dodie's actually kind of a cipher, not a fully-rounded character, simply moving the pieces of the plot from A to B then D after that L and screw all those other letters, they're probably Not Our Kind. It's set in 2008, which made Dodie the biblioholic's ignorance of ebooks puzzling. I think, though, that it was more ignoring not ignorance, so I got as far past that as I could. And her nesting instinct, her deep and ongoing self-criticism that she can not manage a busy life, wifehood, motherhood, the library, etc etc as effortlessly as she thinks she should be able to? Well, she's never a wife and no one made you a mother and let's face it, Muffin, no gold stars for Doing Your Best in this our life. Still, she feels these negative things about herself for no very good reason (abandonment issues can be overcome, Do, and it's not like someone in your place can't access the resources.)

Dodie's past as an "artist" in New York City was risible. As described, her art (based on her supposed friends' responses to it) wouldn't get her a Brookly café's wall-space, still less a reviewed show in a gallery. I don't think giving Dodie's sister a Black husband was all that relevant to the story; like giving Dodie herself a lesbian BFF, a soul-sibling whose death in the first part of the book leaves little apparent mark on her life. Just more window dressing, more piece of plot to make into plotsicles.

Oh, desserts! Yes, let's not forget one of today's most popular light-fiction tropes: Lots and lots and lots of sugary stuff described in lingering, sensual detail. This was, I admit without shame or blushes (he blushed shamefacedly), a big reason I kept going with the read. Well, that and the fact that I wanted Shep-the-love-interest's big secret to be he was a big ol' 'mo like all Dodie's buds back in Brooklyn were. The sort-of-stupid references to the male gaze that Dodie craves and invites in terms of desserts is less charming, though...and I am guilty of telling my Young Gentleman Caller that he's sweeter than condensed milk. (In his defense he mimes vomiting every time I do.)

Why would I recommend you read it? I would honestly say that it's an undemanding read that will, without meaning to or even wanting to, cause the least reflective among us to question our assumptions and the more Woke to examine our privilege, looking at how very, very deep it is from the outsider's vantage of an unchallenging-for-privileged-white-folks, like me, of an afternoon's read. show less

Thank you to NetGalley for this book. Upping it to 3.5 stars.

I really wanted to read this because of the library theme. It reminds me so much of my and other Little Free Libraries out there in the world but in a different type of setting which was Dodie's home, her sunroom to be exact when the library which is like her second home, closes for 2 years for renovations.

This book was so much more about books and her library. It was about love, adoption, death, family, and so much more. Her show more sisters Coco and Maddie were a hoot and all of her library friends who helped her out. show less

Nice, refreshing story of a kind hearted artist/teacher who turns part of her home into a library. She becomes a part of the lives of many people and learns what she really wants in life.

If you are looking for a clean romance with the sensibility of an Instagram influencer, this one is for you. It was not for me. And by clean, I mean that the most intimate experience our heroine has is not with loverboy but with her Moroccan rose oil shower gel. Not that kind of intimate, you have a dirty mind. It was just a really good shower.

One nit, a book that is all squee about books needs to get the titles right. The Romain Gary book is "The Promise at Dawn", not "The Promise of Dawn". show more Also, pumpkin rooibos tea? Really? show less