The Library at the Edge of the World

Probably 3 and a half, but I rounded up.

Initially, I was frustrated with this book because there wasn't enough library in it. Having the word Library in the title (and that I'm a librarian) was one of the reasons I picked this up. Books about libraries, book stores, and books almost always delight me. About halfway through, though, I decided this needed more library and nearly quite reading. Last year I quit watching The Walking Dead because there aren't enough zombies. If you're going to advertise yourself as something then follow through. Anyway, I read on and the library definitely has a role to play in the second half. If you're looking for quirky library stories and mishaps though, that's not this book; try Ian Sansom.

This is a show more very Irish story set very much in its locale with its people trying to boost their local economy while saving their sense of place and community. That's its main redeeming quality. Ultimately, I did enjoy the book though it's a bit more Maeve Binchy than my typical fair. There are also a lot of characters to keep straight. I could have used a list of characters at the front. By the end, though, I knew most of them...and that's part of the fun. show less

Hanna Casey returned home to the west of Ireland, daughter Jasmine in tow, after finding her English husband, barrister Malcolm Turner, in bed with another woman. Jasmine is now finished school and working as a flight attendant, and Hanna is alone with her controlling, negative mother in her mother's bungalow. Hanna is the librarian at the Lissbeg Library, running that branch of the county library system, and driving a bookmobile around the area two days a week. And in her quest for a more peaceful, satisfying life, she's set her sights on renovating the decaying cottage that she inherited from her great-aunt, Maggie Cassey. Then she learns of a plan to reorganize county services--and eliminate her job.

This is a book filled with show more interesting, quirky, often difficult characters, most of whom have their good points, who are often in conflict even when they're working toward the same end. Hanna has spent the last few years being cool and withdrawn, and now everything she cares about accomplishing will force her to step out of herself and form friendships and alliances. Her assistant at the library, Connor, sends her a builder, Fury O'Shea. Fury is high-handed, difficult, keeps his phone turned off, and brings his little terrier, called "the Divil," with him everywhere. He's also, she slowly realizes, the only one who will do justice to Maggie's cottage and her hopes for it. A library user conducting a systematic search for one particular book of which he recalls only that there's a dog on the cover, turns up a valuable old book, the garden book from the nearby convent--which is now down to just two nuns, one of whom is in seriously declining health. This leads to a meeting with the other nun, Sister Michael, which in turn leads t a plan to restore the convent garden.

This becomes the core of an undercover organizing effort to build a plan to replace the county's reorganization plan with one better suited to serve the entire county, not just the two towns that are the two major tourist destinations. The sandwich shop near the library has graphic design skills. A friend of Connor's has web design and programming skills. A retired man who loves to bake starts baking sweets for the sandwich shop. A retired road engineer becomes the head of a subcommittee working on a piece of the proposal that will address the bad roads in the area. Fishermen in one of the tourist towns hear that this group doesn't like the proposed new marina--and show up to explain how bad the marina will be for the professional fishermen, who will lose the pier they rely on while the cruise ships do real damage to the marine life in the area.

It's one unexpected connection after another, true community organizing, and a wonderful interplay of personalities. This is an absorbing and satisfying story.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. show less

After her marriage ended, Hanna moved from London with her teenage daughter Jazz back to a tiny town in Ireland on Finfarran peninsula at the "edge of the world." She's fifty, unhappy, still living with her mother Mary, and working at the local library. Hanna decides to refurbish the cottage her great-aunt left to her, and meanwhile gets reluctantly drawn in to local politics when the livelihoods of many in her small town are threatened by the council's grand plans.

I love charming, small town novels with quirky characters and was fully prepared to love this story and Hanna's driving the library van to all the outlying villages in the peninsula while renovating her new place. But the first turn off for me is that Hanna's a terrible show more librarian, taciturn and gruff, keeping the place quiet and pristine and not even wanting her library assistant to start a book club! Her general life attitude irritated me as well, as she's pretty standoffish with the rest of the town and wallows in her "woe is me my life didn't turn out the way I wanted" far too long for my taste. The story tries to do a little too much, and turns in perspective so we sometimes get her mother Mary, Jazz, and other points of view occasionally throughout. Jazz was my favorite character, smarter and more resilient than her mother gives her credit for. The small town charm wasn't quite enough to make up for the flaws. show less

The Library At The Edge of the World is situated in rural Ireland and is a quiet, gentle story of a small town librarian who, as she learns to accept herself and enjoy her life, also learns the value of being part of a community and helping each other.

Hanna Casey is 51 years old, divorced and has settled into a job that seems to be leading nowhere. After discovering that her husband was cheating on her, she and her daughter left London and moved in with her mother who lives in the small town of Lissberg on the Finfarran Peninsula. Now, with her daughter launched into the world, she feels it is time to get away from her mother and move into a home of her own. It isn’t until she learns that the local council is planning on making major show more changes to the area, changes that would indeed impact on her and the library, that she also learns to become involved with the community. This involvement adds to the quality of her life and brings home a few home truths about herself, giving her a new outlook on life.

I enjoyed this story with it’s small town atmosphere and various personalities. The Library At the Edge of the World is deceptively simple, stressing the importance of family, simple values, and engaging with one’s surroundings in a positive way. While I thought the ending was a little contrived, this was a good, relaxing read. show less

The first word that comes into my head when I recall this book (which I only just now finished) is lovely. It is a lovely story, through and through. Hanna Casey is a librarian and a sourpuss. She has returned some years earlier to her native home in Ireland after years in London, married and raising a daughter. Her return is precipitated by a divorce, which partially explains her lingering bitterness. The perspective of this novel switches seamlessly between Hanna, the main voice, and a few supporting characters, as Hanna has to put aside her gruff exterior and work to mobilize her community, which is facing a life-altering change. Of course the setting and the story are near and dear to my heart. I’ve never been a small town show more librarian, but the descriptions here make me wish I could be, despite Hanna’s discontent. I do know the reality of trying to explain to non-believers the value of the library, and I admire the struggle put up by these downtrodden but resilient folks. Finfarran is an imaginary place, but the author brings it to vivid life. I can hardly wait to visit again. show less

I really wanted to like this book (bookish people and a library to be saved, what's not to like), but I found it to be a slow read. There weren't any characters that I liked (which is normally not a problem), but I simply couldn't get involved in their plight or invested in the storyline as a result. It wasn't a bad read, but simply one that didn't work for me.

My rating of this book might not quite be fair; it probably deserves a higher rating, but this is one of those books that left me floundering a bit. I got the story I was expecting based on the back cover, but not the atmosphere.

Hanna Casey is not a likeable MC; she's bitter and not really very strong. She made it hard for me to want good things to happen for her, although I never actively disliked her. She seemed to recognise how hateful she was being, but never really did much to correct it. And she's a terrible librarian. Her mother is so. much. worse. At no point did I find her sympathetic, although I suspect I was meant to. Truly, her mother was awful.

But boy did I fall in love with the Finfarrin community the author created. This show more story is timely, I think, as at its heart it's a story about a community taking itself back and actually becoming a community again. Hanna's the catalyst, but really the story didn't come alive for me until it stopped being so much about her and more about Finfarrin.

It's a slow paced, well-written story with a happy, hopeful ending, just without the happy, upbeat tone. Nobody is plucky in this book. That's ok, it's probably better for it; it's just different from what I was expecting and that's likely reflected in my rating. show less