The Reading List

A book about books is always fun for a reader. There are a lot of “truisms” about books and reading that really resonated with me. However, a lot of the plot seemed forced to fit a theme the author wanted to explore in terms of a specific book on the list. The characters were very likeable so that helped in making the book more enjoyable. I appreciated the multicultural neighborhood and was saddened by the desperate situation inside one of the homes. No spoilers! If you are triggered by certain subjects, please review the warnings before diving in.

Mukesh to Aleisha Please try to remember that books aren’t always an escape; sometime books teach us things. They show us the world; they don’t hide it.

Digital audiobook performed by Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting
3.5***

Aleisha is a teen struggling with family issues and working a summer job in the library. Mukesh is an aging widower who still feels lost without his wife, despite his loving daughters and granddaughter. These two very different souls forge an unlikely alliance based on a reading list found tucked into a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird.

This is a very good debut for Adams. The characters are complex and have a variety of issues. On the surface one wouldn’t expect them to have anything in common or to be able to relate to one another at all. But Adams brings them together, first by happenstance, and slowly by shared experiences and their individuals needs for show more human connection.

My heart went out to Aleisha, whose mother suffers from clinical depression and who is shouldering more than any teen should have to shoulder. Mukesh has more of a support system in place, but he is missing the connection to his wife that he cannot get over losing. The possibility of sharing a book with his book-loving granddaughter is what first takes him to the library where he and Aleisha cross paths.

There are a number of serious issues involved here, from grief to mental illness to loneliness. But Adams gives us moments of tenderness and love and humor that nurture both her characters and the reader. The supporting cast of characters are equally rich and interesting.

I loved how this varied list of books brought all of them together. One of her characters says it best: “…the books that had found her at the right time, that had given her comfort when she needed it, had given her an escape, an opportunity to live beyond her life, an opportunity to love more powerfully, a chance to open up and let people in.“ And at the end of the book, Adams gives us a bonus list of books that entered her own life “at just the right time” to inspire, motivate and teach.

The audiobook is performed by a talented group of voice artists: Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting. They really bring these characters to life.

Trigger warning: suicidal ideation show less

Mukesh is a widower who lives a quiet life; he shops every Wednesday, watches nature documentaries in the evening, and cooks an unhealthy diet of okra and mung. He loves his daughters deeply, but sometimes they care for him without actually talking with him. And, no matter what he tries, he desperately wants to connect with his granddaughter, Priya, who hides away in books.

Aleisha is an anxious 17-year-old working at the local library for the summer. While sorting books one day, she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back on To Kill a Mockingbird.

Just in case you need it:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Rebecca
The Kite Runner
Life of Pi
Pride and Prejudice
Little Women
Beloved
A Suitable Boy

Intrigued, and a little bored, she impulsively show more decides to read every book on the list.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with Priya and his late wife, Aleisha passes along the books on the reading list, hoping they could be a lifeline for him as they started to be for her. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between the two and help them both escape their grief and everyday troubles.

This is a book about reading books and the connection they can create; both with the individual and the book itself, and the individuals who are reading or have read the book. This book had me nodding my head and smiling with how relatable the book quotes were.

"Sometimes, books take us away for a little while, and return us to our place with a new perspective."

"He knew the world Priya was in right now. There was something magical in that - in sharing a world you have loved; allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself."

"...Ba always told me that sometimes when you really like a book, you need to read it again! Books always change as the person who reads them changes too."

"...Books aren't always an escape; sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world; they don't hide it."

I really adored this book! It's more than a story of reading though, it's a story about family, both blood and found, and grief and how you handle and learn from it. Mukesh and Aliesha both had different struggles and grief they were trying to work through, but with every book they read, they were able to make a connection to their current life. Books are magical like that, that's for sure.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the narrative of this book is that Sara Nish Adams summarized the books the characters were reading but she never fully gave anything away. I knew all but one of these books, but have only read two (and quite a while ago). Mukesh and Aliesha would talk about the books and their connections to them and I was able to understand them even without having read the book(s). The way they talked about them though really made me think about jumping onto this reading list myself!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the library, reading, and making that connection with another person who's read the same book. show less

Sometimes you read recurring hype about a particular book and you think to yourself, "It sounds good, but I've been burned more than once by reading over-publicized books. Maybe I'll read it. One of these days." Then sometimes a certain book keeps appearing on your radar, and you actually hear its siren call, a call that really has nothing to do with hype or publicity, and you know you should read it. That's what happened to me when I kept hearing praise of Sara Nisha Adams' The Reading List. That little inner voice of mine said, "Read this one now."

What made this book different? Number one, I've been compiling reading lists almost from the time I learned how to write. Number two, I had to know what books were on this particular list. show more Three, when I learned that the book was about how certain books can change your life, I was all in for I, too, have read transformative books. Reading the right book at the right time is powerful. It can change the way you see things. It can shine a spotlight on the dark gnarled knot of a problem and help you see the solution. It can help you to understand and to empathize with other people.

All this and more happens to Aleisha and Mukesh in The Reading List. Aleisha and her brother Aidan are trapped in a nightmarish situation with their mentally fragile mother. Mukesh is mourning the death of his beloved wife and has three overbearing daughters who make him wish he'd lost his hearing first instead of getting a collection of aching joints that don't want to work properly. Mukesh's wife was a voracious reader. So is his granddaughter Priya. In order to have a better relationship with Priya, Mukesh decides to go to his local library where he meets the initially boorish Aleisha. It takes a while, but the magic finally does happen.

Watching the friendship of these two very different people blossom through reading the books on a list is wonderful. It brought back so many memories of my own. Of growing up in a village library where my mother was the librarian and I was allowed to help. Of sitting in the back at the table to do my homework and listening to the patrons who came in to check out both the newest books and the latest gossip. And of reading in the quiet and being transported by one book after another-- reading of wonderful places to visit when I grew up, reading of fictional characters who became family for a rather lonely only child, and of learning to observe and to understand more and more of the world and the people around me.

There are moments in The Reading List that made me laugh. There are moments that made me cry. If you're a reader, you need to read this book. If you're not a reader, I won't ask why you're reading this review, I'll just hope that you crack open a copy of The Reading List, and maybe... just maybe... you'll see the light and join the rest of us on our journeys. show less

I put off reading The Reading List because the blurb and cover gave off strong Midnight Library vibes - hey, guess what, I was wrong! Yes, the writing is a little earnest at times, but the story is lovely and I really came to care about the characters, lonely widower Mukesh and tortured teen Aleisha. The sense of family and community is heartwarming, and the mysterious booklist of the title is my taste to a 'T'! There are some deeper and darker themes amidst all the love and positivity but Sara Nisha Adams has somehow managed to encapsulate a hug in a book for her debut novel. One for the list!

Where to begin? First off, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams is not at all what I expected it would be. I was expecting more of a novel showing how each of the eight novels on “the reading list” had something specific to teach us about being human beings living lives we too often take for granted…with emphasis on the themes and characters of each book. Adams does, I think, convincingly make that point, but she accomplishes it by taking a rather barebones approach to the eight books on the list themselves.

But the more I think about it, the more I believe that Adams perfectly tailored The Reading List to her chosen target audience: those of us who self-identify as readers. Adams likely assumed that most of her readers would show more already be familiar with the eight novels on the list and the one other one that plays a large role in this, her debut novel. (I’ve read seven of the nine books, and I suspect that might be about just about the average for people drawn to The Reading List.) For those wondering, the list consists of To Kill a Mockingbird, Rebecca, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy. The Time Traveler’s Wife is not actually part of the list, but it will turn out to be the most significant book in Adams’s story.

The Reading List is rather cleverly constructed. It is divided into nine sections, each carrying the title of one of the nine books I’ve mentioned. Within each of these sections there are several short chapters titled with the name, or names, of the book’s two main characters, Aleisha (a teenager whose life centers entirely on taking care of her invalid mother) or Mukesh (an elderly Hindu man who has been a widower for one year). Intermeshed with all of this are brief flashbacks to 2017 (the book is set in 2019) that feature a handful of side characters that play key roles in the story.

At first, I found it all a bit confusing, and then when I figured out where we were heading, I began to have second thoughts about reading this one at all. It all seemed too cute and make-believe, a fairy tale of sorts just for avid readers. And it was obvious that Sara Nisha Adams is a talented writer who knows where all the “buttons” are — and that she planned on pushing each and every one of them before she was done. Not going to work on me, I thought, so why read on? Well, let’s just say that I was wrong; even though I knew exactly what Adams was up to by pushing all those buttons, I could not resist reading the next page, then the next chapter…and then I was well and thoroughly hooked. The Reading List is, as it happens, a character-driven novel after all, and I found myself caring about Aleisha and Mukesh and could not wait to find out how things would turn out for them and those closest to them.

As The Reading List opens, Mukesh is a timid little man who seldom ventures outside his home anymore. His three adult daughters worry about him, but they really don’t have the time to make sure that he is doing well after the loss of their mother. Mukesh wants nothing more than to find a way of bonding with his little bookworm of a granddaughter, and he finally gets brave enough to venture into the local library in search of a book they can share. There he meets Aleisha, a rather cranky library summer-worker, who practically runs him out of the building. Aleisha, though, has recently found a book list inside a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird that she was shelving, and after her boss coerces her into making amends with Mukesh, she decides to recommend those eight books to the old man — one by one.

But the only way Aleisha can discuss the books with Mukesh is to read each of them before she gives him the next book on the list. And what happens next is the sometimes tragic fairy tale at the heart of The Reading List.

Bottom Line: The Book List is a novel aimed at dedicated readers, and Sara Nisha Adams, herself an obvious reader, strikes the perfect tone here. As sad as the novel is at times, it manages to be just the kind of feel-good story that we need every so often. Even the little side incidents used to develop the characters strike the right tone.One of my favorite passages from the novel describes the day that Mukesh takes his granddaughter Priya to the flagship Foyles bookstore in London:

“Wow!” Priya gasped quietly. She quickly shook off her awe, trying to play it cool. Mukesh felt the same. He’d seen books now, but the library was sparse compared to this. Shelves and shelves. Floors and floors. Tables and tables. Piles and piles of books. It was as if they were floating all around him, lifted up by some kind of magic, offering new worlds, new experiences. It was beautiful.

And then Mukesh brings his granddaughter to the till where he tries to impress her by asking for copies of Rebecca, The Kite Runner, and To Kill a Hummingbird. Now there’s a scene I’ll remember for a while. show less

If you're looking for a cozy read that both warms your heart and inspires you, this is it. I wasn't totally sure what to expect walking into this one, but was pleasantly surprised by how lovable the characters were. I found myself cheering them on, laughing at their antics, and crying alongside them.

One of my favorite things about this book was how there really was no romantic plot line at all. It was focused on people creating unconventional friendships in the midst of the hardships of life and finding a way to build community with individuals around them.

Another thing that made this book easily become a favorite was how the author didn't try to solve the characters' issues, but rather let them discover ways that they could enjoy show more life more, own up to their mistakes, and keep moving on. show less