Sara Nisha AdamsResenhas

If you’re a book lover like me, then you’ve probably read your fair share of books about books or libraries or book clubs. It’s usually a sure hit for my bookish soul, so when I picked up The Reading List and didn’t love it (also a big believer in right book, wrong time), it got me thinking of other books about books that I do love.

It's a very good book.

I was turned off by the infantilizing of the older character.

Do you love a multigenerational friendship odd couple that brings people together, this heartwarming book is just that. Characters navigate different losses together and open their worlds via each other and a great list of pivotal books.

Delightful book for book lovers who truly understand the value and saving power books can have on one’s life. Many characters, many scenarios, many books to lift the spirit, create friendship, assuage loneliness and just be what each character needed at just the right time. Underlying issue of the devaluation of libraries in a community runs through the chapters, mental health, family makeups, grief and loss are all topics broached in this lovely story.

This book just didn't do it for me. Read it for book club, and I'm interested to see what others thought.

This was a sweet story - I particularly liked the character of Mukesh. It was terribly unrealistic in many ways, but that's half the fun of books, so I can't complain too much. It was a bit slow and a bit long for what it contained, but I always have an extra dose of patience for books about books.

This has helped me to get through a bit of a reading slump, and now I'm excited again about reading, which is obviously a great thing.

The one major detractor for me was the profanity. I found it sad when, in the acknowledgments, the author thanked someone for reading the book out loud to the author's grandmother, omitting the profanity. If it's so unnecessary, why include it in the first place?

Novel all about loneliness and grief; and how a library and its books can make a big difference.

Mukesh and Aleisha are very different but form a connection because of family issues. Mukesh is still grieving the loss of his belove wife Naina, and resents his daughters' disrespectul hovering as well as his worry about not connecting with his grand-daughter Priya.

Aleisha, her mother and brother Aidan are distraught at their father's abandonment of them for a new family. Aleisha's mother, Leilah, has disturbing and frightening depressive episodes making her virtually dysfunctional and dependant on both Aidan and Aleisha for care. Aidan and Aleisha are over- stressed, unable to live happy, fulfilling lives.

Aleisha and Mukesh with help from other library patrons, family and friends learn how to work together to improve their own lives, their local library and their community.

Touching, sweet and sad, and very human story about the importance of social connection, family and love.

This was a really lovely book exploring loneliness, community and reading. One thing I really liked about the book was the sense of place it created. Fiction in Australia is predominantly local or American so to have a British book was very refreshing. I felt the characterisations were very authentic and I really appreciated the book lists. I had read five of the recommended 18 books and will definitely look up the others.
A very heartfelt book of community connection.

I can't finish this book - I just can't. It's so unbearably trite and cheesy.

Winston came to England to become a financier but he is currently working in a shop whereas his boyfriend is progressing up the career ladder. Bernice is a divorced single parent, determined to smother her child with love. They live in two adjoining houses with a shared garden and keep up a frosty relationship.
However when Winston receives a strange set of pictures through his door one day, showing the garden in a previous guise, he decides to tackle the task of restoring the garden to it's former glory.
This is a really quite lovely book about relationships. Set across the 1970s and the 2010s it juxtaposes the lives of people associated with a corner of North London and linked by a love of a shared green space. There's nothing horrible here, it's very predictable but it is a great, gentle read.

I think this is a 3.75 book @ best. It's one of those i had to pace myself with. Process the characters slowly.
I needed to stray a little from my usual genres and i kinda liked what i found.

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.

A book about books ! How perfect is that ! And this book is very, very good for a book lover such as myself.
It is about a book list ( I’ve read most on list) that affects and brings together a bunch of different people from a bored teenager to an elderly widower and his three daughters . In each of the novels on the reading list, our characters find strength in the words and the life inside these novels.This novel believes that books can mirror real life and bring people together in a sense of community . It’s about connection and I connected with this novel.
Reading list in novel: “ Time travellers wife”, “To kill a mockingbird”, “Rebecca”, “The Kite Runner”, “Life of Pi,” “Pride and Prejudice “, “Little Wimen,” “Beloved “, “ A suitable Boy”.½

I had high hopes for this book, but it was like the author had a story and someone said “you k ow books about books are really selling well try and work in a book theme”
Aleisha one of the main characters is not well developed in the book and her family is a mess but you never really know how they got that way. Aleisha is a librarian who doesn’t read books and has zero social skills, but finds a list of books to recommend to customers.
Mukesh is the other main character who is Hindi and lost his wife 1 or 2 years ago. She was a huge reader where he never picked up a book.
For me the characters are 1 dimensional at best and there are too many of them. Mukesh’s family in particular are in and out of the story adding nothing. I think the author was describing her own extended family.
The books on the book list are sometimes discussed but with barely any relevance to what is happening in the story.
Another hyped book not worthy of most of the hype.

Sweet, ode to libraries, librarians and people who read books. Warning that there is mental illness and suicide as part of the story.

Life got in the way on this one and it too me a long time to finish.

I understand what the author was trying to do here, but I don't think she did it. The idea is a good one, the writing is very good, the characters are compelling, but the central plot device just doesn't work to hold it all together.

This book, despite the hype, was a bitter disappointment. The story follows Aleisha, an embittered teen working in a library, and a Mukesh, a widower, who goes to the local library to return an overdue library book his wife checked out, but instead of returning the book, he meets Aleisha who recommends several books to him that she found on a list left in a library book.

The prose was slow and plodding. I almost DNF’d the book twice, but kept reading, hoping it would improve. It didn’t. There was no character development at all, not even in Aleisha and Mikesh, the main characters. The characters were predictable and evoked no empathy toward them at all.

The dialogue was equally bad. It was stilted and uncreative. Every character talked alike. Many dialogue tags were not provided, even when a character spoke twice in a row, thus the dialogue was confusing as all the characters spoke like each other. A 17 year old teenage girl should not talk like a 70 year old man. Forced and unnatural dialogue.

This is one of those books that is heavily hyped, but fails to deliver. Don’t waste your time with this one.

It's a big call to make so early in the year but this may end up being a 2022 favourite!

An absolutely lovely story with characters that were easy to connect with. The novel took me to highs and lows as I was drawn into a world that is a bibliophile's dream. The author did an incredible job of illustrating how books and libraries can nurture connections. These connections became instrumental in creating positive changes in our characters' lives. A list of books makes its way through a random collection of people within a community. No one knows who wrote the list or what it might mean, but when people start reading the books they start to find their own profound meanings in the pages of these great novels.

It has inspired me to reread some of the books mentioned and have borrowed a couple I have not read from the list. Loved it.


CW: suicide, grief, mental health issues

I dropped the book off at the library today, before it was due. I tried for over 100 pages, but the characters never gelled for me. It's not clear whether the author was holding somethings back to reveal about characters later, or whether she's just not skilled at character development.
Life is too short to push on with a book that is just not doing it for you.

Harrow Road Library in London : Mukesh (recently lost his wife with 3 controlling daughters), Chris, Aleisha (works part time at the library and takes care of a sick Mom at home along with her brother Aidan), Leonora, Izzy - all discover the same list of books to read and it is divided into the books and how they are affected by them.

What a great idea for a book, leave a list of books to read anonymously, and find out how many people read the list and why! Lots of characters and a couple different time lines, but thoroughly an enjoyable read.

It's exciting to discover a new author. Discovering new authors is like discovering whole new countries. Although it may not be true for all books, however reading Sara Nisha Adams offers me the advantage of being one-to-one.

Perhaps the best example I know that focuses on how reading can change how one views the world and oneself. The right book can show you how to understand the events in your life, to see them in new and unexpected ways, especially when, standing alone, they are new and unnerving. An absolute must read for anyone that needs reminding why reading is so very vital.

I was tempted to take a half star off because of how much untreated mental illness central characters display. That just seemed unnecessary.

I loved this book! It was incredibly charming and sweet but there was still plenty of heartache and depth. It is a book for readers and how much books mean to us. As someone who works in a library, I must confess to being appalled at the initial interaction between the library worker and a patron but it quickly redeemed itself - both the character and the story. It may not have been the most original storyline and you can figure out most of what will happen throughout the book but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. Even after I had finished it, I kept thinking "yay, I have time to read The Reading List now" and was said that it was over. 4.5 stars