AJ Fikry is a curmudgeon of a bookshop owner, a widower and lit snob who lives alone above his store, eats a diet made up solely of frozen Indian food, and almost – but not quite – hates life in general. Then someone steals his extremely rare and valuable copy of Poe’s Tamerlane. And *then* someone leaves a baby in his store. These two things change his life pretty much completely, and for the better.

On the surface this novel doesn’t…do much, but I’m okay with that. Fikry’s character grows, sure. We get little life moments throughout, with a smattering of slightly larger ones, and they cumulate into, well, a storied life. There’s a come-full-circle-ness to it at the end that I think works well, and I really enjoyed how the small mysteries here and there come together in an interesting way. I don’t have too much to complain about here at all, beyond the ending veering a little too close to Sappytown, and if its intent is to be Literary Fiction, I think it tries a little too hard and therefore fails. But in that same vein, I kind of love that Fikry himself, who hates everything that’s not LF, would have very likely turned his nose up at the novel in which he’s the MC. And that’s delightfully fitting in a ton of ways. ( )

This is a book I'd have never picked up if not for all the great recommendations from other readers. I figured it would take me a while to get into the book... not so. A.J.'s story reeled me in from the beginning!
( )

Oh my.
I can't even begin to describe all the wonderful es of this book without telling plot points and I don't want to do that. Suffice to say I wanted to be in the life of AJ.Fikry, I loved Alice Island, I want to live here amongst the villagers, I want to hang out at the bookstore.
Every character is charming without being too squee...
This isn't a deep thinking book, but it wins you over with the cheeriness, the endless hopefulness, in the midst of a rainy snowy horrible February, this book made me smile.

I reread this book the summer of 2020, a much wiser summer, a sadder one, as I prepare to leave my equivalent of Alice and head back to Ontario. I’ll be leaving my beloved Doull Books, a bookstore that has magical properties, ever-expanding shelves, and the wisest of proprietors...
I have a secret source of joy, though- I am moving to a place of many bookstores, from the humble Bookland to Wayfarer books (another mystical spot).
It is true that a town has no heart without a bookstore.

This time reading through, I came across this quote, spoken in Fikry’s head:
“We are not quite novels....we are not quite short stories. ...In the end, we are collected works.”

So perfectly true. ( )

This was a really great read! I had heard such good things about this book when it first came out, that I was really curious to see if it would live up to my expectations. And I'm really glad it not only did that, it managed to surpass them as well! To be honest, by the time I actually got round to borrowing this book from my library, I had mostly forgotten what it was supposed to be about. I only remembered it had something to do with a bookshop, an irascible owner and an abandoned child. And that's basically what it is. At least, for the most part... Because this book is just so much more.

This is one of those books that somehow manages to touch upon everything with such grace, that we don't even realise just how much we're learning from them. So, forget the blurb! Yes, this is a book about a bookstore owner. But it also a book about love and loss. It's about learning to let go of the past, and embracing the future, with all its uncertainties and the fears it brings with it. This is a book about people, friends and families, and how just about anyone can surprise us, if you're only willing to give them the chance to. It's a book about mistakes, and coming back from them. It's about picking up the pieces after a tragedy; about learning to live, really live, again after you thought there was no reason to. In short, it's a book about life, with all its highs and lows, the good and the bad.

The writing in this book was just amazing, it managed to convey everything the characters were feeling in such a way that, in some points, I actually felt it too. And the characters! They were all so incredibly developed, and changed radically throughout the book. I loved to see them grow, to feel their pain and fears together with their happiness. There were a couple of characters that I would have liked to see more of, but still, it all worked quite beautifully just the way it was. Overall, I loved this book, and I really recommend it to everyone!

Originally published on Book For Thought. ( )

Very enjoyable. A quick read about books and the people who love them. ( )