Reviewed by annieb123 on
The Reading List is a beautifully written slice of life book about the bookish life by Sara Nisha Adams. Released 3rd Aug 2021 by Harper Collins on their William Morrow imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in most formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This was one of 2021's buzz books and rightfully so. It's compassionately written and full of book references and peopled with characters who engaged and interested me. I was drawn into the story and although sometimes the story felt a tiny bit movie-of-the-week-ish, I really was genuinely invested in the characters and felt a strong desire to find out how the story played out for them.
The author writes with a great deal of verisimilitude and it wasn't a huge stretch to imagine that parts of the story were at least inspired by her own life experiences. I love books about books, and this is a good one. The prose is unusually well written; often quite luminous. I am absolutely sure that it will soon be a major motion picture (I believe it's already optioned for film), but the story stands quite impressively well on its own merits. The author is talented and there's a surprising surety in the narrative which belies it as a debut effort.
Wonderfully written. Ever so slight nuances of a feel-good movie of the week vibe but not enough to detract from the overall quality of the work. Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 9 January, 2022: Finished reading
- 9 January, 2022: Reviewed