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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Oh, where to start? I just couldn't buy into the premise no matter how much I really tried. When you have a book that essentially a two-hander, you need to like both characters - Lucy just irritated me too much for that to happen. Which is too bad because the book parodies and games are charming.
Lucy is the head children's librarian at a small public library in Missouri, reporting to an alcoholic director, living over a small theatre, and no real direction in life. One of the children that comes into her space is Ian, a voracious reader. Unfortunately, Ian's family is some flavor of evangelical and his mother comes down to the children's area demanding that he not be allowed to borrow books that didn't have "the breath of God" in them (the paranormal, for example, including classics like Tuck Everlasting). Ian rebels by hiding the books he's borrowing, and Lucy abets by checking them out under her own name.
Lucy and her friends Sophie and Rocky suspect that Ian is gay, and when Lucy learns that Ian is being sent to a sexual rehabilitation camp, she's eager to do something to help him escape what she now feels is a horrible, abusive home. One day her chance arrives: Ian's run away, much like Claudia and Jamie do, only he's hidden in the library instead of the Met. For reasons that elude Lucy (and the reader) she decides to "take him home", a trip that ends up in Vermont, near the Candaian border. She also lies about her whereabouts, who Ian is, and where she's going/what she's doing.
There's much here to delight ("If You Give a Librarian a Closet", for example), but Lucy's motivations bothered me, as did her demeanor. I'm not going to get into the argument over her even being a librarian (she doesn't have her MLS, nor is she in library school) or her feeling that the First Amendment trumps all (even the Second Amendment). It was more her certitude that she was saving Ian - who clearly wanted an adventure but seemed to not see that he needed "saving", per se - and her clumsy handling of how to save him, in addition to her eagerness to believe in the power of story to the extent that (I think) she buys into the "kidnapping" because it's just another story. I'm sure I'll be alone in this, which is fine.
ARC provided by publisher.
Lucy is the head children's librarian at a small public library in Missouri, reporting to an alcoholic director, living over a small theatre, and no real direction in life. One of the children that comes into her space is Ian, a voracious reader. Unfortunately, Ian's family is some flavor of evangelical and his mother comes down to the children's area demanding that he not be allowed to borrow books that didn't have "the breath of God" in them (the paranormal, for example, including classics like Tuck Everlasting). Ian rebels by hiding the books he's borrowing, and Lucy abets by checking them out under her own name.
Lucy and her friends Sophie and Rocky suspect that Ian is gay, and when Lucy learns that Ian is being sent to a sexual rehabilitation camp, she's eager to do something to help him escape what she now feels is a horrible, abusive home. One day her chance arrives: Ian's run away, much like Claudia and Jamie do, only he's hidden in the library instead of the Met. For reasons that elude Lucy (and the reader) she decides to "take him home", a trip that ends up in Vermont, near the Candaian border. She also lies about her whereabouts, who Ian is, and where she's going/what she's doing.
There's much here to delight ("If You Give a Librarian a Closet", for example), but Lucy's motivations bothered me, as did her demeanor. I'm not going to get into the argument over her even being a librarian (she doesn't have her MLS, nor is she in library school) or her feeling that the First Amendment trumps all (even the Second Amendment). It was more her certitude that she was saving Ian - who clearly wanted an adventure but seemed to not see that he needed "saving", per se - and her clumsy handling of how to save him, in addition to her eagerness to believe in the power of story to the extent that (I think) she buys into the "kidnapping" because it's just another story. I'm sure I'll be alone in this, which is fine.
ARC provided by publisher.
"All I knew were novels. It gave me pause, for a moment, that all my reference points were fiction, that all my narratives were lies."
"But books, on the other hand: I do still believe that books can save you."
"I knew the people books had saved. They were college professors and actors and scientists and poets. They got to college and sat on dorm floors drinking coffee, amazed they'd finally found their soul mates. They always dressed a little out of season. Their names were enshrined in the pink cards in the pockets of all the forgotten hardbacks in every library basement in America. If the librarians were lazy enough or nostalgic enough or smart enough, those names would stay there."
This book is for everyone who has ever fallen in love with the library and with reading.
I didn't know if I liked this book at all for most of the way through it, and for a lot of it, I only liked beginnings of chapters, and I didn't like the main character until the very end. I kept getting distracted by what didn't make sense or what wouldn't work or couldn't have happened instead of getting lost in the story. And I kind of think that's supposed to happen.
I am a huge fan of public libraries and the sanctuaries they can be for kids who love books, for people who love to read, and I love the idea behind this book and what it becomes by the end, and how so very much of it is tied into classic children's literature and adventure.
"But books, on the other hand: I do still believe that books can save you."
"I knew the people books had saved. They were college professors and actors and scientists and poets. They got to college and sat on dorm floors drinking coffee, amazed they'd finally found their soul mates. They always dressed a little out of season. Their names were enshrined in the pink cards in the pockets of all the forgotten hardbacks in every library basement in America. If the librarians were lazy enough or nostalgic enough or smart enough, those names would stay there."
This book is for everyone who has ever fallen in love with the library and with reading.
I didn't know if I liked this book at all for most of the way through it, and for a lot of it, I only liked beginnings of chapters, and I didn't like the main character until the very end. I kept getting distracted by what didn't make sense or what wouldn't work or couldn't have happened instead of getting lost in the story. And I kind of think that's supposed to happen.
I am a huge fan of public libraries and the sanctuaries they can be for kids who love books, for people who love to read, and I love the idea behind this book and what it becomes by the end, and how so very much of it is tied into classic children's literature and adventure.
An easy well paced read. Particularly liked the way the librarian describes her actions in the way of books - so she uses the Where is Spot formula and the HOuse that Jack Built template in different sections. It is a cleverly put together read
This book was just really lame, honestly. I was drawn to the premise, which could have made for some great satire: a children's librarian ends up inadvertently kidnapping her favorite patron, who happens to be a 10 year old boy whose parents have him in anti-gay therapy and restrict his reading choices. I also felt like I had to read it because it is set in Hannibal MO, and I grew up in small town Missouri. But right away I was annoyed, because main character becomes a public librarian on a whim, when a job is just handed to her with no training or experience. As someone who desperately wants to be a public librarian, and has the MLS I owe $50,000 for and experience, and cannot get a position, I was really irked by this plot detail. Also, I doubt the author has ever been to Hannibal. I feel like she chose MO because she is from the Chicago area and MO probably just sounded like a bigoted place she could use as an example.
I do give it two stars, because there are some clever bits, and I did find some of the stuff with her father and his shady connections pretty humorous. But the main character may be the lamest main character since Bella in Twilight. She is completely lacking in personality or motivation, and doesn't seen to believe she can control anything. The plot and the characters don't seem to go anywhere, they just drive around in a car for awhile, and it doesn't really make any sort of point.
I do give it two stars, because there are some clever bits, and I did find some of the stuff with her father and his shady connections pretty humorous. But the main character may be the lamest main character since Bella in Twilight. She is completely lacking in personality or motivation, and doesn't seen to believe she can control anything. The plot and the characters don't seem to go anywhere, they just drive around in a car for awhile, and it doesn't really make any sort of point.
Even though the story isn't that realistic, it doesn't really matter because it was still enjoyable.
This is a novel for readers who love books; it's full of great references to famous children's literature.
If you let yourself get taken away, it can be quite interesting and the characters will grow on you.
This is a novel for readers who love books; it's full of great references to famous children's literature.
If you let yourself get taken away, it can be quite interesting and the characters will grow on you.
I really wanted to like this book more. The premise, for some reason, made me more anxious than engaged.
An amazing book from beginning to end. A rollicking ride that I couldn’t put down till the end that left me breathless wanting more.