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ars410's review against another edition
4.0
An incredibly engaging story. I found myself thinking about it a lot when I wasn't reading and I couldn't wait to read more. The last bit of the book felt a little too sappy, but I liked how everything finally came together at the end.
crhbrault's review
5.0
Engrossing storyline, I enjoyed that the dream sequences are what propelled the main character between the "time periods"
lurdes_oliveira's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed it, this was a simple read. It moved along nicely and I was gently pulled into this.
I enjoyed the journey, is beautifully written and the story of Kitty/Katharyn is good.
I enjoyed the journey, is beautifully written and the story of Kitty/Katharyn is good.
kathleenww's review
3.0
I'm definitely drawn to books and novels that feature books and poetry. So this one caught my eye immediately, and I also thought the story was a fun premise and was interested to see how the author handled it.
Unfortunately, this book was a solid "meh" for me. I couldn't wait to get done with it. I kept hoping it would be improve greatly at the end, but instead, I just found myself annoyed at her strangely old fashioned writing style: yes, I get that the story is written in the mid 1950s, but it just felt fake and stilted to me. And unnatural. Not to mention, the some of the subject matter (autistic child?) was treated in what I felt was a very contemporary manner, and the main characters obvious health issue weren't treated at all. I don't really want to address these writing/plot issues in depth since they might give away some of the main points of the book for those that are reading it, or plan to.
This is a "sliding doors"/what is reality? type story. Bookseller (not really that important to the story) Kitty wakes up from a strange dream where she is shown her "alternate" life, the one she lost when the man she was supposed to meet for drinks .) dies of a heart attack prior to their first meeting (not online, but via a personal ad. Her best friend is an extremely personable and companionable woman, named Frieda, who while very attractive, doesn't have a love interest of her own The two women are destined for spinsterhood, one a cat lady, and one, a possible lesbian (this is alluded to at the very end of the novel, in the most round about way possible without coming out and saying it...).
Kitty/Katharyn really has a difficult time with several big events in her life. She
s seeing what she believes to be the future in her dreams, which are oddly realistic, and leave her puzzled and strangely energized after awakening.
I felt like there was a lot of investment getting through a twisty turny plot, with these dream lives, without much return. Could have been charming, but fell flat for me. Not terrible, but not great, and a bit repetitive and boring times. Clearly, if you lived with someone who was not exactly in touch with reality for whatever reason (trauma, depression, schizophrenia), you would get them help, but that seems to be an issue in the novel that is completely ignored, and it seemed strange and hard fro me to buy into the whole thing.
Unfortunately, this book was a solid "meh" for me. I couldn't wait to get done with it. I kept hoping it would be improve greatly at the end, but instead, I just found myself annoyed at her strangely old fashioned writing style: yes, I get that the story is written in the mid 1950s, but it just felt fake and stilted to me. And unnatural. Not to mention, the some of the subject matter (autistic child?) was treated in what I felt was a very contemporary manner, and the main characters obvious health issue weren't treated at all. I don't really want to address these writing/plot issues in depth since they might give away some of the main points of the book for those that are reading it, or plan to.
This is a "sliding doors"/what is reality? type story. Bookseller (not really that important to the story) Kitty wakes up from a strange dream where she is shown her "alternate" life, the one she lost when the man she was supposed to meet for drinks .) dies of a heart attack prior to their first meeting (not online, but via a personal ad. Her best friend is an extremely personable and companionable woman, named Frieda, who while very attractive, doesn't have a love interest of her own The two women are destined for spinsterhood, one a cat lady, and one, a possible lesbian (this is alluded to at the very end of the novel, in the most round about way possible without coming out and saying it...).
Kitty/Katharyn really has a difficult time with several big events in her life. She
s seeing what she believes to be the future in her dreams, which are oddly realistic, and leave her puzzled and strangely energized after awakening.
I felt like there was a lot of investment getting through a twisty turny plot, with these dream lives, without much return. Could have been charming, but fell flat for me. Not terrible, but not great, and a bit repetitive and boring times. Clearly, if you lived with someone who was not exactly in touch with reality for whatever reason (trauma, depression, schizophrenia), you would get them help, but that seems to be an issue in the novel that is completely ignored, and it seemed strange and hard fro me to buy into the whole thing.
megancrusante's review
3.0
I really liked this- so entertaining, fast read, hard to put down, and likeable characters. So many good ways to reflect on relationships of all kinds- family, romantic, work, and friendship. Especially interesting as a single woman in my 30s in present day NYC compared to the narrator as a single woman in her 30s in 1960s Denver. However large portions of this book left me feeling sad- it gave the impression you are supposed to choose between 2 extremes for your life, with no middle ground. Personally I felt the book leaned super super strongly towards one outcome as the more positive way for a woman to spend her life. Perhaps this is for consistency with the dated views on gender, race, sexuality,and mental health as contemplated by the characters.
teganbeesebooks's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked this at the beginning and was very intrigued, but felt like it started to drag towards the middle. Part of the twist surprised me, but the other part I guessed. Not a bad listen, good for historical fiction fans that like a bit of mystery.
gaderianne's review
2.0
I wanted to love this book. I really did. It just didn't end up captivating me. In fact, I believe I tried to read this book before and I ended up giving up. This time I persisted through and, although it was an interesting concept, I just didn't love it.
The concept is intriguing - Kitty, a single, 1960s business woman, starts having vidid dreams about a different life. One where married, had a family, and gave up her business. The dreams become so real she soon can't tell which world is real - is her dream world her real world? Or is she dreaming when she thinks she's awake.
Even the overall message of this book was good. It's about self-discovery, finding yourself, learning to live with regret, and reconciling the what-ifs we all have.
However, I just didn't think it was a captivating read for me.
The concept is intriguing - Kitty, a single, 1960s business woman, starts having vidid dreams about a different life. One where married, had a family, and gave up her business. The dreams become so real she soon can't tell which world is real - is her dream world her real world? Or is she dreaming when she thinks she's awake.
Even the overall message of this book was good. It's about self-discovery, finding yourself, learning to live with regret, and reconciling the what-ifs we all have.
However, I just didn't think it was a captivating read for me.
mnboyer's review against another edition
3.0
Kitty (Katharyn) wakes up one day to find she's in the middle of a life that isn't her own. In this new dream world she has married a man named Lars, has three children, and no longer runs her quaint bookstore with her best friend. And then she wakes up and returns to her life with a bookstore, single-lady status, and she and her best friend get to gab away. But which world is real? How can Kitty uncover which world is real? How can you trust anything when you don't know which reality is the "real" reality and which is "fiction"....
I added this book to my "must read" list in 2017 when I kept seeing this book pop up on lists of notable books, authors, etc. I finally realized that my public library had a Kindle version that I could borrow so, I decided to sit down and read this.
My first expectation: That this would be about a woman that sold books. I was expecting far more of the plot to take place in a bookstore. The cover misled me a little bit because this isn't necessarily about that job function at all. Kitty just so happens to be a bookseller (kind of, the business dwindles) and there's where we find our title. Good cover art choice though, as it lured me in!
My second expectation: The plot wouldn't be easy to unravel. I was hoping it would be harder to determine which life is 'real' and which is fake. There is a big reveal at one point later in the novel (almost at the end, as it were) but I had this solved a long time before that. I'm not necessarily saying that is a bad thing, as I suppose the reader gets to live in the suspense of trying to help Kitty understand reality/fiction. Yet... I wasn't as thrilled as I wanted to be.
The plot also tends to be similar to a lot of time travel/alter-reality novels in the fiction genre. Decent woman has to decide if her dream man is real or not. I'm not attempting to diminish the plot here or say this is the only story line in The Bookseller... but it is one of the major devices the book uses. Is Lars real? Is Katharyn real?
I appreciated some of the questions of domesticity that arose. If Kitty is indeed a mother of three... has she given up her book shop willingly? What happened to the strong independent bookseller? If Kitty has one child that has autism... was she a bad mother? (This takes place in the 1960s so doctors still believe autism is derived from bad mothering within the context of this novel)
There are some unique things scattered throughout the book.
I enjoyed the portrayal of the autistic son, Michael, and thought this was a clever way of saying no life is perfect to the reader. Perhaps even life is intricate. I found it to be a realistic portrayal of autism--and that was key, to me--because Michael wasn't used as some form of political plot device. He's just a young boy who is autistic. Simple, honest, representative of a group of individuals that I find are frequently left of out literary representations. This was a gem that was hidden within the text. (Also--Michael is extremely smart and helps Kitty begin to unravel and understand reality/fake world issues)
Lars was a very likable individual and so, portraying the hunky possibly dream man makes sense with him. I though he may have been the most developed character (potentially a conflict since this is supposed to be a story about Kitty).
There are a lot of historic references to try and situate you in the time/place of the novel. I learned some interesting information about Patsy Cline, for example. I feel like no one told me she died in a plane crash!!! But I fact checked.... who knew?! So again, I appreciate the accurate building of the time period.
Things I didn't necessarily enjoy:
1) The side plot with Kitty's parents. This will develop through postcard correspondence. Later you'll figure out why this is relevant:
2) The plot revolving around Kitty and her best friend, Frieda. The pair run the bookstore together and Frieda has been Kitty's rock when she needs it. In one world, they are best friends. In another world, they've had a falling out after Kitty has left the store to tend to her family. But I didn't necessarily need the "friendship fight" in this story. In one world Frieda ends up running a chain of bookstores, which are wildly popular at the time, but I want to caution Frieda that by 2018 many of the large bookstores (Borders, for example) have been put out of business. Invest in Amazon.... Frieda be wise and invest in Amazon! Sigh.
Overall...
A quick, fun read that does not provide what you might be expecting based on the cover and blurb. Only about 50% of the plot is actually about Kitty/Lars. The rest is divided up with Frieda, the parents, etc. I wouldn't classify this as something super romantic (like [b:Outlander|10964|Outlander (Outlander, #1)|Diana Gabaldon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529065012s/10964.jpg|2489796]). The travel is not as intricate as some stories (like [b:The Time Traveler's Wife|14050|The Time Traveler's Wife|Audrey Niffenegger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437728815s/14050.jpg|2153746]) but instead manifests as a dream world when Kitty goes to sleep. It is fun. But in the end it does not live up to the "amazing" hype that I heard about it.
I added this book to my "must read" list in 2017 when I kept seeing this book pop up on lists of notable books, authors, etc. I finally realized that my public library had a Kindle version that I could borrow so, I decided to sit down and read this.
My first expectation: That this would be about a woman that sold books. I was expecting far more of the plot to take place in a bookstore. The cover misled me a little bit because this isn't necessarily about that job function at all. Kitty just so happens to be a bookseller (kind of, the business dwindles) and there's where we find our title. Good cover art choice though, as it lured me in!
My second expectation: The plot wouldn't be easy to unravel. I was hoping it would be harder to determine which life is 'real' and which is fake. There is a big reveal at one point later in the novel (almost at the end, as it were) but I had this solved a long time before that. I'm not necessarily saying that is a bad thing, as I suppose the reader gets to live in the suspense of trying to help Kitty understand reality/fiction. Yet... I wasn't as thrilled as I wanted to be.
The plot also tends to be similar to a lot of time travel/alter-reality novels in the fiction genre. Decent woman has to decide if her dream man is real or not. I'm not attempting to diminish the plot here or say this is the only story line in The Bookseller... but it is one of the major devices the book uses. Is Lars real? Is Katharyn real?
I appreciated some of the questions of domesticity that arose. If Kitty is indeed a mother of three... has she given up her book shop willingly? What happened to the strong independent bookseller? If Kitty has one child that has autism... was she a bad mother? (This takes place in the 1960s so doctors still believe autism is derived from bad mothering within the context of this novel)
There are some unique things scattered throughout the book.
I enjoyed the portrayal of the autistic son, Michael, and thought this was a clever way of saying no life is perfect to the reader. Perhaps even life is intricate. I found it to be a realistic portrayal of autism--and that was key, to me--because Michael wasn't used as some form of political plot device. He's just a young boy who is autistic. Simple, honest, representative of a group of individuals that I find are frequently left of out literary representations. This was a gem that was hidden within the text. (Also--Michael is extremely smart and helps Kitty begin to unravel and understand reality/fake world issues)
Lars was a very likable individual and so, portraying the hunky possibly dream man makes sense with him. I though he may have been the most developed character (potentially a conflict since this is supposed to be a story about Kitty).
There are a lot of historic references to try and situate you in the time/place of the novel. I learned some interesting information about Patsy Cline, for example. I feel like no one told me she died in a plane crash!!! But I fact checked.... who knew?! So again, I appreciate the accurate building of the time period.
Things I didn't necessarily enjoy:
1) The side plot with Kitty's parents. This will develop through postcard correspondence. Later you'll figure out why this is relevant:
Spoiler
something having to do with the parents causes Kitty to get stuck between the real/fake world.2) The plot revolving around Kitty and her best friend, Frieda. The pair run the bookstore together and Frieda has been Kitty's rock when she needs it. In one world, they are best friends. In another world, they've had a falling out after Kitty has left the store to tend to her family. But I didn't necessarily need the "friendship fight" in this story. In one world Frieda ends up running a chain of bookstores, which are wildly popular at the time, but I want to caution Frieda that by 2018 many of the large bookstores (Borders, for example) have been put out of business. Invest in Amazon.... Frieda be wise and invest in Amazon! Sigh.
Overall...
A quick, fun read that does not provide what you might be expecting based on the cover and blurb. Only about 50% of the plot is actually about Kitty/Lars. The rest is divided up with Frieda, the parents, etc. I wouldn't classify this as something super romantic (like [b:Outlander|10964|Outlander (Outlander, #1)|Diana Gabaldon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529065012s/10964.jpg|2489796]). The travel is not as intricate as some stories (like [b:The Time Traveler's Wife|14050|The Time Traveler's Wife|Audrey Niffenegger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437728815s/14050.jpg|2153746]) but instead manifests as a dream world when Kitty goes to sleep. It is fun. But in the end it does not live up to the "amazing" hype that I heard about it.
biblio_amy's review against another edition
3.0
This was a different style of reading for me. I figured out the twist in this story after we find out that Katherine's parents have died in a plane crash. I figured that her "dream" of being married and having children was her actual life and the other was the dream in which she was trying to cope with her loss of her parents and then her friendship with Frida.