Take a photo of a barcode or cover
debz57a52 's review for:
The Echo of Old Books
by Barbara Davis
I was far more emotionally engaged in this book than I expected. It starts out a little slow - a woman on her own, with no family to speak of, living a mostly-solitary life as the only employee at her bookstore and in her apartment above the bookstore. Clearly, she has some casual friends, people in the community who know and appreciate her role in their town, but no one knows her secret, that she can feel the emotions of former owners of books just by touching the books. At some point, she gains possession of 2 books, similarly bound, with different titles and styles, but no ISBN or publishing info, and clearly memoirs covering the same timeline from different perspectives.
At this point, I felt echoes of Possession by A.S. Byatt: there's a book mystery as to who the writers are.The books are set decades ago, with the main characters both being writers in their own realms, although only one does it for a living. There's a love affair broiling in the books, but also between the Ashlyn and the other person she finds to help her track the mystery. There are slow starts and missed leads and a self-righteous person who is painted as the villain.
It's all such a lovely combination of book genres, though, that it was hard not to be completely absorbed in the book every time I picked it up. I had to put it down sometimes - and I did, even when I didn't want to - but I was always looking forward to my next opportunity to escape into the narrative.
At this point, I felt echoes of Possession by A.S. Byatt: there's a book mystery as to who the writers are.
It's all such a lovely combination of book genres, though, that it was hard not to be completely absorbed in the book every time I picked it up. I had to put it down sometimes - and I did, even when I didn't want to - but I was always looking forward to my next opportunity to escape into the narrative.