The Readers Of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald – 400 pages
ARC from Netgalley
Book Blurb:
Once you let a book into your life, the most unexpected things can happen…
Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy’s funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don’t understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that’s almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend’s memory. All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life.
My Review: 2 stars
The Readers Of Broken Wheel Recommend was definitely less than expected. Simple language, unrealistic characters and a title that basically tells you the ending were all things that led to my poor review of this book.
Redeeming factors include that it’s about book lovers, readers, booksellers and dreamers. There is so much name-dropping about real books and real authors that it got somewhat exhausting.
There were also some wonderful and meaningful quotes from this book that I share below. That’s about it though, definitely not a hit for me.
Quotes I liked:
As long as she had book and money, nothing could be a catastrophe.”
– “People were strange like that. They could be completely uninterested in you, but the moment you pick up a book, you were the one being rude.”
– “…how tragic it was that the written word was immortal while people were not.”
– “Anyway, I think that life and sorrow go together like farmers and rain: without a little, nothing will grow.”
So sorry to see your bad review of this. The blurb sounded so promising. But, since I have agreed with most of your reviews, I guess it’s a good thing that you saved me from wasting my time.
I was so excited to read it as well. Bummer!