What book lover doesn’t love books about books, bookstores, and other book lovers? And when that book contains recommendations for other books to read, it’s all the better. This is a delightful adventure to save a bookstore, and relationships are forged and deepened along the way.
The Book Haters’ Book Club is a September 2022 release by Park Row Books
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more detail.
About the Book:
Filled with humor, family hijinks, and actual reading recommendations, The Book Haters’ Book Club features a messy group of people trying to save their local Indie bookstore — and who might just save each other along the way. This heartwarming, wildly entertaining novel is both a celebration of found family, and a love letter to booksellers and librarians everywhere.
Elliot, co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookshop in Minneapolis, started The Book Haters’ Book Club—a newsletter of reading recommendations for the self-proclaimed “nonreader” – because he believed that it only takes the right book to turn a Book Hater into a Book Lover. Now, after they’re all reeling after Elliot’s sudden death, his business partner, Irma, has agreed to sell Over the Rainbow to a developer. When Irma breaks the news to her daughters, and Elliott’s romantic partner, Thom, they are aghast. Especially since Irma won’t explain why she’s so intent on selling.
Irma’s daughters and Thom conspire to save the bookshop. Even if it takes some snooping, gossip and (minor) sabotage, they won’t give up without a fight.
My Thoughts:
This is an enjoyable story, but it took forever to get to the point.
Literally the entire first 50% is about the pending sale of the Over the Rainbow bookstore. It was started years before by Irma and Elliott, friends who joined together after running their own mobile bookstores became cumbersome. But Elliott has died suddenly, and Irma has decided to retire and sell the store, much to the surprise of her daughter Bree, who has worked at the store and thought she would take over someday. Irma has called their other sister, Laney, home to Minnesota from California to hear the news, and Laney is equally shocked. Irma won’t give her reasons, and the girls, along with Elliott’s longtime partner Thom, decide to try to save the store from being turned into condos.
Like I said, the first half of the book is all about the three fighting the sale and trying to get Irma to tell them why she is doing it so suddenly and without letting them take over. It was infuriating to me and I nearly stopped reading many times because it was SO tedious.
Yet once Irma finally comes clean, the story moves forward and gets interesting and touching. I loved the deeper exploration into the family dynamics and the choices each of them had made over the years and how it affected their present day lives.
There’s also a good deal of humor, some parts made me laugh out loud with both how realistic and slapstick they were. When I got tired of all of the “save the bookstore” tedium, the humor is what gave this novel heart.
Overall, it’s a worthwhile read if you can get past the first half long setup and get to the meat of the story. I would have liked more book recommendations, but the ones included are fantastic and gave me some new books to find for my own enjoyment.
About the Author:
GRETCHEN ANTHONY is the author of Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners, which was a Midwestern Connections Pick and a best books pick by Amazon, BookBub, PopSugar, and the New York Post. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Medium, and The Write Life, among others. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.
