The way the author depicts grief I thought was really well done. And things get harder before they get easier. They each had something really difficult in their lives – him a recent widower, and her living with a mentally ill mom. I loved both Mukesh and Aleisha, and the side characters you meet throughout, too. The characters in this story were so loveable. Needless to say, I needed something somewhat comforting. I have a 3-year-old daughter, so finding a way for both my husband and I to work while she was quarantined at home was a challenge. Luckily my symptoms were fairly mild, but it was still a stressful time. I picked this book up when I tested positive for Covid. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list… hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.Īleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams was the perfect book for me to read in the moment…read on to find out why :).

The reading list by sara nisha adams