AJ is a widowed bookseller on Alice Island, drinking himself to death, until a toddler is left in his bookstore. With no-one else to take her, and her mother later turning up drowned, he adopts and raises her. Now that he's sobered up for Maya, he starts turning the bookstore around, and putting in orders with the beautiful saleswoman from Knightly books. A few other good characters and a lot of literary references - some books I've read and others I haven't. Tearjerker ending, but a happy ending for Island books. ( )

Great book. I loved all the references to classic literature. I think you're more likely to enjoy this book if you are a book lover, literature teacher, librarian, etc. lots of twists and great setting. I loved it, but not everyone will. ( )

Drama

Charming story centered around a bookstore on a fictional island, but whose main theme is the redemptive power of love and the joys of reading. ( )

Book Bub purchase-Very enjoyable read. Each chapter began with a review of a book. KIRKUS REVIEWZevin (Margarettown, 2006, etc.) chronicles the life of A. J. Fikry, a man who holds no brief for random acts, who yearns for a distinct narrative, who flounders about until his life is reordered by happenstance.Fikry owns Island Books on Alice Island, a summer destination off Massachusetts¥think Nantucket. He?s not yet 40 but already widowed, his wife, Nic, dead in an auto accident. Fikry drinks. Island Books drifts toward bankruptcy. Then, within a span of days, his rare copy of Poe?s Tamerlane (worth $400,000) is stolen, and 2-year-old Maya is deposited at his bookstore. Fikry cannot bear to leave the precocious child to the system once it becomes apparent her single mother has drowned herself in the sea. He adopts Maya, spurred by her immediate attachment to him. That decision detours "his plan to drink himself to death" and reinvigorates his life and his bookstore. Add Amelia Loman, quirky traveling sales representative for Knightley Press, and a romance that takes four years to begin, and there?s a Nicholas Sparks quality to this novel about people who love books but can't find someone to love. With a wry appreciation for the travails of bookstore ownersÂ¥A. J. doesn?t like e-readersÂ¥Zevin writes characters of a type, certainly, but ones who nonetheless inspire empathy. Among others, there are the bright and sweet-natured Maya, who morphs into an insecure but still precocious teenager; Lambiase, local police chief who finds in Firky the friend who expands his life; A. J?s brother-in-law, Daniel Parish, a once?best-selling author riding out a descending career arc; and Daniel?s wife, Ismay, who sees A. J. as everything Daniel should be. All fit the milieu perfectly in a plot that spins out as expected, bookended by tragedy. Zevin writes characters who grow and prosper, mainly A. J. and Lambiase, in a narrative that is sometimes sentimental, sometimes funny, sometimes true to life and always entertaining. A likable literary love story about selling books and finding love.