this is fine. i do really like the book reviews that are throughout and that in the afterword she talks about specific people and stores/libraries. i love that this is a little love song to indie bookstores. i didn't love the format of the book or, particularly, the way the story was written. but of course i can get behind a book about saving an indie bookstore. it just wasn't anything special, but it was fine. ( )

A entertaining book about a bookstore and the the people who work there. An Interesting and creative approach, to life’s ups and downs.
Irma a single mother with two daughters- Bree and Laney- and Elliot a gay man who is the creative brains behind the bookstores success.
Elliot suddenly passes, and Irma is left with a store she isn’t sure she still wants. A developer offers to buy the store and Irma agrees, throwing everyone into a frenzy wondering why she agreed to sell and what is really going on.
The way the story is told is very creative although a bit over the top.
In the end everything is explained and everyone is happy. ( )

A fun, quick read about a beloved local book store under threat from developers. More importantly The Book Haters' Book Club is about the family who own the store, and the community who patronize it. How they come together to fight for it, as well as grieve for the loss of Nestor and Elliot.

Lots of dialog, and crying, and flirting, and book recommendations.

Fun plot and characters with intriguing bit of mystery to keep it all going. A good story about saving a bookstore. ( )

Ding ding ding! LibraryThing has served up a winner! I loved this book, and have ordered up a copy for my library. Gretchen Anthony serves up a great story, well written, with delightful interludes between chapters, that for me, elevated this book from ‘good’ to ‘really, I’m enjoying the heck out of this’. Some of the interludes add a bit of backstory to what’s going on, as well as a bit of depth. Truly, without these, I think the book would still be good, but average, and I’d argue that Anthony’s best writing is found here.

The dynamics between the mother and her daughters here hits close to home for me, so I enjoyed the dip into the familiar, and I loved watching how they conspired to save the bookstore. Laney has all the best lines, and I’ll admit I found Bree a bit too fragile for my tastes, but she finds her own in the end. The conflict at the beginning of the story isn’t the real conflict of the book, but even so its resolution was stunningly anticlimactic. Making it more realistic wouldn’t have really added anything to the real story, so I have no problem over looking it.

It’s just a fun book and well worth investigating if you’re in the mood for some heartfelt entertainment. ( )