The Reading List

Sara Nisha Adams’ book The Reading List is a story that illustrates the power of a good book.

Two years after his wife’s death, Mukesh finds a library book that she checked out. She was always reading so he decides to read it to remember his wife. Never before a fiction reader, Mukesh is pulled into the story and it characters as well as feeling closer Naina. When he finishes, he will go to the local library and ask for a recommendation for another book.

Aleisha is working in the library for the summer before her last year of school. She is only there on the urging of her brother who was always in the library growing up. She herself does not really read.

Someone in the Wembley neighborhood of West London has handwritten a reading list titled In Case You Need It. Though no one realizes there is more than one copy, a few people find it. One library patron finds the list on the table next to him. Aleisha finds a copy in a returned book. Someone else finds it on the back of a receipt outside of the shopping center.

Each of the people who find the list start reading their way through the books. Each book has lessons to share as well as some of the best characters in fiction. The list will slowly bring these people together, as the creator of the list intended.

Adams’ book is beautiful. Buy a copy today or check it out of the library. It is a book you will love and then recommend to a friend.

Adams, Sara Nisha. (2021). The Reading List. New York: William Morrow.