The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Don't we all love a list? Especially, if it is a reading list? What happens to people when a reading list seems to appear at all impossible places, urging people to read the books on it?

"When Aleisha discovers a crumpled reading list tucked into a tattered library book, it sparks an extraordinary journey.

For the list fins Aleisha just when she needs it most, the stories transporting her away from everything - her loneliness, her troubles at home - one page at a time. And when widower Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha introduces him to the magic of the reading list. An anxious teenager and a lovely grandfather forming an unlikely book club of two.

Some stories never leave you.

And some change your life, forever."

Aleisha has accepter a summer job at the library. She really wanted to work in a clothes shop, but had to take what was available. Without knowing it, her rather unhappy life is about to change. And, which event is the turning factor?  It is a reading list that pops out of a book. At about the same time and older gentleman, Mukesh, arrives to the library in order to start reading. Anything that helps him  connect with his granddaughter. Aleisha, who does not know anything about books, remembers the reading list and recommends the first book on the list.

"Mukesh turned to the front page of To Kill a Mockingbird and noticed the Brent Council Libraries sheet, full of black, splotchy dates. So many! It was strange, the idea that this book wasn't just for him, it was for everyone. All these people who had taken it out before him, people who would take it out after him. They might have read it on a beach, on the train, on the bus, in the park, in their living room. On the toilet? He hoped not! Every reader, unknowingly connected in some small way. He was about to be a part of this too."

Now we are all curious which books are on that list, right? 

As times pass, the reading list seems to change life for a lot of people, which is what I think is so wonderful about this novel. It is a story about ordinary people and their daily life problems. I think most of us can relate to several characters. We follow Aleisha and her sick mother and loving brother Aidan. Mukesh, who is devastated over his wife's death, his relationship with his three daughters and grandchildren. It is a wonderfully woven story of family and friendship, how to find new goals in life. They don't always have to be grand. One can say it is a feel-good novel, but with a serious touch to the stories. In the end, what unites people is the reading and discussions on books. 

"Her heart caught in her throat. She pictured Mr P, telling her about this book, about how it had helped him. 'The books show us the world; they don't hide it.' She imagined Aidan, sitting his same spot, reading it. Had she even seen him read it? How recently had he read it?"

Aleisha has to read the books in order to discuss them with Mukesh. Mukesh is not a avid reader and don't always understand the books. The discussions these two have is one of the highlights of the book.  It gives you another perspective on the book if you have read it.

Sara Nisha Adams tells a gripping history of people, their sorrows and their happiness. How we can learn from each other, how we can help each other in time of need. It is also a story about one habit, reading, that can help connect to other people. With a book one is, maybe, never entirely alone. I loved the story. The characters are so well described and in the end, they are all your friends.