Lo strano caso dell'apprendista libraia

by Deborah Meyler, Claudia Marseguerra (Translator)

Esme ama ogni angolo di New York e soprattutto il suo posto speciale: The Owl, la piccola libreria nell'Upper West Side. Un luogo magico in cui si narra che Pynchon amasse passare pomeriggi d'inverno. Un luogo che può nascondere insoliti tesori, come una prima edizione del Vecchio e il mare di Hemingway.
Tra quei vecchi e polverosi scaffali Esme si sente felice. Ed è lì che il destino ha deciso di sorriderle. Sulla vetrina della libreria è appeso un cartello: cercasi libraia. E' l'occasione che aspettava, il lavoro di cui ha tanto bisogno. Perchè a soli ventitrè anni è incinta e non sa cosa fare:il fidanzato Mitchell l'ha lasciata prima che potesse parlargli del bambino.
La più grande passione di Esme è la lettura, ma non ha nessuna idea di come funzioni una libreria. Eppure ad aiutarla ci sono i suoi curiosi colleghi: George che crede ancora che le parole possano cambiare il mondo, Linda che ha un consiglio per tutti, David e il suo sogno di fare l'attore. E poi c'è Luke timido e taciturno che comunica con lei con la sua musica, con le note della sua chitarra.
Sono loro ad insegnarle la difficile arte di indovinare i desideri dei lettori: Il Mago di Oz può salvare una giornata storta, Il giovane Holden fa vedere le cose da una nuova prospettiva e tra le opere di Shakespeare si trova sempre una risposta per ogni domanda.
E proprio quando Esme riesce di nuovo a guardare al futuro con fiducia, la vita la sorprende ancora: Mitchell scopre del bambino e vuole tornare da lei. Esme si trova davanti a un bivio: non sa più se è quello che vuole davvero.
Ma a volte basta la pagina di un libro, una melodia sussurrata, una chiacchierata a cuore aperto con un nuovo amico per capire chi si è veramente. Ed Esme non è più un'apprendista libraia, ora è una libraia per scelta.

Genres: Fiction, Books About Books, Romance, Chick Lit, Contemporary, New York, Adult Fiction

341 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2013

About the author

I was born in the grim but friendly north, in Manchester, within sight and hearing and inhalation distance of the M62, one of the busiest motorways in the country. You can also see the Pennine hills from my bedroom window, which is still my bedroom window because my mum still lives there.

Things ticked along merrily for 17 years and then I went to Trinity College, Oxford. I chose it because the photograph in the Oxford handbook looked nice. I didn't think I had a chance of getting in really, and nor, encouragingly, did my teachers. I like to think they thought that this was more about class and previous lack of good schooling than innate dimness.

More later...

Now, where was I. Oh yes, I went to Oxford, and it was immensely pleasurable. I fell in love, and remain in love, with Oxford. So let me plunge headlong into the cliche of Brideshead, and quote Evelyn Waugh, where Charles is talking of the texts he has neglected; "I remember no syllable of them now, but the other, more ancient, lore which I acquired that term will be with me in one shape or another to my last hour."

After Oxford I did an M.Phil at St Andrews University, under the supervision of Phillip Mallett. It was on the commodification of women in late nineteenth century American fiction, supposedly, but actually became a thesis on Edith Wharton. St Andrews is another place that it is easy to fall headlong for.

Next I won a scholarship from The Guardian to go to City University, to do a post-graduate diploma in journalism. And after that I messed up a bit by coming to America, where my husband had been offered a job by Cambridge University Press. I wasn't allowed to work at first, which caused some loneliness, but then I got a job in a bookshop, and all was well.

After that I had three babies, and decided, in my great folly, that it was a good idea to stay off work entirely while they were little, and so resent them wildly for the atrophying of my mind. I'm kidding. I didn't resent them. I did resent the piety and wrongheadedness that made me think it was a good idea to opt out of working entirely - it works for lots of women but I found it very very hard.

I don't know if this autobiography is too long, but I am enjoying myself. My two older children got bigger and went to school. I put my littlest daughter into nursery for two hours or so a day, and decided I would write in good earnest. I wrote a book that is under my bed, because I was just warming up and it is all right but not quite good enough, and then I wrote The Bookstore. I enjoyed writing it hugely, despite the difficulty of overcoming idleness every day. Through the very kind offices of a friend named Siobhan Garrigan, I got an agent, who is a tremendously wise person despite her great youth, and she took it from there. Now I am organising my thoughts and ideas for a new book.

I work part time in a parish church in the middle of Cambridge.

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no clue why I finished this book. I did it though. I always feel guilty if I don't make it through an ARC so I guess that prodded me on.
The main character Esme..good grief. The woman is living in New York working on her PHD for Gawd's sake. You think she would have a brain in her head. She does not even come close. Let that man walk all over you sister..while you whine that you love him. Make me sick.

I so wanted to just say walk away from his ass. You can raise a baby. Quit giving women a bad name!
Then there is Mitchell. This asshole has got to be one of my all time hates in a love interest. I can't even say he was the love interest. He was the sperm donor. That is all. He dumps her, finds out she is pregnant, comes back to try and make her choose between him or having the baby. Then Mr. Charming decides he wants to marry her. What does she do?? Frigging agrees.
She should have been saying this to him instead.

This book was supposed to be about a bookstore. There is some bookstore in it but it takes a backseat to this excuse of a love story. I may puke.
Then while Esme is pregnant she constantly whines about not being able to have a drink.

I hope that I have better sense next time and just slam the kindle shut if I pick up a book as bad as this.
I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm guessing this is about as honest as it gets.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this advanced copy sent to the store I work at. A free book does not a great review make.

Oh, boy. I wanted to love it. I work in a bookstore, so I was looking forward to quirky customer stories, and odd coworker stories, and finding a family of fellow booklovers who will bolster Esme and support her through her pregnancy until the doodlehead boyfriend comes to his senses.

Yeah, well, NO.

Esme seemed sweet. Impressionable, yes, a bit naive, yes, but not dumb. Cambridge and Columbia for art history. It's very specific, very subjective, and to the un-art-educated (like me) can seem a bit pretentious. I was looking forward to a bit of art history so I could maybe understand it better, and talking about the paintings that she was doing her thesis on, but her scads of work and many many lectures were barely touched upon, skimmed by, and by the end when Esme was presenting her major paper, it was hardly discussed at all.

When she got a job in the bookstore, I was dying to hear the author's hilarious customer stories put into these characters. Alas, no. It was mostly sad/rough stories about the various homeless men that frequented the store and vicinity. Even her colleagues seemed pale characters. Luke who plays guitar, Bruce who... does something, and David? maybe? Whoever the teenager was. Lots of B-names and lots of D-names, and they started to run together. Get a book of baby names (haha!) and pick some other letter for some variety.

Then there's Mitchell. Holy crap, manipulative bastard rich entitled man-child with absolutely no impulse control and as presented, had no redeeming qualities except an inherited bank account. There was not even a euphemistic version of a roll in the hay to illustrate him as an amazing lover to make even that part bearable. There is no conceivable reason for Esme to love him except that she's grateful he pays attention to her when it's convenient to him. He's a complete arse to her, at one point almost knocking a 6-month pregnant Esme out of bed on "accident" because she was trying to be loving on her terms.

So, that leaves Esme. Good grief honey, grow a f***ing pair of balls and see Mitchell for the complete jerk he is and DUMP HIM. You're supposed to be a clever girl. I never got any sense of her personality from the whole book. Fish out of water, British girl abroad, in the beginning. Then even that awkward sense fades and she's just there. Not talking about art, not learning about music or books, not seeming to have any worries or wonderments about the baby but just "oh dearie me, Mitchell hasn't texted, whatever shall I do?" Even her concern for lacking money fades away as she lets Mitchell jerk her around for 300 pages.

Their relationship is not quite as abusive as Bella and Edward's (and thank heavens this is not a four book series) but I was hoping for so much more than this offered in the end. I would not wish a miscarriage on any human in real life, but I found myself sincerely hoping this character would, just so she could go on with her life.

Skip this and read something else.

[Medini · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Every blink is an elegy.’

This was very reminiscent of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, but instead of a bookseller protagonist, this one has a young woman, who finds unlikely sanctuary in The Owl, a second-hand bookstore.

Esme is a young English girl, studying art history in Columbia, New York, where she somehow can’t shake off the feeling that she’s perpetually a fish out of water. In her strange new environment, she meets and begins a relationship with an economics professor, Mitchell, who’s ten years older than her.

As the book started off, I found it to be cold and clinical, like an analysis, stating the emotions, but holding me at arm length, preventing me from actually feeling anything. But as I delved deeper and got used to the author’s style of writing, I appreciated its restrained manner and quiet humor. It’s subtle, slow paced and peaceful. Not in a sleep-inducing way, mind you. The writing makes you think and the author’s words come alive so effortlessly in your imagination, but it isn’t flowery or overwhelming.

‘Her manner of speaking has some sort of affinity with dandelion clocks- her words float gently in the powdery air of her living room without any seeming intent.’

Esme is such a wonderful character. She appears meek and shy initially, but is in fact so much more than anyone gives her credit. Her worries, her fears, her apprehensions and even her most intimate thoughts are laid bare for us to witness. I normally don’t like this, but here it has worked wonders.

Also, I wasn’t expecting this book to be funny, but it was. Not like rolling-on-the-floor-with-tears-of-laughter type, but more like an occasional chuckle.

‘Everyone congratulates the pregnant woman. So I congratulate the girl. She smiles, but looks embarrassed. The man smiles too, and rubs his other hand on her rounded tummy.
“Thanks,” he says, “but we had our baby two days ago.”
“Oh-well, then- more congratulations!” I say.

I hope there isn’t another one in there that they’ve not noticed.’

The name of this book might be ‘The Bookstore’, but it largely focuses on the toxic relationship between Esme and Mitchell. All of us know that one friend/relative who’s in a relationship with someone who’s emotionally abusive or cold and manipulative, but Mitchell beats them all. I’ve never read anyone like him before. His character study was fascinating, but horrifying and cringe-worthy at the same time. Mitchell finds it okay to lust after girls in Esme’s presence even though she finds it uncomfortable. At one point he suggests a threesome with another girl they meet at a coffee shop and when Esme refuses, he stops talking to her. On top of this, Esme blames herself for this incident when they break up. She’s a human being with basic rights! Of course she can refuse something she doesn’t want, you sick scumbag! Seriously WTH? Do people like this exist?

‘He is beautiful and cold and hard as the diamond in his ring. If I were watching this scene play out in a movie or in a book, I would be willing the heroine to say no with all my heart.’

The Owl itself is so cute and the motley crowd of unlikely allies (especially George and Luke) in there is just adorable. I can’t pretend I got all the book references, maybe ‘coz I’m not as well-read as I thought I was.

The end was kind of anticlimactic for my tastes, but that’s just me. I can’t help myself; I need closure at the end of every book which wasn’t there here, especially with regard to the non-progression of the unnamed relationship between Esme and Luke.

“These books…,” she begins, and stops. I am frightened; for her, for myself decades from now, struggling to retain dignity with two strangers as they take away my books. I can see the straight line to her grave, to mine.

At its heart, The Bookstore is all about the love we have for physical copies, the uncontrollable urge to press our noses into books for its characteristic musty smell, the fear that Amazon will soon replace bookstores, the very need to read as if our very life depends on it… I’m sure all book lovers will relate!

[Angie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

My taste in books is varied, preferring literary fiction most of the time, but I do partake in reading two or three chick-lit books a year. Sometimes I find them shallow and silly, but every once in awhile I find a character I fall in love with… Esme, the 23-year-old, British transplant seeking her PhD in art history at Columbia, is definitely one of those characters. She’s intelligent (she would have to be to capture a full scholarship at Columbia), but young and terribly naïve in the ways of the world, particularly the ways of love. It’s this combination of personality traits that won my heart in The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler.

The story begins with Esme coming to terms with an unplanned pregnancy. Soon she seeks employment at The Owl, a used bookstore, barely holding its head above water in the current world of the e-commerce and e-readers. It’s here that Esme finds an odd mix of friends and co-workers who will ground her during this unexpected turn her life has taken.

The cast of characters is lovable as well. I’d even go so far as to say there’s not a bad one in the bunch… Oh, except for Esme’s boyfriend and his wealthy, entitled family. They will turn your heart cold, and for good reason.

New York City, the setting of The Bookstore, is a character in this story as well. The energy and diversity of Manhattan will make you yearn to visit the city with fresh, young eyes.

The Bookstore is a modern story. Esme finds herself unexpectedly pregnant early in the novel. Because of this you should expect a good bit of reflection on whether she should have the baby. If this sort of rumination is difficult for you to handle, I suggest you skip The Bookstore completely. For those who venture in, this story offers many scenes that sparkle and shine... You’ll also get to see these characters grow, as life and its challenges mold them. What more can you ask from a novel.

Highly Recommended. 4****

Note: I received an advance copy of The Bookstore from Gallery Books for review, but my thoughts here are an honest expression of my reaction to this novel.

[Lyndsey O'Halloran · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I saw this one on NetGalley I thought it would be the perfect book for me. As a lover of books and quirky old book shops, I was instantly interested in finding out more about one set in New York. This was a really strange book from beginning to end. At points, I really struggled to keep going and was tempted to put it down but the strangeness is what kept me going. I wanted to find out how much more ridiculous it could get.

I just could not get my head around how stupid protagonist Esme was. Somehow she’s supporting herself through studying in New York. She has a super-rich boyfriend who is an absolute arse to her but she’s determined to stay with him because she just can’t see what an idiot he is. When he does find out about the baby, he tries to get her to have an abortion, acts like an arse once again and then at some point, proposes in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Honestly, who would have stayed with a man like that. Esme, that’s who.

So, after Esme finds out that she’s pregnant, she talks her way into having a part time job at The Owl, a pretty run down second-hand book shop which is pretty much filled with crazy people. I have no idea why anyone would have taken Esme on considering she only has a student visa and she’s pregnant. Surely that would never happen. Not only that, but the book shop has nice enough staff but seems to become a second home to homeless guys and drunks. Not the safest place for a pregnant lady to be hanging out now is it? There are plenty of situations and events that happen while Esme is at work and I just didn’t understand what was going on. She’s often alone with one of the homeless guys who then tells her to go get something to eat five blocks away and to leave the shop with him. Who would do that?!

So, with a mix of insane characters you would think that this book would have an amazing plot to make up for that… but it doesn’t. The plot pretty much is just about Esme making bad decisions in regards to her pregnancy and her future with Mitchell. There is nothing funny or even remotely exciting about The Bookstore and instead, it was just weird. I can’t really recommend this one because even though I finished it, I didn’t really enjoy it.

[Chaitra · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is, hands down, the worst book I've read this year. That's saying something, given how picky I am. The only (maybe) positive thing about the book is that I'm not the target audience. As usual I got suckered in by the promise of a book about books. And I didn't think that a single mom-to-be making it alone would hurt. How wrong I was!

There's nothing really right with the book. Not even the title. The Bookstore Doormat would have been more appropriate. There's a pregnant woman, and the man she "wuvs" after about three weeks of sex with him. She stays in "wuv" with him throughout her pregnancy during which she has to take a jilting, exhortations to abort the baby, a proposal immediately followed by douchebaggery, payment to abort the baby, hissy fits, an order to get in a threesome when she's six months pregnant, more hissy fits, and finally an ultimate jilting. Thank heavens that the man isn't interested in this bimbo anymore, or else there would be more of the same.

A vapid personality, no common sense and absolutely no self respect. These seem to be the "qualities" that our lovely heroine has. This ostrich-headedness isn't limited to her relationship. She and her bookstore boss talk about a (poor) person whose rent went up by seven and a half percent. "That isn't much", comes the response from the Columbia scholarship-holder who thinks if a person can afford a dollar, they can afford seven and a half cents more. If this was a real person I was talking to, I would have smacked them silly. The things that come out of her mouth! And being British, I'd think she would be more aware of classism than an average American would, but no - she's oblivious, even after a 1001 not at all subtle hints.

I have no idea why this is termed "chick lit". It's written for self-satisfied, smug men. No matter how badly they treat a woman, the woman will always be there when and where they want her to be. The writing barely goes beyond pedestrian, the plotting is atrocious, the characters other than lover girl and boy are stock and not interesting. Her pregnancy? All the bad things seem to happen to her, but at the end the baby is born. Yay. I'm truly sorry for the baby. 1 star and if I'm lucky, I'll forget I ever read this.

Edit. Darling Esme happens to want a job. She is pregnant and has no work visa. The first place she goes to, she explains all these things, and the owner of said place says, and I paraphrase, "you sound like our perfect employee" and gives her a job. I'm pregnant, and I don't have a work visa. I should try this technique out in the nearest bookstore with the dead owl dust. Who am I to say no to a job which pays me 70 bucks a day to lose all book sale proceeds to a homeless person I left in-charge while I went to get coffee?

I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

[Keetha]

A better title would have been, "A Twenty-Three Year Old Art Student at Columbia Gets Pregnant by a Guy Who Is a Caricature of a Complete Jerk, and She Remains in Love With Him For No Discernible Reason Until He Dumps Her for a Second Time, at Which Point She Has the Baby and Realizes Real Love Was Right in Front of Her Eyes in the Form of a Sensitive Guitar-Playing Co-Worker at the Bookstore Where They Both Work."

George, who owned the bookstore, was the most interesting person in the book.

[Mina De Caro (Mina's Bookshelf) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my 4.5 stars review on MINA'S BOOKSHELF http://minadecaro.blogspot.com/2013/0...
I managed to do with this book something I haven't been able to achieve in a very long time...reading the whole thing in one uninterrupted sitting. Yes, it was that good and engaging. And it's a debut novel, so kudos to this British author for finding her distinctive voice and her way to my 'bookworm heart' at her first release. The Bookstore had several features that appealed to my reader's sensitivity: the introspective tones, the numerous literary references, the heroine's personality (sweet, naive, and yet smart and articulate), the vivid characterization of supporting cast (all extremely likable, humane, memorable, and three-dimensional in their quirkiness), strong sense of space and the loving portrayal of a community (New York, The Owl bookstore and its patrons) that shields and supports Esme throughout her heartaches and some difficult life-altering decisions. I think that labeling Deborah Meyler's debut novel as 'fluffy chick lit' doesn't really do justice to the graceful and intelligent outpouring of emotions that the author delivered in quite an effortless way: The Bookstore reads easily and pleasantly. Had the author pulled the strings of Esme's emotional resolution a little more tightly at the end, it would have been just perfect. I will certainly read more from this author. A very promising debut.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

So. I don't usually read books that involve pregnancy, childbirth or kids, but the summary for this book intrigued me, so I decided to give it a shot.

I probably should have stuck to my rule.

I liked Esme, until she went back on her original decision and became that woman who said she'd do one thing and then turned around and did the opposite. I realize love blinds you to a person's faults, but there's only so many times I can stick with a person's decision before it just becomes moronic. Unfortunately for Esme, she fell into moronic territory about halfway through the book.

I liked the bookstore and the quirky customers and employees there. Luke was really the only reason I kept reading to the end, even though it was an anti-ending.

I wouldn't recommend this book, unless I knew someone liked the type of story that trailed along as a person experienced different things and grew a bit until the story kind of puttered out to a vague ending. I don't actually know someone who likes that (well, maybe my mother), but in case I ever do, I have this book on stand-by.

[Allen Michie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Bookstore” is a novel with a powerful emotional honesty that is at turns hilarious, uncomfortable, and deeply moving. Deborah Meyler has created a heroine in Esme Garland who sees a spectrum of New York life, from the starving homeless to the arrogant New England aristocracy, through observant eyes and an intuitive heart.

Of course Esme doesn’t always make the best decisions. It wouldn’t be much of a novel if she did. Readers looking for a flawless, reason-based trajectory from dating to marriage are looking in the wrong place here, and for that matter in any other contemporary novel. “The Bookstore” isn’t a photo-realistic story of a young woman coming of age in the big city. That’s been done before, and we know how that story usually begins and ends. Like the cake paintings of Wayne Thiebaud that Esme studies as a Columbia graduate student, “The Bookstore” is a more impressionistic novel about life in sharper colors: Esme’s center of gravity is the sweetness of life and a stubborn (and sometimes maddening) optimism, but always with blurred lines around the edges suggesting another kind of reality waiting beneath the sugar coating.

This novel resists easy categorization, and it will frustrate readers who only want it to do one thing. It is a romance novel in a way, as characters fall in love, but it isn’t designed to have a conventional love triangle or resolution. It is a novel about the easy charms of second-hand bookstores in a way, as it has many lovingly drawn scenes that take place there, but it isn’t designed to be a nostalgic novel about simpler times gone by. It is a “chick lit” book in a way, as it is a first-person narrative of an emotionally alert and eccentric young woman getting in over her head, but the heroine isn’t designed to ultimately embrace her own merry self-interest. This is a political novel in a way, as the effects of economic disparity and reproductive choice ripple across every chapter, but the story isn’t designed to demonize or advocate any single decision free from the context of life’s untidy asymmetries.

A better way to read “The Bookstore” is to take your path through it as you would in, say, a real bookstore. You may start in the Romance section but then find yourself wandering into the Art History section, finding sparkling poetic passages describing the early morning sights and smells of the New York storefront groceries, or the sea air and morning sunlight filtering through the gauzy curtains of a vacation home in the Hamptons. Then you’ll wander into the Literary Criticism section for reflections on how a life can be so deeply enriched by books that are like good friends (and good friends who are like good books). Then the Cookbooks. Then the Parenting section. Then a turn through the Gardening, Music, Architecture, and Theology sections. Looking back on the path Esme makes, and that you as a reader make with her, you can see a pattern.

What is that pattern? It’s about noticing things—really noticing them, and appreciating passing moments for their truth and fragility. For example, there’s a passage early in the novel about a tiny wooden sculpture of a tree that Esme finds in the bookstore. “This must be saved, this particular thing, this very tree,” she says, quoting one of the neglected old books in the shop. She preserves the little tree on a shelf, and I kept expecting Meyler to return to it, giving it a role in the unfolding story. It wasn’t necessary to come back to it—the novel as a whole makes it clear that exquisite beauty is found in the simple existence of things, especially things outside of ourselves that can so unexpectedly become the most important things inside of ourselves.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bookstore
by
Deborah Meyler

My" in a nutshell" summary...

A young woman, an sort of a bit older man, a bookstore and a baby...a formula for complicated lives...

My thoughts after reading this book...

My thoughts are warm and fuzzy after reading this book. It was lovely...and took place in my favorite city...NYC! Esme is British and is in NYC working on her PHD at Columbia. She meets and falls in love with Mitchell...Mitchell is older, wealthy, secretive, cold and I knew from the start that Esme needed to drop him...but I also knew that Esme wouldn't. She is enthralled and believes in the power of love plus she gets preggers...by Meanie Mitchell. This isn't a spoiler, either...it's in the summary.
Before she has a chance to tell him...he dumps her. This is where all of the wonderfulness in this book begins!

Esme decides to keep her baby and continue on with her life without Meanie Mitchell but he pops back in...darn! Esme goes to work at this very lovely quirky bookstore called The Owl. The characters in and around the store are wonderful...cherishable...sad...and quirky.

I love Esme and the bookstore characters.

What I loved most about this book...

It was just so NYC name dropping lovely. Coffee shops, museums, Sarabeth's, Zabar's...cabs...everything about Esme's life in the city was delightful! When she zipped to Zabar's and bought dinner...cold poached salmon, rocket salad, dense chocolate cake...OMG...I dashed out to Whole Foods and bought the same dinner. Esme was so admirable...so unique...the only thing she was stupid about was Mitchell.

What I did not love about this book...

Mitchell and his family...except for Uncle Beeky...were the most despicable people in fictional history! But that made this book so good!

Final thoughts...

Readers who love a long lovely narrative with fascinating characters and lots of old book and author references will love this book.

I can honestly say it's one of my favorites this year!

[Anita Baião · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel real sympathy for the author after reading her Goodreads profile and her interview in the end of the book.

However I felt that this book is trying to push itself away from chicklit just by dropping a huge array names that the majority of readers has not heard of in an attempt to look smart. When that happens, most of the readers don't understand the references (which are actually very smart indeed) and are not able to connect with Esmee or the other characters.

Esmee is doing her PhD, I can relate with her struggles and academic dreams but I didn't feel anything for her or any of the other characters.

The whole book revolves about other people's feelings towards her and I did not see r felt any warmth. Every emotional scene felt extremely detached.

Brooding tortured Mitchell was a regular douche bag, but his attitudes did not make any sense. If a smart person like Esmee had met someone like him she had run!

Luke... Another brooding and detached man. However, the only interactions he has with Esmee are kind and warm and we are only aware he "doesn't like her" because she repeats it endlessly.

Also there are random sentences in the middle of Esmee's mental ramblings that are completely misplaced or maybe I just did not understand them at all.

Despite all this, I loved the New York descriptions and the connection Esmee has with her baby.

I feel Deborah Myler can write much better books, however she has to work more in the way the readers can connect to her characters.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful ode to books and New York
The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler is a wonderful ode to books, bookshops and New York. Like all good authors Meyler has included plenty of her life experiences and loves and especially a love for New York City. A born and bred Mancunian who after Oxford and St Andrews Universities lived out in New York a city she fell in love with and that comes through in the novel.

Esme Garland our protagonist in the story is a 23 year old art history graduate of the world famous Cambridge University has won a scholarship to Columbia to study for a doctorate. Thousands of miles from home she falls in love with an economics lecture, Mitchell who is from old money in New York. Their relationship is very much an on/off relationship and she finds herself pregnant and alone. She decides she will keep the baby and looks for work to help support the child alongside her university studies. She finds employment at The Owl a second hand bookstore, a place where she has looked in a number of times.

Throughout the book with love being an unreliable force with Mitchell it is The Owl that provides her with a crook to hold on to and find a definition of love and hope. It is Owl in Manhattan that provides her with a refuge from the world outside where she loves the books, the customers and her co workers. There are so many wonderful literary references throughout the novel it helps to make the book very comforting.

This is a wonderful book a masterful debut novel that some people have wrongly labelled chick lit it is many things it is not chick lit! This is a beautifully written witty debut novel from Deborah Meyler that is an ode to love, love of a child, the love of books and the love of characters that surround themselves around books.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough – the pleasure last from the first to the last page a wonderful story.

[Obsidian · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at page 75 of 352.

This was so boring to me. I literally kept nodding off. The writing to me was overwrought, boring, and the character of Esme had no substance to her at all. Reading about a young woman who seems hell bent on staying with a man that does not love her and her trying to force a relationship on him was just not interesting.

[Aly is so frigging bored · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC courtesy of Edelweiss and Gallery Books

Unfortunately I DNFd this book. The blurb sounded great: a woman who moved to New York City to write her PHD and through a series of unfortunate circumstances she starts working in a used bookstore. I expected quirky and sweet. That wasn’t what I got…

The heroine bordered on the Mary Sue type, she just let her idiot older boyfriend walk all over her and I didn’t have the patience to see if she wised up. The writing style was more about telling then showing and I just had enough of descriptions over descriptions. Most of the secondary characters seemed a little flat and I really tried to like them and to care what happened to them but I just couldn’t.

All in all I might have liked the book if I were in a better mood or, I don’t know, didn’t have such high expectations of it.

PS: I mostly downloaded the ARC for the pretty cover[I never learn]

[Jessica J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

"A witty, sharply observed debut novel about a young woman who finds unexpected salvation while working in a quirky used bookstore in Manhattan."

That right there? Whoever wrote that marketing copy deserves a prize for best fiction writing of the year. This novel is neither witty nor sharply observed. Nope, it's tedious and dull. I mean, if anyone should appreciate a lighthearted tale about a young woman finding herself while working at a bookstore, it's me. That's kind of the story of my life. But this? I couldn't get past the first fifteen pages.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Centralized on womanhood and books, The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler focuses on Esme Garland, a British student studying in New York who finds herself in a quagmire - pregnant and jilted. Dejected by Mitchell van Leuven her blue-blooded boyfriend, Esme resorts to working in quaint bookstore, The Owl. Though she finds solace in the microcosm the bookstore provides, Esme has a lot to consider. Whether it is keeping the baby or giving Mitchell a second chance, readers see the various choices that Esme has to make as she progresses. Though reading of her Esme's hardships never bored me, The Bookstore failed to leave any sort of an impression on me - as much as it tried to.

Studious and charming, Esme is quite the witty character who is studying for her PhD in Art History at Columbia University. With an inherent sarcasm, readers are led to believe that she thrives in independence. Throughout the rest of The Bookstore though, readers are presented with a main character who is fickle and dependent. One example that accentuates this is her constant back-and-forth with Mitchell. Arrogant and disloyal, Mitchell shows blatant signs that he is not in love with her. He is simply a mass manipulator, and seeing Esme duped by his ostensible charm left me frustrated. One moment Esme never wants to date Mitchell again, the next she is eating dinner in a five-star restaurant with him. Because of this I could not enjoy Esme's inherent sarcasm and wittiness. I feel that they failed to genuinely compliment her character.Despite her poor decision-making, reading of her progress, even at its retrogressive points, was intriguing. At times, she did redeem herself by taking control of her life.

Esme's coworkers at The Owl are quite flat. Though they are secondary characters, they are active throughout the plot. One would expect characterization of advantage. Unfortunately, I did not learn too much about them at all. Whatever traits were presented ending up being drilled. The owner George is a chatty vegan, who deems The Owl an antiquated bookstore, and not a secondhand one.Luke, who serves as a potential love interest for Esme, is very shady. He keeps to himself and his guitar, and when he does talk to Esme it is about music. Readers do see him progress from his reservedness as he assists Esme when she is sick due to her pregnancy. Mitchell is the cliche rich boy living off inheritance and being an arrogant asshat to all. He is possessive and selfish, disloyal and proud. He is an unlikeable character, and stereotypical at that. These overall qualities of the secondary characters were repetitively portrayed, to the point where their presence became boring and predictable. I did enjoy the dynamics provided by this array of quirky characters though.

A major aspect that really irked me throughout The Bookstore, besides its wishy-washy characterization, was its showiness that is reflected in the narrative and dialogue writing. Simply put, The Bookstore suffers from unnecessary verbosity. Though I am enthusiastic about expanding my vocabulary, I found the writing to be pretentious. At times, even archaic words were used in dialogue which read unnaturally. Eloquence is beautiful, but in The Bookstore it is overdone - as if it exists to impress and to sound cultured.  Ironically, sometimes, the dialogue is very juvenile and rudimentary, lacking creative words, such as the constant use of "say" and its variations when identifying interlocutors. This clunky writing definitely slowed down the novel's pace. The most basic actions, become incoherent, droning sentences. It felt like just too much detail. Sometimes though, a passage exhibiting ornate, yet powerful writing appears:

"One age might pass over what another prized, and the next age might then revere it. Museums and libraries are in place, of course, to keep them safe through the neglect, but the museums and libraries have a flotilla of insignificant vessels that are just as vital. Secondhand bookshops are some of the tugs that can bring the bounty safely to harbor. The Owl is small, and it is definitely shabby, but it is tinged with lofty purpose."
-Location 78 of 4185 (uncorrected proof)

For some, such metaphors are unnecessary, but for me, with moderation they can show an author's masterful use of language. Literary allusions and bookish peeves are reveal themselves and are sure to leave readers chuckling when they can relate, and intrigued where they cannot. Overall though, the writing in The Bookstore lacks fluidity and naturalness due to its long windedness.

In a nutshell, The Bookstore did leave my eyes glazing with its insipid characters and writing for most of the time. It was slow-paced and pretentious. However, I did like being taken into a realm of literature extended by the Owl. It did not grip me, but I was comfortable in a complex way. It also presents challenges that are definitely realistic, such as Esme's unexpected pregnancy and the increasing outflow of brick-and-mortar bookstores.

[Olga Godim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m usually leery of literary novels, but this one was about a bookstore, at least according to the title. I’m a book lover. I had to read it. Was it really about a bookstore? No. Was it literary? Oh, yes. And like with many literary novels, I’m a bit confused in my impressions. I can’t say that I loved it and I can’t say that I didn’t. Somewhere in between.
The plotline is straightforward. Esme, the protagonist, is studying on a scholarship at Columbia University for her PhD in art history when she discovers she is pregnant. Her glorious boyfriend Mitchell, a charismatic playboy from an old moneyed family, breaks up with her soon after, before she even gets the chance to tell him about the baby. Determined to keep her baby and her place at Columbia, Esme starts working part time for an old secondhand bookstore.
Then Mitchell shows up again and asks for a second chance. Of course, he doesn’t want the baby, but he accepts Esme’s blunt refusal of an abortion. On the surface. He even proposes. Esme should be walking on clouds, but she isn’t. She is clearly unhappy, even though she wouldn’t admit it, even to herself. She keeps telling herself and everyone else that she loves Mitchell, but I can’t get her. Our disagreement about her scum of a boyfriend is at the root of my ambivalence about the novel.
I don’t see love between Esme and Mitchell. In my view, love between two partners is all about understanding and acceptance. And it should be fun, should bring joy and laughter. All of those ingredients are missing from Esme and Mitchell’s relationship. He is a controlling freak, a manipulator, running a game with Esme, pulling her strings. The fact that it was not his decision to keep the baby twists him in knots, and he retaliates repeatedly, but Esme doesn’t fight back. She meekly takes all his verbal cruelties as a given, always forgiving, always finding excuses for him.
I don’t think he loves her; he loves only himself. And Esme doesn’t love him either, not the real man. She loves the idea of love, her fantasy of Mitchell that has nothing to do with reality.
I kept waiting that she would finally see through the cad and leave him, but she never did. Instead, he left her at about 6 months into her pregnancy and wouldn’t even acknowledge the baby, when it came. I’m sure he did a great service to both Esme and the baby; he would’ve been a terrible husband and father, but Esme is suffering from her Mitchell-withdrawal. What a doormat this young woman is.
Mitchell is the only human character in this story sharply defined. Everyone else, including Esme, is blurry, as if their personalities blend together into one amorphous non-Mitchell. They are all nice, kind people, Esme’s friends and the bookstore folks, but interchangeable. The only other great character in the novel is New York, the city where Esme lives and works. She is in love with New York, and her love pours off the page, into the readers’ hearts. And unlike Mitchell, New York reciprocates. It loves Esme and her baby. It welcomes them and nurtures them. They have fun together.
I’ve only visited New York once for a few days, but reading this book felt like another visit. It made me want to travel there again.
Unlike the city, the bookstore is just a background, a colorful backdrop. It allows lots of literary allusions but not really plays any part in the story. It might’ve been an underwear store or a thrift store, and the story would still be the same. So many possibilities wasted with that one.
The action is slow and contemplative, like in most literary novels, but the writing is pretty good, with the occasional flare of insight or rare humor splashes that were a pleasure to read.
Overall, an enjoyable read but nothing outstanding.
3.5 stars, rounded to 4.

[Chris N · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, I really did after reading quite a few good reviews about it but I just couldn't.

I will be honest and say I did not finish this book. I got tired of having to Google so many people to know who and what Esme was talking about, that, and my dictionary got a good work out. The sections talking about artists for Esme's PhD thesis made my eyes glaze over and the fact that Esme was supposed to be an extremely intelligent individual she was so naive about so many things it made me wonder how she survived at all in NYC. She was book smart and street stupid. She just never jumped off the page enough to make me care about her.

Mitchell was written a bit odd for me as well. First he wants to dump Esme and then wants her back. She tells him she's pregnant and he is indignant and outraged that he was never told he was going to be a father and then turns around and wants her to have an abortion.

The parts I did read about the various quirky folks at the bookstore was good but other than that this book fell flat for me on so many levels.

To me there was a lot of detail, too much detail for some things that really didn't need it. I thought that the writer was trying to write an intellectual book, it will appeal to some people but for me it was just too much hard work to not only care about the characters but also to constantly Google things to make it an enjoyable read.

I found myself not caring enough to finish the book and that is a rarity for me.

This is and ARC and was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Esme is 23 yeasr old, transplanted from England to New York, to work on her PhD at Columbia University. She meets Mitchell, 10 years older, and a New York blue blood. She falls in love with him. She also becomes pregnant - oops.

I was really enjoying the book in the first 70 pages of so. I thought it was great when she decided to have the baby despite Mitchell dumping her. Then he comes back, then whatever spine I thought Esme had turned to a wet noodle.

Putting that aside for a minute, I really enjoyed the author's description of New York City and the bookstore itself. I was hoping for more. But the book just became this one long abusive relationship where so much voice was given to Mitchell, someone with borderline personality disorder perhaps, and you just see Esme keep taking this manipulative behaviour. It was so weird that while other characters were introduced, like her friend Stella, that they don't play that much in the story.

Near the end of the book, when Esme showed the baby to Mitchell and was rejected, I still felt she was ready to take him back at this point, or any point. What is the point of the story? Did Esme's character grow? No I didn't think so. The abrupt ending was also very weird. We are led to think there is some future with Luke yet he hasn't been given much of a voice really.

I usually don't write such a long review but I think the story had such potential that I felt my disappointment keenly.

[Ella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vi giuro che se potessi dare a questo libro -5 stelle, lo farei.
Prima di tutto pensavo fosse qualcosa di misterioso, invece mi sono trovata tra le mani un romanzetto rosa """""""""ambientato"""""""" in una libreria.
Nessuno dei personaggi ha senso, nessuno è realistico, ma nessuno è odioso quanto Esme, la protagonista.
Esme, la regina dell'essere una STRONG INDIPENDENT WOMAN, che ovviamente senza un uomo al suo fianco diventa inutile. Oddio, ad essere sinceri lo è anche CON un uomo al suo fianco.
"Mi piace il blu"
"Il blu fa schifo"
"Vero, fa schifo"
Questa è Esme.
Mitchell penso si possa riassumere come "la bruttissimissima copia di Christian Gray, senza il sadomaso". Sì perché è un uomo-pene.
Mi aspettavo che almeno la libreria brulicasse di amore per i libri, invece la protagonista non ha mai sentito nominare Il Mago di Oz, se non per il film. K.
Luke è un fantasma (NB: Luke serve per il """triangolo amoroso"""), dice tre frasi in tutto il libro e per il resto, ovviamente, sguardi intensi.

Oltre a questo, il libro trabocca di cliché, di perbenismi, di idiozia e risulta irrealistico sotto ogni singolo, minuscolo aspetto.

Attenzione perché potreste ritrovarvi con un bel po' di cromosomi in più per osmosi, leggendo di questi poveri idioti.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the descriptions of the bookstore, this was an ode to bookstores everywhere, the books, the smells, captured perfectly. The book descriptions and the quirky characters who inhabit this cozy store. Esme, an art history starts out as an endearing character, one can't help but want good things for her, and as a reader I just wanted to shove Mitchell off a bridge. Unfortunately as the story went on I got a little tired of the lovelorn Esme, and the snake named Mitchell. May answer the question though, "Can one find more than books in a bookstore?" A light, quick and oftentime quirky read, with a little art history thrown in.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Gallery Books and Edelweiss.)
20-something Esme from England is living in a studio apartment in New York while she does her PhD in Art History at Columbia University when she finds out that she is pregnant.
Callously dumped by her boyfriend because the sex wasn’t good, Esme decides to not even both telling him about the baby, but unfortunately he finds out anyway and tries to talk her into an abortion, which Esme doesn’t want.
How far will boyfriend Mitchell go to try and get his way? Can Esme sway him into keeping the baby and being a real family? And is a job at a small bookstore just what she needs?


I don’t even know where to start with this book, it was just bizarre.

The Charaters:
Esme was such a sucker it was ridiculous. How many times can a man be a total eejit and you still love him and want him? How many times do you keep going back for more?
Mitchell was an absolute turd. If it wasn’t bad enough that he dumped Esme because the sex was bad, he then kept trying to talk her into an abortion, and then got his father to try to bribe her into an abortion. Never mind that he then tried to talk her into a threesome, in fact had already set it up when she was 6 months pregnant and had never wanted a threesome in the first place.
The people who came into the bookshop were also pretty certifiable. It was like you had to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic to even make it in the door. This was including, but not limited to the weird woman who threatened to complain to the town hall because they had a stuffed owl in the shop (called ‘The Owl’), and she was ‘breathing in dead owl dust’.

The storyline:
I’m not going to even start on this, instead I’ll just share with you my status updates on Goodreads, which kind of speak for themselves:

7% - she propositions her boyfriend and he tells her he's busy? Time to get a new boyfriend.

8% - she masturbates with a toothbrush? not sure I needed to know that.

10% - she doesn't want sex so he says she can give him a blow job instead?

14% - what an arse wipe.

19% - because everyone wants to hire someone who doesn't have a work visa and is pregnant.

26% - a homeless guy tells her to go to a deli 5 blocks away and that she should eat in, and she doesn't suspect that leaving the bookshop with him might be a bad idea? That he might just rob the place?

37% - So now her "friends" are telling her that she must have gotten pregnant on purpose because there's no such thing as an accident? Nice friends you've got there love.

42% - This bloke is just unbelievable. After trying to trick her into getting an abortion and pressuring her repeatedly, he now pops the question in a crowded restaurant?
Please don't tell me that she says yes!

43% - She said yes. Has she learned nothing?

43% - And now he's moaning about the fact that she wants a sip of wine. It might hurt the baby - the baby that he wanted aborted, and still doesn't really want.

46% - What the hell is wrong with running a cupcake business?

54% - He thinks she should be playing beach volleyball whilst pregnant?

64% - Now his father is trying to bribe her into getting an abortion!

65% - "Such a pretty name, where did you get it?"
Don’t most people get named by their parents at birth? She didn't exactly buy it at Wal-Mart!

73% - She has an awful lot of caffeine for a pregnant woman.

84% - She's six months pregnant and he's trying to talk her into a threesome?!

85% - I think he just told her that loving her makes him contemplate suicide! What a charming man.

88% - Now he's breaking up with her because the relationship is hollow? It's hollow because he is hollow! She's better off without him. What an ass wipe.

88% - "I don't even particularly like you."
Well he liked her enough to get her pregnant!"

89% - And she's still trying to talk him in to marrying her. What is wrong with her?

95% - Well at least she's breastfeeding.

I can honestly say that this book was just strange. I just didn’t get it at all. Mitchell deserved to be strung up, and Esme needed her head testing for continuing to chase him and go along with his plans.

I don’t think I’d recommend this to anybody, it wasn’t even funny, and this ‘family’ that she’s supposed to have made at the bookstore was just a bunch of nutters who all hung around the same place, and didn’t mind too much when a homeless man stole from them. I mean seriously?

If you want to read some women’s fiction, I’d suggest Jodi Picoult or Jane Green, and suggest you steer well clear of this. Oh, and if you’re wondering, the baby was a girl, let’s hope she’s got more sense than her mother.
Overall; a strange women’s fiction story, that wasn’t even funny.
5 out of 10.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esme Garland is studying art history at Columbia and falling in love with New York City. She has her undergraduate degree from Oxford, and has mastered that very English trait of making allusions to literature at all times and in all places. (Did you catch that one?)

Early in her visit to study in the US she meets and falls in love with Mitchell van Leuven, wealthy scion of old New York society. She accidentally becomes pregnant but before she gets a chance to tell Mitchell about it he breaks up with her. He wanders back later and and it takes most of the book for Esme to figure him out. But the reader knows a sadistic monster when she sees him in print and the balance of the story is Esme's struggle to deal with her love for him and her increasingly difficult life and cloudy future. Her salvation comes from a small independent bookstore on Broadway and 87th, based it would seem on the real bookstore, Westside Books, where the author worked for four years.

The Bookstore tickled me. A quick glance at the reviews on Goodreads points out that it doesn't tickle everybody. Some are put off by those allusions I mentioned, which must put them off most of modern English fiction. Others thought it was a bit too close to chick lit to be convincing. None of them seemed to notice Meyler's sometimes laugh-out-loud humor often drawn from our mutual misunderstanding of the English language:

"The first gallery I went to in New York was the Met - like everyone else - and I saw a sign that said "No strollers on the weekend" so I zipped through all the rooms at breakneck speed, looking reprovingly at people if they seemed likely to loiter. When I reached the picture I most wanted to see -- Garden at Vaucresson by Vuillard, whose exuberant joy you can feel as you walk into the room -- I barely stopped to look at it for fear of Met officials bearing down on me with a loud-speaker: "Miss! No strolling! Step along there, miss. Look lively. It's the weekend."

Esme's witty comebacks in dialogue and her clever interior monologue are unusual in such a romantic, although not entirely predictable love story. They intrigued me and sent me off to figure out where the ones I didn't catch came from. (I need to determine who said, "That I should love a bright particular star." Is it from a sonnet? Shakespeare? It must be Shakespeare. I really should know this . . .) These quotes and allusions add greatly to the pleasure of reading about the characters who frequent the store and about this young woman whose self-doubt slowly -- and sometimes quickly -- segues into a feeling of solid self, a process most of us went through in our youth, though not in so entertaining a way.

[Albus Eugene Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore · Rating 3 out of 5]

“… ci deve essere vecchia pietra per nuove costruzioni, vecchio legname per nuovi fuochi, vecchi libri per nuove menti …”
Esme Garland, ventitré anni, è quasi alla fine del primo semestre di dottorato alla Columbia University di New York. Dottorato in storia dell’Arte su Wayne Thiebaud (ah, le sue torte ...). Poco tempo prima è sbarcata nella Grande Mela, proveniente dalla vecchia Inghilterra, direttamente da Cambridge.
Sulla sua strada, una travolgente … sorpresa, e La Civetta, una vecchia libreria sulla Broadway, l’antico sentiero dei nativi americani, con il suo variopinto universo di libri usati, librai eccentrici, affezionati e strambi clienti. Citazioni? Sì, tante, ma soprattutto, un garbato libro sull’amore …
«Costruiamo il nostro essere con l’amore, offrendolo o ricevendolo. Tutto il resto non conta niente. ».
Mi sono abbandonato a questa atmosfera magica, dove le citazioni di poeti, scrittori, pittori, musicisti non sono esibite, ma offerte con naturalezza. Una piccola esperienza … preziosa.
«E che altro è il valore di una cosa, se non quel che si stima ch’essa valga?».
Colonna sonora? Rigorosamente … Spirituals. Intanto, in attesa che arrivi Negro Folk Music of Alabama, mi consolo con questa … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qde5NM...
[Dec 27, 2015]

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story but the main character had no backbone and I needed her to be a bit more. I loved some of the other characters and the story was good but just not quite enough for me.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 2 out of 5]

I imagine there are few avid readers who could pass up a book set in a bookstore and the Owl is the type of store many wish would exist on their block.

"The store is narrow, about ten feet across, with a central staircase leading to a mezzanine. There are books on both sides of the stairway, in ever more precarious piles, and it is a hardy customer who will pick her way carefully up the stairs to the dusty stacks beyond. Downstairs is a tumble of books that I sometimes surreptitiously straighten. There are sections labeled with old notices, but they flow into each other in an unstoppable tide, so that history is compromised by mythology leaking into it, mystery books get mixed up with religion, and the feminist section is continually outraged by the steady dribble of erotica from the shelves above. When books do manage to make it to shelves, instead of being in piles near their sections, they are shelved double deep and the attempts at alphabetization are sometimes noticeable, with "A"s and "Z"s serving as bookends to the jumble in the center." p8

Open from morning to midnight and staffed by an eccentric group of people, including two homeless men, the second hand bookstore is a wonderful setting. While it was center stage I read eagerly, delighted by the laconic owner, George and his enigmatic assistant Luke, content to imagine sitting behind the counter with a book in hand while a succession of customers wandered into the gloom.

Esme is The Bookstore's protagonist. A British PhD scholarship student at Columbia she falls pregnant to her boyfriend, Mitchell. They have been dating only a couple of months and she is worried what the pregnancy will mean to their relationship if she makes the decision to keep the baby. But before she can tell Mitchell (though it is obvious he suspects) he cruelly dumps her and Esme is left reeling. Choosing to have the baby anyway, Esme knows she will need some extra income so she applies for part time position advertised at the Owl.

Sadly I found Esme less endearing as the story unfolded. The bright, articulate woman we are introduced to at the beginning of the story dissolves into the lovelorn victim of Mitchell's shallow charms, oblivious to his self serving manipulations. The focus on the on again/off again relationship reduces Esme to a caricature rather than a character and I quickly grew tired of her inane interactions with Mitchell.
Unfortunately there is not really any plot to speak of either aside from the anti-love story and the novel's ending is ambiguous and unsatisfying. I realised, three quarters of the way through, I cared little about Esme and her pining for Mitchell and was simply waiting to revisit the Owl.

That leaves me in a bit of a quandary, there were elements of this novel I liked, the Owl and its characters obviously and even the writing style, but the almost farcical relationship between Esme and Mitchell was an irritant and in the end I can't say The Bookstore was any more than OK.

[Elizabeth Drake · Rating 2 out of 5]

This and other reviews can be found on Reading Between Classes

Cover Impressions: This cover is very pretty and I am loving that there is just a hint of cleavage (nothing distasteful).

Review:
The Bookstore is the story of a young woman who escapes England for the excitement of New York. While completing her degree, she meets and falls in love with a suave and wealthy man. When she finds herself pregnant and jilted, she takes a job at a local bookstore and contemplates the path that her life has taken. It is a story with very little action and a plot that meanders through scenes that compel the reader to smile or grimace, rather than to laugh or cry.

The love interest/future father was a truly despicable character. From the first few scenes, I found myself hoping that he would meet a timely demise. Unfortunately, Esme's infatuation with him and her inability to see how badly he was treating her, made me dislike her whenever they were on the page together. To be fair, at least Mitchell managed to make an impression. The Bookstore features an almost entirely male cast and I did have some difficulty keeping them straight. I could never remember which characters worked in the store and which were homeless men thrown in with some type of attempt at social commentary.

The Bookstore itself, The Owl, is what piqued my interest in this title. I was hoping for a magical realm full of interesting characters. However, I found the scenes within the store to be some of the most tedious. The author had an unfortunate habit of referencing obscure authors and artists that I found pretentious. I often ended up skimming during those parts.

The ending of The Bookstore was unsatisfying. There is some character growth, but no real closure and I am still unsure as to how Esme is managing to support herself and her child without being deported. This novel is nice for a slow read in a park/at the cottage but simply did not have enough action to distract me from the other demands on my time.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about modern life and what happens to Esme when she discovers she's pregnant. An english woman living and studying in New York she gets a job in a bookstore and the friends she makes there help her on her journey. A tale about love, friendship and life in its whole messy reality. An entertaining page turner.

[Silvia Devitofrancesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recensione presente nel blog www.ragazzainrosso.wordpress.com
Esme, una sensibile ragazza di ventitré anni, dopo essersi laureata a Cambridge, si è trasferita a New York per svolgere un dottorato alla Columbia. Sola, in una città straniera dall’altra parte dell’oceano, ama perdersi tra le pagine dei libri e le braccia di Mitchell, giovane insegnante di economia, rampollo di una delle famiglie più importanti della metropoli. All’improvviso tutto assume una piega inaspettata: Esme, infatti, non solo scopre di essere incinta ma soprattutto sperimenta il reale peso della sua solitudine. Mitchell sembra non essere intenzionato a mettere su famiglia e lei deve fronteggiare situazioni nuove e tantissime spese economiche. A salvarla sarà una piccola libreria specializzata nella vendita di libri usati, “La Civetta”, presso la quale troverà un lavoro insieme a quel senso di umanità di cui necessita.

“Non sono così sicura che in questo caso ci sia una scelta, o che ci sia sempre una possibilità di scegliere. Quello che succede porta alla cosa successiva. Può sembrare una scelta, ma quello che facciamo dipende sempre da quello che è venuto prima. Perciò in realtà non siamo noi a scegliere.”

Il romanzo affronta una tematica complessa qual è l’essere una giovane madre single, alla quale si unisce il senso di estraneità provato in un contesto geografico e sociale totalmente diverso dal proprio.

Esme è una ragazza dolce e affidabile, innamorata dell’amore che crede di aver trovato in Mitchell. Affrontare una gravidanza è per lei una dura prova che affronta con grande determinazione sfoderando un coraggio del quale sembrava non essere dotata. È in momenti come questi che la paura passa in secondo piano. Esme ha scelto la vita e per essa è pronta a stringere i denti e a combattere.

Mitchell è un personaggio fortemente instabile. Non sa cosa vuole, è succube della sua famiglia, tratta Esme come se fosse un giocattolo, la lascia e la riprende a suo piacimento, per un momento è affettuoso nei suoi confronti, subito dopo non esita a offenderla e a mancarle di rispetto. Il suo è un disagio profondo che affonda le sue radici in esperienze passate i cui echi si ripercuotono nel presente.

Il senso dell’essere stranieri pervade tutto il romanzo. La protagonista è straniera poiché appartiene a un’altra nazione ed è straniera perché non riesce a divenire parte del contesto sociale newyorkese, si sente costantemente fuori luogo, quasi giudicata da quanti incrociano il suo sguardo. In antitesi vi è “La Civetta”, uno spazio accogliente e per certi versi familiare, nel quale Esme trova “calore umano”. Tra vecchi libri polverosi e musica d’altri tempi imparerà a riacquistare fiducia nel genere umano sperimentando l’autentica amicizia che le era mancata.

Lo stile dell’autrice è semplice e fluido, tuttavia il ritmo narrativo piuttosto lento, specie nella parte centrale, condiziona, a mio parere, il coinvolgimento emotivo da parte del lettore che si sente quasi un escluso e non parte integrante della vicenda.

Una lettura nel complesso piacevole e apprezzabile, ma, secondo me, con un “qualcosa” che manca.