One of my guilty pleasures is books that are "heart-warming" and "charming." I don't care if they cross the line into cheesy!
I like them even more if they revolve around a community of eccentric characters and if there is a setting like a bookstore, teashop, cafe, etc. There is some light romance too. Often these fall into the chick-lit category of books and would be perfect for a Hallmark Channel movie but that wouldn't appeal to many here... However I like books that show a life-affirming transformation in an old curmudgeon too. So, I picked one that has been on my TBR list for a while, gets great reviews and has universal appeal.
I nominate
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Available at Amazon US for $9.04. Also available at Amazon UK, Canada and Australia. It was published in 2014, and my Overdrive library has several copies available with no wait.
From Goodreads:
Quote:
A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died; his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history; and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Chief Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who's always felt kindly toward him; from Ismay, his sister-in-law, who is hell-bent on saving A.J. from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who persists in taking the ferry to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.'s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, he can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.
And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It's a small package, though large in weight—an unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn't take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J., for the determined sales rep Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light, for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.'s world. Or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn't see coming.
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