The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander – Review
Jess is faced with a tough decision to change her life when her grandmother passes away and she loses her job. One fateful day she takes a leap of faith and finds herself in a new very welcoming village that she fits right into. Though her new cottage and village are everything she could’ve dreamed of, life’s quirks still come around.
This was the sweetest, heart warming book about books.
“The world will always need books.”
Becky from the Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander
Spoilers below!
Jess and Mimi’s favorites are a ton of other recommendations, plus the cover has so many others as well (with some that I don’t care for, but that will be discussed). I was glad to glean some classic titles from this that I’ve never heard of before because I’m on the hunt for classics that people aren’t reading now. I want to start reading more books that were published before the 2000s (and maybe even earlier than the 80s). I’ve been saying that I wanted to, but have very little idea of older books to read since there aren’t too many used bookstores and it seems that things published long ago aren’t as in demand.
Diana was also my favorite supporting character, she was so funny and I loved her speaking openly about her flaws, which were intense and were possible of changing people’s lives. Jess is new to town, Diana had absolutely no reason to admit this huge flaw to Jess that could’ve barred them from becoming friends. But she didn’t, she was completely honest with Jess. And there’s something to admire in that brutal honesty regarding oneself.
And the small romance goes far from the “grumpy neighbor trope,” although I do have to say, when joining bookstagram I was very confused about the whole “what’s your favorite trope?” Question and I didn’t entirely understand what trope even meant. And I was pretty proud of myself that I was able to pick this “trope” out. But anyway, it went so much further than a grumpy neighbor romance. Aidan had depth to his character and I really respected Alexander for making him wait until court proceedings regarding custody of Maisie were completed.
Now, here’s a rant for this review.
The only thing that I didn’t understand was the appearance of Michelle Obama’s Becoming. I had a discussion with some other bookstagrammers a few weeks ago regarding that. I honestly don’t see how she is inspirational. The assertion that she’s inspirational because she was a working mom…there are SO MANY working moms. There are also single working moms. I’d find these women going about life with even less money than the Obamas (because her husband was a senator so they had a little extra money than the average working parent or set of parents) more inspirational than her.
That’s where we lower the standards for celebrities and politicians to make them inspirational. Something that would be a cool idea for a book, even from a politician’s wife, would be to take that idea of her inspiring others because of these things that she is, i.e. working mom, and publish a series of nonfiction or do nonfic short stories of your average American who’s doing what people see Obama doing that’s “inspirational.” A project like that would gain my respect.
And I really don’t care where other people look for for inspiration – if that’s what works for them, who am I to say anything? What gets under my skin is the push and expectation that everyone should think she’s inspirational. In my personal opinion, I think if you’re going to look at someone as an inspiration who can do no wrong (which is completely incorrect because we’re all human and none of us are perfect), you should choose someone who does more than the average person. David Goggins, Cameron Hanes. Even that idea that I had above of average people living their lives and finding ways to make it work. Grit, pushing past oneself’s limits, enduring – that’s what I call inspirational.
Disclaimer: I haven’t read Obama’s book and don’t plan on it. Personally, I really don’t trust politicians, their significant others, or their families so I generally don’t touch their books or look anything up regarding their lives; with exceptions, because there are always exceptions in life. Because I don’t care and I believe everything is too corrupt at this point to know who to trust. And maybe my opinion on that will change and I’ll start looking more deeply into politics eventually, but for now, I don’t trust many.
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