The Bookshop of Yesterdays: A Library Journal Best Book of Summer Literary Fiction Mystery

Good Story. Great characters. Fun read. It was an interesting and intriguing mystery. I recommend for book lovers and book clubs.

I preface this 4 star rating as actually being 3.5. The first 70% percent of the book was 3 stars, and I read slowly through the Kindle pages, but once the multitude of my questions began being answered, it moved into solid 4 star territory. With many "bookstore" books, the characters are quirky and the story is fun or unusual. This book was different. Miranda was living an ordinary life, not really digging in or getting the most out of her existence until her "uncle" died. I admit to getting frustrated with the literary scavenger hunt he sent her on, and the complete lack of communication with her mother. That bothered me to no end. I did not understand why Susan (Miranda's mother) refused to go to her brother's funeral, and especially why she refused to talk to her "daughter" about it. I wanted (needed) answers sooner than they were offered. This bothered me a lot. Especially when Miranda stopped talking to her mother because of it. Anyway, I kept slogging through the parts that needed to happen, not buying why so many characters were okay with being put on hold for long periods of time. Then the story took off, the puzzle pieces flying into place, and I couldn't put down the last 30% of the book. It was worth the read, and I'm not sure how such a convoluted tale could be told differently, but somehow I wish it had been. Being raised in L.A., I loved knowing all the stomping grounds, especially Silverlake. There is much to enjoy about the story, but you may have to push through the beginning, and even the middle, to get there.

This book has me all discombobulated. It is about family, friendship, secrets (lies), understanding, and forgiveness. The story is unique, captivating, well thought out, and organized. The literary scavenger hunt is just the best thing ever. Discovering the next book and clue was what kept me turning pages. The writing is very good. While the ending isn't perfect, it is satisfying and enough to make me want more. BUT..... The story is predictable. When the big reveal came around 2/3 of the way through there wasn't anything surprising about it. There were way too many clues leading up to it. The main characters are largely unlikable. 1. Miranda is spoiled and self absorbed. Her banter and thoughts about Jay are downright cringeworthy for a woman in her late 20s. 2. Pretty much everyone else of note is lying about something. The only completely (brutally at that) honest person Miranda encounters during her.quest is Sheila Crowley. Overall, this book was just okay. It didn't leave me breathless, but there were a few touching moments that caused me to pause. I think the story has enough open ends that it would make a great trilogy.

On the surface, this is a story of a bookstore and a scavenger hunt created for the heroine by her uncle, who has recently died and left her the store. And yet it is so much more! It's a story of family, of secrets, of love, of grief, of old friends and new -- it's ultimately a warm, charming story of a young woman learning about her past and the people in her life. The characters are so vividly written I feel as if I know them all, and it has left me with a warm glow of life faced and lived. I am an instant fan of the author and plan to read everything she writes! I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a genuine story about realistic people, and a helpful book -- to my surprise, being grieving myself for a recent painful loss, the grief and how the different characters handle it was not only not painful but actually extremely helpful. It's a very optimistic story, and while different scenes from the past are written from the point of view of different characters, it's never confusing. The author's technique of writing past dialogue in italics also keeps past and present clear. I also loved the narrator of the audio version. She was outstanding, and only once pulled me out of the story with a mispronunciation. Her voices for the different male and female characters weren't exaggerated, either, as some narrators succumb to. All in all, a heartwarming and very satisfying story!

This was a nice book. No, that doesn't sound right. It's nice without being "nice" and it certain!y wasn't a beach read or a cozy - I'm not sure how to categorize this book other than, for me, it was slipping into soft jim-jams (pajamas), Labrador dog on my lap, and a glass of a nice Pinot in my hand. It was just the soft "ahh" at the end of the day. The author casually, and unabashedly, name dropped known authors hither and yon throughout the book. For example, Milan Kundera. And I was like, I know that author, but what was it that I read - oh, yeah, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, when it first came out and I was a young teen. Have I re-read the book since? No. Will I now to see if its still relevant in my life? You betcha. Another book that got a lot of play in this novel was Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. I remember picking this book up at a thrift store as a young teen while shopping with my mom and dad, and hiding it between a couple of other books. I think I was twelve and fascinated by the mystery of a "zipless" physical interlude. Ahem. Because of this book, I read other books having to do with powerful women, and even took college courses in Women's Studies. My point is this: if you are a frequent reader you'll enjoy the literary references, and like me you'll be tearing out your hair when one clue involving height and pearly teeth, takes our protagonist a heckuva long time to figure out ... Still a worthy read, and I sincerely enjoyed it. Would like to more from this author.

“Understanding prepares us for the future.” (Quotation pos. 433) Content: When she was a child, Miranda Brooks loved it, when her Uncle Billy took her to his bookshop “Prospero Books”. The last time she saw him was on her twelfth birthday. After a serious argument with her mother, his sister, he just disappeared. After sixteen years, she gets a package with the book “The Tempest” inside. The same evening her mother tells her that Uncle Billy had died. He has left his bookshop to Miranda. She returns to Prospero Books, also to find out what had happened twelve years ago that had made Billy leave … Theme and genre: It is not only a story about reading, books (especially Shakespeare “The Tempest”) and the problems of independent bookstores, but about family and hidden secrets, lies and the importance to talk to one another. Characters: Miranda is a history teacher when she inherits Prospero Books and hopes to save it and not to have to close it down. She is a quite pleasant main character, but during the story going on, she got just too stubborn about the family secrets. Especially her conduct towards her mother was just too much drama for me and not understandable for a grown-up person. While Malcolm, the manager of the bookstore and the regular visitors of the store and included café are interesting and likeable. Plot and writing: The story is written in the first person, told by Miranda. There are some flashbacks included directly into to story, where necessary for better understanding. The family secret is slowly revealed during the plot and that makes the story interesting and gripping, even if the reader at a certain point might guess the truth. I definitely have enjoyed the parts about literature and books. Conclusion: A fine-spun plot and gripping story about literature and family secrets buried in the past. Although not always happy with the main character, I really did enjoy the story that gives the reader some pleasant, entertaining reading hours.

Excellent

This was a long book, which was good and bad, bad because you wanted to just keep reading and it gobbled up the hours! I loved the scavenger hunt and wondered where it would lead next. There were times it was a little lengthy in detail too, but I didn’t skip much. I loved the whole concept of the story, what I didn’t like was the attitude of Miranda at times , who seems so outraged that life didn’t didn’t seem to go the way she wanted, and was angry because people had kept their promise to Uncle Billy. I also didn’t like the way when she sat down with her Mom who revealed more of the past, that it was written with Miranda telling the story when she was actually a baby then and wouldn’t have known. Would have been better if told by her Mother as if talking to her. But all in all it was in many ways captivating and well worth the read.

The book opens with twelve year old Miranda receiving a puppy for her twelfth birthday from her Uncle Billy. As soon as her mother learns of the gift and sees the puppy, she hands it back to her brother Billy and tells him to take it back because no one can take care of it. Miranda is crushed and Billy is never seen again by the family. Fourteen years later letters begin to arrive and Miranda learns that Billy had died and left her "Prospero Books", his bookstore and coffee shop. The magic of this book is that Miranda and Billy had a wonderful relationship until that twelfth birthday. He would teach her about earthquakes, (he was a seismologist) and introduced her to books including Shakespeare's The Tempest, which quickly became Miranda's favourite story. Not only was the name Prospero a character in the story, but so was Miranda another character in the play. Another of their favourite things to do together was solve scavenger hunts which Billy set up with clues from quotes from pieces of literature. He gave her so many books from his store and then they would discuss them together until she embraced reading and books as her lifetime number one thing to do. Before his death, Billy arranged a scavenger hunt for Miranda to solve after he was gone and it was through this that we learn about Billy's mysterious past which puts Miranda's life into perspective for her and the family. I loved to read and this book surrounded me with books and other people who read for the pleasure of it. I wish Amy Myerson would write a sequel telling us what happened after this one ends. I would buy it right away.

It took a while for me to really get into the book but once that happened I kept needing to read more. I was emotionally tied in to this book in a way I cannot explain without Spoilers, but it is beautifully written and the characters were easy to relate to. A great story.