Book Review: The Book Lover’s Library by Madeline Martin

About:

The Book Lover’s Library by Madeline Martin takes place during World War II, in England, and tells of a single widow trying to make a living in a book-borrowing library, while protecting her daughter. Ms. Maring is a New York Times best-selling author.

• 416 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hanover Square Press
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1335015132

My rating for The Book Lover’s Library – 5
Buy The Book Lover’s Library from Amazon.com*
More Books by Madeline Martin*

Thoughts:

I really enjoy historical fiction books which teach me thing or two about history. In all my reading about World War II, I don’t remember encountering lending libraries, and I was fascinated to read about them.
And who doesn’t like books about books anyway?

As it turns out Boot’s Booklovers’ Libraries were the biggest lending libraries in England. They lent out millions of books a year. It all started with Florence Boots, who noticed the poor literacy of the working class who came into her husband’s store “Boots” (today we’d call it a department store). She installed a revolving bookcase in the store and soon followed it up with a book department.

As mentioned in The Book Lover’s Library by Madeline Martin, work in the lending library was desirable. After reading about the lending libraries, I feel that the author did justice to them. Ms. Martin describes how they work, the hierarchy, jobs done by the new employees, as well as the veterans. Eventually, the invention of affordable books was the end of the lending library, but luckily, we still have our public libraries.

The protagonist, Emma Taylor, grew up in her father’s bookstore, so she’s familiar with books and can recommend many to the library’s subscribers. I think that all of us bibliophiles know the joy of being able to recommend a beloved book or a book we’d think someone we like. Ms. Martin captured that feeling very nicely.

This was a charming, easy-to-read, lovely story. I read it quickly and enjoyed the story even though I thought most of it was quite predictable.

Synopsis:

Emma Taylor of Nottingham finds herself in need of a job to support her only daughter, Olivia. The problem is that it’s difficult to get a job if you’re a woman with kids, and single to boot.

Emma is forced to lie and get a job at Boots’ Booklover’s Library, where she recommends books to members. She also has to worry about Olivia, who is evacuated due to the threat of bombardments.

Buy The Book Lover’s Library from Amazon.com*
More Books by Madeline Martin*

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books