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Summer Hours at the Robbers Library

Sue Halpern

Start date: July 1, 2018

Finish date: July 31, 2018

Discussion leader: Brina

Why we're reading this: Moderator Choice Edition: Brina's Choice.…more
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Jun 19, 2018 Kris (My Novelesque Life) added it · review of another edition

Shelves: elibrary, arc-edelweiss, contemporary, audiobook, fiction, books

DNF @ 25%
2018; Harper Perennial/HarperCollins Canada

I love books about books. I read The Bookshop on the Corner and loved it a lot more than I thought I would, so I was excited about dipping into this one. We have a small town, a library, and quirky characters sooooo I should have loved this book. My major problem was that this book was all over the place. I am not sure if Halpern knew what she wanted to focus on. I didn't get the third narrator on the audio, maybe it was later explained. but i ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Sep 21, 2019 Book Concierge rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age, audio, steinbeck, family, relationships, crime, concierge, library, social-commentary, new-hampshire

Digital audiobook performed by Josh Bloomberg, Dara Rosenberg and Allyson Ryan
4****

Three people running from their past (or present) find the help they need at the library. Kit is the head librarian at the Riverton, NH library; she likes the peace she finds there and the ability to hide from her disastrous past. Fifteen-year-old Sunny has been home-schooled (or “no-schooled” as she sometimes refers to it), and assigned to work for the summer at the library in lieu of a sentence for shoplifting Digital audiobook performed by Josh Bloomberg, Dara Rosenberg and Allyson Ryan
4****

Three people running from their past (or present) find the help they need at the library. Kit is the head librarian at the Riverton, NH library; she likes the peace she finds there and the ability to hide from her disastrous past. Fifteen-year-old Sunny has been home-schooled (or “no-schooled” as she sometimes refers to it), and assigned to work for the summer at the library in lieu of a sentence for shoplifting a dictionary. Rusty is a former Wall Street hedge-fund star, now out of work and seeking answers to his mother’s past as he laboriously researches the libraries historical archives. Slowly they are drawn together and help one another unravel their pasts and seek their futures.

I confess that I hadn’t really read the jacket blurb so I was expecting a chick-lit, light romantic story. This is definitely NOT that. Halpern drew me in, however. The secrets are revealed every so slowly throughout the book, much as you might only reveal such information to a friend over time as you got to know and trust her.

Kit’s is the most troubling to her. She was fully aware of the events that led her to flee to Riverton with a new name and to make a new – QUIET – life. But she’s a strong, determined woman and as closed off as she appears to be, she is compassionate and caring.

Rusty spends his days at the library researching the town’s history. He’s a stranger in town and an enigma: driving a fancy car, with obviously expensive clothes, but living in a small motel and in obvious need of a haircut. An old bank passbook he had found among his deceased mother’s possessions, is what has brought him to Riverton, in hopes of perhaps finding a nest egg of cash to see him through, and possibly some answers to his questions about his mother’s past.

In Sunny’s case, of course, she doesn’t even know there is a secret that her parents hide with their “hippie” lifestyle. But once she gets a glimpse at a different possibility, she is tenacious in ferreting out the truth, facing it and forcing her parents to face it as well. I really loved her character and how she developed over the summer.

The novel is told in alternating view points as each of the three central characters reveals his or her back story and experiences in current time. The first time there was a “flashback” it caught me off guard, but I quickly grew used to the style. Halpern gives us a wonderful cast of supporting characters as well. From Sunny’s mother, Willow, to a group of octogenarians known collectively as “The Four” and the rest of the library staff, these characters help and support one another. There are moments of humor and love to counterbalance the stress and heartache. I’d love a sequel to find out how they all fair in coming years.

The audiobook is performed by a trio of talented voice artists, each voicing one of the central characters. This was very effective for the changing view points in narration. Job well done! ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 ˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, in-person-book-club

The beginning college sex made me think of closing the book but I decided to carry on. I found this book to be a slow, drawn out saga of unrealistic lives. I did become curious about the “marriage story” so I read it until the end, which I didn’t like. A little boring.

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