This Book Made Me Think of YouReview posted August 1, 2026.
Books on Tape, 2026. 10 hours, 26 minutes.
Review written June 25, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
I loved this book in so many ways.
Six months after her young husband died of cancer, Tillie gets a phone call from a bookshop. The man on the phone tells her he has a package for her - from her husband.
It turns out that Tillie's husband Joe, before he died, purchased twelve books for Tillie. He wrote a note for each one and left instructions for the bookshop to give her one each month for a full year.
At first, Tillie is resistant. She asks them to give her all the books at once, but Alfie, the bookstore owner, refuses. Tillie has always loved to read, but since Joe got sick, she hasn't been able to focus.
And then Joe's first book gets her reading again. And the second book gets her cooking for herself. And later there are books about camping and about running and about going to Paris. And little by little, Tillie starts living life again. As well as evaluating what she wants the rest of her life to look like, now that her original dream has died.
And yes, the book is a romance. Tillie develops a friendship with that bookstore owner. But she is not over Joe yet, and it feels wrong to have feelings for anyone else. And naturally, there are several other complications and misunderstandings. At the same time, the bookshop, which Alfie inherited from his father, is having trouble staying in business.
It's all wonderfully and beautifully done. As it happened, I started this audiobook on a flight to a vacation in France, where I learned that hearing aids make listening to an audiobook while dining alone a much less obtrusive pleasure than bringing a physical book. I just finished the book on the last day of my trip, and it has been a joy accompanying me. More than just the great story, it felt symbolic. While death is very different from divorce, and while my divorce is long past - on this trip, I revisited the Abbaye de Royaumont - a place where I went on a writers' retreat with dear friends in 2005, one week after my husband told me he was divorcing me. On the writer's retreat twenty years ago, I thought about writing, but also planned to get my Master's in Library Science and become a librarian. It was satisfying and special to go back to the abbey and say to my past self, "That worked out really well."
So this trip, in many ways, was celebrating how my life has gone after the death of my marriage, and celebrating how much joy is still left in my life, and how I've been able to chart my own course. So Tilly's journey, while different, resonated with me.
Also, there are book recommendations from Alfie at the start of each chapter. I think I need to buy a copy of this book so I can try to read them all.