When fifteen year old Solstice "Sunny" Arkinsky steals a dictionary simply because she is tired of looking up words and of living without modern technology, she is ordered to spend her summer working at a library, where she ends up meeting Katherine "Kit", a forty-four year old woman who keeps a close guard on her secrets and doesn't let anyone into her life. Soon enough, Rusty, a down-on-the-luck former Wall Street executive joins the duo on his own mission: to figure out a possible family secret and help steer his life back to the top. Through friendships, tales and one unforgettable summer, will each of them reach their goals or will their view points change?
The first thing to attract me to SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY by Sue Halpern is the book cover, which is reminiscent of childhood, especially for those who are born prior to 2000s. Second thing to attract me to this book is the fact that it takes place in a library, and for someone who loves reading, its a setting that I don't often see too much of. I also loved how the story was designed with quotes from the famous books and the dates, each chapter lasting a week or so.
SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY by Sue Halpern is definitely focused a lot on community, on how people hold up each other as well as the importance of libraries and of how they act as social places, their importance in society easily overlooked. Within this novel though, the reader feels as if they are part of something bigger and something more meaningful when they join in the mundane with the characters, be it sitting around with tea or just talking or searching for important information. There is also an understated humor in the characters and somehow the characters will end up being part of one's heart as the reader becomes part of the community.
For the reader seeking a warm tale of literature and libraries, well-done characters as well as the true meaning of community, and of how disparate strangers will find their way to one another, SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY by Sue Halpern will dare to satisfy those needs.
From journalist and author Sue Halpern comes a wry,
observant look at contemporary life and its refugees.
Halpern’s novel is an unforgettable tale of family...the
kind you come from and the kind you create.
People are drawn to libraries for all kinds of reasons.
Most come for the books themselves, of course; some come
to borrow companionship. For head librarian Kit, the
public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what
she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk
about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of
what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can
simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to
forget her problems.
But that changes when fifteen-year-old, home-schooled
Sunny gets arrested for shoplifting a dictionary. The
judge throws the book at Sunny—literally—assigning her to
do community service at the library for the summer.
Bright, curious, and eager to connect with someone other
than her off-the-grid hippie parents, Sunny coaxes Kit
out of her self-imposed isolation. They’re joined by
Rusty, a Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to
earth.
In this little library that has become the heart of this
small town, Kit, Sunny, and Rusty are drawn to each
other, and to a cast of other offbeat regulars. As they
come to terms with how their lives have unraveled, they
also discover how they might knit them together again and
finally reclaim their stories.
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