The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

"That was luck. I've seen you play a hundred times, and that was the first time I've seen you beaten." He paused. "Well, apart from the semifinal last year."

"Oh, you saw that?"

He blushed deeper. "Yeah. We got knocked out in the semis, too. By the Spanish In-quiz-ition." He grinned. "Nobody expected it."

~p. 142


In The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, many readers will find a kindred spirit. Nina is the only child of a single, traveling photographer. Mostly raised by a nanny, she's introverted, organized, a lover of books and trivia, and a bookstore clerk who takes great joy in the many bookish activities that she hosts. She's on a trivia team, in a book group, and happy with her quiet life alone.

Then, Nina's well-organized life becomes crowded with new people when she falls for one of the members of an opposing trivia team and finds out she has a large, extended family by way of a lawyer who informs her that her father has passed away. Can Nina fit all the new people into her carefully ordered life? And, what will happen to her when the landlord of the bookstore in which she works decides that he's got no choice but to find a new tenant?

Highly recommended - Ohmygoodnessgracious, I loved this book. Nina is the kind of people a bookish person can't help but love to read about. She reads avidly, loves storing up facts, has a cat, makes frequent references to books, characters, and movies, and has serious anxiety issues. Mostly with people. People are really scary. The only complaint I have about the book is that just about everyone Nina interacts with is equally witty. She may not think she's a people person but she has quite a rapport with just about everyone. But, at the same time, that makes the book a light-hearted, smart, amusing, and engaging read. I adored the witty banter. It made me happy. Totally a five-star read.

I received a copy of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review and it's going on that favorites list I mentioned yesterday. Wow, two 5-star books read in less than two weeks! How often does that happen? I'm going to want to press this one into the hands of a lot of people.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.