NetGalley ARC Educator 550975

A fun and quirky book with whimsical characters. Nan was a hoot. You will glean what librarians deal with on a daily basis and hopefully treat them and your local libraries better .

This was a quick, fun read. I know a little about libraries so it was neat getting an insider view.

The cast of characters was vibrant and quirky, and easy to fall in love with. In fact I didn’t realize how attached I’d become to some of the characters until close to the end of the novel, and then it was hard to let go.

However, at points I was lost on the main character’s motivation. I wasn’t sure what changed between the first 25 years of her career, in which she’s described as a mediocre employee who doesn’t care about her career, and this year, in which she passionately fights for her library and is exceedingly good at her job. Maybe she just needed the small town independence? Regardless, I enjoyed watching her battle for her library’s sake.

The book club scenes were some of my favorite. I also wholeheartedly shared Nan’s anxiety about whether or not anyone would show up to her events (I’m coming from a bookstore perspective).

Thanks to Netgalley and Ninestar Press for the digital ARC,

Slightly unusual writing style but I enjoyed it! Queer stories are so important and I loved all the library details. So good!

Four stars! I'm so happy to have read this book. It's quirky and fun and a great story. I loved all the book references and the main character was funny and I was invested in her story!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC.

Right off the bat, I loved Nan! She’s so funny and charming. And she loves women, which, I can’t blame her. And her inner monologues were so relatable and endearing, especially when it came to her feelings of being stuck and in a rut.. This book felt like a love letter to librarians which I thought was wonderful. I thought the characters were so distinct and lovable for varying reasons- especially Immaculata, Joe, Jeremy, and Mr. El. They each stood out to me and had this wonderfully real feel to them. I wasn’t prepared for how attached I would become to Joe, he was adorable. I thought this book had an accurate and necessary representation when it comes to the way disabled people are treated and it showed the positive side of small towns and the very real, hardworking people in them. The food descriptions are drool worthy and it’s so rich with culture and faith. Though I will say that even as an avid reader, I felt there were way too many book mentions/references. That would be my sole gripe with this book. But I did enjoy the book club discussions. They really captured some of my own feelings as a reader…. Beautiful first novel!

Thank you, Ninestar Press, for allowing me to read The New Town Librarian early!

Anderson's debut is very enjoyable and breezy. A solid book for a debut author.

It was difficult to finish this book. The characters were not very likable, the plot was bland, and the writing was cheesy and felt very amateur.

I really enjoyed this book and learned quite a few new things. This book also gave me a new appreciation for libraries and librarians. I will say the heat level of this book is low. It’s very well written I laughed and cried in this book I would definitely recommend it.

After reading the description for this book, was really excited about reading about a 50 year old queer librarian. However, I frequently struggled to keep reading and felt underwhelmed.

Besides a few key moments that had me rooting for for the main character, Nan, I wasn't fully invested in anything that was going on. I would have loved to see more character development, as well as exploration of the found family she formed with her landlords and the foster teen who made the library his home.

*Thank you to NetGalley and NineStar Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The New Town Librarian is a fun read with a trove of unique characters. A queer middle aged librarian moving from Philly to a small town in Southern New Jersey to start a new job and a new life sets the stage for a story full of personal and professional growth, small town idiosyncrasies, and interesting personalities. It is a fun, relatable novel that doesn't focus solely on romance, but doesn't shy away from it either. The New Town Librarian is a coming-of-middle-age story that focuses on the main character finding her place in the town, and coming to face, identify, and prioritize her own values, wants, and desires.

A queer middle-aged librarian gets a wake up call when they uncover secrets at the town library.

I'm sorry...but who said they could write a book about my life? Or at least the life I want to have? If I grow up to be half as cool as this librarian, then my life will have been worth it.
This book was a much needed breath of fresh air for me.

I adored this book. I have lot of less-than-cohesive thoughts about it, about public librarianship, about queerness, about aging. About how I read this book barely more than two years out of library school, and absorbing the perspective of someone similar to myself 25 years out of library school. Queer and single, working in a small library when so many bigger city libraries are close enough to reach out and touch. This book has heart, this book has soul, this book has books. This book has cranky, cantankerous women, joyful old men, and this book has love. It's truly a love letter to public libraries and to librarians, to our library patrons and their quirks, to the boards we cajole and the coworkers we consider our comrades. I can see this book not being for everyone, the writing style (which I loved) was a little unusual, and this book did not shy away from its moments of crassness or its occasional silliness, but it was for me, and I loved it with my whole heart.

I am writing this for Net Galley.

In this story we follow Nan who is a librarian. She forms a book club during this time that she is working as a librarian. We follow her as she learns how her job can impact other people. She finds herself growing as a person through her job.

While reading this I found myself slightly bored. I honestly did not retain much of what I read because I found myself wandering, but I wanted to finish it because there can always be a change at the end. The writing isn't bad, the story was just didn't have me entertained.

Therefore, this is going to be a short review. I am disappointed, however, maybe someone else will find this entertaining and enjoyable to read.

CW: potential alcohol abuse

This book was awful (although I appreciate the free eARC since I wouldn’t recommend spending money on it)

For starters, this is not a romance. Although the main character is sapphic, this is not centered around her romantic life. This is a woman’s fiction story about a woman who needs to change her life and start over (although there’s very little explanation about why she needs change, except a lack of personal motivation).

The main character, Nan, is a librarian lacking drive, manners, and personality. She’s a terrible decision maker and nothing she says or does is grounded in reality or has any forward thinking. For example, what grown adult throws tomatoes at children and gets away with it? If the kids don't turn around and yell screaming to their parents, the dirty clothing would make the parents run screaming to the library. Nan is also abrasively rude. She often as says mean things to be funny at the expense of the people around her. Only once does she actually get called out on it, but she’s not self aware enough to understand what she did wrong.

Although there is a central plot to the book, the story often feels like a series of vignettes since the author will talk about an event and then it’s never mentioned again. At one point her sisters come visit, talk about big dreams to travel and apparently stay over but just disappear from the book. This whole book feels like a brain dump from the author without real meaning or action behind it.

This was such a cute novel about a middle aged librarian who moved to a new town for a change. It tells her story of finding happiness. Such a feel good story!!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

How can I resist a story of a fifty year old librarian who moves to a small town in New Jersey to start over. Nan Nethercott has been happy working in a larger library system never wanting to be in charge. Now she is meeting with the library board, scheduling her staff and thinking of budgets. But that isn’t the point. Along the way she makes changes to the library and its patrons and in return she changes in herself. I love the book sharing some of the basic tenets of librarians that libraries are open to all with no censorship or judgement. I love the chapter on weeding books. The importance of getting rid of books is very important to librarians. Her conversations about it are the same as I’ve had with school my school principal. She organizes book clubs, helplines, programs and even thwarts rampaging middle schoolers. She also makes wonderfully sweet friends and is ready for new romance (closed door). This is a light, quick read and working in a library may have made me pre-biased to like this more. Thank you to NetGalley and Ninestar Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.