For the dawning of the end of summer, Libby Page’s “This Book Made Me Think of You” (Berkley, 2026, 416 pages) is a great fit. Like a tall glass of iced tea, it’s refreshing, sweet, and satisfying, a novel you can sip in your free time that draws you back for more.
It’s January in London, and young Tilly Nightingale, still racked by grief over her beloved husband Joe’s death six months earlier, receives a call from a local bookshop that she has a birthday gift from him. An editor and bibliophile who’s lacked the will to read books since the funeral, Tilly, on visiting the shop discovers that Joe has left her 12 books along with a personal note, to be given to her once a month for the year.
As the months tick by, Tilly’s growing friendship with the staff of the Book Lane shop, particularly with the proprietor, Alfie Lane, slowly draw her out of her shell of sadness. She reengages with her sister Harper, heals wounds left by Joe’s death with her friend Rachel, confronts her anxieties about meeting Joe’s mother, who had opposed their relationship, and makes new friends in both London and Paris.
On what becomes a sort of pilgrimage back to life, dreams, and happiness, Tilly is also consoled and guided by the books Joe has chosen and the sweet notes of advice he’s left her. From Roald Dahl’s “Matilda,” her favorite childhood story about the girl who loved reading, to Haruki Murakami’s “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” which inspires her to enter a half-marathon, to Helen Hanff’s “Letter from New York,” which arrives just as she’s about to set off to visit Joe’s parents, the books deliver hope and act as catalysts for change.
Meanwhile, Alfie, who has devoted his life to keeping Book Lane in business, in part from his love of literature, in part from love of his father who had founded and treasured the store, finds himself breaking out of his own shell, one constructed from routine and solitude. As he and Tilly grow their friendship, Alfie becomes warmer and more in tune with her and with others.
“This Book Made Me Think of You” is a good read, especially for those who love books about books, as I do.
But it also sheds an unintended light on the publishing world and female readership.
Within the novel itself, the two principal male characters, Joe and Alfie, apparently have no male friends. Alfie’s loneliness we can understand from the life he leads, but Joe, as Tilly and others tell us, was a guy who lit up a room when he walked into it. Apparently, none of his male buddies took much interest in him or in Tilly after his passing.
Moreover, at the beginning of each month, Page includes “Book Lane Recommendations.” At least 75% of these selections are by female authors, and some of the male authors who make this list are dead and gone. The absence of men in the list reflects the absence of men in today’s publishing houses. And when we see Tilly at work or negotiating for a new job, the editors are all women.
Libby Page’s painting of these houses is also right on target. When we see Tilly at work or negotiating for a new position, all the editors with whom she interacts are female, as is true today. The novelists they publish are majority female, and their fiction is generally aimed at a female audience.
There are some sound reasons for this makeover of the market. First and most importantly, more women by far read fiction than men in the United States. The market for male readers simply isn’t there. As for female dominance in the publishing end of things, more women in college than men major in the liberal arts, the usual degree for winning a job in the literary marketplace.
The practices of these publishers have drawn some fire from critics. In 2022, Joyce Carol Oates, author of more than 50 books, caused a storm in the publishing world when she sent out a tweet declaring “A friend who is a literary agent told me that he cannot even get editors to read first novels by young white male writers ….” Best-selling crime novelist James Patterson launched similar charges just months earlier. Others have criticized publishing houses for being dominated by white, liberal women.
To be fair, men had long controlled the publishing industry. And again, with the market as it is, books by female authors featuring female characters are what sells.
Will this 21st century trend change the face of literature? Probably so, but in what direction is anyone’s guess.
These observations aside, I thoroughly enjoyed “This Book Made Me Think of You” and recommend it to all who are looking for a good story.
(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” minick0301@gmail.com.)