The Lonely Hearts Book Club

This world was a terrible place,Arthur thought. It gave you people to love and then took them away before you stopped loving them. It made you mean and angry and cruel to those who needed you most. It ground you down until it was all you could do to get through the day. But most of allit tried to convince you that you were alone in your suffering. And he might have believed ittooif not for Sloane. Sloane Parker lives a smallcontained life as a librarian in her smallcontained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane’s day that when Arthur doesn’t show up one morningshe’s instantly concerned. And then another day passesand another. AnxiousSloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden…and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur’s gloomy lifeSloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowlythe lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each otherand in their book clubfind the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns outeveryone has a special book in their heart–and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.