Notes from May 2018 group

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald – Discussed on Wed May 2, 2018, at Geneseo Public Library

Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds Amy's funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor―there's not much else to do in a dying small town that's almost beyond repair.

You certainly wouldn't open a bookstore. And definitely not with the tourist in charge. You'd need a vacant storefront (Main Street is full of them), books (Amy's house is full of them), and...customers.

The bookstore might be a little quirky. Then again, so is Sara. But Broken Wheel's own story might be more eccentric and surprising than she thought.

This story started slowly.  The townspeople characters were all unusual but real.  Our group enjoyed the made up Iowa small town (population 637) which seemed believable.  Sara from Sweden was a devoted reader – her life was books.  Within this novel many book titles and characters are mentioned by Sara. She did not relate to people but that changes during the story.  We liked the way the town council people took care of the town’s events, problems, and people.  Felt the story had a Hallmark happy ending.  Our group had very mixed feelings about this book.  Loved that the book included a list of all the books Sara talked about.