The Little Paris Bookshop

If you like me think that things happen for a reason, normally to teach us something in my case, then have you ever thought about what books happen in your life at a specific time? I do. I've found books and then never read them, until one moment and it was exactly what I needed at the time. That was how The Little Paris Bookshop was for me. I found it while waiting in the LAX airport on our 10 hour layover from Argentina.

Now, I'm not normally a romance girl. There might be reasons behind that, but for the most part they're just too sappy for me to fall in line with. However, The Little Paris Bookshop caught my eye and even after I left it on the shelf I kept thinking about it so much that I had to go back and buy it. 

Then when I opened the book I started truly reading. Not just the all encompassing absorption reading that I normally jump into mind you, but the most intimate form of reading, which meant when I saw something that stood out to me and was calling to my soul, I annotated. I underlined. I made a note. I laughed. I cried. 

Because it was that good. 

The main character, Jean Perdu, not only is someone that readers can identify with, but he acts as we all want to. Raw and with emotion, overwhelmed and someone determined to break out of the monotony of their everyday life. He shows us that love can be the greatest factor in our lives. Whether that means to damage or heal. Most of all he shows us how impossible it is to live without love. But the true beauty is that in the beginning Jean didn't know any of this. Both the readers and Jean learn these lessons at the same time, and perhaps even a bit too late. 

Love can hurt, and heal. Love draws people together in strange circumstances. Like three very unlikely men on a boat pursuing love their long gone loves. And if I ever see a floating bookstore traveling downstream, I know that like Max I would jump on in heartbeat. And if you ever see this book on the shelf, I can only say that it should jump into your hands, with so many amazing lessons and a true appreciation for books themselves, The Little Pairs Bookshop is perhaps the most important book that I have read in all of 2016, and it has helped me through a strange time of my life as I know it will help so many others, it truly is a literary prescription.  

And to those who do read it, I don't know if it will mean as much to you as it did to me, but there is a part about Argentine Milongas. To me it gave a wonderful feeling of nostalgia for the country I was just leaving, and made me realize that little moments have large impacts.