The Lonely Hearts Book Club

By Lucy Gilmore

A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way.

Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained 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 morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.

Anxious, Sloane 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 life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart--and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.

Books have a way of bringing even the loneliest of souls together...

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Published Mar 28, 2023

Average rating: 7.27

185 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *The Lonely Hearts Book Club* by Lucy Gilmore is a heartwarming, comforting story about friendship, grief, and connection that resonates d...

M
MandiCole11
6/10 stars
3.5
Cindy Huskey
Cindy Huskey
10/10 stars
Grab a box of Kleenex; you’ll need it for this delightful, hilarious, heartwarming story about a grumpy ex-literature professor, a librarian, and an unlikely group of other lonely misfits who find healing and friendship in a book club.

Sloan Parker is a librarian at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library. Engaged to a handsome, successful chiropractor, who is perfectly nice, polite, safe. Sloan’s life seems simple, ordinary. Until she meets Arthur…

Arthur McLachlan is a bitter old man with a penchant for Roman history and German philosophy, and a knack for reducing all of the staff to tears with his barbed insults, except Sloan. She not only isn’t offended by his belligerence, but she also engages with Arthur in a battle of sorts, and thoroughly enjoys it.

For the next few months, Arthur arrives at the library promptly at 10:30 each morning - precisely 30 minutes after Sloan Parker’s shift begins - to pick up the book banter where they left off the day before. That is, until Arthur doesn’t show up one day, or the next day, or the next.

What happens is absolute gold!

Arthur, Sloan, and Maisey, the nosy neighbor, begin a book club that soon drags a few more lonely souls into its folds. Each member of this misfit book club discovers that books not only have the power to bring people together, but also to heal old wounds.
NurseBunny
NurseBunny
9/10 stars
I fell in love with these characters, and I still think about the old man.
A
Ann Bredemeier
6/10 stars
the characters were so diverse and interesting and the story unfolded in an uplifting way. Truly a good easy read. I loved Arthur and how he finally came into his words.
literarily_occupied
literarily_occupied
8/10 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️

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