I loved this book.
You know the drill: if it’s showing up here, it’s one I think is worth your time.
The Bookshop Sisterhood is a story of four best friends - Celeste, Yasmeen, Toni, and Leslie - who long ago made a pact to open a bookstore together, and are now on the cusp of making that dream real. But then… life happens.
This book is made of the stuff of midlife: parenting a sick child, relationship challenges, family secrets, mental health issues and financial changes.
Each woman comes with her own story, flaws, and dreams and none are perfect. They argue, misunderstand, drift apart, and sometimes behave badly, but come back together in a way that feels honest and real.
The themes of identity run deep: what does it mean to pursue a dream you built with your best friends when life pulls you in a different direction? Who are you when a big part of your life is creating a persona rather than being a real person? There’s no villain here—just real people facing real choices.
Absolutely anything we pursue in life can bring us back to the fundamental questions of identity: who am I, and who do I want to be?
For me, a story like this always makes me wonder: is this the norm? Do most women have a sisterhood of ride-or-die besties that survives all these life changes?
Personally, I don’t have that. In my world, it feels like everyone is too busy to commit to a book club, too stretched to prioritise anything other than kids/work/home. Don’t get me wrong, I have some dear friends, but I don’t have a girl gang the way women in these books always seem to.
Maybe that’s why I am attracted to these stories: “who I want to be” is definitely someone with a girl gang. How about you? Do you have a gang of besties, friends here and there, or something else altogether?