Instant USA Today bestseller!“Abbi Waxman is both irreverent and thoughtful.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin“Meet our bookish millennial heroine—a modern-day Elizabeth Bennet, if you will… Waxman’s wit and wry humor stand out. She is funny and imaginative, and “Bookish” lands a step above run-of-the-mill romantic comedy fare.”—The Washington Post“Abbi Waxman offers up a quirky, … Washington Post
“Abbi Waxman offers up a quirky, eccentric romance that will charm any bookworm…. For anyone who’s ever wondered if their greatest romance might come between the pages of books they read, Waxman offers a heartwarming tribute to that possibility.”–Entertainment Weekly
The author of Other People’s Houses and The Garden of Small Beginnings delivers a quirky and charming novel chronicling the life of confirmed introvert Nina Hill as she does her best to fly under everyone’s radar.
Meet Nina Hill: A young woman supremely confident in her own…shell.
The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.
When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?
Nina considers her options.
1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)
It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.
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Sweet and unusual
“Trust people with your truth, and bravely tell them you’re not brave at all.”
Nina is smart, and funny, with a touch of OCD, especially when it comes to planning. Her days and appointments are planned down to the minute, and she loves working in the bookstore with the women she’s come to think of as friends. She dates here and there and she’s happy being single. But then she finds out who her father is, only he’s dead, and now she has a bunch of siblings and it’s all a bit overwhelming for her.
Then there’s Tom, who she thinks is insanely good looking, and he loves doing trivia night, so that’s a bonus. It turns out that Tom is pretty funny, and he matches Nina’s quick wit and humor. But Nina isn’t looking for anything serious, there’s already so much going on. She just doesn’t have the time for Tom. After all, everything is planned down to the minute.
Nina is super funny, she’s very quick in her banter and I laughed a lot with her. There were only a few downfalls of the book for me, the fact that everyone in her life was so much like her, and her need to control every aspect of her life was as overwhelming for me as it was the other characters. I really liked Tom and would love to see more of him. I thought he was good for Nina. I really loved Archie and Peter, and then as we got to know them, her entire family. Seriously there could be books devoted to each of them and I would read every one. The book was as poignant as it was funny. Well done!
I loved this book.. I am impartial because I am truly a book nerd!!! But the story was so interesting and relatable!!!
Smart, funny, and OMG she RickRolled the book. Highly recommended.
A+ rating…I loved this book. It was incredibly quirky and fun and I could relate to the heroine probably a bit too much. I didn’t want the book to end.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
The author did a good job of taking the reader to a different side of LA, but the character was not at all believable.
Awkward heroines are my catnip, and Nina Hill is the new queen of quirkiness. My dear fellow introverted bibliophiles, let it be known that I was utterly charmed by The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.
The book is written with a cheeky sense of humor that may be over the top for some, but I loved it—particularly the more I read. It fits Nina’s quick wit and eccentric personality. I enjoyed her overactive imagination, her endless well of trivia knowledge, and her compassion. Nina’s struggle with anxiety and her delight in solitude really resonated with me. I got a kick out of her full but regimented life, and I particularly looked forward to her cute daily planner notes at the beginning of each chapter.
Her long lost family boasts a colorful and diverse cast of characters. The way she navigates these new relationships is incredibly fun to experience. Throughout all the highs and lows, Nina embraces her weirdness, and you’ve got to admire that.
This lovely, heartwarming story fit my summer mood perfectly. A reader’s guide with some great discussion questions is included at the end, so you could easily make The Bookish Life of Nina Hill your next book club selection.
Recommended for fans of:
Bookstores
Trivia
Quirky heroines
Introverts
Artisanal ice cream
* An early copy was provided by the publisher to voluntarily read. *
Another winner from Abbi Waxman! I’ve loved all of her books and will wait impatiently for the next.
Nina just found out her dad has died. She never knew she had a dad, let alone bothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. This throws her whole world out of kilter. On top of this….she has met a new, potential boyfriend. Her anxiety level is through the roof.
Well! I completely related to Nina! She is an introvert after my own heart. She works in a book store (my dream job!). She is completely nerdy, especially with her planner. I actually laughed out loud and some of her entries. So wonderfully realistic! She also has the best reactions to people. I caught myself laughing out loud at many of her antics.
This story is full of humor, fantastic characters and wonderful book references. What is not to enjoy? This is a perfect read for an introverted bibliophile!
I devoured this delightful book in one sitting. I loved so much about it– the mention of so many fantastic books (books about books are always the best), the quirky chapter “titles,” the very personable cast of characters– and The Simpsons references. Be still my heart.
This was entertaining, relatable, and even had moments of some profound depth. I could definitely relate to Nina (bookworms have to stick together) and I know this is a book I will have to reread time and again when I need a pick-me-up. I highly recommend!
/ 5 rounded up
Novels about books and bookworms have to be one of my favorite things in this world, and The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman just reinforced that.
What it’s about: Nina Hill works in a bookstore and lives a generally quiet life. She enjoys her alone time due to her anxiety, and she spends most of her time either in the bookstore or the guest cottage she lives in with her cat Phil. She isn’t lacking for friends that aren’t books though, and she loves her trivia nights and book clubs at the bookstore. But her world is about to be turned upside down when she finds out her dad, whom she never knew, just died and she has lots of family that all live in or near LA, right next to her! It also doesn’t help that she finds herself attracted to an opposing trivia team’s captain – Tom. Nina is about to go way out of her comfort zone and find out what it means to have a huge family that loves you and a partner who accepts you as you are.
I absolutely adored The Bookish Life of Nina Hill! This book kept a smile on my face the whole time I was reading it and I laughed out loud more times than I could count. I loved Nina so much for how real she felt to me. I thought she was incredibly relatable, and I saw a lot of myself in her. And who wouldn’t love a book that mentions Book of the Month? The only thing that I thought was a bit of a bummer is that all of the characters talked a lot like Nina which I can’t imagine would happen in real life. The characters may have all sounded a bit the same to me, but I mostly overlooked that since I loved this book so much.
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is going to be perfect for both book lovers and women’s fiction lovers alike. Nina is funny and sarcastic, and you can’t help but love her. I think Waxman did a good job talking about Nina’s anxiety issues instead of just writing her off as a quirky character. Anxiety effects so many people and I really appreciated Waxman’s approach to it in this novel.
This is also a pretty quick read, and I managed to get through it in just about 4.5 hours even though honestly, I never wanted it to end. The chapters were all pretty short, and I also really liked the day planner pages in the book! I couldn’t always read Nina’s writing, but I still loved it.
Song/s the book brought to mind: Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows.
Final Thought: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is warm, fuzzy, sarcastic, witty, and is sure to give you all the feels. It is such a touching and fun read that I highly recommend it to all bookworms! Lovers of reading will agree with so much in this book and be able to spot things they can relate to. I couldn’t have enjoyed this author’s writing style more and I am so incredibly excited to read more from her (thank goodness she has 2 other books)!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Nina’s mother, Candice, is a well known photographer who loves to travel. Nina, however, is much happier home alone with her cat, Phil, her favorite comfy chair, and of course, stacks and stacks of books. In fact, she loves books so much that she spends her days working at Knight’s, the local, independent, decades old bookstore.
“She’d never felt more at home than she did at Knight’s, with the plentiful sarcasm and soothing rows of book spines. It was heaven on earth. Now, if they could only get rid of the customers and lock the front doors, they’d really be onto something.”
But, what happens when William, the father she never knew, dies leaving her countless relatives who totally turn her world upside down?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book about Nina Hill’s bookish life. I mean, seriously, the only thing better than a book … is a book about BOOKS! And this one has so. many. bookish references. Your inner—or outer!—introvert will rejoice while reading this book. Lastly, every book nerd knows that the love of books brings people together, and that’s exactly what happens to Nina Hill in this sweet, amusing, whimsical, sometimes snarky, and romantic read!
Location: Larchmont Village in Los Angeles, California
I received an advance copy from Edelweiss. All opinions are my own.
Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “The Bookish Life of Nina Hill” by Abbi Waxman, Berkley Publishing, July 9, 2019
Abbi Waxman, Author of “The Bookish Life of Nina Hill” has written a delightful, entertaining, enjoyable, charming, and witty novel. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Humor, and Romance. The author describes her colorful cast of characters as complex, complicated, quirky, delightful and dysfunctional.
Nina Hill works in a bookshop, engages in trivia night, and various bookish activities. Nina gets anxious easy, prefers being alone with her cat, and reading books. Nina has grown up never knowing her father, and is closest to her child caretaker, than her single mother. Nina also uses a planner and organizes her life in an efficient manner for herself. It should come as a shock that Nina doesn’t like surprises. She likes everything in order and predictable.
When it is brought to Nina’s attention that the father she never had known, has died and she is invited to the reading of the will, Nina is flabbergasted. Now it seems there are other members of this family. Will Nina’s life ever be the same? Will our Bookish Nina be able to make it to the reading of the will? One thing is for sure, Nina’s Bookish Life as she knows it holds many surprises.
This is an easy to read, heartwarming story that I highly recommend.
From the author of The Garden of Small Beginnings, comes a irreverent, yet deeply touching romantic comedy.
Nina is a late twenty-something bookworm living a well organized, abet anxious, life in LA, when a lawyer walks into her bookstore to inform her that the father she never knew has died.
Suddenly Nina’s world has widen to include not only a dead father but siblings, neices and nephews, even a great neice or two. Not to mention the hot guy on the opposing trivia team suddenly has the hots for Nina. Her world is becoming unstable and that is definitely not on her schedule.
Writing with a witty, distinctively original humor, Waxman once again sucked me into her story as through I really was Nina, dealing with her twists and turns, anxiety and love of books. Being a highly bookish, somewhat shy introvert myself and dealing with my own anxiety, I completely related to Nina on several levels. I spent a very entertaining few hours deep in the lives of these interesting well written characters, needing to know what would happen next but not wanting to story to end.
And as is the hazard of any truly dedicated book lover, I also spent sometime expanding by TBR list with all the books referenced in the story. Not to mention enjoying Phil, Nina’s witty and protective cat.
I give this novel an enthusiastic 5 Stars, and thank Goodread contest for an advanced copy.
4.5 stars
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was such a quirky and fun read. The writing hooked me right from the start and really drew me into the story. The Los Angeles setting was a wonderful surprise, and I loved seeing all of the different locations and references, especially the book store where Nina worked. I have actually visited this store (which is cleverly called Knight’s in the book) and I cackled several times at the author’s hilariously accurate descriptions of the area and different LA-isms.
Book lovers will identify and relate a lot to Nina. She sometimes came across as a socially awkward book snob, but I still found her character very endearing. She’s living what she considers to be a wonderful life, but as the book progresses we see that that life isn’t quite as fulfilling as she believed it to be. Though there is romance in the book, I really feel like the main love story is between Nina and herself. She’s coming into her own, accepting, growing, making mistakes, and adapting to all the new things and people in her life. Considering her world got turned completely upside down, I felt like she responded really well.
I loved the colorful cast of characters that we meet throughout the book, especially Peter, Lydia, and how cute was Tom? He complemented Nina well, but I would have liked a little more time spent on establishing and building their connection. There is a little bit of drama, and I feel like Tom overreacted, but I also liked that he wasn’t a doormat and knew what he wanted. The resolution to their drama was perfect though and left me with a huge smile on my face. Overall, this was a fantastic novel and I definitely plan to read more from this author.
*I voluntarily read an advance review copy of this book*
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is a witty and charming romantic comedy that I couldn’t get enough of!
Nina is someone that every reader will relate to and her journey of discovering and meeting her family that she didn’t know existed for thirty years was beautiful and I loved seeing her growth. I honestly can’t say enough good things about Te Bookish Life of Nina Hill.
Nina is awkward, but brilliant. She has anxiety, which she sees as a pitfall, but it truly makes her more human and lovable. She is a heroine that will have introverts standing up to cheer her on in this journey.
In my opinion I’d say that The Bookish Life of Nina Hill leans strongly to the women’s fiction side of books and has less focus on the romance, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I mean hello, Nina just realized that she actually has a ton of relatives than she ever knew!
I was chuckling within minutes of beginning Nina’s story and I come away feeling smarter and knowing many new random facts. In fact, I loved The Bookish Life of Nina Hill I’d already recommended it to multiple friends before the story was over.
I devoured the story and finished in less than a day, this it’s a quintessential summer read. Light on the angst, but still emotional and moving. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is a must read.