The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
Nina is an introvert, bookworm, and trivia buff. She is happy with her regimented, small life working in a bookstore and competing on a trivia team (and trying to decide how she feels about an intriguing competitor). Her life is upended when she is named in the will of the father she's never met--and suddenly she has a large and complicated family.
Nina has moments of mild abrasiveness, excellent snarky humor, and extreme introversion--but I loved how she was quite social, on her own terms. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was funny, charming, and relatable--I enjoyed it immensely, and it was excellent summer reading. If you've read other Abbi Waxman books, the characters from The Garden of Small Beginnings appear here. You miss nothing if you haven't read the other book, but it is a fun nod to a previous read. Waxman's brand of humor, cultural references, and quick-witted dialogue reminded me a little of Gilmore Girls--if that's up your alley, you might enjoy this book.
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Publisher’s Description
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.