Hi! Welcome to Abington Public Library for APL Book Bites, a new program here at the APL where we review some of our favorite books and more. My name is Heidi and I am excited to share my very first book bite with you.

First, a little backstory. Unsurprisingly, we are often asked for book recommendations, which we love to give here at the APL. It’s a natural part of the job. However, some of my favorite reads throughout the years have been recommended to me by patrons and that is exactly how this particular story landed in my lap. After being intrigued by a library user’s description, I found Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy to be a gem of a book.

It is a story of an elderly waiting for life to be done with her, because she is ready to be done with life itself. And then she meets a mouse (yes, a mouse), and discovers that life has different plans for them both. Coming in at 223 pages Sipsworth is not a large commitment of a book and much of the beauty is in the nuance and all that is left unsaid. It explores tough topics (grief, aging, loneliness and more), in a Sunday drive kind of way. Told over the course of one week, Sipsworth does not rush, you can’t always be sure what is around the corner and the final chapter makes you thankful you decided to take the ride in the first place. The audio version is read by Christine Rendel, who does a beautiful job at bringing this story to life in a believable and relatable way.

Special thanks to all the readers out there who often take an extra moment to share their favorite books with us and thank you for taking the time to let us share them with you!

This has been APL Book Bites, brought to you by the Abington Public Library. We’ll see you next time! Bye!