Although it grabbed my attention in the first few chapters, it lost its grip on me pretty quickly thereafter, made another grasp about midway through, and then, just when I thought it was going to part company with an uncomfortably limp handshake, gave a satisfactory fist tap to send me on my way. Described as part history, part mystery, part memoir, part love letter to libraries, "The Library Book" seemed like a good bet as an opener for a book club with library-loving friends. Unfortunately, the whole ended up being less than the sum of its part. What could have been a fascinating narrative felt jumbled; what could have been arresting vignettes of interesting people felt confused and unmoored. On a sentence level, however, the writing is beautiful. If I had been reading on my Kindle, I would have highlighted several surprising, vivid, and delightful phrases. I'd give it a 3.5 for that, but rounding up to a 4 felt too generous.