Author: Stephanie Butland
The Second Chance Book Club is a new book by Stephanie Butland, one of my favourite authors. I read it as soon as it was published, but as workload and other shambles would have it, I am only writing a blog now.
In this book, Stephanie Butland does what she does best: write about books and their unique ability to bring people together and help them through hard times. In this case, a working-class woman from Leeds (home, sweet, home!), September Blythe, struggles financially following the early death of her adoptive parents and then learns that her biological aunt, whom she never knew, left her an inheritance. She goes to the house in Harrogate to prepare it for sale, only to find herself captivated by the memory of her middle-class aunt, her life story and her affection for books. It is her aunt’s book club that appears on her door that makes her reconsider the sale. Instead, she lets the book club people into the house (they have been meeting there since her aunt’s death with permission from her aunt’s solicitor) and starts learning about her aunt.
As it turns out, her aunt was a librarian and had purchased books for each of her birthdays, which September reads, along with reading books with her aunt’s book club. She also finds her aunt’s diary of kindness and learns about her biological family and the unfortunate events that led to her abandonment and adoption, which was not intended. We also learn her aunt’s sad life story and how she found meaning in kindness when everyone else betrayed her. I will not go into further details, as I do not want to spoil the book, but it is a poignant and fascinating story that is slowly disclosed throughout the book. The reader goes between reading about September’s past and her aunt’s past, whilst also learning about the present as September learns how to navigate her new reality of never having to worry about the money (I wonder how that feels).
The Second Chance Book Club is a wonderful homage to books, their healing power and the ability of books to bring people together. It is also a homage to being kind as a way of finding meaning in life, something the world would benefit from if more people did it. Once again, Stephanie Butland writes about the meaning of life and promotes values of kindness, friendship and being true to oneself. She did something similar with her other two books I read so far (Found in a Bookshop and The Lost for Words Bookshop), where she also celebrated bookshops, whereas in the Second Chance Book Club, she celebrates people who read and the power of book clubs to heal and support people. But in all her books, she promotes kindness. I love her books!
Read this book and read Stephanie Butland. She will restore your faith in humanity and bring hope that there are people in this world who know what matters the most.
Thank you for reading!