Following a trail of books

Amy Meyerson's 2018 novel The Bookshop of Yesterdays pays tribute to independent bookstores, literature and those who write it, the importance of history and the power of family. It also presents a series of literary riddles that challenge readers as well as Miranda Brooks, Meyerson's protagonist.

Miranda, a young history teacher in Philadelphia, finds herself the owner of Prospero Books, a bookshop in Los Angeles, her hometown. It's the beginning of her summer break, so she thinks she has time to sort everything out. But that turns out to be not so easy.

The bookshop was owned by her Uncle Billy, who disappeared from her life on her 12th birthday. Now he has died and left her the store, as well as a trail of literary clues, one leading to another. So while trying to save the bookshop, because she lacks the income to subsidize its losses as her uncle did, she must follow that trail to try to discover what Bill is trying to tell her about himself, and ultimately about herself. The history teacher finds herself researching her own family history

This does seem a bit contrived, but it's still fun. Can you identify the literary references before Miranda does? Even Prospero Books and Miranda are literary references, both names referring to characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

This isn't great literature, but those who admire great literature should enjoy it.