Grief is a Theif Unless It’s Arrested!

I really enjoyed This Book Made Me Think Of You by Libby Page, and I had actually bought it the day before it was recommended as a July reading choice for my Goodreads Kindle Book Club Forum group, since it sounded interesting, and now it is currently enshrined on Goodreads monthly list of Favorite Books of the Year (2026), occupying the March slot. I did feel it might have benefited from some editing (though some might disagree), as the last 20% of the book began to feel a bit repetitive, although still immersive. The book is about a young widow, Tilly, learning her husband Joe had set up a yearlong book of the month gift from a neighborhood bookseller to cheer her in the months after his death. Once it became clear to him his cancer diagnosis would not lead to recovery, he was concerned about doing something supportive to help his beloved during the initial year after his passing. Tilly had always loved reading and worked in the book industry coaching celebrities with memoirs her firm would publish; her subsequent shattering grief following Joe’s death stole her ability to concentrate while reading books, causing her to stop altogether, although she continued to focus on her job.

It’s impossible for me to not like a book about people who love reading and provide multiple book title suggestions, and I loved the main characters and how they came to be so supportive of each other. I was glad the Emily Henry book Beach Read was not the first book gifted by her now deceased husband Joe because I projected my own feelings of how utterly devastated I would be to have a romance given to me so soon after having lost the love of my life so relatively quickly after our wedding.  Once Tilly had been drawn back into her habit of reading, Beach Read was the perfect choice for the fourth book gift, and a trip to a beach resort. As the reading continued, the books instigated actions to break her out of her comfort zone and try new things. Family and friends came along for the ride.

I also appreciated how much extended family and friends of the main characters Tilly and Alfie (bookseller) grew along with them, challenging themselves in new ways, and learning insights about grief and loss which would make them all better equipped to reach out to others going through it. It was heartening to see how it transformed Tilly’s relationship with her mother in law. I was sorry the camping trip didn’t work out as they’d hoped after she read Wild Camping, but it reminded me of my experiences being in a tent during rainstorms, gale force winds in a beachfront site, and when a grizzly bear repeatedly circled our tent in Yellowstone, climaxing with my mom beating on a metal dishpan to dissuade its enthusiasm. Later we heard the clang of a triggered bear trap, ensuring another “nuisance bear” would be relocated to a less trafficked area of the park. (Who can blame those bears though, they were there first!) These are the kind of experiences that challenge us, and with each accomplishment mastery and confidence follow. 

I would recommend this book to anyone for its humor, engaging narrative, romance, and many uplifting life lessons! Grief is a thief, unless you arrest It, and it’s often so very difficult to begin taking steps to return ourselves to living our own lives. As one passage points out, “But it’s OK to feel happy and sad at the same time. Very few moments involve just one emotion. That’s life, isn’t it? It’s messy.”