This is Billie Voss, with the Sioux City Public Library, and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I am recommending Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley--an unconventional love story that is heartwarming, witty and bittersweet. This upbeat novel tells the story of a young woman named Jubilee, an unlikely heroine that is sure to captivate your heart. She is living a reclusive life, suffering from a rare allergy to other human beings! You feel saddened, yet impressed, with her heart-wrenching methods of living a life alone, learning unique and clever ways to live that life from the confounds of her home. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Jubilee is forced to leave this lonely, but familiar safe haven and rejoin society, falling into a job at a nearby Library. The anxiety builds as Jubilee treads outdoors, trying to muster the strength to take one more step toward this now unfamiliar world. We navigate with her as she must communicate with co-workers and library patrons, relearning social norms, idle chit chat, and the repetitive question of “Why the gloves? “
It is here at the Library that Jubilee meets Eric, a recently divorced man who is visiting the Library with his brilliant, yet troubled adopted son. Jubilee opens her heart one page at a time to a man who is navigating new territory. As the chapters alternate between them, you are both charmed and saddened by the struggles they both face in their lives.
Check out Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley at the Sioux City Public Library. For even more book recommendations, subscribe to our podcast, The First Fifty Pages, available on Apple Podcasts, The Play Store, and Stitcher.
Support for Check It Out comes from Avery Brothers.