08/21/2026
Join us for our next Books on Main read!
Books on Main is our daytime book club designed to help readers explore a variety of genres, guided by Library staff.
Next month we will meet on September 17 at 1:00 pm to discuss My Friends by Fredrik Backman.
Books are available at the front desk while supplies last! Additional copies are available for checkout at BPL and on the Libby app but may have a waiting list, so place your hold now!
Books are provided by the Arkansas State Library and the Friends of the Bentonville Library.
Find more about BPL service for readers at BentonvilleLibrary.org/BPLforReaders (linked in bio).
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About the book:
Most people don't even notice them--three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it's just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa's care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting's birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she'll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don't always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
