I’m familiar with physiotherapy, psychotherapy and music therapy but not with the ancient practice of bibliotherapy, although I’ve probably been using the concept all my life.

Leece and Tsakalakis are bibliotherapists in Sydney and Melbourne respectively who match books to their client’s need for comfort, consolation or guidance. After emailing each other for four years sharing their love of reading, swapping ideas for clients, and exchanging warm stories of the ordinary and the joys and sorrows of their own lives, they have formed a precious friendship. Amazingly, they both had the idea in the same week of turning these emails into a book.

Reading the Seasons embraces the power of friendship to hold us together and how books can also be these friends. It’s divided into four sections: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring and the topics of their conversations reflect, to an extent, the landscape and personality of these seasons.

But it’s also about seasons of the heart within the different age groups – youth and romance, midlife crises, and ageing. Time is a theme, the ‘circular nature of life and trusting what feels right at a particular moment’ in that time.

I felt a kindred spirit with Sonya Tsakalakis as she names her childhood books that enabled her to weather the ‘vagaries of existence’. Germaine Leece agrees and enjoys watching the glow on clients’ faces as they talk about their childhood book memories. She endeavours to prescribe books to create a similar glow. They both quote from a myriad of books to show how they’ve applied them to themselves and their clients.

This is also a reference book with an index of the texts and a bookshelf arranged by theme or by ‘malady’ for those in need of comfort, guidance, or catching a glimpse of themselves in other characters.

This review cannot begin to do justice to the delightful mix of light humour, warm personal stories, and thoughtful philosophy.

Reviewed by Judith Grace