Iona Iverson rides the train to and from work everyday and collects people as she rides, helping solve their problems and developing friendships. I loved the characters and the way they develop, interact, and come together, the stellar writing, the story line and the ending. Infused with heart and humor, the book demonstrates the importance of community and the ability of relationships to change people's lives. I just loved it and was so sad when it ended. I highly recommend this gem of a book.

While Iona Iverson's second rule of commuting is "Never talk to strangers on the train," due to her flamboyant persona, she attracts a lot of attention during her daily train journey to her job as a magazine advice columnist. She has a seat that she always sits in, and her French bulldog Lulu is usually in the seat beside her. The layout of the seats includes a table for four people. Iona notices the regulars and gives them all nicknames such as "Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader." Iona is in her 50s and dresses to attract attention -- bright colors and patterns in a train carriage of browns and blacks. Her fellow commuters also have nicknames for her, such as "Rainbow Lady" or "Magic Handbag Lady."

Some of her fellow commuters include: Sanjay, an oncology nurse with panic attacks; Martha, a teenage school girl dealing with a sexting scandal that's made her an outcast; Piers, the "manspreader" whose high-flying career isn't all it's cracked up to be; and Emmie, who is dealing with a possessive boyfriend. As we get to learn more about the various characters and their problems, it seems that everyone must ignore the rules of commuting in order to make connections that will benefit everyone.

The story was very comforting and I enjoyed reading how all the characters came together to help one another with their issues. The story dealt compassionately with subjects such as bullying, LGBTQ discrimination, age discrimination, etc. An enjoyable story and tying up of all the storylines!

A wonderful, feel-good novel about a group of disparate strangers whose lives start to entwine during their train commute into London. Iona is a larger-than-life character, a 57-year-old advice columnist who is being edged out at work. Every day, she travels on the train with her beloved dog Lulu and follows the unspoken rule of commuting not to interact with anyone else. When she and Sanjay, a nurse, save the life of stockbroker choking on a grape, things start to change for all of them, including the pretty young woman who works at an ad agency and loves to read, a teen who has made a terrible mistake and is being bullied mercilessly for it, and a nondescript older man whose wife is about to leave him. All of the characters are unforgettable and I loved every page of this book. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group Viking, and Pamela Dorman Books for a digital review copy.

This is a gem of a book that will make you feel good just by reading it. It will also make you nostalgic for a time you might not have been alive for but miss anyway and nostalgic for our more recent past when we rode trains to in person jobs. If you've ever been on a train and wondered about your fellow passengers, read this book. Iona is a long-time train rider (and one of the best characters in fiction) and has a firm rule about not talking to fellow passengers. However, once she starts breaking that rule, her life changes along with the lives of those she befriends. If only we could sort our lives through new friends met on a train, this would be a wonderful world, and I'd like to imagine it is possible. I'm off to read a book on a train now.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A cheerful, happy, just-what-I-needed book. A series of commutes on the Waterloo lines (London) leads to a burgeoning group of friends centered on one larger-than-life Iona Iverson — previously an “It Girl” alongside Bea, the love of her life. Iona is a popular “magazine therapist” (not an Agony Aunt!) plying her trade at a women’s magazine, but her clueless boss is pushing her towards the door due to her advanced age (57). Meanwhile, her unofficial and unpaid break-all-the-norms-of-commuting business is thriving.

Watching the group coalesce, each facing his/her own problems (a teenage girl afraid to show her face at school, a successful banker rapidly losing his money, a husband so dull his wife can’t stand him, and a male nurse without the confidence to approach the bookworm with an overbearing boyfriend) is funny, poignant, and uplifting. Big kudos to the author for actually bringing out the assumptions we make about people we don’t know and showing how wrong we can be. Rather than taking the easy way out and subscribing to the always popular white male bashing, she the person who appears to be the “smart but sexist Manspreader,” turns out to be a pretty decent guy (see one of the quotes below). Kudos!

Some fun quotes:
“Sanjay wound the tape back in his head, re-examining it from a different angle. Perhaps Piers hadn’t actually been flaunting anything. Perhaps that was just what he’d wanted to see. Was he just as guilty of stereotyping as everyone else? The thought lodged in his brain like a festering splinter.”

“…peering at him through narrowed eyes, giving him the impression of being scanned by a supermarket checkout machine before being declared an unexpected item in the bagging area.”

“He was like an electrical appliance on standby — still plugged in, but not functioning — and she had no idea where to find the remote control.”

“Emmie, why on earth did you decide to go into advertising if you have such an inflexible conscience?”

“Shakespeare, she’d discovered, never used four words when twenty-six would do. He might be good at the whole play thing, but he’d be useless at writing the emergency evacuation instructions for an airline.”

The title of this book was so captivating, I immediately started reading it ahead of the other titles in my kindle stack. As I read, I quickly came to love all the quirky characters despite the secrets they hid from themselves and others. The dignity of these very human players brought to mind another book I read and loved two years ago, The Authenticity Project. Imagine my surprise and satisfaction to go back in my GoodReads list and discover that both stories were written by Clare Pooley!
This is what I wrote about Ms. Pooley’s first book, “ This story has love, humor, unique characters and great commentary on today’s social scene.” and the same observation holds true in her latest effort. Bring a group of strangers together in a culture where privacy and dignity are valued above all, and then break down the barriers as the characters gain strength from their new found friends. But let me assure you, the plot itself is not just a rehash of the original formula. Each character is a fully formed individual, whether young or old, student or financier, man or woman. And they are brought together by the wit and wisdom of Iona Iverson, who is without doubt, one of a kind.
This was a story to help you forget the bad news out there and take comfort in the message that we can lean on others for strength and comfort. I hope Ms. Pooley keeps telling her stories and sharing this message.
Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this most entertaining book.

Quirky and original, Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting is the perfect book to enjoy in these times.

As both my boyfriend and my alcohol use will attest, I hate feeling my own feelings. So it’s great to use a book to make me cry for once. And this one made me cry from the beauty of the interconnected human experience! Man, I needed to shed those tears. Worth it. Thanks for the ARC.

Oh my, this is just a great book. It centers around Iona, a late middle age writer of a magazine advice column and the people she sees every day on her train commute. We meet a group of these commuters, learn their life stories and problems and how through sharing these problems life gets better. I honestly did not want the book to end. I loved all the characters. The book was funny, serious and everything in between. I also highly recommend the first book by this author, The Authenticity Project. Can not wait for her next book.

THIS IS THE KIND OF STORY I LOVE! Crazy fun and interesting lead (Iona) and all the adorable misfits she allows herself to know on her daily train rides. I love the bit about the beanbag chair meetings! We can all learn something from this book - to open ourselves up to others along the way. Such great friendships! More, please!

If you like reading books where you meet people, get to know them, care about them, and watch them grow...then this is the book for you. And if you happen to commute by train, you will laugh, hard.

Iona is a hoot. And what a backstory.

Clare Pooley is an absolute delight and so is Iona Iverson. A recommended first purchase, particularly for collections where her previous title was popular.