~How To Find Love In A Bookshop Veronica Henry When her father dies unexpectedly, Emilia Nightingale finds herself in charge of the bookshop he owned and operated for thirty years, nestled on the main street of a charming English village in the Cotswolds. The book weaves the stories of several customers including Sarah, the owner of the village manor house, and quiet and shy Tomasina who runs a pop up restaurant out of her tiny cottage. Unsurprising and predictable it may be but it’s heartwarming, has a bookshop makeover (I’m a pushover for makeovers), a wedding (sort of) and lots and lots of happy relationship endings. Guaranteed to warm the cockles of your heart and send you running for the nearest quaint little village.
~84, Charing Cross Road Helen Hanff Published in 1970, this book’s a classic. The title refers to the address of a (then) bookstore in London, Marks & Co. In 1949 Helen Hanff, an American in New York, began requesting books from them and what followed was twenty years of correspondence between Helen and Frank Doel, the man on the ground in London who tracked the books down and popped them in the mail for her. The book consists solely of their letters along with a handful to and from other workers at the bookstore. Helen, cheerful, brash and snarky slowly chips away at Frank’s very English reserve and polite formality as the two forge a warm and endearing long distance relationship. Short and breezy and oh, so charming this is a book which can be read with much amusement within a couple of hours.
~The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald The quiet and unhurried story of widow Florence Green who decides to open a bookshop in the sleepy seaside town of Hardborough in the 1950’s. She buys the Old House, well known in town but unused and neglected for many years, fixes it up as best she can and sets about opening her crates of books and organizing them onto shelves. Unfortunately, with the exception of 10 year old Christine who helps her out in the shop after school and the eccentric Mr. Brunish who adores books and is admiring of Florences’ courage, she has little support from her fellow villagers. Even the house itself which seems to be haunted and is continually knocking and banging appears to be conspiring against her. Sadly, for whatever reason, Florence seems to stand at odd angles to the rest of the town’s inhabitants and attracts their ire at every turn, especially from the the imperious Violet Gamache, the local doyenne who wields a lot of power and is upset that Florence has bought the house where she hoped to open an Arts Centre (did I mention that the house had been vacant for many years ?!) But don’t be fooled. This is no heartwarming look at the quirky traits of people in a small village. It is a short and subtle novel in which not not a single word is wasted. Some might call it dull. Certainly it is quiet and unassuming. But it is also a piercing look at small town life and attitudes, especially of the upper echelons where entitlement and petty spite are hidden behind the thinnest veneer of social niceties. The Bookshop is eloquent, darkly funny and devastatingly heartbreaking.
~ The Bookshop On The Corner Jenny Colgan When bookish introvert Nina loses her job at a library in Birmingham she, through a series of events, finds herself in Scotland buying a van which she converts into a bookshop on wheels. It’s a cozy story of life in the North with all the classic big city vs small village cliches. If you’re looking for something deep and insightful this isn’t it, but it is a solidly written escape into a fun and humorous world and the descriptions of the Scottish countryside and village life are sure to whisk you away for an afternoon.
~The Bookshop On The Shore Jenny Colgan While this is not a sequel to the above book it is a sorta, kinda continuation in the sense that it takes some of the same characters and uses them for the background. The story itself belongs to single mum Zoe, who struggles to make ends meet in London and so takes her four year old son to Scotland where she will take care of three rather unruly children as well as take care of the bookshop while Nina is on maternity leave. TBH, the bookshop doesn’t take center stage and I have no idea where the shore was hiding, nor is there a great deal of plot other than the gentle drama of relationships. But…if you’re in need of a hug in book form then this falls well and truly into that category. Gentle, charming, mildly quirky with a nice setting. Lots of boxes ticked.
~The Diary Of A Bookseller Shaun Bythell A year in the life of Shaun Bythell who owns Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop in Wigtown on the remote coast of Galloway. Wigtown is officially designated as a Book Town: a book lovers haven of book related businesses. Nothing wildly crazy happens between these pages, but it is a thoroughly enlightening look at the book world, how it works and the trials and tribulations of being a modern day, independent bookseller in an Amazon world. Bythell has a relaxed way of describing not just the day-to-day logistics, but the many customers who come traipsing through his shop and the people who work within it. Particularly entertaining if you like your narrative with a heavy dose of curmudgeonly snark.
~The Last Bookshop In London Madeline Martin Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to London with her best friend Viv, which is exactly what she does in 1939, immediately before war breaks out. With her sights set on a job at Harrods, she takes a temporary position at Primrose Hill bookshop in an effort to get a much needed recommendation. Grace is not a reader and the shop is a mess, but she settles in to cleaning it up as best she can, and then, when handsome customer George gives her his much loved copy of The Count of Monte Cristo right before he leaves for war, Grace discovers her love of losing herself in a good book and then makes a name for herself reading aloud to strangers in the underground during air raids. This is an immersive story of WWII as Grace corresponds with George, volunteers as an ARP warden and generally tries to hold her life together amidst barrage balloons, rationing and an avalanche of bombs. If you’re an avid reader of WWII books the plot is pretty ordinary stuff, but it’s hard to resist a heartwarming story of friendships, bookshops and the enduring power of literature.
~The Lost For Words Bookshop Stephanie Butland After a recent bevy of comfort reads I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make my way through another one, but this book surprised me with its spikiness. Loveday Cardew is a socially awkward prickly pear with a traumatic past and the first sentence of various novels tattooed on her body. She works at the Lost For Words bookshop where owner Archie has taken her under his wing since she was a teenager. Life takes a complicated turn however when handsome poet Nathan walks through the door at the same time as mysterious packages start arriving at the shop which connect Loveday to her past. On the slightly darker side, with hits of domestic abuse, but not heavy. It has a little mystery, a little suspense and a little romance, served up with plenty of Loveday’s quirks.
~Parnassus On Wheels Christopher Morley After spending years cooking and cleaning for her mildly famous farmer-turned-writer brother, self-deprecating Helen McGill impulsively buys a bookstore on wheels (horse and carriage wheels – this is 1917!) when its current owner, Roger Mifflin knocks on the door looking to sell it to her sibling. She takes off immediately to try her hand at matching books to her neighbors, accompanied by Roger himself, who turns out to be the consummate charming salesman (in all the right ways). When Helen’s brother blocks her payment to Roger (he thinks she’s gone mad) gentle chaos ensues, a romance blossoms and happy endings ensue. Filled with plenty of book talk, this is a poignant and delightfully amusing story that has the added quaintness of being written a hundred years ago — Helen continually refers to herself as old – she is 39!