Month: September 2025

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Notting Hill Bookshop

veritywilde

After I had been to Saucy Books the other week, I may have headed to another bookshop in the area. Because the only thing better than one bookshop, is two bookshops!

This isn’t the full frontage because at various points when I was trying to take a picutre of the whole thing, there where people posing for photos and I try not to include random people full face on here. And why were people posing for photos outside I hear you say. Well this is a bookshop in Notting Hill and you may remember that in the film Notting Hill Hugh Grant’s character runs a bookshop in Notting Hill. Now there is something of a turf war going on about this…

This one is actually the store front that was used in the movie, and the beef goes deep enough that as you can see they have a whole poster about it outlining their story. Anyway, back to the Notting Hill Bookshop, which is a bookshop, in Notting Hill, founded in the early 1980s which says it inspired the bookshop in the movie….

It’s not a huge shop, but it is bigger than the shop front would suggest, and it is stuffed with books and made more crowded by the number of customers (huge when I was there, I was glad I hadn’t come straight from work and had taken the time to ditch my rucksack, even if carrying my purchases home in the shoulder bag wasn’t the best idea for my poor shoulder!). And the huge number of customers and crowded nature of it all are the reasons why the photos aren’t exactly ideal sometimes. Sorry about that.

I thought whoever was doing the book picking was doing a pretty good job too – this table right at the front shows what I mean – it’s got stuff for the Casual Reader (things that you might be able to pick up at the supermarket), it’s got prize winning authors for the Serious Reader, and things that you might not have come across before for people like me who visit a lot of bookshops and want something different!

It’s also got a small romance section, which is always nice to see, even if a lot of the books are either things I’ve already read or not my end of the genre (see my previous comments about New Adult).

They’ve also got a tonne of extra-bits – like Paddington and London related stuff in the kids section as well as loads of collectible hardbacks, notepads, souvenirs to say you were there. I bought myself Hattie Steals the Show (which you’ve already seen in Books Incoming) and a bunch of book related post cards.

Have a great weekend everyone!

romantic comedy, Series I love

Series I Love: Spoiler Alert

veritywilde

Happy Friday everyone and I have a romance series for you this week, because all three of these are in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and so now is an ideal time to read them if you haven’t already.

So Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert series is three connected romances featuring cast members from a TV show that is somewhat Game of Thrones inspired. God of the Gates has been wildly popular but some of the actors (and the fans!) aren’t happy with the turn that the plots have taken. In Spoiler Alert, one of the stars is taking out his frustration with that by anonymously writing fan fiction, which is how he meets April although of course she doesn’t know who he really is. Then – both unknowingly – they meet in real life when Marcus asks April out after one of her fan costumes goes viral because she is plus size. When they start dating, he realises who she is and how is he going to detangle that one. All the Feels was a BotW, so there’s a full review of that already but it sees Alex assigned a minder by the show runners to keep him out of trouble until the final season airs. And Shipwrecked finds two actors who had a one night stand who find themselves co-stars and stuck filming together on a remote island for the duration of the series (because their characters are shipwrecked there) and so really need to not do anything that could end up in them hating each other and still having to work together. But when the series ends, they finally give in – but the trouble is they both have very different plans for the future.

You don’t really need to read these in order – but they do all take place at basically the same time (or at least parts of them take place at the same time) which makes for a really fun experience if you do read them all even if not in the proper order. Olivia Dade writes rom coms – these are funny as well as sexy and I like her characters who aren’t cookie cutter romances heroes and heroines. She was one of the first romance authors who I read who was regularly writing plus sized heroines or slightly older couples, by which at this point I mean in their 30s or up*, and I appreciate that too. I think I’ve re-read the first two twice each now – and probably the only reason I haven’t re-read Shipwrecked is because I own it in paperback so it’s not handy on my Kindle in the same way. They make great sunlounger books, so if you’re planning a late summer trip, these might be a good choice for you.

These are available in paperback as well as on Kindle Unlimited, and surprisingly given they are in KU at the moment, they are still on Kobo, although they are somewhat pricey there and they aren’t linked together as a series, so here is Spoiler Alert, All The Feels and Shipwrecked over there too.

*which given the amount of romances that have early 20s or college age characters at the moment is very welcome to me. New Adult seems to have subsumed the who genre.

Book previews

Out This Week: Socialite Spy sequel

veritywilde

You may remember Sarah Sigal’s Socialite Spy, which was a BotW back in 2023. Well this week Sigal’s new book is out – and it’s another novel featuring Lady Pamela Moore. We re-join her in 1938, and she is still using her work as a society columnist as cover. This time she’s trying to infiltrate the Parisian circles where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are encountering fascists and Nazi sympathisers. I really enjoyed the first book, and I love a story that features Edward and Mrs Simpson, so I’m really looking forward to reading this. It’s in Kindle Unlimited, so hopefully I’ll get to it sooner rather than later!

Book previews, book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: New Autumn non-fiction

veritywilde

September is the start of the mega Christmas release schedule and as ever there is a shedload of celebrity memoirs and non fiction coming out this Christmas season. SO this week I thought I’d mention the ones that I am particularly looking forward to.

Let’s start with Tim Curry’s Vagabond which comes out in mid October. Curry has had a long and successful career – you’re likely to know him either as Frank-n-Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pennywise in the original It, Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, or the voice of Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys. He’s always been a somewhat private person and he’s been largely out of the spotlight and only doing voice work since he had a major stroke in 2012. So I’m really excited to find out what he’s got to say about his career (because I’m not expecting any revelations about his personal life) and as he’s reading the audiobook, I think I may well consume it that way so I can listen to his wonderful voice.

The other big actor memoir that I’ve seen this autumn is Michael J Fox’s Future Boy which is specifically about the period in the 1980s where he was making both the Back to the Future films and the sitcom Family Ties. That’s out in mid October. The week before that there’s Ozzy Osborne’s Last Rites, which takes you (apparently) right though his life to that final gig just a few weeks before he died in July.

But the other book on my list is Making Mary Poppins by Todd James Pierce. Mary Poppins is one of my very favourite ever movies and as you know I love stories of behind the scenes in Hollywood. I’ve already read both of Julie Andrews’s memoirs so I’ve heard about the filming from her, but I’m sure there is much more to find out.

The Big Political Book this autumn is Kamala Harris’s 107 Days, which is out next week and looks at her very brief campaign to become President, starting from when Joe Biden announced that he would no longer seek reelection.

Talking of American politics, not a memoir per se, but Michelle Obama has a new book out in early November – The Look is an examination of her evolving style over the years and the impact that fashion and style can have on you. And there’s also a new cookbook from Samin Nosrat whose Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat won a bunch of awards back in around 2017. Good Things is recipes to cook – 125 of them in fact. Padma Lakshmi also has a new cookbook out – All American – with recipes from all the many cultures she’s come across during her decades travelling in the US.

I’m really interested to have a look at Cory Doctrow’s Enshittification, which is looking at why so many things in tech and online start off being good and then go downhill as it is monetised and the impact that this has on everything in our lives. That’s out in mid October. In a similar sort of area, I’m also interested in Streaming Wars by Charlotte Henry, which is about the changes in the media industry that streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Spotify and the like have caused, and what happens next. That’s out at the start of October.

I won’t be the only person out there who studied The Handmaid’s Tale at A Level, even if I’ve only read one (maybe two?) of Margaret Atwood’s other novels in the years since (more if you count her graphic novel series AngelCatbird). But she has a memoir out this autumn The Book of Lives out in early November. In other notable prize winning authors, Zadie Smith has Dead and Alive, an essay collection, out at the very end of October and Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me is already in the shops.

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever

veritywilde

At this point I can’t tell if this is going to be a shock for you if you saw the list yesterday? I mean I feel it probably shouldn’t be because it was only Sunday that I wrote about how much I love books about behind the scenes in hollywood and this is a book about how a somewhat legendary movie got made.

If you don’t know what Spinal Tap is, I’m not sure where you’ve been, but they’re a fake rock band created by Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and This is Spinal Tap was the first mockumentary. It’s the thing that all the others are based on and the source of various pop culture reference to the point where if you see it now it’s hard to imagine how different it was.

Most of this book is the history of how the film got made and what happened next – when a fictional band started become real – from appearing at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert to putting out albums. Rob Reiner has done most of the work on this part of the book and it is to tie in with the fortieth birthday of the movie (last year), the fact that the quartet have got the rights back to the movie and property again and that there’s a sequel which is in movie theatres now. We can gloss over whether the sequel was good idea or not (the reviews suggest maybe not) but it’s a really fun read to see how the movie got made – but also what a collaborative effort it was and what a pivotal role in all of the stars lives.

Now flip the book over and the other end is a mock oral history of the band written by the quartet in their characters. This has some funny moments, but it’s not as good as the other end is. But it’s also less than half the length of the other bit so it doesn’t outstay its welcome!

My copy came from Big Green Books who look like they may have a few signed ones left, but I think it’s going to be pretty easy to find normal copies in the shops if you want it. It’s on Kindle and Kobo too, but priced accordingly considering it’s a hardback release. There’s also an audiobook read/performed by the four of them. And if you haven’t watched This is Spinal Tap, you really should!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: September 8 – September 14

veritywilde

A slightly more normal week in reading, despite a theatre trip and a day out at a car show and various other bits and bobs. It’s definitely starting to get a bit autumnal though, so perhaps the day trips and evenings out will start to turn into quiet cozy nights in in the next few weeks?!

Read:

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead

Chris at the Kennels by Patricia Baldwin

A Fine Line Between Clever and Stupid by Rob Reiner

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Started:

The Vanderbeekers on the Road by Karina Yan Glaser

Still reading:

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

I don’t think I bought anything, but I did get a gift – the Patricia Baldwin as seen in Books Incoming, which is already read and off the pile.

Bonus picture: yes, I’ve already been to seen The Producers in its return to the West End!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

audio, not a book

Not a Book: The Plot Thickens

veritywilde

Happy Sunday everyone, and I’m back with another podcast recommendation for you today. Regular readers will know that I’m really interested in stories of Old Hollywood and the latest series of The Plot Thickens is a really good one of those from an interesting perspective.

The Plot Thickens is TCM’s official podcast, and is now in its sixth season. In previous series host Ben Mankiewicz has looked at director Peter Bogdanovich, the making of the movie Bonfire of the Vanities, the careers of Lucille Ball, Pam Grier and John Ford. But it’s the sixth and most recent season that I really want to talk about because it’s about the making of the movie Cleopatra. Now the production of Cleopatra was legendarily troubled – with budgets ballooning, timelines expanding and stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s scandalous affair.

So what is different about this look at it I hear you say. Well the difference is that Ben Mankiewicz is the nephew of Joseph L Mankiewicz, the legendary writer and director who directed and co-wrote Cleopatra. Ben Mankiewicz has access to the family archive, including his uncle’s diaries and unheard interviews with cast and crew, as well as interviews with film experts. I’ve read about the production of Cleopatra as it has come up in the books about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that I’ve read, but they’re not really covering the film production itself, more as the catalyst for their love affair. So I learned loads from this, because as well as the production of the film and the difficulties on set, it looks at how the film affected Joseph Mankiewicz. And as a hint: Ben says early on that the family used to joke that Joe’s brother Herman wrote the best movie of all time (Citizen Kane) while Joe directed the worst. It’s also got a lot about the economics of film production and dying days of the old studio system.

All the parts are out now and as well as finding it on all the usual podcast platforms, it’s on YouTube too. And if you want some of my other recommendations for Old Hollywood, I’ve written about a pair of Liz Taylor documentaries, the Liza Minelli documentary, the podcast You Must Remember This, actor memoirs, Judy Garland, books about Hollywood to name just a few.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-September edition

veritywilde

So this is slightly less bad than last month, in that in August there were ten books, and in this there are eight. We do have to remember though that I went so insane on our trip to Norfolk that I had to do an extra Books Incoming post to handle it and if I hadn’t done that, there would be 19 books in this post. Ahem. Anyway, here we have Dream on Ramona Riley and ZomRomCom which were my Saucy Books purchases and From Russia with Love which was my Penguin pop-up purchase and Fishing for Trouble and Buffalo West Wing which I bought in Piccadilly at the same time. That leaves the Spinal Tap book, which was a pre-order from Big Green, Hattie Steals the Show was a purchase and then Chris at the Kennels was a gift. And that’s all of them. Unless there’s one hiding somewhere that I forgot. But I don’t think there is…

bingeable series, series

Mystery Series: Miss Dimont

veritywilde

Happy Friday everyone, it’s nearly the weekend, so nearly and I’m back with a post about a historical mystery series.

It’s the 1950s in the town of Temple Regis on the coast of Devon, where Judy Dimont is a reporter at the local newspaper, The Riviera Express. Across the course of the series she finds herself not just reporting on murders in the town, but also investigating them because the local police are inclined to play things down and rule every thing death they can as an accident to protect the resorts image and keep the tourist trippers flooding in.

The first book in the series was a Book of the Week back in 2017 and I stand by what I said then: Judy has an excuse to be rootling around in murder investigations and the portrait of an English seaside town with delusions of grandeur is excellent. Over the course of the four books the secondary characters are developed as well as Judy’s backstory, which involves mysterious doings in the Second World War. I read these out of order – with the second one in 2019 and then coming back through for the other two last month and neither the gap nor the out of order-ness messed with my enjoyment of the books. As it’s been six years since the last one, I think we can probably assume that this is a completed series now, which is a shame since I would happily read more of them.

I got the first and fourth from NetGalley but bought myself the middle two when they were on offer at some point in the unspecified past. You can get them in Kindle or Kobo and they did come out in paperback, but I suspect they’ll be hard to track down (new at least).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Book previews

Out Today: Ghost Business

veritywilde

The sequel to Haunted Ever After is out today in the UK, (and came out on Tuesday in the US). Ghost Business features Sophie, who runs the ghost tour we came across in book one (if you’ve read it) who is faced with a new rival, Tristan, who works for a company who runs ghost tours across a bunch of cities. After a row between the two of them goes viral, they agree that whoever is the most successful at the end of the summer gets to stay…

I loved the first book and I’m looking forward to reading this one, albeit not as excited as I am about Jen DeLuca’s next book which is another in the Renn Faire series!