Category: bookshops

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Penguin Pop-up

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Happy Saturday everyone and did you know that there is a pop-up in the basement of Waterstones Piccadilly celebrating 90 years of Penguin books?

There very much is, as well as books it’s got this little mini exhibit in the middle – literally one display case – but it’s got this really cool pasteboard for the cover design among a few other bits.

It’s also got a section for the special archive shorts that they’ve released for the anniversary. If my maths is right there is space for 80 on this display, but I didn’t check to see exactly how many different ones there are on it. And they’ve also got another display of them on one of the other floors so if anywhere has a chance of having all 90, Piccadilly does!

And there is a huge selection of the clothbound special editions – again, the biggest variety of them that I remember seeing anywhere because often it’s the usual suspects that you see: Pride and Prejudice and David Copperfield and similar, but this has got some books I didn’t even know had versions in this format – like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Around the World in Eighty Days and Phantom of the Opera.

But there’s still loads more – the Puffin special editions, some vintage books, a load of non-fiction including memoirs, history and science writing.

And there’s loads more – lots of fiction in the various different special lines, but also normal (so to speak) Penguin new releases and similar. I really enjoyed my wander, and yes I bought a book – but you’ll have to wait until Books Incoming (next weekend) so see what it was!

Have a great Saturday.

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Saucy Books

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There’s a new romance bookshop in London, so of course I have been to visit!

Saucy Books is in Notting Hill, just a short walk from Westbourne Grove Tube station, and as you can see it has a lovely purple frontage and tropical look which makes it really stand out from the crowd.

The tropical colour palate continues inside the store, where there’s what I suspect is a carefully curated selection of romance books, which to my eye seemed to have a little bit of something for most romance readers.

As it happens, I have read quite a lot of this display- Nora Goes off Script, The Paradise Problem, Finders Keepers, The Roommate, and The Neigbor Favor were all books of the week and I’ve writen about One to Watch too.

There’s also “The Smut Hut” upstairs – where there’s a lot of sports romance, but also the romantasy section. I’m not a big romantasy reader, but more sports romances are on my to-do list – except I find it hard to spot the ones that don’t have alphahole heros, because that is really not my thing!

It was actually pretty busy in the store when I arrived – not that you can tell from the photos! – so hopefully it’s going to do OK. I think the location is a good one – I went down to Notting Hill and Portobello Market after I’d made my purchases (yes there were purchases!) and it’s so popular with tourists that hopefully this could become a spot for them.

Have a great weekend!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Spotted in Waterstones

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Happy Saturday everyone. I’ve been wandering the bookshops again, and so this week we’ve got my latest spots in Gower Street.

Firstly, lets have a moment for the Penguin book vending machine. I’m not sure how long it’s there for, but it’s so cool and I hope there are more of them on tour soon.

Secondly I’m always interested to see what in-store book clubs are reading. And Gower Street is super busy when to comes to events – when i was in there there were people galloping through the store performing Shakespeare, with an audience trailing behind. I read a lot of Nina Bawden as a child but I haven’t read much of her adult fiction and I have Sangu Mandanna’s previous book on the Kindle waiting to be read – this has given me a nudge to move that up the list a bit.

Another thing giving me a nudge – the display of Atmosphere. My copy is sitting on the pile at home too – but it’s the special edition version with the pretty edges.

Here’s A Case of Life and Limb in the wild – go read the bonus review, and my review of the first one – I’m hoping we get a third. And also on the hardback crime shelf is the book that goes with Bookish, the new TV show created by and starring Mark Gatiss, although he hasn’t written this novelisation…

And finally, I was hunting in the American history section for the Caroline Bessette-Kennedy book that I keep seeing being written about (often in the context of having the wrong photos in it!) and not findng it, but instead realising that Ask Not is now out in paperback and I still haven’t read the hardback, and then buying another book about the Kennedy wives despite that…

Have a great weekend everyone!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: The Works

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Here we are again, back in The Works where the main thing I’m seeing is the evolution of publishing trends again..4

Lets take the trending titles. We’ve got a bit of the traditional big names like Richard Osman, Lee Child and Sally Rooney and also Butter, but a lot of this are the TikTok trending books – and at the moment that seems to be romantasy, sports romances, and cozy small town romance. The decline of historical romance as a genre can be seen here in that five years ago because where actually are they?!

And not just in the trending -here’s the romance section, where five years ago I would have been picking up my Mary Balogh, Stephanie Laurens, Eloisa James and Julia Quinn books and as far as i can work out the oldest setting here are the sagas and the Anton Du Beke – which means interwar to World War Two.

And it’s the same here – mid century at oldest, lots of sports romances (which are mainly by new-to-me-authors) and then a lot of books by people like Lucy Score who have emerged from the big-in-self-publishing-and-transitioned-to-trad-publishing world.

And then the other thing that I’m noticing is that there are a lot fewer murder mysteries on the shelves – I used to get a lot of the historical mysteries from The Works as well as trying new contemporary murder mysteries out – but this time we’ve got about one carcase of mysteries and thrillers if you add them together really and a lot less of them are in my reading wheelhouse.

So the good news is that I didn’t buy anything to add to the pile. The bad news is that I came out a bit worried about my prospects for finding books I like in the shops at hte moment. And then I got home and was reminded of the size of the pile and all the things I have waiting to be read and told myself I was being ridiculous!

Have a great weekend!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Heathrow T5 again

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Back at the airport again this week – this time Terminal five at Heathrow when I was on my way out the other weekend. I don’t fly from Heathrow that often, and the last two times have both been T5 – and I’ve been disappointed in the books (especially compared to Birmingham) both times.

This is the new airport fiction section – I’ve already got the Emily Henry on a Kindle deal or I would have bought that, and that was about it for me – as I’ve decided the Anthony Horowitz is far too big to read in a physical copy so I’m waiting for a deal on the e-book.

Thankfully they did have the new Richard Cole’s which I had been hoping for, and the I struggled with what to get for the second part of the offer. I have two of the Follet Valley’s waiting to be read so I couldn’t justify another without having read some of the previous.

So that left the non fiction which majored heavily on the self help, biography and war history. I went for the Otto English in the end because it was the most appealing but I can’t lie, I was hoping for more, particularly on the fiction side.

Have a great weekend!

book round-ups, bookshops

Books in the Wild: Spotted in Foyles

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So I wandered into Foyles on the way to a West End theatre last week and spotted a few interesting things and so here I am.

The first was the third in Andrew Cartmel’s Paperback Sleuth series, Like a Bullet, which was out on the shelves a little early. Sidenote: I both love and hate when that happens. I love it when it’s not something I’ve pre-ordered, I hate it when it is, especially when it’s a day or two before release and I’m in London and the pre-ordered copy is going to arrive at my house while I’m away. This has happened more than once. Anyway, this was out on the shelves super early because it’s still not officially out (the publication date is Tuesday coming) and yet I still managed to resist it, despite the fact I love reading something early, because I still haven’t read book two in the series, and I like to read in order as you know.

Next up is the new book from Alicia Thompson, Never Been Shipped. And I want to say that her publishers are doing a great job with her covers because at this point I think I own three of her books and I haven’t read any of them and I had to resist buying this one hard on that front. And it’s because the covers are so gorgeous they just make you pick the books up and then the blurbs are great too. This one came out at the start of June and once again I am tempted!

I also managed to resist this Dan Jones. I hadn’t seen it before; but it looks like Summer of Blood is actually a much older book of his and possibly getting a fresh lease of life because of his successful historical fiction books. And in fact the final book in that trilogy is out at the end of July. Anyway, the fourteenth century is a bit earlier than my main areas of interest when it comes to history, but Dan Jones is so good that I do often make an exception for him. But there are huge numbers of nonfiction books on the tbr pile at the moment so I stayed strong.

As you know, I’m always looking for new mystery series to read (thank you for those recommendations last week by the way) and this was the book that stood out to me in the crime and thriller section this time. It’s got a gorgeous cover and the plot summary is also intriguing: it’s set I. The 1920s and has a bank clerk trying to solve a murder while trying not to get in trouble with the law himself because of his sexuality. The blurb says it’s perfect for fans of Nicola Upson’s Josephine Tey series and given that I read the final three of those that I hadn’t read last month that is clearly me.

And finally here’s that new paperback of the first Tuga book in the flesh. It definitely feels like a tropical holiday and it’s a style I like but I also think it’s a better representation of what the vibe of the book is than the original one did, even if that was pretty too. that’s the lot for now. In some ways the bookshop trip was better than the show I went to afterwards. It was certainly cheaper!

Have a great weekend everyone.

book adjacent, bookshops

Books in the Wild: Miffy pop-up!

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Did you read Miffy books when you were little? I definitely did, so I was astonished to learn that she’s 70, but delighted to mooch around the pop up in Foyles!

I was very, very tempted by a lamp, I think it would look great in my home office. Just a lovely touch to make it even more me…

I also loved the artwork inspired toys. Vermeer Miffy or Van Gogh Miffy? No – definitely Degas Miffy for the win.

I mean who knew there was this much Miffy stuff? I could have spent a tonne but luckily for my wallet (and for Him Indoors), I was on my way to the theatre and didn’t want to be taking bags in there and didn’t have any space in my suitcase either!

My willpower was sorely tempted by the Foyles tote though, but I’m banned from more tote bags, so I stayed strong!

bookshops

Independent Bookshop Week

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It’s the end of Independent Bookshop Week today, and given how much I love a bookshop, it would be remiss of me not to mention it, and also to drop some links to my posts about Indies I’ve been to, and also some of the ones that are on my list for a visit!

Near me we have Quinns in Market Harborough, as well as The Reading Tree at Weedon Depot. I also need to make an effort and get to Kibworth Books and Warwick Books.

In my regular visiting spots we have Bookends/Bookcase in Carlisle and then the various Daunts in London near where I work and stay – Marylebone and Cheapside. There are also still a few second hand bookshops on Charing Cross Road, but a lot less than there used to be. London has now got a romance specialist bookshop, Saucy Books, which is over in Notting Hill so I’m going to have to head over there soon.

And of course if you’re in the South West, you need to be going to Persephone.

If you’ve got some more book shop recommendations, whack them in the comments.

Happy Saturday everyone!

bookshops

Books in the Wild: Upper Street Bookshop

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Happy Saturday everyone, I’ve been to a new bookshop!

I was in Angel for an event and took the chance to dive into Upper Street bookshop on my way back to Central London, and of course I bought books…

Let’s start with the fact that I really liked the selection of books. They had the popular stuff that I was expecting but alongside some stuff I hadn’t seen before too.

I’m particularly talking about the non-fiction selection where there was some really interesting stuff that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. I mean I’m sure they had it, but just not on the first table inside the door. And yes this is the selection where I found the books bought!

I love a blind date with a book stand too – and outside is great. I have so many books that I don’t dare buy them though because when I have I always get a book I already have! I had a lovely time wandering around, if I have a criticism, it’s that I would like a better romance selection and more crime and mystery books (that aren’t in the blind date section) but I could say that about a lot of bookshops and I get that they have to stock what they sell.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Book previews, bookshops

Books in the Wild: New Releases

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I’ve been wandering the bookshops again in search of new books to add to the ever expanding want to read list on Goodreads, and I’m back with my results. The good news is that they’re all hardbacks, so I was able to resist buying them because of a) price and b) the fact that hardbacks impulse buys sit on my shelves for a lot longer than paperbacks. And paperbacks can sit there for a long time…

Honestly non-fiction hardbacks are the hardest thing for me to resist, but also the things that take me longest to read. Here you can see the new Hallie Rubenhold which I mentioned in my 2025 preview back in January, but also Edward White’s Dianaworld which I hadn’t heard about until I saw it in the store – and then came home to find a review of it in the latest Literary Review which only made me want to read it more. I also hadn’t come across The Fall of the House of Montague before and that looks right up my street too – it’s all about the collapse of the fortunes of the Dukes and Earls of Manchester across four generations. I’m also tempted by The Dream Factory, but given that I already have at least four books about Shakespeare (or his plays) on the bookshelf waiting to be read I didn’t even let myself pick it up!

This selection of hardback fiction was facing the entrance – I really want to read the Emily Henry but I’m restraining myself because I’m fairly convinced there will be an airport paperback version of this that I can buy next time I fly somewhere, if there isn’t a deal on the ebook first. Open Heaven is described as “heartrending” and I think we know I’m not in the market for that, the Isabel Allende sounds interesting, but I still have at least one of hers on the Kindle waiting to be read but the Sayaka Murata sounds interesting – about a world where most babies are conceived by artificial insemination and marriages are sexless – but also I’m still not in the market for dystopian future stories!

And then finally we’ve got Julie Chan is Dead in the wild, The Marble Hall Murders – which like the Emily Henry I’m hoping will have an airport paperback version (although it is huge and possibly unmanageable as a physical copy), and the new S J Parris which is the start of a new series and which I have on my kindle waiting for me to read. Apart from that we have a few thrillers that are clearly too scary for me and Fair Play by Louise Hegarty which is a murder mystery where two thirds of the blurb sounds like I would like it and then the final sentence makes me wonder: Louise Hegarty’s Fair Play is the puzzle-box story that brilliantly lays bare the real truth of life – the terrifying mystery of grief.

That’s your lot today – have a lovely weekend.