Tag: bookshops

books

Books in the Wild: Autumn releases

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As I mentioned on Thursday, we’ve hit the start of the Christmas book season, so I’ve been around Big Foyles (aka the Charing Cross Road branch) to take a look at the first batch of offerings.

I’m going to call this the celebrity memoir selection, even if they’re not all celeb memoirs! Anyway as well as the Patrick Stewart, we have another from Miriam Margoyles, plus Nick Frost, Timothy West, Kerry Washington, Joan Collins and Doon Mackichan. I may have flicked through the picture sections of several of these!

More celebrity memoirs or memoir adjacent books – Bernie Taupin is doing the talk shows this week promoting his, which was a surprise to me. I read Dylan Jones book about the New Romantics, so I’m sort of tempted by the Velvet Underground book, but realistically I know it would take me years to get to it!

Next up: Serious Non Fiction. the Helen Fry is the only one I might be interested in, so I include it just to prove it exists!

I’m including this one because it has the V E Schwab in the wild – it’s very, very chunky!

And finally in Foyles, have the Tech bro books (with added Rory Stewart). I’ve been trying to read not one but two articles about the Michael Lewis book, so really must try and finish them this weekend to see if I need to add it to my Christmas list, or maybe wait until Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial is over!

One last treat: On the way back to where I was staying, I went past the Tottenham Court Road Waterstones, and though they’re the same owners, it useful to see what they’re putting in the window of a smaller store – as a hint about what you might be able to pick up in the smaller shops – or even at the airport! Lots of the same suspects here but with the addition of David Mitchell’s history book, a bit of Peter Kay and Paris Fury. I did see the Michael Palin in Foyles (and I saw him in person the other day too, presumably on his way to do an interview on the press tour) it’s just not in my pictures!

Have a great Saturday everyone.

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Books in the Wild: Birmingham airport

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You knew this was coming didn’t you?? I can’t go on holiday and not tell you what I’ve spotted in the airport bookshops – especially since earlier in the summer I was speculating on what would be getting airport special editions! So happy Saturday everyone, here’s which books you should be able to get at the last minute before you step on a plane!

I’m starting with the fiction because I think that’s where most people start, and this is the airport exclusive section – aka the stuff you can only get in hardback elsewhere. And it had all the usual suspects I was expecting/hoping for. By which I mean I snagged the last copy of A Death in the Parish and got the new Richard Osman as well. Of the others Yellowface is the current buzzy book of the moment, obviously the Emily Henry Happy Place was the romance I was waiting for at the start of the summer and then it’s all the other big names you might expect – Jojo Moyes, Stephen King, Karin Slaughter, Jo Nesbo. Really Good Actually has come out in paperback this week, so I wouldn’t have bought that one in that format – even if I didn’t already have a hardback copy I haven’t got around to reading yet…

In general I would say that it felt like the store needed a bit of a restock/shelf replenishment, but the paperback selection was pretty much what I would have expected. I don’t know what happened to my photo of the top 12 books, but I can’t find it – but you can take it from me that it was the usual suspects that you would expect – you can see some of them on the edges – Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Lessons in Chemistry, some Coleen Hoover, Lee Child, the middle two Richard Osmans etc. This is actually the more interesting shelf – as well as Evelyn Hugo and more Colleen Hoover and some David Baldacci – there are a few things that you might not have read if you’re not a massive reader but that are outside some of the usual suspects. So there’s the Dan Jones Essex Boys historical fiction, Elena Armas who I’ve heard good things about, Rosie Walsh who writes women’s fiction thriller mysteries (and who used to write women’s fiction at the romance end of the scale as Lucy Robinson), Anthony Horowitz, Maggie O’Farrell and Jessie Burton.

And finally the airport non-fiction, where I’ve often found hardbacks that I couldn’t have justified buying otherwise (Traitor King I’m looking at you!), but this time was a bit disappointing – although if I hadn’t read Reach for the Stars I probably would have bought it – because it didn’t have enough history to tempt me, and much as I love F1, Drive to Survive and Guenter Steiner, I’m not interested in his book!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

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Books in the Wild: Hatchards

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On the same afternoon as I wandered into Waterstones Piccadilly, I also had a very nice half hour wandering Hatchards down the street, and today I present to you the fruit of my trip. Hatchards has been a bookshop since the last years of the eighteenth century and is London’s oldest bookshop. If you’re a historical romance reader, you’ll be familiar with the name as bookish heroines are always dropping in there to buy books. Sadly it does not have a romance section, but it does have some other stuff going for it!

Freddie Mercury display window

It won’t be there any more, because the auction is over but I couldn’t not mention the Freddie Mercury window that they had – as they were selling the auction catalogue book (and may well have been the only place to get it other than Sothebys). Other than that the downstairs is pretty much what you would expect from a long established bookshop – lots of serious fiction and non-fiction, which as you know is not my thing, so I’m not going to bother you with pictures of that. What I am going to show you is their crime section – which while not quite as big as the Waterstone’s Piccadilly one (which takes up the other half of the big front room that the romance section is in) but it is one of the biggest I’ve seen in central London (much bigger than Foyles Charing Cross Road) AND has the added bonus of also having some collectable second hand books as well as the new stuff.

I’m starting with this picture because I know most shops have tables of books, but most of them don’t have antique-looking dining tables full of books – if i was to guess how they were picking stuff to go on here I would say it’s the accessible end of detective, but with some wildcards thrown in . I was pretty pleased with how much of this I had read to be honest – including (but not limited to) The Christie Affair, The Maid, The Grantchester series, The Eyre Affair, The Mary Russell Mysteries, Death Goes on Skis, the Richard Coles and the Richard Osman.

This is the start of the alphabet – it goes around from your left as you walk in from the front – and as you can see it’s got a good selection of the classics you’ve heard of – like Margery Allingham’s Campion series, the long running cozy series like M C Beaton’s Agatha Raisin and Hamish MacBeth, with the thrillers that are too scary for me and everything in between. And on the end you can see the expensive collectible stuff…

And you’ve got the same mix at the end of the alphabet – including the biggest selections of Maisie Dobbs paperbacks that I’ve recently seen, most of the Nicola Upson Josephine Tey mysteries, some Patricia Wentworths and The Three Dahlias along with a Jo Nesbo that’s clearlyin the wrong place!

As well as being in the right place in the alphabet so to speak in the crime room, there’s more British Library Crime Classics in the classic fiction section at the front of the first floor (you can see the Wodehouse and the Agatha Christie in the background) – including a whole bunch that I’ve written about – including Murder of a Lady, Death of a Bookseller, the Cheltenham Square Murder, These Names Mean Clues and more.

I just wanted to throw this in too – it’s the historical fiction selection – which has everything from Georgette Heyer, through the C J Sansom Tudor murder mysteries and the Andrew Taylor Restoration ones, with all the literary fiction bits in between!

And finally, they’ve also got a pretty good selection of the pretty Terry Pratchett Hardbacks that I’m not meant to be buying but find very hard to resist…

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Books in the Wild: Waterstones Piccadilly

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A year ago on Friday coming, I went for a wander around Waterstones Piccadilly on my way down the the Mall to look at the tributes to the Queen. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was starting shingles and it was the start of a really rotten time. But a year on I’ve been back in to have a look at what I think is the best romance section in central London.

Say hello to the hardbacks and for once I haven’t read many of them beyond Happy Place, although it does remind me that I do need to read some Jilly Cooper at some point.

I could have spent so much money, but lucky I managed to bear in mind the fact that I had limited space in my suitcase and rucksack. Anyway, here in the wild we have all sorts – including Bromance Book Club, a stack of Mary Baloghs and Trisha Ashleys – fun fact, this is the store Trisha has her meet ups, which is where I met one of my best friends in person for the first time! Books, bringing people together!

This next phot has the Alexis Hall selection, plus the Emily Henrys, some Jasmine Guillory and a Louise Hare that I have waiting on my kindle.

I mean I could go all day with the pictures and analysis of the romance section – because it has definitely got bigger. There’s more than I e shown you here – tables as well as the bookcase and the double sided half displays you can see at the bottom here. It’s honestly a delight, although it hasn’t got the level of air conditioning you would like when it’s 30 degrees out.

What did I buy? Well, you’ll have to wait and see. Next weekend, I promise! Meanwhile, have a bonus picture of the downstairs fiction table, complete with Lessons in Chemistry, Before the Memory Fades and Whalebone Theatre which Readers in My Family tell me I need to read, fast, and Jonathan Coe’s Bourneville, which is apt because I’m due to go there this week coking!

* which is why the post didn’t go up until a few weeks after the visit!

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Books in the Wild: The Works

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As I mentioned on Monday, I made a trip into town ash Sunday and did two bookshops. And as The Works seemed to have a lot of books I have read and recommended it seemed like I should do a post for those of you who fancy a 3 for £6 deal (or two)

Firstly: please note my first sighting of The Unsinkable Greta James in the wild – I didn’t see the hardback in stores (I ordered it) but here is the paperback. Next to it is The Fiancée Farce, which I own but haven’t read, but I have enjoyed some of Alexandria Bellefleure’s other romances. Also on the TBR pile are The Fake Up and The Setup – I will get to it, I promise. And then there is very recent BotW Mrs Nash’s Ashes!

Next across from that is probably the bookshelf in a store I have read most of this year! There’s a healthy stack of Christina Lauren: Roomies was a BotW, I have Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating on the pile and I’ve read but didn’t love Dating You, Hating You – it violated my no sabotage at work as a love language rule! Daisy Jones and the Six has already had one mention this week but it was also a BotW, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was a BotW as was The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice was too – and I wrote a whole series post. The Marlow Murder Club is one of the crop of similar series that have cropped up since – and I’ve read that and the sequel and they were fun.

Slightly less here, but still a good group – although now we’re out of the 3 for £6 group. There’s one of my favourite books of last year – Lessons in Chemistry – which I recently loaned to a colleague who loved it – and two Ali Hazelwoods Love Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis. I’ve read all of the Heartstopper – not long now for the final part – but I haven’t (yet) got into Sarah Jane Maas (although I have a friend who loves her), or Elle Kennedy or Lucy Score (or Colleen Hoover on the last shelves) and I had a bad experience with my first Tessa Bailey so I know she’s not for me – although (again) I know people who love her.

And finally, actually this is the one with the most I’ve read! Dead Romantics was a BotW (as was Poston’s latest don’t forget!), I’ve read The Kiss Curse too (and have Hex Appeal on the Kindle too), I’ve read both the Amy Leas and the Richard Coles and another Heartstopper. I read The Problem with Perfect last week – it was another of my flawed options for BotW this week – Weather Girl is not as good as Business or Pleasure but it is fun. I’ve read Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels and it didn’t work for me, but as it has sequels (one of which you can see here!) it clearly did for others. I would rather read Gail Carriger – but if you’ve read her you might like it. And finally I really need to read the Jesse Sutanto.

And so to sum up: an excellent time for you to go to The Works – as long as you don’t mind carrying books home with you. You’ll have to wait until the next Books Incoming to see what I took home with me though!

Have a great weekend!

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Books in the Wild: Spot the summer releases!

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A super quick hit today – just to take a quick look at which of the recent releases I spotted in Gower Street last week.

Hello hardbacks – no surprise it’s Emily Henry and Curtis Sittenfeld getting the front facing spots for romance along with Tom Hanks and the new Emma Cline. The Happy Couple was a new spot for me, but Death of a Book Seller has been popping up all over.

If you’re after paperback romance, this is what they had – and I’ve read four of the ones in this side and own another one.

And on the other side of the table I’ve read two, and own two more. And no I’m deliberately not telling you which, apart from Dead Romantics of course!

And finally, they’re not new, but here’s a bonus picture of a lot of Amelia Peabody in the wild. And yes, I did sit down and read all the best bits of Thunder in the Sky, because it is my favourite and if you have it as an actual book it’s so easy to find the best bits…

Happy Saturday!

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Books in the Wild: Sainsbury’s

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It’s been a while since I’ve done a supermarket, so I’ve had a wander to see what they have to chose from at the moment. This is my local Sainsbury’s – and I should say that I went to the local Big Tesco first, but they have done another rearrange of everything and have massively shrunk the book section down from nearly a whole aisle on both sides (including children’s books and colouring books etc) to a couple of carcasses for everything. A Paddington stare to you Tesco. Very disappointing. Anyway, this is Sainsbury’s and it’s a bit chaotic in organisational terms, but it is at least bigger and better stocked than their competition…

So the headline hardbacks on this one are the latest crop – the Queen Charlotte tie-in novel, Happy Place, the final book in the Seven Sisters series – which I did try back when the first one came out but wasn’t really my thing but I know they’ve been hugely popular – and the new Tom Hanks novel which was the preorder that arrived chez moi last week! If you look carefully you can also see the new Mhairi McFarlane in the middle of the paperbacks as well. The Maid is in there too – which seems to be having a really long tail and hanging around a while, but I did see an advert on the tube this week for a sequel so that may well explain it.

Another couple of new hardbacks at the top here – I keep seeing the Steve Jones around and obviously I’ve written about how much I enjoyed Pineapple Street and it’s suitability as a summer read. The paperback of Lessons in Chemistry is there too – which is another great summer read if you didn’t read it last year and prefer a paperback.

Having had the new Emily Henry in hardback, this one has got last year’s – Book Lovers – twice (!) as well as two of the Richard Osman series – including the latest one which is now in paperback – as well as Malibu Rising and the books from supermarket shelf regulars Jenny Colgan and Marian Keyes. You can also spot my purchase on this one – The Darkest Sin. I also keep seeing Icebreaker around and debating reading it, but I’m not sure I dare – it’s about a figure skater and an ice hockey player who team up and just the idea that a hockey player can transfer over easily makes me nervous and that’s without my recent poor track record in enjoying sports romances that turn out to be too angsty for my tastes.

And finally we have this one – with some (more) repeats from earlier as well as Daisy Jones and the new Philippa Gregory (which is a magicky one). And I guess this is the point where I muse about the balance between mysteries and thrillers and women’s fiction and how that seems to have changed over the last few years. It used to be fairly rare that I would go into a supermarket and come west without having bought a couple of women’s fiction books in whatever the current Two for… deal was and I would have had a hard time narrowing down which two that was going to be. But now there are a lot less options – and they come from a smaller group of authors. You can also see that in the colours of the covers – we’ve got a lot more of the dark covers – blues, greens, greys, blacks – of the thriller and mystery genre and fewer in the brighter hues. And some of that is also that the women’s fiction novels have gone for darker colours – and turned a bit darker. Basically what I’m saying is that it’s hard to discover new romance-focused novels at the supermarket now, and that makes me sad.

Still at least I did buy something, and if I was a casual consumer (aka not someone who reads 300 plus books a year) there are plenty of good options here for you to read – it’s just I’d like to see more variety of authors.

Happy Saturday and go and buy a book

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Books in the Wild: Euston Station

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Ok so it’s not an airport, but another place where you often find yourself buying a book at the last minute is the railway station, so I took a wander around Euston’s W H Smith bookstore (it’s separate to the newsagent one) to see what you might be able to pick up if you’re heading to the Midlands, North West England or Scotland!

Firstly let’s take a moment for the window display for Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry, one of my favourite books of last year and now in paperback and still getting plenty of publicity and prominent placement. And yes, I know that some of this stuff is paid for sometimes, but I’ve seen displays in the indies as well (Bookends in Carlisle had one too).

This is the front and centre display as you come in – and you may notice that I’ve read three of these new releases already: Romantic Comedy, Happy Place and Pineapple Street which is quite something even for me given that they all came out in April!

I’ve read only one on the back where they’ve got the non-fiction – and although I didn’t love I want to die but I want to eat ttchbokki, I’m glad to see it getting some shelf time.

Lots of the usual suspects here – like Daisy Jones, the Richard Osmans, a stack of Colleen Hoover, some Lee Child, a load of thrillers, the big literary fiction books and the Richard Coles, but it’s nice to see The Three Dahlias in its shiny new paperback edition.

On the non-fiction front, Prince Harry’s book is still there – but so is the parody Spare Us! I’ve mentioned Femina before and I also have The Premonitions Bureau, Village in the Third Reich and Nazi Billionaires on the Kindle. But it’s very self help heavy apart from that and we know that’s not what I read very often!

It does feel like a very curated selection aimed at travellers – which isn’t a surprise – but it is a much better selection than the old W H Smith ever had – so from that side of thing I suppose the chaos and disruption while they were remodelling it all is mitigated a little!

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Books in the Wild: New Releases in the real world

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I had a slight quest around the central London bookshops this week looking for something specific and although I didn’t find it, I did find several books that I’ve written about here – which I can now attest are actually gettable in stores!

Firstly let’s start with this week’s BotW, Happy Place, proudly in hardback and in a nice prominent spot in Waterstones the day after release day.

Next up, this table display in Foyles where I have read – or have waiting to read really quite a lot. After writing about Aunty Lee yesterday, I really need to read Vera Wong… to see if it gives me the same older lady charm I got from that. Then there is Killers of a Certain Age, getting its second mention of the week, the latest SJ Bennet, Magpie Murders which as I mentioned the other day is on TV at the moment, The Three Dahlias which is one of my favourites so far this year and came out in paperback this week and finally A Fatal Crossing which I wrote about last year.

And finally the romance offer table where I valiantly tried to find two books to buy. When I’m doing buy one get one half price I like to do it as one book I know I’ll like (or at least by an author I have liked previously) and then take a chance on something or someone new with the other one. But I’ve already read the Susanna Hoffs and I have the Megan Clawson and the Alexis Daria on the kindle. I’m about three Marian Keyes behind at this point so I can’t buy more before I’ve caught up and everything I’ve read about Colleen Hoover suggests that she is Not For Me so I couldn’t really justify anything – this time at least!

Happy Saturday everyone!

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Books in the Wild: Daunt Books

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And so this is the third bookshop I visited in the first week of March – walking from work to the Cockpit for John Finnemore took me right past Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street so how could I resist?

And if you’ve never been in there, it’s deceptively big. Double fronted and going right back and down and up as you can see. They were setting the event space up as I was wandering, but sadly I was insufficiently vigilant to check who it was for – partly because I knew I couldn’t stay!

Anyway here’s a nice big selection of crime hardbacks and paperbacks – including a few I’ve read – like Death Comes to Marlow, The Three Dog Problem, The Christie Affair, a couple of Thursday Murder Club books, the latest Rivers of London and the Reverend Richard Coles.

There was a really good selection of crime actually – here’s another side of that same pillar with another HM the Queen Investigates, the new Miss Marple short stories and the fresh Tom Hindle that I haven’t got around to reading yet because: binging stuff I shouldn’t be.

Over in the Children and Young Adult section there were loads of books proving that the dystopian future/alternative present genre is still going strong, but also this table with the Rainbow Rowell short stories and the Agency of Scandal which I own but haven’t really seen in the wild before.

And there were some good tables of non fiction too – bookshop trips are often where I find stuff I hadn’t heard about. The Patrick Radden Keefe is actually an older book of his, reissued to look more like Empire of Pain, but I think I would basically read any of the forward-facing books in this picture. I mean if I got time for it…

And finally, as you’ve already seen the book I bought in last week’s Books Incoming, this was my first sighting in the wild of the paperback of Lessons in Chemistry – on its release day no less. I’m hoping that the fact that the table looks a little bit empty is because they’d already sold so many copies!

Have a great weekend everyone and go buy a book.