You can tell from the moment you see Commonwealth Books that it has character: situated next to Boston’s oldest street and opening its doors in 1995, being a second hand bookshop adds to the historic feel. On walking inside you instantly get a sense of relaxation, with the backdrop of jazz. As with all second […]
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She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan is an epic tale of turning tragedy into power, how the pain of the past can drive a person to greatness, with friendship and unnerving brutality. This is a story of a woman empowered by a fate she claims as her own and how far she would
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The Trees was first published in 2021 and subsequently shortlisted for 2022’s Booker Prize as well as winning the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize that same year. So, depth and humour. Everett’s 22nd novel is set in the modern day during the first Trump administration, in Money, Mississippi. Whilst the outer world is circa 2016-2020, Money,
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Published in 2024, The List of Suspicious Things is the wonderful debut novel from Jennie Godfrey. It’s a story uncovering a mystery, filled with heartwarming characters, but also violence against women; hearing the story through Miv, a teenage girl, allows you to follow the story through innocent yet inquisitive eyes. The story is set
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Fundamentally is Younis’ debut, published in February this year. The work is already attracting a heap of positive attention: Younis has been selected as part of this year’s line-up of debut authors to watch by the Guardian and Fundamentally is currently shortlisted for 2025’s Women’s Prize. A brilliantly sharp and moving work, Fundamentally follows Nadia,
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The Color Purple was first published in 1982 and won critical acclaim with the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film with the same name in 1985 and 2023 and has been regularly debated due to the themes of violence and domestic abuse, and
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The 50th anniversary edition of The Peregrine (first published in 1967) is a truly magnificent piece of nature writing. Written in diary form over the course of a single Winter, Baker takes the reader through his almost daily pursuit of peregrines around the Essex coast and nearby woodlands. Through the diary style, Baker encourages us
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High Peak Bookstore & Cafe has a good feeling as soon as you arrive; the sound of birds flitting in and out of bird boxes, and a heart warming sign on the door “Welcome to our lovely bookshop and cafe; A place for everyone”. You enter into the wildlife and nature section with lots
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I’d heard so many great things about this book. Quite simply, it is fantastic. The very many awards and shortlists support that feeling and include (but not limited to): Waterstones Debut Prize 2024, Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2024, Authors Club prize for debut fiction, shortlisted in the Nero awards for debut fiction, shortlisted for the
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Published this year (2025), Broken Biscuits and Other Male Failures is Farrer’s second book after the award winning Cold Fish Soup. Broken Biscuits is a series of essays (but this reads excitingly like short stories) based around his life with the subject being musing on his failures to meet the assumed cultural ideals of manliness.
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