Hello, it is I, your manic smothered-in-Deep-Heat pixie bookshop dream hunchback and this is the next update live from the bookshop.
I sneezed and twinged something intercostal at the weekend, so I’m trying my best to sit up really straight today. Also I’m trying to do some extra light standing. And a small bit of gentle reaching. Unfortunately my first task of the day was to go next door and collect the deliveries that came yesterday when we were closed, and they were pretty heavy, but I’ve lifted them now so we’ll see how that plays out in about 40 minutes time when the Deep Heat wears off. If you do catch me hobbling around the bookshop today, please remember, I am really only 37.
These posts will remain free, with comments open so you can send me queries like ‘What should I get my niece’s 6th birthday?’1 and ‘Shouldn’t you go back to Yoga?’2
All is forgiven! (she says, stooped) - The heavy boxes were, in fact, LOADS of copies of Catherine Ryan Howard’s new thriller, The Trap, which I’m going to promptly fill the window with, in advance our event with Catherine next month. I’m SO excited for this. Catherine Ryan Howard is one of the very few crime writers I actively pre-order for myself and I can’t wait to interview her. Local customers can contact the shop for tickets. Not local customers could consider holidaying here the week of 6/9/23
It’s just stories in there.
A young girl comes in to ask about “that tree book that was in the window the other day”.
”This one?” I ask, grabbing the first tree book I can see.
”Yes!” she says. “Is there any way you could just hold onto that for me?”
”How long for?” I ask, having already commenced holding onto the tree book.
”No clue” she says as she leaves.3
Got carried away with my window display for The Trap and thought it’d be a good idea to write the event details on the glass with a Posca. I was halfway through when I remembered that I am in no way skilled at window-writing and my handwriting is barely legible. On the plus side, it is in keeping with the theme of a book, because it looks like a serial killer wrote it.
Another heavy delivery has arrived, and because I haven’t yet moved the cardboard boxes from the chair, this one has to go on the floor, which means I’m going to have to pick it up at some point. My poor ribs. Anyway, this one has next months’ book club book in, which I’m not going to reveal here yet. My book clubs are currently reading How To Kidnap The Rich by Rahul Raina, which we’ll get together to discuss in a couple of weeks, and at that meeting I’ll present them with September’s choice.
If you’ve heard me describe my selection process before you’ll know that I try and pick something that’s the polar opposite of one or two elements of the previous book.
SO what could I have chosen that will be so vitally different this time…?
Crikey, not many actual customers today and it’s already lunchtime! Is this the week this newsletter format falls apart? I was wondering when this would happen.
Ohmigoddd have you seen the new ‘Best of Granta’ editions? Yowza. Business partner Mum is going to kill me because I’ve ordered them all and who will buy them if not me? They’ll look SO good on the shelf though, won’t they? These collections always pose a bit of a shelving dilemma, though - you can’t shelve them by author because then they won’t look like an enticing collectible series, so you have to find another surface to put them on to show them snuggling up to each other, looking tempting. We’ll deal with that problem when it arrives. Tomorrow. With the delivery. When I won’t be here. Sorry, Mum!
I can also see that my beloved The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt4 is being reissued in this series next year, as if that book wasn’t handsome enough, already?
A tiny little girl dances on the welcome mat. Her mummy is on the other side of the door, trying to get her to leave the shop. Tiny girls tries to close the door in her face. Brilliant.
2.16: It is time.5
We don’t need any more books.
Someone, who doesn’t understand how books work.
A customer came into buy The Trap and then enquired about another crime writer she liked… only my other favourite thriller writer, Peter Swanson!
A while later a woman comes in to buy her holiday novels, she said last summer we recommended a proper cracker - about an airport (The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson), so I was able to sell her another Peter Swanson AND then she also took a Catherine Ryan Howard6 too. A double-double Swanson/Howard-bill. Elated!
I’ve just placed an order for a small quantity of the forthcoming Britney Spears book. I think… I’ll probably read it. I mean, I need to know. Even if it’s not all of it. Because, it can’t be. That’s memoir, baby! But it is ghostwritten, which is a good thing. We’ll be ordering the Special Indie Edition with sprayed edges and glittery book marks, which will be for in-store customers only (sorry!). The RRP is £25, which is why we aren’t ordering in bulk. Even if there a lot of people out there who want to read it, how many of them want to pay full price in an independent bookshop when they can get it, for cheaper than I can stock it, at the supermarkets. This was also the issue with Prince Harry’s SPARE, which of course sold millions of copies. I think here, in the shop, we sold just two. Anyway, Britney was a hugely significant part of the reason I’ve always hated my body my teen pop culture experience and I want to hear her version of it all. (Oh god, imagine if the whole book was written like her Instagram posts.) Anyway, Britney, of course we’ll stock your book (provided it’s on sale or return).
That looks like a good film
Someone commenting on my window display. TBF, The Trap would make a vg film.
This Receipt has been a bit crime-heavy so I want to give a quick recommendation for some tremendously good children’s books. We consistently sell this William Bee series in the shop. It stars my favourite small-business hamster, Stanley. Stanley dabbles in building, farming, teaching and mechanic-ing. The illustrations are gloriously bold, with plenty of vintage motors and super stylish graphics. The texts are lovely and short, with clear bold type for emerging readers to tackle. It’s a perfect book for ages 3-5 (ish), and it’s a particularly big hit with little boys. Go on, Stanley, do those jobs, you furry little legend!
Hometime. Am I still holding this tree book or…
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The Princess Minna books by Kirsty Appelbaum and Sahar Haghgoo
Well you say that, but once I trapped a nerve at Yoga and that cost me more money than the sneeze.
A tree joke but also a true story.
I love this book so much. This is not the new Best of Granta edition, but definitely still worth ordering.
for a cup of tea.
Feel like I’ve said her name too many times now, it’s just a sound. My long read for paid subs this week is also about Catherine Ryan Howard - sorry, not sorry.
Are you saying she decided to make like a tree and leaf? 😜
Well now I need to read this Katherine Ryan Howard! Always love a good crime read. Plus the other crime writer whose name I’ve forgotten now I’m in the comments! I’m still mourning finishing all the Fred Vargas books - have you read them/do you stock them? They are ace! Gripping, funny and really quite surreal and strange in places! X