Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Loveday Cardew’s beloved Lost for Words bookshop, along with the rest of York, has fallen quiet. At the very time when people most need books to widen their horizons, or escape from their fears, or enhance their lives, the doors are closed. Then the first letter comes.

Rosemary and George have been married for fifty years. Now their time is running out. They have decided to set out on their last journey together, without ever leaving the bench at the bottom of their garden in Whitby. All they need is someone who shares their love of books.

Suddenly it’s clear to Loveday that she and her team can do something useful in a crisis. They can recommend books to help with the situations their customers find themselves in: fear, boredom, loneliness, the desire for laughter and escape.

And so it begins.

Thanks so much to Headline for asking me to be on the tour, and sending me a copy of the book.

I loved this! At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of it, the pandemic being still so fresh, but honestly this was lovely. 

Stephanie made this book not only about the pandemic, and loneliness we all felt, but about feeling uplifted and happy, and feeling included. I love all the book recommendations, and there is a list of them all in the back of the book, I’m going to try to read some of them. 

I loved the characters, Geoge and Rosemary were my favourite, I loved hearing about their lives, how they met etc, but mostly how happy they are now in their retirement. Their garden overlooking the sea, sitting enjoying a cup of tea and a book together, this is what I want when I’m older.

Thanks again to Headline and Stephanie Butland for including me in the tour and for my gifted copy of the book.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanigahra

The million copy bestseller, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.

When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity.

Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome - but that will define his life forever.

Where to start with this one. My life has been overtaken by this book, it has been in my head since I finished it, I want to go back to it, but I never want to go back to it. My head has been a mess. 

First off, I’m so glad I read this with a few buddies, I think it needs to be one that’s read alongside someone else so you have someone to talk to. Secondly, if you want to, I’d recommend reading up on the trigger warnings in this one, there are so many. My DMs are always open if you want to ask me anything. So thank you to my friends Sarah, Lucy and Lisa for joining me on this journey of despair and heartache.

So this book breaks your heart, lifts you up again, then throws you to the floor like a sack of tatties. I lost count of how many times I had a lump in my throat, that feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. It’s just trauma after trauma, with a little bit of happiness thrown in for good measure.

Hanya writes with such beauty, there were so many quotes, paragraphs and lines I tabbed, and then in pencil I underlined one. Now the book is filled with bright coloured pens highlighting those passages and quotes, hearts drawn around things. The book destroyed me, and I destroyed it, all in a good way. Hanya describes scenes so well, there were so many times I could picture the beauty in my head: the photographs of the boys, the light hitting the seats on the subway, the paintings in the gallery.  

My love for Jude and Willem was huge, I also loved JB (one of my favourite quotes is a JB quote), and Malcolm but Jude and Willem had my heart from the very start. Hanya pulls you in so deep with her characters, that you feel something for them, they’re like your friends, and all you want for them is good things, but you read about bad things, and you want to reach into the pages and pull them out. How many times I just wanted to wrap Jude up and cuddle him and keep him safe. Oh even writing this has me thinking about it. The other characters were fantastic, Andy being one of my favourites. Harold too, such a wonderful loving man.

Oh I could go on and on about this book. If you want to know more, or just chat in general about it please give me a shout. 

Amazing amazing story, one of the best books I’ve ever read. I can’t say I liked it as it doesn’t seem right to ‘like’ this book, but boy does it grip you and stay in your head, forever I hope.

Thank you Hanya for writing as beautiful as you do 

She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai

 

On the outskirts of Tokyo, in a neighbourhood crossed by a commuter railway, local cats weave their way through the lives and homes of their owners as they navigate difficult times.

A cat named Chobi sends silent messages of courage to a young woman, willing her to end a faltering relationship; a gifted artist fatally misunderstands her boss's enthusiasm for her paintings; a manga fan shuts herself away after the traumatic death of her friend, while her cat Cookie hatches a plan to persuade her outside; a woman who has dedicated her life to a distant husband learns a lesson in independence from her cat.

Against the urban backdrop of humming trains and private woes, She And Her Cat explores the gentle magic of the everyday. Populated by both the friendly and the feral, it reveals - with heartstopping clarity and warmth - how even in our darkest moments, community and connection may lead us to a happier place.

I read this as a buddy read with my good pal Kath. It’s such a lovely book, very easy reading, and fit in lovely with the spring starting. It follows a few different characters who are all intertwined somehow, and you feel for each of them, hoping they will bump into each other somehow, wondering how they will be connected. We meet some funny characters along the way, but I loved Chobi and Cookie the most.

A gorgeous little read, one I’m sure everyone will enjoy.

Komi Can’t Communicate Vol 1 by Tomohito Oda

 

The journey to 100 friends begins with a single conversation.

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi's greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve! With the whole student body keeping their distance and Komi unable to utter a single word, friendship might be forever beyond her reach.

Timid Tadano is a total wallflower, and that's just the way he likes it. But all that changes when he finds himself alone in a classroom on the first day of high school with the legendary Komi. He quickly realizes she isn't aloof-she's just super awkward. Now he's made it his mission to help her on her quest to make 100 friends!

My kids wanted to read this after watching the tv show on Netflix, so I thought why not pick it up myself too. I’ve not read any Manga before , or watched any for that matter, but I actually quite enjoyed this, after I got used to how to read it lol. It is laid out in the original way Manga is, so you read it from the back, top right to left, and down. It gets easy as you read!

I liked this, Komi is obviously a very shy girl, and has trouble speaking to people. But she wants to make friends, 100 to be exact. So after befriending Tadano, and finding a way to let him know what she wants in life, he jumps at the chance of helping her. It’s a lovely start to a friendship, and I think I will read the next one to see how things go. 

Taste by Stanley Tucci

 

From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.

Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the recipes and into the stories behind them.

Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about growing up in Westchester, New York, preparing for and filming the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia, falling in love over dinner, and teaming up with his wife to create conversation-starting meals for their children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burnt dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

Written with Stanley's signature wry humor and nostalgia, Taste is a heartwarming read that will be irresistible for anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal.

First off, a warning… don’t listen to this, or read it, if you aren’t prepared to be ravenous throughout! I listened to it on audiobook and wow, it made me so hungry.

So I love Stanley Tucci, always have, which made me quite interested in his memoir about his life through food. What a good read it is.

Stanley starts off with his childhood, his mother making huge and hearty meals every day, feeding friends of Stanley’s, and giving him the leftovers for his school packed lunch the next day. Extremely jealous, we got sandwiches, he gets full on pasta dishes, and meatloaf. He talks about his first marriage, the death of his lovely wife, and moving on after and meeting his second wife. The love he has for his family, his children, his parents, is so obvious, the way he talks about them makes you know he would do anything for them. He loves to feed them, he loves to make them happy.

I loved the way he talks about food, so passionate, you can tell he loves it. I felt really bad for him when he talked about his cancer, and the fact he couldn’t eat for so long. I was so happy when he could start to make his own stuff to go through his feeding tube. But I thought it was just beautiful that he said even though he couldn’t taste it (therefore could put anything in really),, he wanted to make sure it would taste good to someone who could taste, if they tried it. He cares about it alot.

One of the most fabulous things in this book is the recipes. I may have to purchase a physical copy just so I have the recipes, there were so many i wanted to try. I got so hungry listening to this, I’ve had pasta twice in the days since finishing it!

If you like food, it’s a must read. But also, just to listen to Mr Tucci talk for 7 hours is bliss.

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

Everybody knows Daisy Jones and the Six.

From the moment Daisy walked barefoot on to the stage at the Whisky, she and the band were a sensation.

Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They played sold-out arenas from coast to coast.

Then, on 12 July 1979, it all came crashing down.

They were lovers, friends, brothers. But they were also rivals.

This is the story of their legendary rise and irrevocable fall. A story of ambition, desire, heartbreak and music.

Everyone was there. Everyone remembers it differently. Nobody knew why they split. Until now…

I’ve had Daisy on my radar for ages, but with the TV show coming up, our book group decided we should get it read before watching. So this was Tsundoku Squads March read.

I loved it, I loved the way it’s written, I loved Daisy, and I loved Billy. Oh, and I loved Camilla, her relationship with Billy was beautiful. Their love was so strong, throughout everything Camilla was there for him, she was his rock. 

But on another front I loved the relationship with Daisy and Billy, a different kind of relationship, but one just as beautiful as any other. 

I love Rock music, even more since meeting my husband, so I knew I’d love this story. A huge rock band who flew to fame pretty much overnight, just for it all to fall apart. The songs were brilliant, the atmosphere I could imagine, I felt like I was there with them sometimes, in the audience watching and singing along. 

This was my first Taylor Jenkins Reid book, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. Thanks to my Squad for the readalong!!