Books Paper Scissors is a small independent bookshop in leafy South Belfast, near Botanic Gardens, Queen’s University and the Ulster Museum.
We stock a curated selection of newest fiction and non-fiction, plus Irish writing and poetry. We also have a children's room. Beyond books we stock artistic greetings cards, Leuchtturm stationery, pens from Lamy and other gifts.
Please note, our website inventory is not tracked with our shop stock, but any ordered books can be shipped directly.
We offer extremely competitive international shipping. Rates will be calculated on receipt of order and only correct postage will be take, with any remainder refunded.
Latest
A Long Winter, Colm Toibin ( hardback Aug 2025)
£12.99
An unforgettable story about loss and new love from the bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island. 'The most striking example of Tóibín's emotional control . .
[An] eloquent expression of the bond between a mother and a son' – Guardian.
One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel’s mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by the people of the town, Miquel and his father are left to fend for themselves.
Together they will be forced to battle the elements, and their resentment of each other, through the long winter. Miquel’s desperate searching for his mother is only interrupted when Manolo, an orphaned servant boy from the next village, arrives to help out in the house. As Miquel is forced to confront the reality of his mother's absence, Manolo, with his silences and longing gaze, offers the promise of new love, and another kind of life.
'A Long Winter evokes loss, loneliness, guilt and survival in a few masterly strokes' – Independent
Buckeye, Patrick Ryan (hardback Sept 2025)
£16.99
As news of the Allied victory in Europe reaches the small town of Bonhomie, Ohio, a woman named Margaret Salt walks into a hardware store and asks the man behind the counter, Cal Jenkins, for a radio. What happens next will change both of their lives forever. While the country reconstructs in the post-war boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie – and nothing can remain hidden in a small town.
The consequences of that long-ago encounter will intertwine the fates of two families, rippling through the next generation and compelling them to re-examine who they thought they were and what the future might hold. Full of compassion, humour and charm, Buckeye is a dazzling portrait of the human spirit by way of one unforgettable community; the twisted roads we take to achieve forgiveness and redemption; and above all a universal longing for love and connection.
Omniscient, sweeping, almost defiantly sentimental’ New York Times‘
It’s not just a great Midwestern novel, it’s a great novel, period’ Financial Times
The City and Its uncertain Walls, Murakami ( Paperback Sept 25 )
£10.99
A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, a breathtaking new novel about the boundaries between worlds and individuals, from the Sunday Times bestseller. When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he sets his heart on finding the imaginary city where her true self lives. His search will lead him to take a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own.
When he finally makes it to the walled city, a shadowless place of horned beasts and willow trees, he finds his beloved working in a different library – a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together in the other world and, as the lines between reality and fantasy start to blur, he must decide what he’s willing to lose.
This Might Surprise You, Hayley Gullen ( HB, Sept 2025)
£14.99
Hilarious, complex, honest and profound. Every page made me laugh. Most of them also made me cry.’Ian Dunt, political journalist and broadcasterThis is a cancer story you'll actually want to read.
With humour and honesty, it details Hayley Gullen's fight for individuality during the toughest time of her life. But this is no ordinary account. Hayley takes you on her journey with an uplifting, quirky graphic memoir which outlines her breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 37.
She illustrates her experiences navigating the NHS and the importance of maintaining her sense of self throughout the dehumanising process of cancer treatment. The storytelling and cartoons are perfectly paired to show the emotional ups and downs of living with cancer. This book is a companion for anyone facing treatment, helping them to feel less alone, as well as for their loved ones.
David Trimble: Peacemaker by Stephen Walker (hardback Sept 2025)
£26.99
David Trimble was one of the most influential figures in modern British and Irish history. A Nobel Laureate, he negotiated the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that helped to secure peace in Northern Ireland. In this first biography to chart Trimble’s life and death, award-winning journalist Stephen Walker vividly details how this shy Belfast academic changed the political landscape of Northern Ireland.
With the cooperation of the Trimble family, Peacemaker offers unparalleled insights into the life of a history maker: the first person to be elected First Minister of Northern Ireland and the last Ulster unionist to hold that title. Using interviews with his widow Lady Trimble and their grown-up children, the book colourfully charts Trimble’s story from the County Down city of Bangor, through the divisive world of unionist politics, to his crowning moment at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. It is a tale of how the leaders of unionism and nationalism worked together to end decades of violence to compromise and share power.
Venetian Vespers, John Banville ( hardback Sept 2025)
£16.99
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SNOW AND THE SEAEverything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. . .
Winter 1899, and strange things are afoot. As the new century approaches, English hack writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat. But in the midst of a rift between Laura and her father, Evelyn's plans for a substantial inheritance look to be dashed.
Arriving in Venice for their belated honeymoon at Palazzo Dioscuri - the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo - the couple are met by a series of seeminglyotherworldly occurrences, which exacerbate Evelyn's already frayed nerves. Is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city, or is he really losing his mind?
'A marvellous and rewarding novelist . . He is a magician, really.' THE SCOTSMAN
Cursed Daughters, Oyinkan Braithwaite ( hardback Sept 2025)
£18.99
CURSES ARE LIKE HEARTS. SOME ARE MORE EASILY BROKEN THAN OTHERS... the twist-filled, spooky heartbreaker from the global-bestselling author of My Sister, the Serial Killer--'A haunting, twisty tale of curses and romance' Ayòbámi Adébáyò'A sweeping love story...
I lost myself within its gorgeous pages' Jennie Godfrey'Funny and fearless, soaked in secrets, spirit, heartbreak, and love... Impossible to put down' Abi DaréNo man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...
So goes the family curse, handed down from generation to generation, ruining families and breaking hearts as it goes. And now it's calm, rational Eniiyi's turn - who, due to her uncanny resemblance to her dead aunt, Monife, and her family's insistence that she must be a reincarnation, has long been used to some strange familial beliefs. Still, when she falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family's history.
Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak, or can she escape the family curse and the mysterious fate that befell her aunt?-
So satisfying''Sharp, brilliantly written...and broke my heart on more than one occasion''I cannot express how much I adored this book - like truly, madly, deeply adored it'
Somebody is walking on your grave, Mariana Enriquez ( hardback Sept 2025)
£20.00
In Somebody is Walking on Your Grave, Mariana Enriquez blends journalistic rigour and her fascination with the macabre as we encounter famous graveyards steeped in history, such as Montparnasse in Paris, Highgate in London, and the Jewish cemetery in Prague, as well as more remote, decrepit, hidden, or secretly beautiful ones. These pages are full of the graves of famous figures - Elvis in Memphis, Karl Marx in London - mournful sculptures, traces of voodoo, catacombs, skeletons and an array of legends and stories. Mariana's personal journey weaves through haunting narratives, transforming burial grounds into spaces of reflection, obsession, and emotional discovery between the living and the dead.
From the haunting statues of Staglieno in Genoa to the eerie silence of Rottnest Island's hidden Aboriginal cemetery, Enriquez's narrative shifts effortlessly between travelogue, essay, and memoir. In her unique voice, cemeteries transform into living, breathing places of reflection, obsession and revelation. As she roams, each cemetery becomes a lens through which she examines everything from colonial violence to the strange rituals surrounding death.
Belfast Fairytale, Mel Carroll ( hardback September 2025)
£13.99
In the not-so-faraway land of Belfast city live Fluffy, Duffy and Scruffy, the three kid goats Gruff. One fine day, they decide to go to Botanic Gardens for a picnic. But will they get past the angry troll under the Albert Bridge and make it home in time for dinner?Join the trio on a fun-filled adventure as they visit Belfast’s best-loved locations.
Albert Clock – Titanic Centre – Odyssey Arena – HMS Caroline – City Hall – the Big Fish – Beacon of Hope – St George’s Market
I’m Very Busy, Oliver Jeffers (hardback October 2025)
£14.99
A poignant – and laugh-out-loud funny – story about our busy lives and how we can fix our mistakes to show our friends how much we care. It's Bridget's birthday, and she thinks it would be fun to spend the day with friends. But Royal has places to go, Rodney has to see a man about a dog, Regis has to wash his hair and Pearl has a list of items she needs to cross off as quickly as she can.
Bridget's friends are all too busy to hang out! Will Bridget have to spend her birthday all alone? In a story that shows how friends are more important than the busy-ness of a day, Oliver Jeffers's bold and brilliant art pairs with a powerful story that makes readers realise what truly matters.
Always Remember : The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm by Charlie Mackesy ( hardback)
£22.00
Charlie Mackesy’s four unlikely friends are wandering through the wilds again. They’re not sure what they are looking for. They do know that life can be difficult, but that they love each other, and cake is often the answer.
When the dark clouds come, can the boy remember what he needs to get through the storm?The hugely anticipated new book from Charlie Mackesy, revisiting the much-loved world of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – the bestselling adult non-fiction book of all time, with over ten million readers around the world.v
On Friendship, Andrew O’Hagan ( hardback Oct 2025)
£12.99
From the bestselling author of Mayflies and Caledonian Road, a heart-enriching celebration of what makes us great: our friends. If we are lucky in our lives, our friendships will be rich and varied. They will be shared with those with two legs, with four legs, with whiskers or clean faces; they will come dressed in the simplicity of childhood or the professional attire of adult life; some will span decades, and some will be only fleeting.
But the thing they will all have in common is that life is not only unimaginable - but unimagined - without them. In these gorgeous personal reflections, Andrew O'Hagan explores friendship through music and poetry, memory and history, illuminating the many ways and reasons that people come together, and how our lives are all the better because we do.v
The Healing Power of Cats (hardback Oct 2025)
£12.99
The Healing Power of Cats : Nine Lessons from Our Feline Friends
by Carina Nunstedt (Author) , Ulrica Norberg (Author)
In these nine life-fulfilling lessons, learn how your cat can bring you peace, comfort and a unique happiness. A home without a cat is just a house, as they say. There is something special about our feline friends – the comfort they bring, their intuition, their famously comedic side – that contributes to a household's average happiness index.
In fact, just looking at your cat can ease anxiety and bring a sense of understanding and calm – but why is that? What are these curious qualities that cats possess? And what lessons can we learn from them? The Healing Power of Cats takes a deep dive into all nine lives, to uncover the mysterious happiness that owning a cat can bring. By combining unique scientific research from cat experts and personal stories from cat-owners, Ulrica Norberg and Carina Nunstedt teach us how to use all of the most admirable cat qualities in our daily lives to reduce stress and anxiety, set boundaries and see the world as one big ball of yarn
The Writer's Table : Famous authors and their favourite recipes by Valerie Stivers
£19.99
These are the dishes that fuelled great writing. Ever wondered what Iris Murdoch might have served for supper, or how Emily Dickinson took her tea? The Writer’s Table brings together dining habits and favourite recipes from some of the world’s most beloved authors, offering a delicious glimpse into their everyday lives and kitchen rituals. Each recipe is paired with a short introduction to the author and dish, along with clear instructions and modern ingredients, making it easy to recreate literary comfort food at home.
With beautiful illustrations throughout, the book is a feast for the eyes as well as the table making you feel closer to the writers you love. Writers and recipes featured include: Leo Tolstoy’s Sour Schi Jane Austen's White SoupColette's Cherry ClafoutisBarbara Pym's Toad-in-the-HoleTruman Capote's Chicken HashAndrea Camilleri's Sardines a beccaficoPerfectly giftable, irresistibly browsable and full of charm, The Writer’s Table is a celebration of food, creativity and the simple pleasures that connect us all.
Rory Sparkes, Hugh Bonneville ( hardback October 2025)
£14.99
Rory Sparkes is a boy with a head full of dreams. He might become a strongman and travel the world with the circus.
Or he might try to make it as a cowboy – that would be a fan-tas-tic second best. Although at the moment he’d settle for missing his maths lesson and making his torch work properly. As he plots to help his best friend, Guy, earn enough money to buy the latest top-of-the-line model boat (so they can set sail for South America), the circus rolls into town and everything spirals out of control.
With Guy needing help doing odd jobs for the terrifying Madame Lowe, and with Clare, Rory’s annoying older sister, planning a dastardly prank, will Rory’s plans ever work out? Let’s see …
Heap Earth Upon It, Chloe Michelle Howarth ( hardback Oct 2025)
£16.99
January 1965. The orphaned O'Leary siblings - Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy - arrive in the village of Ballycrea, tight-lipped about their troubled past and desperate for a fresh start. After being met with suspicion from most of the locals, the family are thrilled when they're taken under the wing of their well-respected neighbours, Bill and Betty Nevan, who offer them work, companionship and an opportunity to fit in.
But for one of the O'Learys, this new friendship sparks an intense attachment that makes the dynamic dangerous for all. It's difficult to bury secrets, but almost impossible to bury feelings...
The Hour of the Predator, by Giuliano da Empoli ( Paperback Oct 2025)
£12.99
The Hour of the Predator : Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World
HOW DO YOU DEFEND DEMOCRACY WHEN THE RULES HAVE CHANGED?
Presidents turning into monarchs. Tech tycoons and autocrats intent on global regime change.
Armies of cyber trolls.
The old order is at an end. The Hour of the Predator has come.
Former political advisor Giuliano da Empoli takes us on an insider's journey through this new reality, from the Glass Palace of the UN to the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, from top secret meetings to violent power struggles. We encounter dictators and tyrants, strongmen and AI billionaires- geopolitical predators, and the flailing leaders who desperately try to appease them.
PRAISE FOR THE HOUR OF THE PREDATOR
'In a masterful, evocative narrative, he captures the worst aspects of the conquest led by men like Donald Trump and Sam Altman' ? L'Express
The Garden Almanac, 2026
£14.99
RHS The Garden Almanac 2026 : The month-by-month guide to your best ever gardening year
by Royal Horticultural Society
Beautifully illustrated throughout in full colour, it includes artworks by Annie Soudain, photographs, and advice from RHS experts, including Chief Horticulturist Guy Barter. This glorious month-by-month guide is packed full of ideas and projects to set you up for the year ahead.
With all-new advice on what to grow, wildlife to watch out for, and how to get the most from your garden. In this edition: Discover sustainable gardening ideas; Find planting solutions for difficult situations; Learn how to encourage beneficial wildlife; and Get exclusive design tips from modern-day design heroes, such as Cleve West, Tom Stuart-Smith, Tom Massey and Ann-Marie Powell. The Garden Almanac 2026 also includes a complete task list for each month; decorative projects; recipes; pests, diseases and weeds to look out for; seasonal plants and tables charting sunrise, moonrise and the weather.
Heart The Lover, Lily King ( hardback Oct 2025)
£18.99
Our narrator understands good love stories - their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules. She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games.
Their lives became quickly intertwined - with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love. Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth. Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love.
This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
THIS WAY UP, Mark Cooper-Jones ( hardback Oct 2025)
£16.99
This Way Up : When Maps Go Wrong (and Why it Matters)
The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men!
Some of the maps are decades old, some are centuries old and some are so recent they're being published today (or yesterday, if you’re reading this tomorrow). They include world maps, colonial maps, corporate maps, Soviet maps, pioneer maps, news maps and maps whose intended use was hijacked for a French surrealist political movement in the 1950s. Whether you’re an avid map junkie or simply ‘map-curious’, you will uncover a unique tale of adventure, error and unexpected humour in each chapter, as we attempt to answer the question: ‘What on earth happened here?’ So, ditch the compass (or disable location services) and set out on a journey with us, the Map Men, into a world of cartographic chaos and mappy mishaps.
Book Club
The BPS Book Club meets in the last full week of every month. We have two sessions, each one covering the same book so just pick the session that suits you. It's a relaxed and unintimidating sharing of views and opinions.
Tuesday morning 9.30-10.30, or
Thursday evening 7 - 8 pm.
Please contact us if would like to be added to our book-club mailing list.
Please note it fills up quickly ( I take a maximum of 15 per session) so you can only book in response to the email invite each month, on a first come first served basis.
BOOKS as GIFTS
Perhaps you have a relative or friend who loves reading but you have no idea what to choose?
We offer a monthly subscription gift service where the book(s) are chosen and dispatched by Books Paper Scissors with a gift message from the giver.
The recipient will receive an introductory questionnaire and voucher, with SAE to return, allowing them to select genres and identify preferences - we do the rest!
For children or adults, 2024 prices:
Hardback Subscription £25 per month.
Paperback Subscription £15 per month.
Children's Books £12 per month.
No minimum or maximum length of time. Includes all postage.
Please enquire if you would like more details, or order online by searching ' gift subscription'.
Our Book Store
15 Stranmillis Rd, Belfast BT9 5AF
Phone: 028 9066 7815
Monday - Saturday- 10.00 - 17:00