Welcome
Books Paper Scissors is an independent bookshop in leafy South Belfast, near the Botanic Gardens, Queen’s University and the Ulster Museum.
We stock a curated selection of new fiction and non-fiction, plus classics, Irish writing and poetry. We also have a children's room, with choices from newborn to teenager. If you don't see the book you want in store or on-line, just ask via e-mail or phone, we can source most books in just a few days.
Beyond books we stock high quality stationery from Leuchtturm, pens from Lamy, diaries and artisan greetings cards. Plus gift wrap and of course, scissors.
Please note, our website inventory is not tracked with our shop stock.
If not in stock, books can be ordered within 2/3 days.
Latest
Another Life, Jodie Chapman ( paperback July 2022)
£9.99
'Do you remember your first love?Nick and Anna are young. They meet at a cinema, both working summer jobs.
They've lived different lives. Carry secret hurts. But they're drawn together by something neither understands.
Fast forward and they've long ago gone their separate ways. Inhabiting different worlds. Shaped by the hurt they bear.
Yet neither can quite forget the other. So when tragedy brings them back together, they find themselves asking . .
. What if we took a chance on another life?_______'I was devastated to finish this book. It broke my heart, and if you're a fan of Sally Rooney, Another Life is something you'll want.
The characters are real, the themes of grief, family and loss are so raw. Fans of David Nicholls will adore this complex love story' Prima'
Fault Lines, Emily Itami (paperback June 2022)
£8.99
'A brilliant modern love story. I found it atmospheric and transporting but also wise, clever and universal in its exploration of love, family and identity. I loved it' Cathy Rentzenbrink.
Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It's everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether it would be more fun to throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband or hanging up laundry. Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur.
In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship, a voice, and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives - and in the end, we can choose only one. Alluring, compelling, startlingly honest and darkly funny, Fault Lines is a bittersweet love story and a daring exploration of modern relationships from a writer to watch.
Iron Annie, Luke Cassidy ( paperback June 2022)
£8.99
The energy, the voice, the language, the characters, all real, raw and utterly convincing' Fiona Scarlett, author of Boys Don't Cry'
Aoife knows everyone in Dundalk's underworld. Too well, in some cases.
But when she meets Annie, a beautiful whirlwind of a woman, and brings her to the Town, she finds that she doesn't know nearly enough about her. Annie is magnetic and wild and Aoife's desire to learn more quickly becomes a need, and then an obsession - to know this dangerous woman, to love her, to keep her. So when Aoife's friend and collaborator the Rat King asks her to help him dispose of ten kilos of cocaine, swiped from a rival, she brings Annie along for a road trip through a Britain that she only knows as a place to be suspicious of.
So when Annie decides she doesn't want to return to Ireland, Aoife makes a decision that changes everything. Gritty and yet tender, tragic and yet hopeful, Iron Annie is a breakneck journey that crackles with energy, warmth and heart, and marks the arrival of a fresh and vibrant new voice in literary fiction. 'Full of wonder, grit, insight, sadness and joy' Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart
The Good Turn - Sharma Jackson ( paperback May 2022)
£7.99
Josephine Williams is a future-focused, internet-loving eleven-year-old who is desperate to explore the world beyond her cul-de-sac - and her browser. When she learns about Josephine Holloway - a woman who started the first Girl Scout Troop for Black girls in America - she's certain she must start her own.Enlisting her friends Margot Anderson and Wesley Evans, the trio begin their quest for their Camping Badge. Drawn to an abandoned factory nearby, they stumble across something strange. A square, ancient television and two tatty armchairs.
Beside it, a wooden sideboard with an old photograph of a young, happy couple. What is this? Who, or what, lives here - and why? 'An intriguing mystery adventure . .
This Train Is For, Bernie McGill ( paperback, June 2022)
£12.00
A great collection of 'caught at the moment ' short stories from Northern Irish Bernie McGill ( author of The Watch House, The Butterfly Cabinet, Sleepwalkers)
These stories have a delicacy, an emotional connection and a sense of what's between the lines, in a range of voices and characters. Very enjoyable.
The End of Men, Christina Sweeney ( paperback June 2022)
£8.99
The year is 2025.Mankind is under threat. Men are dying, but women remain safe. As the sickness spreads to every corner of the globe, people fight to protect the men they love against all odds.
Can they find a cure before it's too late? Will this be the story of the end of the world - or its salvation? Compelling and devastating, The End of Men is the pulse-pounding thriller everyone is talking about.
Fight Night, Miriam Toews (hardback, June 2022)
£14.99
Swiv has taken her grandmother's advice too literally. Now she's at home, suspended from school. Mom is pregnant and preoccupied - and so Swiv is in the older woman's charge, receiving a very different form of education from a teacher with a style all her own.Grandma likes her stories fast, troublesome and funny. She's known the very worst that life can throw at you - and has met it every time with a wild, unnamable spirit, fighting for joy and independence every step of the way. But will maths lessons based on Amish jigsaws and classes on How to Dig a Winter Grave inspire the same fire in Swiv, and ensure it never goes out?Time is running short.
Grandma's health is failing, the baby is on the way, as a family of three extraordinary women prepare to face life's great changes together. Poignant, hilarious and deeply moving, Fight Night is a girl's love letter to the women raising her and a tribute to one family's fighting spirit.
Friends Like These, Meg Rosoff ( hardback June 2022)
£12.99
An irresistible account of female friendship ... Nobody describes the strength, pain and comedy of being young as elegantly and eloquently as Meg Rosoff' - Amanda Craig.
June, 1982. When eighteen-year-old Beth arrives in Manhattan for a prestigious journalism internship, everything feels brand new - and not always in a good way. A cockroach-infested sublet and a disaffected roommate are the least of her worries, and she soon finds herself caught up with her fellow interns - preppy Oliver, ruthless Dan and ridiculously cool, beautiful, wild Edie.
Soon, Beth and Edie are best friends - the sort of heady, all-consuming best-friendship that's impossible to resist. But with the mercury rising and deceit mounting up, betrayal lies just around the corner. Who needs enemies ...
when you have friends like these? From bestselling, award-winning author Meg Rosoff comes a gritty, intoxicating novel about a summer of unforgettable firsts: of independence, lies, love and the inevitable loss of innocence.
Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley ( hardback, June 2022)
£16.99
When there is no choice, all you have left to do is walk. Kiara Johnson does not know what it is to live as a normal seventeen-year-old. With her mother in a rehab facility and an older brother who devotes his time and money to a recording studio, she fends for herself - and for nine-year-old Trevor, whose own mother is prone to disappearing for days at a time.As the landlord of their apartment block threatens to raise their rent, Kiara finds herself walking the streets after dark, determined to survive in a world that refuses to protect her. Then one night Kiara is picked up by two police officers, and the gruesome deal she is offered in exchange for her freedom lands her at the centre of a media storm. If she agrees to testify in a grand jury trial, she could help expose the sickening corruption of a police department.
But honesty comes at a price - one that could leave her family vulnerable to their retaliation, and endanger everyone she loves. Nightcrawling is an unforgettable novel about young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world, told with a humanity that is at once agonising and utterly mesmerising
Look Here : On the Pleasures of Observing the City, Ana Kinsella I paperback July 2022)
£9.99
This is a book about the joy of city life. The joy that comes from chance encounters, unexpected sights and sounds, glimmers of beauty flashing out from the grey and the rush of the everyday. The mix of people, shoulder to shoulder, sunbathing in parks, having a coffee, jumping on a bus, daydreaming on a bench. From this thrum of activity and these private spots of solitude, inspiration, emotion and memory are drawn.
Exploring the delight to be found in everyday interactions and chance observations, Look Here charts an affecting map of London, navigating ideas of anonymity and identity, freedom, ownership and community, while reflecting on whether the carousel of clothing we see on those around us holds some deeper meaning.
Wherever she goes, Irish born Ana Kinsella looks around her with a keen eye for small, illuminating details, and a love for variety and emotional connection. Look Here is a gorgeous, layered portrait of a city and its people, a book that urges us to slow down, look closer and find beauty.
The Accomplice, Steve Cavanagh ( hardback July 2022)
£12.99
The new Eddie Flynn novel from the Sunday Times and million copy bestselling author of THIRTEEN, FIFTY FIFTY and THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE.
The Sandman killings have been solved. Daniel Miller murdered fourteen people before he vanished. His wife, Carrie, now faces trial as his accomplice.
The FBI, the District Attorney, the media and everyone in America believe she knew and helped cover up her husband's crimes. Eddie Flynn won't take a case unless his client is innocent. Now, he has to prove to a jury, and the entire world, that Carrie Miller was just another victim of the Sandman.
She didn't know her husband's dark side and she had no part in the murders. But so far, Eddie and his team are the only ones who believe her. Gabriel Lake used to be a federal agent, before someone tried to kill him.
Now, he's an investigator with a vendetta against the Sandman. He's the only one who can catch him, because he believes that everything the FBI knows about serial killers is wrong. With his wife on trial, the Sandman is forced to come out of hiding to save her from a life sentence.
He will kill to protect her and everyone involved in the case is a target. Even Eddie Flynn...
The Museum of Ordinary People, Mike Gayle ( hardback July 2022)
£16.99
The superb new novel from the bestselling author of Half A World Away and All the Lonely People. Filled with warmth, tenderness and character. It really made me think, too - I love that it encourages us to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.Still reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Jess is about to do the hardest thing she's ever done: empty her childhood home so that it can be sold. But when in the process Jess stumbles across the mysterious Alex, together they become custodians of a strange archive of letters, photographs, curios and collections known as The Museum of Ordinary People. As they begin to delve into the history of the objects in their care, Alex and Jess not only unravel heart-breaking stories that span generations and continents, but also unearth long buried secrets that lie much closer to home.
A thought-provoking and poignant story of memory, grief, loss and the things we leave behind.
The House of Fortune, Jessie Burton ( hardback July 2022)
£16.99
The sequel to Jessie Burton's million-copy bestseller The Miniaturist
In the golden city of Amsterdam, in 1705, Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and she is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms.
At the city's theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, all is not well - her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea's birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present. Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed - perhaps this will set their fortunes straight.
And indeed, the ball does set things spinning: new figures enter their life, promising new futures. But their fates are still unclear, and when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she remembers the miniaturist who entered her life and toyed with her fortunes eighteen years ago. Perhaps, now, she has returned for her .
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia ( hardback July 2022)
£16.99
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, this is a reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico. These books are properly gothic in the sense that they are otherworldly, a bit creepy, with romance and intrigue woven into the page turning story.
Carlota Moreau: A young woman, growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatan peninsula, the only daughter of a genius - or a madman. Montgomery Laughton: A melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol, an outcast who assists Dr Moreau with his scientific experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas with plentiful coffers.
The hybrids: The fruits of the Doctor's labour, destined to blindly obey their creator while they remain in the shadows, are a motley group of part-human, part-animal monstrosities. All of them are living in a perfectly balanced and static world which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Doctor Moreau's patron - who will, unwittingly, begin a dangerous chain-reaction. For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and in the sweltering heat of the jungle passions may ignite.
The Saint of lost Things, Tish Delaney (hardback August 2022)
£16.99
Delaney never succumbs to cliche, but creates a vividly realised narrative in which you long for her characters to break free and triumph' OBSERVER'
I had dreams once, but never for anything as extravagant as happiness. Still, Auntie Bell and me have fresh cream cakes every Saturday. They're sweet enough to take the edge off. I hope they're enough to get me through being outed as a fraud.
Turns out, I'm more my missing mother's daughter than anyone first suspected. There was a time when Lindy Morris escaped to London and walked along the Thames in the moonlight. When life was full and exciting.
Decades later, Lindy lives back with her Auntie Bell on the edge: on the edge of Donegal and on the edge of Granda Morris's land. Granda Morris is a complicated man, a farmer who wanted sons but got two daughters: Auntie Bell and Lindy's mother, who disappeared long ago. Now, Lindy and Bell live the smallest of lives, in a cottage filled with unfulfilled dreams.
But when the secrets they have kept for thirty years emerge, everything is rewritten. Will Lindy grasp who she is again?
Trust, Hernan Diaz ( hardback August 2022)
£16.99
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022
A sweeping, breathtakingly ambitious novel about power, wealth and truth, told by four unique, interlocking voices and set against the backdrop of turbulent 1920s New York. The legendary Wall Street tycoon whose immense wealth gives him the power to do almost anything. The second-generation Italian immigrant tasked with recording his life story.
The reclusive, aristocratic wife. And the writer who observes them from afar. In a city devoted to making money and making stories like no other, where wealth means power, who gets to tell the truth? And to rise to the top of a glittering, destructive world, what - and who - do you have to sacrifice?
Intimacies, Katie Kitiramura ( paperback August 2022)
£9.99
An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. She's drawn into simmering personal dramas. Her lover, Adriaan, is separated from his wife but still entangled in his marriage.Her friend Jana witnesses a seemingly random act of violence, a crime the interpreter becomes increasingly obsessed with as she befriends the victim's sister. And she's pulled into an explosive political controversy when she's asked to interpret for a former president accused of war crimes. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide what she wants from her life.
'Kitamura has made the existential thriller all her own...simply stunning' Brandon Taylor 'Charged with tension and power' Avni Doshi'
Common Decency, Susannah Dickey ( hardback July 2022)
£14.99
In an apartment building in Belfast, two young women's lives play out in parallel. Since her mother's death, Lily has withdrawn from the world, trapped between grief and anger. She has to break out of this damaging cycle - but how? Upstairs, Siobhan is consumed by her affair with a married man.Her days revolve around his sporadic texts and rare visits. She barely notices the strange girl who lives below and dawdles in the foyer. But Lily is keeping a close eye on her neighbour, whose life seems so much better and more fulfilling than her own.
When resentment evolves into something darker and more urgent, she decides to teach Siobhan a lesson... From the critically acclaimed author of Tennis Lessons comes a darkly powerful novel about two lives running closely in parallel but divided by gulfs of misunderstanding. With boundless wisdom and deep empathy, Dickey charts the anonymity and hidden intimacies of modern existence, and our profound human need to connect.
'Sharp as tacks, extremely funny and deeply moving. This novel is very good company.' JAN CARSONPRAISE FOR SUSANNAH DICKEY'I loved Tennis Lessons so much. Susannah is a phenomenally talented writer' ELIZABETH DAY'A raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story' LOUISE O'NEILL'Incredibly funny .
Book Club
The BPS Book Club meets in the last 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.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the book club, or if you would like to be added to our bookclub mailing list.
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.
Hardback Subscription £21 per month.
Paperback Subscription £12 per month.
Children's Books £11 per month.
No minimum or maximum length of time. Includes all postage.
Please enquire if you would like more details.
Our Book Store
15 Stranmillis Rd, Belfast BT9 5AF
Phone: 028 9066 7815
Monday - Saturday- 10.00 - 17:00
