Our Picks
The Nazi Mind : Twelve Warnings From History by Laurence Rees ( hardback Jan 2025)
£25.00
World-renowned historian Laurence Rees lays out a past that is also eerily a cautionary tale for our future if we are not careful' Anthony Scaramucci '
A groundbreaking narrative history of the motivations and mentalities behind the Nazis and their supporters, from the bestselling author of THE HOLOCAUST. How could the Nazis have committed the crimes they did? Why did commandants of concentration and death camps willingly – often enthusiastically – oversee mass murder? How could ordinary Germans have tolerated the removal of the Jews? In THE NAZI MIND, bestselling author Laurence Rees combines history and the latest research in psychology to help answer some of the most perplexing questions surrounding the Second World War and the Holocaust. Ultimately, he delves into the darkness to explain how and why these people were capable of committing the worst crime in the history of the world.
Rees traces the rise and eventual fall of the Nazis through the lens of ‘twelve warnings’ – from talk about ‘them’ and ‘us’ to the escalation of racism – whilst also highlighting signs to look out for in present day leaders. Rees uses previously unpublished testimony from former Nazis and those who grew up in the Nazi system, and in-depth psychological insights including cutting edge work on obedience, authority and the brain.
Bogboy, Patrick Kealey ( paperback July 2025)
£10.99
This is a moving, entertaining and character filled story, Patrick has spent a career in theatre and his prose reflects that visual intensity - highly recommended.
Alfie O'Brien, soon to rename himself Bogboy, is born an orphan into a house of dead things, presided over by his imperious, ailing aunt. This is a place where the past won't let the present go, where ghosts confer with the living, and where discovering who you are means coming face to face with some uncomfortable truths. It is a house cursed by shadows, secrets and dynasty.While the wind blows in from the Atlantic across these Irish peatlands, old enmities bite down, and when Bogboy is left for dead, he must learn how to trust love, discover where he belongs, and reconcile himself with his destiny.
The ancestors are gathering and Bogboy is about to become a man.An audacious, rousing story of hope and beauty rising out of the dying embers of a corrupt and redundant regime, Bogboy is a story for our times, reminding us that attention to the natural world offers solace and healing, and that love - wherever we may find it - is always stronger than hatred.
Bogboy by Patrick Kealey ( paperback June 2025)
£10.99
Alfie O'Brien, soon to rename himself Bogboy, is born an orphan into a house of dead things, presided over by his imperious, ailing aunt. This is a place where the past won't let the present go, where ghosts confer with the living, and where discovering who you are means coming face to face with some uncomfortable truths. It is a house cursed by shadows, secrets and dynasty.
While the wind blows in from the Atlantic across these Irish peatlands, old enmities bite down, and when Bogboy is left for dead, he must learn how to trust love, discover where he belongs, and reconcile himself with his destiny. The ancestors are gathering and Bogboy is about to become a man. An audacious, rousing story of hope and beauty rising out of the dying embers of a corrupt and redundant regime, Bogboy is a story for our times, reminding us that attention to the natural world offers solace and healing, and that love - wherever we may find it - is always stronger than hatred.
A Beautiful Pint : One Man's Search for the Perfect Pint of Guinness by Ian Ryan
£9.99
What makes a perfect pint of Guinness? What are the criteria for a great pub? And where can you find them?Ian Ryan, founder of Sh*t London Guinness and Beautiful Pints, can answer these questions and help you find a beautiful pint, wherever you are. We’ve all got a friend who claims to know where you can get the best pint of Guinness. From the pub to the pour, it’s an experience.
And if anyone knows this best, it’s London-based Corkman Ian Ryan – founder of Sh*t London Guinness and Beautiful Pints. From the all-important different elements of a Guinness pour to what to look for (and what to run a mile from) when sourcing beautiful pints, as well as a crème de la crème list of pubs around the world to visit, Ian shares his expertise from many a pint of plain sank and enjoyed. By the end of it, you’ll be able to claim that you know where to get the ultimate pint of Guinness in town.
See you at the bar sometime.
Irish Pints, A compendium ( hardback, Ali Dunworth - May 2025)
£13.00
A Compendium of Irish Pints : The Culture, Customs and Craic
In Ireland, a pint – having one, going for one, buying one – is a cultural institution. It’s about so much more than 568ml of beer in a glass. But how did a simple pint become such a phenomenon? In A Compendium of Irish Pints, Ali Dunworth delves into the culture, customs and craic surrounding pints in Ireland, from airport pints to unplanned pints, pints for celebrations and pints for commiserations, festival pints, quiet pints, crisps and pints and everything in between.
With illustrations by Stephen Heffernan, aka Hephee, that perfectly capture the culture of pints in his iconic style, you’ll find yourself working up a thirst and sending that text we all love to get: ‘Pint?’
World Without End, hardback ( Oct 2024)
£25.00
Can a graphic novel save the planet? Perhaps.” – Elizabeth Kolbert. It's surprisingly readable, funny, informative and important - everyone young and old should read this!
Is this the end of the world? Perhaps not. In this eye-opening, hopeful and hugely entertaining bestseller, a climate expert takes a leading graphic novelist on a journey to understand the profound changes that our planet is undergoing. The scientist, Jean-Marc Jancovici, walks us through just about everything: from the innermost workings of our minds to toothbrushes, office jobs, and oil; ancient history and modern geopolitics; economics and ecology; the unfolding climate crisis and its consequences for us all.
As he describes the world we live in - a world whose future is deeply uncertain - the artist, Christophe Blain, listens and draws. Coming face to face with global warming, the unlikely duo - along with Mother Nature, Pop Eye and Jiminy Cricket, among others - create a picture of what the solution to our predicament actually looks like. Yes, we have a fossil-fuel problem, but simply switching to renewable energy won’t fix it.
We can and must rethink everything: our energy supply, our economies and our whole world. They leave us with an inspiring vision of the future in which food, education, housing, transport and communities - in other words, all of us - work together and, with a few technological fixes, succeed in creating a world without end. “Masterful and unforgettable...
A testament to the power of the graphic novel" - Marjane Satrapi,
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi ( paperback 2017)
£10.99
What makes life worth living in the face of death? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.
One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all.
When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both. 'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite.
Giant, Judith McQuoid ( paperback, March 2025)
£7.99
Thrilling historical fiction on the childhoodof beloved author CS Lewis. Davy, a working-class boy living in East Belfast in 1908, is sent to work at the wealthy Lewis household. When he meets Jacks – the name by which CS Lewis was known to friends and family – Davy is captivated by his friend’s world of books and stories.
Together the boys plunge into imagining and adventuring, and Davy discovers his own artistic talent. But when Davy is offered a job at the shipyard, and Jacks’s mother falls gravely ill, their wondrous days of make-believe seem numbered. Will they lose their extraordinary shared world forever?
Show Don’t Tell, Curtis Sittenfeld ( hardback Feb 2025)
£16.99
Razor-sharp, glittering tales exploring marriage, fame and female friendship, from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of Romantic Comedy and American Wife. In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends. In ‘The Patron Saints of Middle Age,’ a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce.
In ‘A for Alone,’ a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in ‘Lost but Not Forgotten,’ Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion. Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
May All your skies Be Blue, Fiona Scarlet ( paperback 28 August 2025)
£9.99
From the author of the beloved debut Boys Don't Cry - an unforgettable story of love and loss and how the ones we love never really leave us. He's leaning in. I'm leaning in.
'The future is ours to make, Shauns,' he says, lips almost touching. Summer, 1991. Dean: sun-stung and sticky with cool ice-pop juice, walks to the middle of The Green to get a good gawk at the new salon.
And at the owner's kid. Hands deep in his pockets, his jet-black mop of hair hides the tension in his face at the thought of going back home. Shauna: stands well hid behind her ma - her eyes dark and haunted like the rest of her.
The salon is theirs, a fresh start. The smell of her ma's Body Shop perfume clings to her jumper - Shauna can't be anywhere else other than here. Instantly inseparable, their friendship blooms.
But as time passes and tell-tale blushes and school fights develop into something deeper, conflicting responsibilities threaten to pull Shauna and Dean apart. When all seems lost, will they find each other under the same blue sky?
A beautiful, deeply affecting story.' DONAL RYAN'Hugely compelling and utterly persuasive.' JOSEPH O'CONNOR Fíona has a rare talent. For writing, beautiful and sensitively, without resorting to sentimentality.
PAPERBACK FROM END AUGUST 2025
Frogs for Watchdogs, Sean Farrell ( large paperback Feb 2025)
£14.99
After years of moving from place to place, a young family finds shelter in an isolated house in the Irish countryside. Their father is missing, Mum is a healer and B a formidable big sister. In his strange new territory, a wild little boy gives voice to his experience.
Jerry Drain, a local famer, is stealing hay from the barn, someone is making nasty phone calls to the house at night and darkness is gathering at the edges of their lives. With his ferocious imagination the boy will do everything in his power to protect his family. But Jerry will not go away and Mum seems to be falling under his spell.
It will be a year of major wins and baffling defeats for the boy, as Jerry’s true nature insists on revealing itself. Dark, funny, tender and raw, Frogs for Watchdogs thrums with the intensity of childhood. Above all, it is an ode to the blended family: the bewildering joy, wary safety and profound new bonds of love.
I loved the boy's voice in this, how one feels his dark and sinister suspicions and how that too, gradually lifts. A clever and beguiling narrative... Linda
Confessions, Catherine Airey ( hardback Jan 2025)
£16.99
It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing.
Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise.
There the story of Cora's family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool…An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.
Going Home, Tom Lamont (paperback from March 2025)
£9.99
A beautiful, funny tale of London and lives new and old'SUNDAY TIMES'
'Very funny in places and deeply poignant in others - I loved it . . .word-perfect'INDIA KNIGHT'
Tom Lamont writes in clear, swift prose about the power struggles that exist in even the most loving of families and the longest of friendships.
Local boy Téo Erskine is back in the north London suburb of his youth, visiting his father - stubborn, selfish, complicated Vic. Things have changed for Téo: he's got a steady job, a brand-new car and a London flat all concrete and glass, with a sliver of a river view. Except, underneath the surface, not much has changed at all. He's still the boy seeking his father's approval; the young man playing late-night poker with his best friend, unreliable, infuriating Ben Mossam; the one still desperately in love with the enigmatic Lia Woods.
Lia's life, on the other hand, has been transformed: now a single mum to two-year-old Joel, she doesn't have time for anyone - not even herself. When the unthinkable happens, Joel finds himself at the centre of an odd constellation of men - Téo, Vic, Ben - none of whom is fully equipped to look after him, but whose strange, tentative attempts at love might just be enough to offer him a new place to call home.
Orbital, Samantha Harvey ( Paperback June 2024)
£9.99
A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas'GUARDIAN'Stunning... An uplifting book'SUNDAY TIMES
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe.
Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull.
News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams.
So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
Over the Red Brick Chimney, Una Leavy ( hardback picture book 2024)
£12.99
Little Goose is excited. It’s time to go, before the Big Snow. Winter is coming, and all the geese are flying to their new home in Ireland. But Little Goose gets blown down, down, down by a sudden gust. Can Finn and his mum help her find her way home?
A lovely book of images and story, for anyone who has ever seen and heard the distinctive honk and dramatic visual of geese overhead.
shortlisted for An Post Irish Book of the Year
WOMEN IN ART AND WRITING
£12.99
Two books which tell the stories of creative women, in both art and writing.
The Story of Art Without Men : How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? Have your sense of art history overturned, and your eyes opened to many art forms often overlooked or dismissed. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the story of art for our times - one with women at its heart, brought together for the first time by the creator of @thegreatwomenartists. A spirited, inspiring, brilliantly illustrated history of female artistic endeavour . . .
A LIfe of One's Own : In this intricate, intimate and dazzlingly original group biography, Joanna Biggs looks to eight revolutionary women writers who each sought freedom and intellectual fulfilment in their lifetimes and asks: why is it so important for women to read one another? Featuring George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison and others!
Brotherless Night, V.V. Ganeshananthan (paperback April 2024)
£9.99
"A heart-breaking exploration of a family fractured by civil war. This beautiful, nuanced novel follows a young doctor caught within conflicting ideologies as she tries to save lives. I couldn't put this book down" BRIT BENNETT
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 / WINNER OF THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION
Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war subsumes Sri Lanka, her dream takes her on a different path as she watches those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their best friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. She must ask herself: is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?
Ganeshananthan is a superb writer...I wept at many points in this novel and I also wept when it was over" Sunday Times
Same As It Ever Was, Claire Lombardo ( paperback July 2025)
£20.00
The author of THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD returns with a brilliantly observed family drama, in which a long marriage faces imminent derailment from events both past and present.
At fifty-seven, Julia Ames has found herself with an improbably lovely life. Despite her inclination towards self-sabotage, she has a husband she loves, two happy children and a quiet, contented existence in the suburbs. But, out of the blue, things begin to change. Her always well-behaved son is acting strangely.
Her beloved but belligerent teenage daughter is about to depart for college. And, in the local grocery store, Julia encounters a woman she hasn't seen for twenty years - a woman whose friendship was once both her lifeline and, very nearly, her downfall. All of a sudden, Julia's peaceful family setup and her long, affection-filled marriage face imminent derailment from events both past and present.
The 1619 Project ( paperback June 2024)
£12.99
The 1619 Project : A New American Origin Story
by Nikole Hannah-Jones (Author) , The New York Times Magazine (Author)
A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New American Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, Marie Claire, Electric Lit, Ms. magazine, Kirkus Reviews, BooklistIn late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa.
Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine's award-winning "1619 Project" issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative.
This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today.
The Hare Shaped Hole, John and Thomas Docherty, paperback
£7.99
Quite simply one of the loveliest books to deal with loss, not just bereavement but perhaps also if a friend moves away, or with the loss of a pet - the metaphor is very gently expressed.
Hertle and Bertle were always a pair, though one was a turtle and one was a hare. They were utterly buddies, and best friends forever, and whenever you looked, you would find them together... until quite unexpectedly... the end came. When Hertle disappears for good, Bertle can only see a Hertle-shaped hole where his friend should be.
He pleads with it, get angry with it, but the hole still won't bring his Hertle back. It seems like hope is lost... until Gerda the kindly bear finds him.
She explains that he must fill the hole with his memories of Hertle. And slowly... Bertle begins to feel a little bit better.
Powerful and moving text from children's author and poet John Dougherty is paired perfectly with warm illustrations from the wonderfully talented Thomas Docherty in a thoughtful and sensitive approach to this difficult topic. This moving picture book will be loved and treasured by children and adults alike. With kids, it can be used to start a gentle conversation about death and grief.
Frank and Bert - The One with the Missing Biscuits, Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
£7.99
The hilarious fox and bear double act from bestseller Chris Naylor-Ballesteros is back and better than ever in a third adventure in the Nottingham Children's Book Award winning series!Frank and Bert are off for a picnic in the countryside. And Bert has brought a delicious surprise! But when he falls asleep, Frank can't resist taking a peek . .
. WOW! Bert has made Frank's FAVOURITE biscuits! Surely, he won't mind if Frank eats one . .
. or two . .
. or three . .
. This big-hearted story about friendship and forgiveness is guaranteed to get children giggling.
Table For Two, Amor Towles ( paperback March 2025)
£18.99
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana.
But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles. Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.
Ghost Mountain, Rónán Hession ( paperback May 2025)
£18.00
Ghost Mountain, is a simple fable-like novel about a mountain that appears suddenly, and the way in which its manifestation ripples through the lives of characters in the surrounding community. It looks at the uncertain fragile sense of self we hold inside ourselves, and our human compulsion to project it into the uncertain world around us, whether we're ready or not. It is also about the presence of absence, and how it shadows us in our lives.
Mountains are at once unmistakably present yet never truly fathomable.
Ronan's writing is sublimely simple, yet moving - a real favourite of mine. Linda
The Bee Sting - Paul Murray ( paperback May 2024)
£9.99
The Barnes family are in trouble. Until recently they ran the biggest business in town, now they’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – and that’s just the start of their problems. Dickie and Imelda’s marriage is hanging by a thread; straight-A student Cass is careening off the rails; PJ is hopelessly in debt to the school bully. Meanwhile the ghosts of old mistakes are rising out of the past to meet them, but everyone’s too wrapped up in the present to see the danger looming .
WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023 - WINNER OF AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 - SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 - SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
As if all these accolades weren't enough, can I just add I really liked it too!
The Letter With the Golden Stamp, Onjali Rauf ( paperback April 2024)
£7.99
'I can't remember how old I was when I first started collecting stamps. But I've got a whole shoebox full of them now. Mam used to help me collect them ...Before she got so ill that she lost her job, her friends...everything. Now it's my job to take care of her and protect her - and my little brother and sister too. But to do that, I have to make Mam a Secret.
A secret no-one can ever find out about. Not even my best friends at school, or Mo, our postman. Or the stranger living in the house across the street.
Deep in the heart of Swansea, Wales, lives a small girl with some big secrets to keep. Secrets that make her one of the best actresses on the planet - because no-one would ever think that, away from school, Audrey is the sole carer for her increasingly sick mam and her two younger siblings ...
With her worlds threatened by the arrival of a mysterious, invisible neighbour, behind whose closed curtains and shut front door may lie a spy, Audrey must take matters into her own hands to save her family. Inspired by her beloved collection of stamps, her friendly neighbourhood postman (and fellow stamp collector), and her two best friends, off Audrey must go: on an adventure that will lead her to places - and hearts - she never knew existed.
Mrs Harts Marriage Bureau, Sheena Wilkinson ( paperback March 2024)
£9.99
In a world of lonely hearts, are there enough happy endings to go around? Marriage matchmaker seeks assistant; discretion essential, rose-tinted glasses optional… Matchmaker Martha Hart never got her happy ending: the Great War destroyed those dreams. Instead, her life's mission is to bring hope to other lonely hearts, though eligible bachelors are thin on the ground in 1930s Yorkshire.She hopes her new assistant, April McVey, will breathe new life into the bureau. The irrepressible Irish girl with the knack for putting her foot in it is full of modern ideas, but doesn't appear to have a romantic bone in her body. When lonely widower Fabian, and his enigmatic sister require their help, the bureau face their toughest challenge.
Are Martha and April about to discover that in the search for love, it's possible to find something else that's just as wonderful…? ‘A briskly witty delight’ Irish Times 'A charming treat of a novel, full of heart and hope' Hazel Gaynor
The BookClub Bundle ( Spring 2024)
£31.97 £30.00
Every 3 months we choose our new selection of reading for the bookclub. Even if you don't come along, many people follow along via the mailing list group, and you will receive the book review summary on this email ( and also on the blog of this website!)
If you would like to 'read along' please email us ( linda@bookspaperscissors.co.uk) and you can order this quarter's titles all together here ...
April, Soldier Sailor - Claire Kilroy
May, Ravenous - Henry Dimbleby
June, All the Little Bird Hearts - Viktoria Lloyd Barlow
Should be £31.97 but the bundle is priced at £30.
Friendaholic, Elizabeth Day ( paperback March 2024)
£10.99
As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as – if not more – important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In this fascinating, insightful and uniquely moving book, Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to find out. Friendaholic unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship from the ancient wisdom of Cicero to the modern curse of ghosting.How and why do we make friends? Is friendship an antidote to loneliness? How should we deal with a frenemy? And is it ok to end a friendship that has gone awry? Friendaholic examines what makes a ‘good’ friend and asks us what kind of friend we want to be – to each other but also to ourselves.
Nina Peanut is Amazing, Sarah Bowie ( paperback March 2024)
£8.99
Nina Peanut - super-star in the making, frozen pizza chef, creative genius, owner of the world's stinkiest cat. The funniest new friend for all kids, everywhere. Nina Peanut creates amazing videos - so why is it only her nan and best friend Brian who watch them? Surely everyone should be interested in her SERIOUS and NOT-STUPID videos about potatoes with faces? Nina dreams about being as popular as class queen bee Megan Dunne, who films NOT AMAZING AT ALL content of her pampered dog, Princess Trixie Bell.So when Nina's stinky cat Les wanders into one of Megan's videos by accident, and goes viral, Nina and Les are suddenly internet famous! But is overnight stardom as wonderful as Nina always imagined it would be? Hilariously funny, with themes of friendship/frenemies, big dreams, brilliant pets: hours and hours of reading fun guaranteed for kids. Warm, offbeat wit and gorgeous, bright full colour pictures throughout. Perfect for fans of Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries and Lottie Brooks.
Clear, Carys Davies ( paperback Feb 25)
£9.99
1843. On a remote Scottish island, Ivar, the sole occupant, leads a life of quiet isolation until the day he finds a man unconscious on the beach below the cliffs. The newcomer is John Ferguson, an impoverished church minister sent to evict Ivar and turn the island into grazing land for sheep.Unaware of the stranger's intentions, Ivar takes him into his home, and in spite of the two men having no common language, a fragile bond begins to form between them. Meanwhile on the mainland, John's wife Mary anxiously awaits news of his mission. Against the rugged backdrop of this faraway spot beyond Shetland, Carys Davies's intimate drama unfolds with tension and tenderness: a touching and crystalline study of ordinary people buffeted by history and a powerful exploration of the distances and connections between us.
Perfectly structured and surprising at every turn, Clear is a marvel of storytelling, an exquisite short novel by a master of the form.
Priya Mistry and the Paw Prints Puzzle, Babita Sharma (Hardback March 2024)
£12.99
Introducing Priya Mistry - corner shop super sleuth! She's a Mistry by name, and mysteries are her game. When some puzzling paw prints appear on the floor of her family's corner shop, Priya grabs her mission kit and kicks off an investigation. Can Priya crack the case and uncover the mysterious creature before it eats all the food in the shop?This is a fantastically fun and mischievously mysterious picture book that is perfect for little detectives!
Great for ages 3 - 6
The Wishkeeper’s Apprentice and The Magician Next Door, Rachel Chivers Khoo ( paperback Feb 2024)
£7.99
A beautifully illustrated and magical classic about the power of wishes for readers aged 7-10 "A story full of wishes and a big dollop of magic." Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear "Ideal for newly confident readers." I'm often asked to recommend books for young Harry Potter fans and this sweet, funny fantasy adventure with age-appropriate peril is perfect. If you're moving up from Isadora Moon, or enjoy Loki, this is great!
The Wishkeeper's Apprentice
When Felix makes a very special wish, he doesn't expect to be offered a job as an apprentice to wishkeeper Rupus Beewinkle. Now Felix must save the town's wishes from the wishsnatcher, who wants to destroy hopes and dreams everywhere.
The Magician Next Door
Late one night a flying house crash-lands in ten-year-old Callie's garden in Northern Ireland. It is the home of magician Winnifred and all of her magical artefacts.
Winnifred asks for Callie's help finding her lost Wanderdust – until she realizes it is Callie's sadness that is causing her malfunctioning magic. With Winnifred's most precious magical possessions at risk from malicious fairies and dangerous giants, can Callie and her friend Sam find the Wanderdust in time to save the magician?
Eyewitness to War and Peace, Eamonn Mallie ( paperback Feb 2024)
£17.99
In this gripping memoir, Eamonn Mallie takes us on an extraordinary journey through his life as a journalist in Northern Ireland. From the frontlines of the Troubles to the corridors of power, Mallie’s fearless reporting and unrelenting pursuit of the truth have made him a legendary figure in Irish journalism. Having gained unparalleled access to key players, Mallie shares his reflections on his groundbreaking interviews with John Hume, Gerry Adams, Margaret Thatcher, Ian Paisley, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and a host of other influential figures involved in the peace process. From adrenaline-fuelled moments on the ground to frank conversations with political heavyweights, Eyewitness to War and Peace is a captivating read that sheds new light on the challenges and triumphs of navigating the world of journalism in a divided society. An unflinching testament to the power of investigative reporting and the enduring pursuit of peace, this is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Northern Ireland’s troubled past and its hopeful future.
Barcelona, Mary Costello (paperback April 2025)
£9.99
In Barcelona, we meet a cast of characters who live turbulent inner lives. In a Spanish hotel room a marriage unravels as a young wife is haunted by a past love. A father travels to Paris to meet his scientist son and is exposed to his son's true nature.
A woman attends a reading by a famous author and comes to some painful realisations about her own marriage. The stories in Barcelona reveal the underlying disquiet of modern life and the sometimes brutal nature of humanity. Whether on city streets, long car journeys or in suburban rooms, we glimpse characters as they approach those moments of desperation - or revelation - that change or reshape fate.
Giles Andreae: Giraffes Can’t Dance / Every Little Hippo Can
£7.99
From the creators of the internationally bestselling Giraffes Can't Dance comes an empowering story about a little hippo who discovers that success often requires a little patience, and simply TRYING can bring its own unexpected rewards . . ."It's not that you CAN'T DO IT . . You just can't do it YET."Horace the hippo and his sister Hope love going to the lake every day with their granny. But the long walk has become a little too long for Granny. So Horace and Hope make a plan to bring the lake to her instead.
But little Horace can't carry as much water as his sister, and he always comes back with an empty bucket. Can Granny help him to see that, with every little splash and spill, an even more wonderful gift is growing?An empowering new picture book about growth mindset and the 'power of yet' from the creators of the bestselling Giraffes Can't Dance. Giraffes Can't Dance is a beloved favourite that has found its way into the hearts, and on to the bookshelves, of a whole generation of children.
Wilderness, Steve McCarthy ( paperback Sept 2023)
£7.99
his is a real adventure book, so be careful not to get too lost between its pages... The Vasylenko family are adventurers. They all love the wet and the wild, the thrill of exploring the outside world.All that is ... except Oktober. He prefers the warm and safe comfort of the inside world, and for his adventures to take place between the pages of a book.
But tomorrow, Oktober has to join his family on a trek into the slimy, grimy and climby wild, where he sees only danger and worry and fears a creature called "The Wilderness"! Failing to keep his wits about him could be dangerous though – it may even get him a bit ... lost. But perhaps getting lost is just what Oktober needs to find himself and maybe even make an unexpected friend.
The Wilderness is a wild and wondrous story of true bravery and discovering friendship in the most unexpected of places, perfect for adventurers and the more timid alike.
The Language of Trees, Katie Holten (paperback from Sept 2024)
£16.99
The Language of Trees : How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives
by Katie Holten
One of the most inspired items of environmental literature in recent years.' Irish Independent
If trees have memories, respond to stress, and communicate, what can they tell us? And will we listen?A stunning international collaboration that reveals how trees make our world, change our minds and rewild our lives – from root to branch to seed. In this beautifully illustrated collection, artist Katie Holten gifts readers her visual Tree Alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate pieces from some of the world’s most exciting writers and artists, activists and ecologists. Holten guides us on a journey from prehistoric cave paintings and creation myths to the death of a 3,500 year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry.
In doing so, she unearths a new way of seeing the natural beauty that surrounds us and creates an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away. Printed in deep green ink, The Language of Trees is a celebratory homage filled with prose, poetry and art from over fifty collaborators, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Elizabeth Kolbert, Amitav Ghosh, Richard Powers, Suzanne Simard, Gaia Vince, Tacita Dean, Plato and Robin Wall Kimmerer.
The Year of Miracles : Recipes About Love + Grief + Growing Things by Ella Risbridger
£22.00
This cookbook is about a year in the kitchen. A year of grief and hope and change; of fancy fish pie, cardamom-cinnamon chicken rice, chimichurri courgettes, quadruple carb soup, blackberry miso birthday cake, and sticky toffee Guinness brownie pudding.
A year of loss, and every kind of romance, and fried jam sandwiches. A year of seedlings and pancakes. A year of falling in love.
A year of recipes. A year, in other words, of minor miracles. The Year of Miracles by bestselling author Ella Risbridger is more than just a cookbook; like her award-winning Midnight Chicken, every page is a transporting blend of recipes and life story.
This is about what happens when you've lived through the worst thing you could have imagined - and how you can still cook, and eat, and love.
Ella Risbridger has such a sincere and distinctive voice.
One Small Voice, Santanu Bhattacharya ( paperback Feb 2024)
£9.99
India, 1992. The country is ablaze with riots.
In Lucknow, ten-year-old Shubhankar witnesses a terrible act of mob violence that will alter the course of his life: one to which his family turn a blind eye. As he approaches adulthood, Shabby focuses on the only path he believes will buy him an escape - good school, good degree, good job, good car. But when he arrives in Mumbai in his twenties, he begins to question whether there might be other roads he could choose.
His new friends, Syed and Shruti, are asking the same questions : together, buoyed by the freedom of the big city, they are rewriting their stories. But as the rising tide of nationalism sweeps across the country, and their friendship becomes the rock they all cling to, this new life suddenly seems fragile. And before Shabby can chart his way forward, he must reckon with the ghosts of his past .
'A joy to read, a full universe of feeling, an effortless page-turner by a born storyteller' Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers.
Gigantic, Rob Biddulph ( picture book Feb 2024)
£7.99
A powerful and standout sea-life story featuring one very small and determined blue whale from bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Rob Biddulph Meet Gigantic, the smallest blue whale in the Atlantic. Dwarfed by the other whales, Gigantic keeps to himself, making new friends and perfecting his somersaults and flips in the bay. But one day when Gigantic’s brother, Titan, gets stuck on the sand, it’s down to Gigantic and his smallest sea creature friends to save the day.
Can they show it’s possible to be tiny and tough? A swimmingly good story about little fins and big hearts from bestselling author and illustrator, Rob Biddulph.
One of my favourite picture book creators, this is fun, and has lots of lovely values of bravery, plus appreciating and looking out for your brother! Linda
