| .../2019/01/homepage_read_logo_white@2x.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| .../2019/02/about_main_image_1920x300px.jpg | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...nt/uploads/2019/01/aboutus_star_3@2x.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...t/uploads/2019/01/homepage_star_2@2x.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...t/uploads/2021/12/shop-our-books-new.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...content/uploads/2019/01/events_block.jpg | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...uploads/2019/01/homepage_scroll_2@2x.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...ontent/uploads/2025/04/schools-block.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| /wp-content/uploads/2019/01/shop_block.jpg | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...ns/us-core/assets/images/placeholder.svg | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...ns/us-core/assets/images/placeholder.svg | No alt attribute provided | |
| .../uploads/2019/01/read_footer_logo@2x.png | No alt attribute provided | |
| /wp-content/uploads/2022/07/read-insta.jpg | No alt attribute provided | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | Our final staff selection for #indiebookshopweek is Penny’s choice: Confessions by Catherine Airey.
Cora is 16 and living in New York in September 2001. Her father works in the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. The book follows her story and how it mirrors that of her parents, with some of the book set in Ireland and some in New York. A fascinating, thought-provoking and all-round great book.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
That draws our staff choices to a close! Hope you’ve loved them 💛 | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | ⭐️⭐️ Event ⭐️⭐️
We’re very excited to be welcoming Andrew Martin; railway historian and novelist to the shop for the evening on Saturday 26th July at 7pm.
As Edwardian summers approached, seaside service posters of the London & North Eastern Railway would lure passengers ‘to the sea by train’ with the promise of fun, frivolous rides and parties on the pier.
For decades, Blackpool Central – once the busiest station in the world – would draw millions of visitors along its platforms and out towards the beach. But in the late twentieth century, the advent of cheap international travel saw the promise of our shores fade. Blackpool’s arcades couldn’t complete with the novelty of the Continent.
With his signature warmth, wit and style, celebrated railways historian Andrew Martin invites us into the heyday of holidaymaking by rail, charting its glee-filled rise and gradual decline, and exploring recent signs of revival in Britain’s seaside towns.
Andrew’s previous titles include Yorkshire: There and Back, Steam Trains Today, and Underground, Overground.
Tickets are £5, redeemable against a copy of To The Sea By Train on the evening.
Tickets are available in the shop or on our website here: https://to-be-read.co.uk/books/to-the-sea-by-train/ | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | Next on the #indiebookshopweek favourites of the year so far is Bothy by Kat Hill which is Clare’s choice.
Bothy is the kind of book that makes you want to go on small adventures with friends or curl up somewhere warm and cosy and listen to the rain. Kat’s writing beautifully brings to life this network of mountain huts, the landscapes they are in, and the people that use (and have used) them across years.
The book explores the importance of bothies to the land and to the health of those who use them, and also the risk of over-use and abuse of these amazing spaces.
Clare loved this! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | Louise’s choice for best book of the year so far was her first book of the year - Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell. Nothing else has quite matched up!
Ciara has tried to leave Ryan before but he always tells her that it will be different this time. After lying awake in fear for the safety of her two children, something has to change. When Ryan comes home from work in a dark mood again Ciara makes a split-second decision to run. She grabs her girls and whatever she can carry and drives away. The strength she needs to move forward is far beyond what she could ever have imagined and with a housing system acting against her she is going to have the fight of her life.
You will read this book through your fingers, with your heart racing. It is a brilliantly written and well-researched debut novel 🩷 | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | Next up on the #indiebookshopweek favourites for the year is A Family Matter by Claire Lynch. Chosen by Eleanor but Louise also loves this one!
Heron has brought his daughter Maggie up on his own since she was a toddler. Now an adult with her own family, Maggie has never thought to question why her mother left. This changes when Heron is given a terminal diagnosis, and their loving, easy and comfortable family life is threatened. Eleanor loved the characters, their relationships and the portrayal of the early 1980s when Maggie was an infant. Definitely a book that will stay with you!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | Have you seen these gorgeous new bookmarks by @laura.joy.design?
Now in stock in the shop at £4 with a choice of two tassle colours 💛 | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | Jim’s favourite so far this year is All Fours by Miranda July. #indiebookshopweek
We should start by saying this book isn’t to everyone’s tastes but if you want a funny, eye-opening, fearlessly honest story of a woman’s spectacular mid-life crisis and reinvention then All Fours is essential reading. One of those books that gets you thinking about big, awkward questions: how did you end up where you are? Is this where you want to be? And if not, what’s stopping you from change?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | As part of #indiebookshopweek we’re sharing our staff favourites for the year so far. James’ choice is Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor.
The breathtaking new novel from Joseph O’Connor returns to the Vatican of occupied Rome in 1944 where we find a crew of allied resistance fighters battling gestapo officer, Hauptmann, as he tries to break their prisoner escape ring. Tense, action-packed and brilliantly written, this is the best book James has read so far this year. Absolutely fantastic!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | |
| ...ugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png | As part of #indiebookshopweek we’re sharing our favourites so far this year.
Ruth’s favourite is Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood.
Stone Yard Devotional is the story of an unnamed narrator who, disillusioned with her life in Sydney, goes to live in a rural convent. An incident from the past stirs up old emotions and grievances and we see the full mindscape of human emotions played out in beautiful spare language. Ruth absolutely loved this book and the characters. An absolute must-read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | |
Meta Title
(Nice to have)