Who better to ask for a reading recommendation than the people who know what’s new and good: booksellers. We asked some of our favourite independent bookshop owners to pick their books of autumn.
This weekend is the perfect time to show your local bookshop some love as it’s Bookshop Day on Saturday 12 October, when they’ll be author events, book signings and story-time for the little ones across the country. This year’s theme is “Bookshops Making a Difference”, highlighting the positive contribution bookshops make to their local communities all year round. Find out what’s happening at your local bookshop using the Books Are My Bag bookshop search.
The Museum Of Lost And Fragile Things by Suzanne Joinson – picked by Ruth Wallbank, Drop City Books
“The Museum Of Lost And Fragile Things tells the true story of Suzanne Joinson’s childhood. She grew up on a council estate in Crewe, where her parents joined a cult: The Divine Light Mission. She grew up in two worlds at once, part grey terraced streets, part psychedelic trips and intense meditation practices. It’s a complicated story told expertly with glassy clarity.
Instead of a cult being something that happens to distant caricatures in dusty California deserts with children reduced to anonymous dirty-faced toddlers of uncertain parentage, she shows us the humanity, vulnerability and desperation that takes normal people on a hungry search for something to believe in. She shows us what it’s like to be a kid raised by people who are too busy searching to ever truly see you.”
Drop City Books is an inclusive community bookshop based in Stoke-On-Trent (you can also buy books from the shop through bookshop.org)
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney – picked by Chrissie Ryan, BookBar
“The cult author of Normal People returns at the height of her talents with a superb novel about brotherhood, grief, chess and, of course, sex and love. It’s the novel of the season and might even be Rooney’s best novel yet…”
BookBar, which opened in 2021, is a wine bar and bookshop in North London
Wellness by Nathan Hill – picked by Emma Naomi Smith, Mr B’s Emporium
“Jack and Elizabeth meet as students in 1990s Chicago and fall instantly in love. Twenty years later, they’re married with a son and securing their ‘forever home’, complete with separate bedrooms. Dealing with the pressures and failures of parenting and unfulfilled ambitions, they wonder if there’s anything left worth saving.
Wellness is a reading experience I’ll never forget. It’s about the stories we tell ourselves of who we are, the demand we place on ourselves to be perfect and the constant need for certainty in a world where there is none. Perfect for fans of Jonathan Franzen and John Irving.”
Mr B’s Emporium is a fun and friendly bookshop in the heart of Bath city centre
Held by Anne Michaels – picked by Cathy Hayward, Kemptown Bookshop
“Canadian poet and novelist Anne Michaels’ latest book Held is breathtaking, sad, sublime and haunting. It starts in 1917 with John, who lies injured on a French battlefield and is lost to memory. A huge fan of Great War literature, this section is one of the best I’ve ever read of being injured in no-man’s-land.
Each chapter figment follows interconnected stories of characters dealing with loss, grief and love from the Great War to the present day. They’re written in such beautifully poetic and luminous prose, I had to stop to underline sentences. Anne Michaels’ Held is deservedly shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.”
Kemptown Bookshop is the oldest independent bookseller in Brighton and has been run by author Cathy Hayward since 2022
A Voyage Around The Queen by Craig Brown – picked by Mary and John James, The Aldeburgh Bookshop
“Brown writes for Private Eye and he’s one of the cleverest and funniest writers around. His book on Princess Margaret (Ma’am Darling) and One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles In Time pioneered a new sort of kaleidoscopic biography made up of essays, diaries, anecdotes, biographical notes, cultural and social history and dreams, all written in Brown’s inimitable satiric style. His new book on Queen Elizabeth II takes a similar approach and is a fascinating account of a woman who is the most famous person in the world, but about whom so little is known personally. The hilarious chapter on the corgis is worth the price of the book alone.”
The Adeburgh Bookshop in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, has been selling books for more than 70 years from its seafront setting
Playground by Richard Powers – picked by Molly, The Portobello Bookshop
“A wide-ranging novel set on a small island in the Pacific Ocean, Playground follows the local community in the days before a historic vote on whether or not to allow tech investors to use the island for their next project. Powers interweaves serious themes of technology, climate change, AI and the unexplored ocean in a novel that nevertheless draws you into the heart of its characters. It’s an important and meaningful read, perfect to take your time with as the nights are drawing in.”
The Portobello Bookshop is based in what was formerly a fishing tackle shop in Edinburgh
