Book Bodega recommends... #2
Plenty of good reads this week!
Wondering which literary delight to escape with this month? There are some real treats out right now and they’re all available at Book Bodega. Starting a new read this week means not only will you be engaging in a relaxing, no-screen hobby — you’ll be helping support an independent business too.
There’s something for everyone, from un-put-down-able debuts to utterly engaging non-fiction. Come see us in store at 7 Harbour St in Ramsgate where there’s a cuppa with your name on it, or shop online with one easy click.
Many of you ask us whether it is better for us if you buy in-store or buy online and the answer: whichever you prefer! To keep it really upfront with you as I always do we make a 40% profit in-store and 30% from bookshop.org if you select us your bookshop of choice. We are more than happy to give away that 10% because we don’t have to deal with the buying, packaging, dropping off and shipping (which would probably cost about that much anyway!) so you can shop online guilt free and be helping us to keep our little bookshop alive.
Enjoy some you time in the calming nirvana that is book world…
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Masterful storyteller Claire Keegan takes us back to her native Ireland in the Booker shortlisted, international bestselling Small Things Like These.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas 1985, we are inexorably drawn into the life of County Wexford man Bill Furlong. As the coal merchant and father to five daughters deposits his usual morning delivery, he makes a shocking discovery which forces him to confront both his past and future — ultimately deciding whether he will stand up against a power with a gripping hold over the community. Though the town of New Ross that the Furlong family resides in is fictional, the subject matter is derived from real life events. This story is short, but packs an emotional punch — the empathy and hope stitched within this novella will stay with you long after reading. We can’t recommend Keegan’s skilful writing highly enough.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Open Water has been praised with more awards and nominations than we can list here, including winning the coveted Costa First Novel Award.
When two young Black British artists — a photographer and a dancer meet in a South East London pub, both are trying to make a mark in an unforgiving city that both celebrates and rejects them. Now available in paperback, this beautifully tender yet heart-wrenching novel is one we’d recommend everybody read. Azumah Nelson makes us privy to these two characters soulful and complex love story, while in the same breath sharing much about what it means to be a Black person living in the UK today. Within his sharp prose, the author explores how love and race are interlinked in modern society, as we watch two people that seem to be perfect for one another torn apart by fear and violence. Expressive and elegantly penned, the use of a second-person POV makes us feel emotionally close and wholeheartedly invested in the protagonist’s world.
The Year OF The Cat: A Love Story by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
You may already enjoy Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s writing in The Guardian, but if you’re yet to discover her wonderful prose there, you’ll enjoy her honesty and warmth on a vast number of subjects. In The Year Of The Cat she tells the story of how — in the backdrop of lockdown — a kitten called Mackerel helped her to stop worrying and start living.
Many will recognise the fraught and uncertain period of the pandemic depicted beautifully by Cosslett, who — despite having previously fallen in love and married her flatmate, was sharing a home with a succession of friends and strangers, while saving for a life less makeshift.
When, as many women before her, she begin to ponder the baby question — Cosslett worried about her struggles with anxiety, experienced since an attack in the street one night. Add to that a childhood spent caring for her autistic brother, she was unsure if she could devote herself to Motherhood. What ensues is an uplifting and encouraging journey, with frankness about life – both its cruelties and its credits. Whether you’re debating Motherhood or not, there are lessons we can learn here about facing our fears, and the love we all have to offer. Be that for a four legged friend, or otherwise.
We love…
Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (author), Geoffrey Trousselot (translator)
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
The Things That We Lost by Patel Jyoti
Saph’s January Pick: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Ahhhh this gorgeous, gorgeous novel. I have had this on my shelf for a really long time, the book came out in 2017 and it’s taken me five whole years to finally pick it up and omg, I don’t know why I didn’t read it sooner.
The only thing I knew about it in advance: it was about four friends, set in New York, it’s a bloody beast at 736 pages, and it’s very, very sad. Now, I’m a bit of a “don’t cry at anything” person and was pretty sure people were just being overdramatic when they said how upsetting this book is and for the first 300 pages or so I felt I was write.
For me, the first half of the book was quite slow and at times - a little bit boring 😳 but it just got better and better and yeah. It got really f*cking sad and by the end I was wishing for more pages as I just didn't want to let the characters go.
The story revolves around Jude, a terrifyingly litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome – but that will define his life forever.
Jude’s life has been rough and I mean really rough. He’s been through unspeakable horrors and is desperately trying to just live. All Jude really craves is to be loved and to be able to live a normal life, free from the memories of his past trauma. I could not help but fall in love with Jude and desperately be wanting for his life to work out and for him to come to believe that he is loved, and he is not flawed due to the abuse he faced.
Some people have said they couldn’t finish it as it was just too much. I think, because I work with looked after children (children in care homes), many of whom have experienced abuse, trauma and neglect, I am more numb to reading about trauma and addiction. It’s a book I’m glad was written, trauma is very confusing to many people whom haven’t experienced it and this book really shines a light on the horrible way in which trauma seeps into every part of your life and how your early childhood experiences really shape what you grow up to believe about yourself and the world.
I personally think the book could have been a lot shorter, even though I rate it as 5* and would happily read it again and again. I do think a good edit could have been done and we could have lost at least 200 pages. I didn’t think we needed JB’s chapters I think this could have been alluded to through Jude, Willem and Harold’s pages and of had the same effect.
However, overall, a magnificent and beautiful book that makes you want to hold the people you love close and not let go for a while, just to remember how they smell and ensure they know how much you love them and what they mean to you… READ IT, YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!!
Look out for: Lady Joker, Volume 2
This second half of Lady Joker brings Kaoru Takamura's breathtaking masterpiece to a gripping conclusion. Five men who meet at a Tokyo racetrack every week carry out a heist. They have kidnapped the CEO of Japan's largest beer company to extract blood money from the company's corrupt financiers.
Known as Lady Joker, the men make their first attack on the beer company when their demands are not met. As the attacks escalate, the shady networks linking corporations to syndicates are exposed, the stakes rise, and bring into riveting focus the lives and motivations of the victims, the perpetrators, the heroes and the villains. Some will lose everything, even their lives.
Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case that terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines this watershed episode in modern Japanese history.
See you next time xxx