The Feminist Bookshop

48 Upper N St, Brighton

A small and beautiful bookshop close to the centre of Brighton. I liked the size and the interior reminded me of a living room with a huge wall of books.

The selection of books was in line with the name of the bookshop. Not necessarily my cup of tea.

Mikaela Loach: It's not that radical 

I found it very difficult to read this book on climate justice to the end.

It certainly has points with which I agree with the author (e.g. misery due to colonialism), but there is too much picking on one population group.

I was aware relatively quickly that the author is religious, as this book seemed to me to be too focused on the needs of humans. I found it lacking in solutions. For example, she writes about abolishing prisons without showing how one should deal with murderers or paedophiles. A reference to another book is simply not enough for me. Or then she writes of "cancel culture", but never of "cancel religion", which, who knows, could solve part of the overpopulation or lack of education....

It's a pity, because it would do the world good if more people would stand up for the environment. In my opinion, this book achieves the opposite, because the aggressive language is annoying. Some people simply put it into practice and inspire other people with it.

Bookshop: 

**

Book: 

*

Waterstones

71-74 North St, Brighton

Waterstones reminds me of Orell Füssli in Switzerland. Waterstones Brighton is a bookshop with a great selection, a wonderful café on the top floor, ideal for passing the time on a rainy day before a Midge Ure concert.

Patricia Highsmith: The Sweet Sickness

On the shelf "Books we wish we could read again for the first time" I found the novel by Patricia Highsmith. 

Simply great! Hitchcock used books like this for his legendary films. As a reader, you are in the middle of the action from the very first sentence. Suspense till the end of the story. Several times while reading, I wished that the characters in the novel had the knowledge that I, as the reader, had about the protagonist David Kelsey. He is obsessed with a married woman and is preparing a life for them together as a couple. Everything seems to work out, now Annabelle just has to play along...

Bookshop: 

*****

Book: 

*****

Bookbag

7-10 McCoy Arcard, Exeter

The McCoy Arcade in beautiful Exeter is home to a small and wonderful bookshop. 

The arcade has a cosy feel, but is also kept in an industrial style. And the interior of the bookshop fits in perfectly with this.

There is a lot of coming and going and the customers seem to enjoy being inspired by the bookseller.

Highly recommended and very likeable!

Clare Pollard: Delphi

The first-person narrator wants to write a book about prophecies in the ancient world. Each chapter begins with a new type of prophecy, which then merges into the family's everyday life.

The first-person narrator lives with her boyfriend Jason and her 10-year-old son Xander. The Covid-19 lockdown forces the three of them to move closer together. This proves to be very difficult, the relationship is anything but harmonious, and the boy seems increasingly out of reach, until they almost lose him...

It is appealing to me when the title is Delphi and I can safely expect the Sybil to be mentioned in this context. And indeed she does, several times. Unfortunately, the novel Delphi mostly seems like an internet research text to me. Only on the last few pages did the story-telling work for me. A typical novel that only women write.

Bookshop: 

****

Book: 

** 

Waterstones

252 High Street, Exeter

I am delighted every time I visit one of the Waterstones branches in an English town.

On the one hand, there is a wonderful variety of books, a good café and very friendly staff. On the other hand the Waterstones bookshops always have great recommendations.

The branch in Exeter is in the centre of the shopping street and was very busy just before Christmas. You could hardly stand still for a moment in front of one of the shelves and take a closer look at the selection.

Italo Calvino: If on a Winter's Night A Traveller

A reader goes into a bookshop and buys the book "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller". He reads it, likes it and suddenly realises that there are mistakes in the book. He brings it back and gets a new copy, but this new copy contains a completely different story.

I was so looking forward to reading it. The plot sounded absolutely exciting, but unfortunately the good idea didn't materialise. I found the execution poor, if not boring. Maybe it's just my modest intellect and I didn't understand it.

Bookshop: 

****

Book: 

**

The Works

191 High Street, Exeter

The Works is a shop that shouldn't be judged by its interior. It's just good that there are shops like this, because you can get the latest books or stationery etc. for very little money. Reading should be accessible for every budget.

First I browsed upstairs and bought cubes for a pound, then I went looking for recommendations. Nothing. When a customer asked for a book, they were always told "we don't have it".

On the ground floor, however, I found stacks of books with "Toptitles", so I decided in favour of one of these books. Well, I didn't ask for recommendations. Otherwise, it would certainly have been "we don't have it".

Jeremy Clarkson: Diddly Squat - Pigs might fly

As you might know, I'm not a fan of cars. Maybe that's why I didn't always quite understand the humour in this book. 

Nevertheless, one or two of the comments made me smile.

For me, "Diddly Squat - Pigs might fly" was better suited for a newspaper column. As a book, it doesn't work for me.

In my opinion, it's too much about opinion, there's a lack of storytelling.

Of course, I understand the farmers' frustration, but it's too easy to point the finger at the politicians. What about the consumers? We decide whether we consume regionally and are prepared to spend more on food. In any case, you can always find me at the weekly market going home with a full basket. And it's not the cheap, bought-in produce, but regional and, above all, seasonal fruit and vegetables.

Bookshop: 

**

Book: 

**

Beerwolf Books

3 Bells Court, Falmouth

The name Beerwolf hints at this: The bookshop is located in a bar and is housed in a corner of the first floor. It's a nice idea, but unfortunately I couldn't quite make heads or tails of the product range. Is it aimed at artists or wannabe intellectuals?

The atmosphere is definitely more bar-like and unfortunately also quite dark. The entrance raises expectations too high.

Kjersti A. Skomsvold: The Child

The book is told from the point of view of the mother to her newborn. She recounts her difficult past.

A typical women's novel. I read this book as if I were suffering from depression. It was tedious and neither touched nor reached me.

The atmosphere of this book, on the other hand, matches the heavy dark colours of the book corner of Beerwolf Books.

I also felt there was a lack of suspense.

Bookshop: 

**

Book: 

** 

Falmouth Bookseller

21 Church Street, Falmouth

During my Cornwall vacation, I visited a total of three of these Bookseller bookshops. I found the one in Falmouth to be the least exciting.

I found the bookshop to be very cramped and crowded. And yet it was charming in its own way.

The staff were in an incredibly chatty mood. The bookseller was also very happy about my choice of book. However, it was also their only staff pick.

Becky Manawatu: Auē

With his father dead and his mother hidden away, the little boy Arama comes to live with his aunty Kat and his aggressive uncle Stu. Even his older brother Taukiri leaves him.

Arama forms a friendship with the cheeky Beth. But his longing for his big brother never fades. Will they be reunited one day?

A lot happens in between and yet somehow nothing happens that really touched me.

The novel would have appealed to me more if the whole story had been told only been from Arama's perspective.

Aué is an expression of astonishment or distress. Sometimes I would have liked to shout Auē while reading!

Bookshop: 

***

Book: 

**

WS Smith

North Terminal, Gatwick Airport

A typical shop in an airport waiting area. However, the time in it flies by as you wait for your flight home.

Nothing special of course, but grateful that it exists.

Alex Michaelides: THE SILENT PATIENT 

For this, the staff pick was exceptional.

Alicia is admitted to a psychiatric hospital because she is alleged to have killed her husband. But she does not speak. She is completely silent. Only one man seems to be able to break this silence and this man is not by chance her doctor.

THE SILENT PATIENT is, in my opinion, an absolutely brilliant story, thought out to the last detail. One of the best thrillers I have ever read.

I quickly made a judgement, but felt throughout the book that I was completely wrong. But I didn't want to admit it.

It couldn't be that...

Bookshop: 

***

Book: 

*****

The Bookshop by WS Smith

Terminal 2, Heathrow Airport

A small airport bookshop with a surprisingly large selection for the small space. 

In addition to business books, it has lots of recommendations. This is a real pleasure, as you have more choice and can also pick a book that is otherwise less recommended.

Unfortunately, I can't say whether the staff are friendly. I wasn't greeted and I checked out myself at the till.

Christopher Berry-Dee: Talking with Psychopaths

I've already watched a few true crime programs, but I usually do something else alongside them. Fortunately. It's completely different to read about the same cases in a book that I've only glimpsed on TV.

Shocking! Gruelling! Perverse! We can be grateful to the detectives and psychiatrists who put these monsters away. But the book also shows how easy it is made for such perpetrators in some cases.

What I like about this book is the respect that Christpher Berry-Dee shows the bereaved families of the victims.

I would not have mentioned Oskar Pistoirus' case in this book. It doesn't quite fit in for me.

I slept badly while I was reading this book. It will haunt me for a long time to come.

Bookshop: 

***

Book: 

****

WH Smith

27 Bank Street, Newquay 

Newquay is a great starting point if you are a tourist who relies on public transport. And so I spent a few days there.

But Newquay is a real disaster when it comes to shopping. It all seems so cheap and looks like a shopping mall like you would expect from the Ballermann in Mallorca.

And so I only found one WH Smith, which is more of a newsagents than a bookshop. The shop is awful and looks like a small warehouse. 

But I give it an extra point because it's just good that it exists.

Jennifer Finney Boylan / Jodi Picoult: Mad Honey

I already suspected when I bought the book that I wouldn't like it.

I quickly identified the perpetrator and so the book was no longer particularly exciting for me. 

It seemed to me that the two authors really wanted to address current topics such as transgender so that they could profit of the hype.

I found the recipes at the end of the book quite odd, referring to the entries in the suspect's mother's moleskin book during the trial.

It somehow seems artificial to me.

Bookshop: 

**

Book: 

*

The Padstow Bookseller

1 Broad Street, Padstow 

In the beautiful coastal town of Padstow in Cornwall you will find one of these Bookseller bookshops, which can be found in several places in Cornwall.

The bookshop in Padstow is housed in a marvellous house covered in greenery.

Impossible to walk by.

However, I liked the one in Padstow a little less than the other-ones I had visited. But after buying a staff pick, I was rewarded with a group of dolphins not very far from the harbour. That's why I will remember this day forever.

Nikki Erlick: The Measure

What happens if everyone over the age of 22 suddenly finds a box on their doorstep containing a stick that shows the length of their life? Do we look inside? If so, how do we react to our own fate and that of others?

Humans tend to act in a calculating way and so many short-stringers are discriminated against. They lose their jobs, don't get the same medical help, and so forth...

On the one hand, there is the lesbian couple Nina and Maura: Nina is shown a long life, Maura a shorter one. But their love doesn't stop them from getting married anyway.

Nina's sister Amie begins a pen-pal relationship with a short-stringer who leaves a letter at the school where she teaches. They later meet by chance and fall in love. I found this fate the most moving of all. Also the sad ending.

Then there's Jack and Javier. Jack is the nephew of the aspiring President of the United States. Jack is predicted a long life, his best friend a short one. Jack and Javier secretly swap boxes so that Javier can pursue a military career. Javier becomes a lifesaver.

The individual fates show that it's not about the length, but the depth of life.

All in all, I liked the book, although I found some passages a little too American and the song "Que sera sera" at the end a little cheesy.

Bookshop: 

***

Book: 

***

WH Smith

31 - 33 Broad Street, Seaford 

The bookshop is in the small seaside town of Seaford not far from the wonderful Seven Sisters, where I once collected and returned three stones.

It is a typical "useful goods shop", as you so often find in such small places. It's actually more of a stationery shop with books. The goods are not nicely presented, but it's good that it exists.

Colleen Hoover: It ends with us

It wasn't a staff pick, as there simply weren't any in the store. This book was laid out in multiple versions at the checkout and it was literally screaming for it: Take me with you!

So I did.

However, I soon realized why no one seems to be buying it.

I found it very difficult to finish reading it. The story is about a woman, Lily, whose mother experienced domestic violence. In Lily's childhood home, she experienced her first love: A student who lived secretly in her garden shed.

As an adult, she meets and falls in love with the neurosurgeon Ryle. When Ryle also becomes violent, Lily's past catches up with her.

Even if the writer has experienced violence in her own family, I don't buy the first-person narrator.

The male characters are almost prototypical as you see them in American films: from extremely poor to very successful. If I had to describe the novel in three words: Cinderella in American.

Bookshop: 

*

Book: 

**

Winstones

10 High Street, Sidmouth 

Winstones bookshop is located in beautiful Sidmouth on the Devon coast. It's a perfect fit for this small seaside town, which I visited because of the Donkey Sanctuary, where I visited my adoption donkey Timothy.

The bookshop has a wonderful range of books and I felt a bit Christmassy for the first time one day before Christmas Eve. 

Very friendly bookseller with a good feel for the range.

She was delighted with my choice of book and said that although the reviews hadn't been particularly good, she found it very entertaining.

Gail Honeyman: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant leads a very simple, but also lonely life. An office job as an accountant, no friends and a difficult relationship with her work colleagues.

When she has an IT problem, she meets Raymond, the IT specialist. The two meet again on the street and help a stranger who is lying on the street.

From then on, the story takes its course.

But Eleanor has something very anti-social in her nature and has difficulty with the simplest social conventions.

Her mother... A difficult relationship that goes far back into Eleanor's childhood. She talks to her every Wednesday. What burden is she carrying that she can't talk about?

Despite the tragedy, I found the book very amusing at first, especially Eleanor's observations and comparisons of people with the animal world or the tunnels in someone's ears that remind her of a shower curtain. 

Eleanor almost lost me when she became increasingly unsympathetic and her actions became incomprehensible to me.

But towards the end, as the story revealed more and more of Eleanor's past, I began to like the novel again. The ending even has a surprise in store, which is something I generally like about stories. 

Bookshop: 

****

Book: 

**** 

St Ives Bookseller

2 Fore Street, St. Ives 

A beautiful and independent bookshop near the West Pier in the picturesque harbour town of St. Ives in Cornwall. 

The bookseller, an elderly lady, fits perfectly into the small and charming shop.

The large selection of staff picks is marvellous. Books with a reading tip sign can be found on various shelves. This made it all the more difficult to decide. A book from the region was the winner. 

Emma Stonex: The Lamplighters

What happened at the lighthouse in Cornwall in 1972? Three men on duty disappear, the door is locked from the inside, but the table has only been set for two. The clocks stood still. The time was no coincidence.

Emma Stonex switches very skilfully in her novel from the events at the lighthouse to their wives. And you soon realise that appearances are deceptive. More and more is unravelled.

A book that can be perfectly imagined as a film. Very well told.

Bookshop: 

****

Book: 

****

Waterstones

11 Boscawen Street, Truro 

No matter which town or city you go to in England, you will find one of these wonderful Waterstones branches. They are all very similar and yet each has its own charm.

The one in Truro with the café on the top floor is simply a must. I could have stayed there for hours.

Great selection, cosy and sensationally friendly.

Perhaps it was also due to the wonderful little town of Truro itself, which I have grown very fond of.

Helen Rebanks: The Farmer's Wife

I don't know exactly what to make of this book. At first I thought it was a nice story about life on a farm, but not particularly gripping.

I found the many recipes in the middle of the stories very distracting. They could have been listed chronologically or in categories at the end of the book.

What I liked were the episodes she described in detail, such as how exhausting it can be to juggle everything as a mother and farmer's wife.

However, in the last third of the book, there are more and more opinions instead of storytelling.

The narrative also has a lot of incomprehensible jumps and gaps.

Bookshop: 

*****

Book: 

**