Our Team’s Selection of Favourite Reads

Booktime Recommendations

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Our Top Bestsellers 2025

1. Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
2. Pachinko by Min Jim Lee
3. Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart
4. Orbital by Samantha Harvey
5. Hope by Pope Francis
6. Church Stretton Through the Ages
7. Ludlow Trouser Capital of the World
8. Conclave by Robert Harris
9. Nature Trail by Benjamin Zephaniah,
10. Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
11. Every Day is a Fresh Beginning
12. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
13. The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths
14. The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen
15. The Offing by Benjamin Myers
16. Magnetic Field by Simon Armitage
17. The Greywacke by Nick Davidson
18. Slow Horses by Mick Herron
19. Antarctica by Claire Keegan
20. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
21. Days Like These by Brian Bilston
22. Death At the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
23. Coffee First, Then the World by Jenny Graham
24. 20 More Walks around Shrewsbury
25. Poems of Happiness ed by Gaby Morgan

Our Book of the Month

Death At the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson

Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of midlife malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting.
But one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family.
Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated a fiendishly clever mystery; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre-from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

Kate Atkinson at her finest.

Now in paperback

 

Ceri Smith

I would recommend Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Every home needs a little magic . . .

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.
She and her assistant, Caz, a sentient spider plant, have spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite. But a revolution is brewing and when the library goes up in flames, Kiela and Caz steal whatever books they can and flee to the faraway island where she grew up. But to her dismay, in addition to a nosy – and very handsome – neighbour, she finds the town in disarray.
The empire has slowly been draining power from the island, and now Kiela is determined to make things right. But opening up her own spellshop comes with its own risks – the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela starts to make a place for herself among the townspeople, she realizes she must break down the walls she has kept so high . . .

Lucy Greening

Bookseller Lucy loves a good historical novel, here are her recommends:-

C J Sansom’s The Shardlake novels especially Dark Fire and Revelation

Lucy also likes crime novels too. Her favourites are Elly Griffith’s Dr Ruth Galloway series

Alun Ephraim (studying for a PhD at Bangor University) and Bookseller

Currently I’m recovering from a liver transplant and will be back soon in the bookshop and also reading for my PhD

Alun recommends – Tokyo Redux by David Peace, The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman (translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler), Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (translated by Lisa C Hayden), and A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul all of V.S. Naipaul’s works are worth reading.

Ros Ephraim – Bookseller and manager  – currently reading Asa: The Girl who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks by Natsuko Imamura

Ros’s selection of Books of All Time

There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak Now a favourite novel of mine, a book for all time. Elif Shafak moves through the rivers beneath our feet to the Rivers in the Sky in the search for Gilgamesh.

I have read this novel twice because I didn’t want to leave its beauty… Paperback is due in April 2025

 

‘Cuddy’ by Benjamin Myers

Clear by Carys Davies

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.

A beautifully, atmospheric written story. Carys Davies at her best

Death and The Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

Victor is an aspiring writer in Ukraine, he lives with Misha a penguin.

He loves to write short stories but his only work is writing obituaries of the not yet dead for a newspaper.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

This is one of the most beautiful stories, stunningly drawn. Claire Keegan has captured the essence of human kindness, and the belief in honesty.

My favourite 2022 read – Foster by Claire Keegan is also excellent

Silence by Shusaku Endo 

1640 Father Sebastian Rodrigues a Jesuit Priest travels to Japan; his mentor Ferreira who has disappeared there.  He cannot believe the stories from of Ferreira loss of faith, he is determined to detect the truth – Japan is in the grip of change .. This novel will question you, how far would you keep the faith? It is Ok just to be human.

The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers 

England, 1989. Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men – traumatized Falklands veteran Calvert, and affable, chaotic Redbone – set out nightly in a clapped-out camper van to undertake an extraordinary project. Under cover of darkness, the two men traverse the fields of rural England in secret, forming crop circles in elaborate and mysterious patterns. As the summer wears on, and their designs grow ever more ambitious, the two men find that their work has become a cult international sensation – and that an unlikely and beautiful friendship has taken root … It’s well worth a read, delightful prose, poignant and funny.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

‘The Sun always has ways to reach us.’ From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. Booker Prize Longlist 2021. In paperback 3rd March 2022.

English Pastoral by James Rebanks (Shortlisted for MThe Wainwright Prize 2021)

My bookshop opened in 1974 and I have always championed writers on the natural world around us who give us fair warning; Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is always in stock. James Rebanks English Pastoral (Allen Lane) is my book choice as a gift. James Rebanks voice is lyrical and clear. We must listen to these voices, and this year has been a good vintage.

Congratulations to James Rebanks for winning the Wainwright Nature Writing Prize 2021

The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

This is a superb story of how a stable world became a theatre of horror: no one is safe if they are Jewish. I couldn’t put it down. Berlin, November 1938. With storm troopers battering against his door, Otto Silberman must flee out the back of his own home. He emerges onto streets thrumming with violence: it is Kristallnacht, and synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed.

Ros’s 2021 choices

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili. It is a novel of the highest order, a masterpiece – as rewarding a read as Anna Karenina.

This is the story of a Georgian family whose wisdom and wealth lies in a secret and dangerous chocolate recipe. The first story/life is Stasia who lives through the end of the Russian Empire and the rise of the Russian communist state. 

The Gardener by Salley Vickers

Artist, Hassie Days, and her sister, Margot, buy a run down Jacobean house in Hope Wenlock on the Welsh Marches. While Margot continues her London life in high finance, Hassie is left alone to work the large, long-neglected garden. She is befriended by eccentric, sharp-tongued, Miss Foot, who recommends, Murat, an Albanian migrant, made to feel out of place among the locals, to help Hassie in the garden.
As she works the garden in Murat’s peaceful company, Hassie ruminates on her past life: the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood and the love affair that left her with painful, unanswered questions.

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective.

The Offing by Benjamin Myers (now in paperback). Set in the North East of England in the first summer after the Second World. Robert Appleyard stumbles upon Dulcie and her faithful dog Butler in her ramshackle dwelling, then there’s Romy. I was drawn to reading this novel because I know the area fairly well, my father was a miner’s son from Willington a pit village in Co Durham.

Telephone reserve a copy on any of the above titles 01694723388 or order Online at Our Online Store

….and a few more of our all-time favourite books

Ros Ephraim 

Shuggie Bainby Douglas Stuart, Desiree by Anne Marie Selinko, Before the coffee gets coldby Toshikazu Kawaguchi, The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, The Hidden Horticultralists by Fiona Davison, Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, The Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, The The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, Something of His Art by Horatio Clare, The Long Take by Robin Robertson, I Am Dynamite by Sue Prideaux, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, The Box of Delights by John Masefield, The Lion, thee Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis,  1947 by Elisabeth Asbrink, Exit West by Mohsin Hami, The Doll Funeral by Kate Hamer, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro; winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, The Life of Rebecca Jones  by Angharad Price,  Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk by Kathleen Rooney, Client Earth by James Thornton and Martin Goodman, The Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore, Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, Persuasion by Jane Austen, January Man by Christopher Somerville, Where Poppies Blow by John Lewis Stempel, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Island Song by Madeleine Bunting, Lara by Bernadine Evaristo.

‘Books are the carriers of civilisation. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.’

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)