Chapters at The Book Shop
Books, Books, Books!
The Book Shop, Lee on the Solent
Hampshire
Chapters at The Book Shop
Chapters at The Book Shop - Episode 4
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Just Sarah and jazz ... what they've been reading , new books that have arrived , what we are up to and how to contact us .... plus a couple of bloopers !!
Credit to Muzaproduction :)
Credit to ikoliks_aj spring easter music :)
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. I was gonna start with a song. Until we can work out music. Yes, you'll just have to serenade us.
SPEAKER_00Sing us in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay, so welcome to the bookshop podcast.
SPEAKER_00What are we doing?
SPEAKER_01Oh goodness me. Okay. Welcome to the book shop. It's a good job we can edit all of this out.
SPEAKER_00You've got to keep it.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to the bookshop podcast. Welcome to chapters. There we go. Welcome to chapters. Right. Well, it's been a funny old week, hasn't it? Because of the weather. It has. Sadly, when the weather is bad, people don't come in.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01So um we have to find our own things to entertain ourselves. Well, we had Sam Holland in on Monday. Um, that was a brilliant event in the evening. We were at maximum capacity, so that was good fun. We had a good chat with her. And um, if you haven't listened to it already, that is our podcast episode three.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Heavily edited.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, that was a really, really good evening. And uh with her new book, The Killer in Room Five. So, yeah, so that was fantastic. Um, but that was also the same day that we went out and delivered all the boxes. Yes, it was. We made up all our subscription boxes and we went out and delivered those. Didn't take as long as usual. No, no, it didn't.
SPEAKER_00It was pretty good.
SPEAKER_01Left about ten, got back about half two, quarter to three, something like that. Wasn't too bad. Yeah, but lovely to see everybody. And their dogs. And their dogs, of course. Um, on Sunday you had D D in the shop with your little group of D D gamers, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, we did. We um obviously the shop's shut on a Sunday, so we all gathered together in here for an adventure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um that was your first proper run through, wasn't it? You'd all created your characters. Yes. So you had your first Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We were here in here for quite a few hours. Yeah. Um but we had a lot of fun. That was very good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, very nice, yeah. Um by invitation only, sadly. But you never know, one day we might expand it out. Yeah. Uh we had a school come in yesterday. Um, reception year one and year two came in with their teachers. They'd all won a competition, so they were allowed to choose a book in the shop. So we wrapped them all up and popped them in a positivity box for them, um, which they loved. Um, you've been busy making teas and totes, haven't you? I have indeed, yeah. And you've been really busy making teas and totes, haven't you?
SPEAKER_00I have, yeah. I've had quite a few customer orders recently, so our stock was starting to go down quite a little bit um because I hadn't had the time to do it for a while, but I've managed to get quite a few done. We've got three customer orders behind the till. Yeah, and then quite a few more that I want to make that I've designed already, and I've got another customer waiting for another one. So, yeah, it's been quite it's been quite busy. It's nice.
SPEAKER_01That's good. You're so clever. I don't know how you do it. Thank you. I know you use the cricket machine, and you've got some really beautiful sparkly vinyls as well, but yeah, no wonder they sell quickly. They're so lovely. I'm really impressed. Really impressed.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Talking about you still, what have you read in the last week?
SPEAKER_00Oh god, what have I read in the last week?
SPEAKER_01Nothing. No. I heard you whisper nothing. Damn it.
SPEAKER_00No, I haven't read anything. Well, in my defense. Go on. Give me a second. Well, I'm frantically trying to get up my good reads. Yeah, because what have you read? Okay. No, no, hang on. I have read I've read the subtitles while I'm watching TV. No, I haven't had the time. We did the I we had D D on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We did book deliveries Monday. Yeah. Tuesday, I don't have an excuse for. Yeah. Wednesday. Tuesday it was raining, and that was very overwhelming. Okay, okay. I have my excuse. I have not read anything, but I do currently have three books in my bag, and I have a new book that should be arriving any minute now, actually. So I that's my excuse.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Since we did the last podcast, I finished Ice Angels, which I absolutely loved. I think we talked about that last time by Caroline Mitchell. Um, I've also read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson. And loved that. 88 pages long that was. Cracked that one out really quick from a Goodreads, and it bumped me up to 34 books read so far this year. Oh my god. I've never read that before. Know the story, obviously, but yeah, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it's brilliant. I will read that again as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it won't take too long.
SPEAKER_01And also, no, it won't. And I've just finished our crime for our subscription book club, and that is Some of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins. Now we've done her books for Book Club before, and they were really enjoyed. And I really enjoyed this one. It was so good. And we love Fiona Cummins when we did a um crowdfunder a few years ago to try and raise money to buy the shop, and she was one of the authors online that donated.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's really nice.
SPEAKER_01And oh her books, they're just exquisite, and I loved that one. Twisty Turney. It was fantastic, so I highly recommend that. At the moment, I am just about to start reading Days of Light, and I think it's by Megan Hunter, and that is our Positivity Book Club book. Okay. Yeah, intriguing cover. We'll just have to see how it pans out. But yeah, so far so good. Only on page six, but yeah, that's good. We've had some good stock in this week though, haven't we?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we really have.
SPEAKER_01Um, most of it went out of stock really quickly. First one is Whistle by Linwood Barclay. When you hear it, be afraid. He doesn't write horror, although the cover does look like it might be a horror book because of the house that's on there, but yeah, it's not horror. He is a real good crime thriller writer. And it says on the back, Annie Blunt and her young son Charlie moved to their house in upstate New York to put a dreadful year behind them. The death of her husband and a scandal around one of her children's books left them both needing a fresh start. But things aren't as peaceful as Annie hoped. Strange sounds wake her in the middle of the night. There's something sinister about the toy train Charlie discovers in a locked shed in the grounds, and then bizarre things start to happen in the neighbourhood. Grief can play tricks on the mind, but Annie is beginning to realise she's walking out of one nightmare and straight into another. Oh my god. I think that sounds quite good.
SPEAKER_00That does sound good.
SPEAKER_01Um, then we've got the latest Jeffrey Archer that is now out in paperback. It's called Endgame. May the Best Man Win, based around the London Olympics in 2012. The world is watching as the greatest show on earth takes to the stage. Oh billions of eyes on London, nations united in celebration. It should be a moment of absolute triumph, but for one shadowy organisation, it's the perfect target. Can he prevent triumph returning from turning to disaster? Oh my goodness. Not bad. Another Jeffrey Archer. He churns those out quite quickly. Um, but he does have a very good collar following that will kind of read anything that he publishes. So um, yeah, I'm sure that'll do well. I know there was a lot of demand for the hardback. Uh the next one that came in was Bad Boy Era. It wasn't so much the cover, which has got a young man and a young lady on, but it was the sprayed edges. Oh, look at that. Pale blue and pale pink and yellow tart and sprayed edges down the side. But then if you look at the top at the bottom, it's got little, what are they called? What do you think they're geckos? Geckos, that's the word I'm looking for. Greek geckos. Green geckos. Greek, Greek, Greek geckos geckos. And it says on the back, there's a bit of a blurb on this one, it is by, by the way, Amy Dawes, USA Today best-selling author. And it says on the back, rule number one on the Everly Fletcher matchmaking manifesto. Never fall for your best friend's grumpy brother. Oh, what does Emily call them? Grumpy. Grumpy Sunshine. Grumpy Sunshine. That's it. So that is a proper Grumpy Sunshine book. Um the other book we had in was The Book Game by Francis Wise. It says, Oh, whip smart and made me laugh out loud. Magnificent. The blurb. It's very small text. It is very small text, isn't it? The blurb on the back says, In the August heat, eight old friends have gathered at a country house for a writer's retreat. By day there is reading beside the pool or writing in the shady corners of the estate. In the evenings, drinks, dinner, outdoors games, midnight swimming. But as temperature rise in the stifling last days of summer, tensions do too. Old jealousies, new temptations, and bitter rivalries bubble to the surface. By the end of the week, friendships and lives will have changed forever. Yeah. The very definition of unput downable says for that one. Yeah, well here's in the book world. Okay, the next one, which was popular with our ladies, and I don't know if we've got any of this left. The secret library. Some stories don't end, they wait to be found, and that is by Amanda James. So says on the back, it's got a beautiful picture of a library on the front. Oh, the best-selling author of the Midnight Bookshop. I've not read that. The blurb on the back says, The magic of this special place has always been here, and all you have to do is keep believing in it. Book editor Lucy Thomas has just inherited her grandmother's windswept Cornish home, and with it a library bathed in sunlight, a spiral staircase that leads to secrets, and a battered box filled with unfinished stories. To honour her grandmother's last wish, Lucy must finish what was left undone and discover the magic hiding between the lines. Filled with warmth, whispers of magic, and the irreplaceable comfort of books, the secret library is for anyone who knows how one story can change everything. There's a lot of these cozy, yeah, like cozy books and yeah, coming out at the moment. Like the cozy fantasy we had. Um Stay for a Spell by Well, who was it by again? Amy. Amy Coomb. Yeah, yeah. And from cozy lovely stories to this one, The Moores Murders by Michael Atwell. The definitive history of one of the most notorious criminal cases in Britain. Quote on the front, first class. I read it with great interest and fascination. Uh, most of us know the story of the Moores Murders, but on the back it says, What drove Ian Brady and Myra Hinley to commit acts of unimaginable evil? The question has haunted Britain for decades. Drawing on nearly 50 years of research, Michael Atwell revisits the crimes, the couple's twisted relationship, and the disturbing details that will still defy understanding. The Moores Murders is a chilling exploration of one of Britain's most notorious cases. A shocking account of how calculated cruelty can hide behind an ordinary facade. Very dark, that book. And finally, the one that we had most of, but which has flown out the door, is this beautiful covered book called The Tiny Magic Bookshop by August Bloom. Another cozy fantasy book. You were gonna read this. Have you started reading it yet?
SPEAKER_00I've already established that I haven't read anything.
SPEAKER_01Is this one of the ones you were starting?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I've got that in my bag, and then I've got Bad Boy Era, and then your copy of Jekyll and Hyde.
SPEAKER_01Ah, oh, brilliant. Yeah. Okay. So this is by August Bloom, also known as Anna Britton, crime author. And it says on the back, there's magic in a book. Max always felt too ordinary for the magical village of Lambton. No place more so than her mum's bookshop, where the recommendations are more than just a matter of taste, they're magic. When Max's mum dies suddenly, she leaves her daughter Lamplight Books and makes one last wish that Max would spend a year working in the bookshop before she sells it. Max has no desire to uproot her busy life in the city to return to a place that always made her feel inadequate, but she can't ignore her mum's last request, and just maybe she'll find some magic of her own. I quite like the sound of that. Yeah. See that one? You'll have to let us know how you get on with that. There's been um yeah, there's been a lot of book chat as well on our WhatsApp group, haven't there? When we had the um bank holiday Monday, it was quite nice to catch up with all of them, and we all went over the beach over the beach, didn't we? We did, yeah. And um sat around and read our books for the afternoon. You and Laura went into the sea. We did. We had the big bookshop gazebo up and loads of tear chairs and a table, and we had chocolate and strawberries and cakes and drinks. It's a lovely afternoon, wasn't it? It was. We are very blessed with our lovely group of um book club ladies, and they were all reading something different. Um, and the same ladies will be coming Monday to the Average Art Club, won't they?
SPEAKER_00Yes, they will.
SPEAKER_01For those that don't know the Average Art Club, the book subscribers were chatting one day about art and how most of them would like to do some form of art, but that typically they were rubbish at it. So they formed the average art club, don't they? They meet in the shop. Izzy very kindly teaches everyone crochet, and those that don't want to learn crochet do arts and crafts, don't they? Painting or drawing or whatever, and don't feel compelled to be good in any way. But in actual fact, they're all quite good, aren't they? They are, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's really annoying because we thought that we were amongst friends, but they're all very good.
SPEAKER_01And we had um author Jackie Green was in the shop this morning. Was it this morning or was it yesterday? I think it was yesterday morning. Yeah, and she was talking about Radio Victory, so we might even be on Radio Victory soon. She wants to do some um interviewing and chatting about books on there. She's part of the Portsmouth Authors Collective that we work with quite a bit. Um, they're based obviously in Portsmouth. Um, quite a few of our um regular local independently published authors are part of the Portsmouth Authors Collective, and we like to support them as much as much as possible. Jackie Green being one of them, Christine Lawrence, Kristen Heelmey, um Laurie Western, who else can I think of? Um Richard Salisbury, Helen Salisbury, she's got a new book coming out soon. Um, yeah, oh, and J.S. Morton, one of our favourite crime authors. We love him. He was he came along for the um crime festival that we had in March, didn't he? Yeah, he's lovely. Yeah, he's all lovely. Yeah, they're all lovely. But um, when you think about how dark and comedic, particularly he but his books are. Um don't expect him to be as lovely as he is. We are a rare breed. Yeah, sure. But his book, You're Gone, is um um yeah, a firm favourite with some of the book club ladies as well, isn't he? Um I think we named him yesterday as um one to look out for because it is National Crime Reading Month.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01So day one we had Echo Man, day two we had The Prisoner by Heath Gunn. Yes, and then yesterday we had You're Gone by J.S. Morton. Yeah, Heath Gunn's he's a lovely he's a lovely guy as well, and he writes quite dark, yeah, crimy, but nasty books.
SPEAKER_00Louisa Scar, his name is, is lovely, and you know they're all quite shy and quiet, lovely people, and they write the most horrific scenes in their books. Yeah, it's very strange.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and today we had Heidi Perks. It ends here, not quite as dark as the other crime books we've had, is a thriller about hostage situations set in a coffee shop on the Isle of Wight in Newport. Um, and that's quite book, that's quite a um that's a very good book actually. We did that for book club and we had her in to do an evening with us, didn't we? Yes, yeah. So um, yeah, we'll have to wait to see, wait till tomorrow to see what book five of our national crime reading month is going to be. Oh, we've got some more events coming up. We've got Richard Jones is in on Friday and he is launching his A to Z of Gossport book. History, Places, People, that kind of thing. There may be three or four tickets left for that, five pounds each. And then starting on Saturday, the 13th of June, I think it is, we've got independent bookshop week. Yes. That'll be running for seven days, and we will be giving away five pound national book tokens with purchases over £20. We'll have some special offers. We've got the big book swap that week that's going on one night. Um, we've got a couple of events at schools that week. On the Saturday is our 98th birthday, so we'll be celebrating all day with authors and stalls and things like that. And then in the evening, we've got the picture of Dorian Grey candlelight events. Yes, we do. So we've got quite an action-packed independent bookshop week, which is good. If you want to find out about any more of our events, you can go to www.leebookshop.co.uk. Or the best place, really, for the most up-to-date information is our Facebook page, isn't it? And we are only called the bookshop. And of course, you can text us at any time on 07771 410074. That's it, really, isn't it? Have you got any more book-related activities coming up? We're going to Chatsworth House, aren't we? Yes. Soon, as we've said before, going to see Pride and Prejudice. Oh, you're off to Oxford on Saturday. Famous for Alice in Wonderland and the Bod Bod Bod Bodaleian library. I said it, I've said it one way before, and then Donna corrected me because Donna is actually from Oxford.
SPEAKER_00Get her on here to correct Donna. I can't remember.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I can't remember how Donna said it has to be said. I always thought it was Bodolean.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so did I.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but she said it a different way, and she knows.
SPEAKER_00Well, me and you are saying one thing, and it's two against one, so I think Donna's wrong. I think she's misunderstood this whole entire time. Sorry, Donna, but I think you're wrong. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, but yeah, it's gonna be, yeah, it's go go go go go go go go go go one day I'm gonna do one of these podcasts and leave all the bloopers in.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I think you should. That would be really funny.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, but I don't think we've got anything else to report, have we? No. We're gonna start getting our special guests in soon, and we will probably record Richard's event on Friday, and that will go out. Richard is really good at giving talks.
SPEAKER_00He's very excitable, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, he's wonderful. So I will pro we will probably record his for an for another podcast that we will share Saturday morning once he's once he's done that. So well, thank you very much for listening. We're still getting quite a few listeners. You can send us fan mail, you can support us via any of your streaming platforms, but you can find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and all the other podcast places that you listen to. Have you got anything else that you want to say?
SPEAKER_00No, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01No, nor do I. We better open. We've closed for half an hour just to record this, and we've had a few customers come to the door. Um, until next time, we'll see you soon. Bye!
