Found in a Bookshop: The perfect Autumn read - heart-warming and unforgettable

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I would recommend this if you like issue-laden contemporary women’s fiction and don’t mind a large number of book recommendations. Thank-you Netgalley and Headline books for approving my ARC request, it was an absolute pleasure to read. Stephanie has a great knack of weaving all the complexities of 2020-22 together - the loneliness, deaths, long covid, relationship breakdowns, work precariousness, and even including the BLM and Trans rights issues. I adored this novel but I cautiously recommend it, as I am aware that the Covid-19 pandemic is ongoing and a novel about it may be triggering for some people. There are a real range of reasons that people turn to books when they are compulsorily stuck at home from domestic abuse through loneliness, insecurity, love stories and the inevitable deaths from COVID.

If I have one criticism it is the number of characters introduced, which I found distracting, but I understand that the whole point of the story was about reaching out to the community during lockdown, so I tried to bear with this. I like the concept of the book, as book lovers we already know the joy of reading and the idea of prescribing books as a form of medicine or a remedy is a good one. George and Rosemary are a delightful couple and their lifelong love warms your heart Loveday is a fabulous quirky character and I enjoy the introduction of Kelly and Madison who are very likeable too. Stephanie lives near the sea in the north-east of England, with her husband Alan and Harris the greyhound.I was a bit surprised at what appear to be authorial asides about books and reading, but it works - as do the short chapters and the book recommendations. Of course, this is the pandemic- we meet people who are struggling with COVID, with isolation, with abuse. This is the first book that I have read which has featured the recent COVID pandemic in the forefront of the plot. However, the story thread of Rosemary and George as well as Loveday, Kelly and Maddison is weaved through the book as the main story arc.

I rarely get emotional reading but this book is so beautifully poignant and touching, speaking if a time when the world stopped, how we all feared how it would end and did the best we could for ourselves and those we love, a gentle hug of a story. Everyone had differing experiences in the Covid pandemic, and their needs differed depending on their jobs/ home life/ security/ wants and desires. It made me laugh, it made me cry and left me with a feeling of community spirit - I will definitely be recommending this to others, it is a fantastic read' ? The author provides the list of recommended books and "Questions for Book-sharers" at the end of the novel.This sparks an idea in Loveday and it makes her realise that there is something positive they can do to help people through the crisis and help the business into the bargain. They have decided to set out on their last journey together, without ever leaving the bench at the bottom of their garden in Whitby. There is a great deal of talking about, loss in all its forms and I was very upset at times during the book.

I loved Lost For Words so I was looking forward to this but I’m afraid I found it very disappointing. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Wasn’t sure how I’d go delving into the pandemic… yet it was a joy to read, as are all of Stephanie Butland’s magical books.Loved also that so many great books are mentioned and recommended, especially for specific needs, recovering from loss, and adding to wonderful events and hopes for the future. I also liked the times when the author directly addressed the reader, telling us that it is okay not to love the book that everyone else is raving about, and that it’s okay to give up on a book which we are not enjoying, that reading should be a pleasure and not a chore. However, she introduced wayyy to many secondary characters that were not integral to the main plot and it just got distracting.

However this just left many underdeveloped characters, when she had written compelling main protagonists to begin with. Kelly also comes up with the idea of a ‘book pharmacy’, prescribing books to help people as they deal with problems, whether or not related to the pandemic.The very real aspect of this being set through the pandemic made it quite challenging at times and brought back some of those very weird emotions I know a lot of people felt during such a weird time, but it also reminded me of how much I read at that time and how important books were to me then, when I had nothing else to do but sit and worry. At the very time when people most need books to widen their horizons, or escape from their fears, or enhance their lives, the doors are closed. I loved the concept of the book pharmacy - so much so that I am trying to figure out if there might be a way of putting into practice something similar in our local library!