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The Books That Made Me Reading took off for me when I was nine when my family moved house and I had a term left of my final year at junior school. With no way of getting home, my mum arranged for a neighbour to collect me from the village library which was next to the...
Fiction: The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller If you’ve read Unsettled Ground, Claire Fuller’s Costa Award winning novel, you will know that her writing combines heart and melancholy without sentimentality, her quiet storytelling all the more powerful for its...
On average, British women hoard approximately £285 worth of unused clothing within their wardrobes. This is the equivalent of £34 million worth of useless purchases in Shropshire alone. With Love From… is a new project launching in Oswestry, Shropshire. Our vision is...
Since working at Booka, twice I’ve been asked for recommendations for erotic fiction, or as it’s known nowadays: ‘spicy reads’. Romance seems to come with certain connotations: covers featuring scantily clad women embracing men with bulging muscles, lots of ‘held...
FICTION: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld New from New York Times bestselling author, Curtis Sittenfeld, Romantic Comedy is a smart, insightful, and funny social commentary on modern relationships, societal expectations, and the ungovernable laws of attraction....
The Books That Made Me On my wall I have a book that is framed in a silver-coloured box frame with a hinged front, so that I can access it should I need it. I almost feel like this box frame should have a sign next to it saying, “break glass in an emergency”. Because...
World Book Day The above title will make most booksellers snort with laughter. World Book Week or fortnight is more like it. Nevertheless, it is a highlight within the Booka calendar where we focus on our work with schools and young readers. We host an all singing,...
Fiction: Spilt Milk by Amy Beashel This is a raw, gut-punch of a novel following teacher, social media influencer and mum, Bea Straw, in the aftermath of a brutally honest comment – the worst thing a mother could possible think, let alone say – which has...
The Books That Made Me I have friends who can reel off plots from books they read forty years ago. Character names, surprising twists, beautiful or frustrating endings, the minutiae remain impressively at the forefront of their clever minds ready for intricate...
I wonder where to begin. Perhaps with the earliest distinct memory I have of reading a book on my own: it was a picture book of the Three Billy Goats Gruff story, and what I remember most are the pictures in the background: the detailed little houses in the hills –...
These words are taken from the Booka Manifesto which we put together just after the shop opened, to capture the essence and ethos of our bookshop and the space we wanted to create. Thirteen years later, the words and sentiment are still relevant and the core of who we...
FICTION: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler tells of an island arpeggio bought up by a huge, multinational tech corporation, the island inhabitants relocated in the name of conservation to make way for highly secretive research...
Welcome to 2023! We love a fresh start at Booka. The whirlwind of Christmas trading is behind us. It’s time to look ahead to all the exciting books and events that will take place within the four walls of the shop and beyond. Retreat into books with us as we ‘restore...
FICTION: The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman They will have justice. They will show their power. They will not burn. Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. After recently widowed Zigri’s affair...
FICTION Agatha Christie meets The Crown in ‘Murder Most Royal’, the much-anticipated third book in the ‘Her Majesty The Queen Investigates’ mystery series by SJ Bennett – for fans of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Agatha...
Fiction: The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke Author of The Lighthouse Witches and The Nesting, CJ Cooke creates pitch perfect eerie reads. Her unnerving gothic tales of folklore and the unexplained have that curious habit of sliding beneath your skin and prickling uneasily...
The Books That Made me The Booker-longlisted author discusses the novels that inspired his new book, The Draw of The Sea, an exploration of our relationships with the oceans. It’s no exaggeration to say I have a novel to thank for my love of the sea and, in...
It was my sister who first taught me to read, before I even went to school. She’d plonk me amongst a motley assortment of teddy bears, soft toys and dolls, in a circle and read Peter and Jane to us. I’m sure they’re horribly dated now for I haven’t seen a copy in...
While a silver-sequinned jumpsuit called The Iris is the perfect attire to celebrate the publication of my new YA novel, We Are All Constellations*, it’s not the only outfit I’ll be wearing to mark the occasion. So too will I be donning vest, trainers and shorts. The...
Fiction – The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph ‘The Secret Diary of Charles Ignatius Sancho’ is the fictional memoir of an actual historical character, Black writer and composer Charles Ignatius Sancho. A passion project for actor...