David Booker – General Manager

Brute, Emily Skaja

A very dark and disturbing collection of poetry about an abusive relationship and ultimatley breaking free. Beautifully written and the deserved winner of the Walt Whitman Award.

 

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Eve Booker – Assistant Manager

Picnic in the Storm, Yukiko Motoya

Picnic in the Storm is a collection of short stories. They are quite strange and never end as you would expect. I couldn’t put this book down. Very unusual.

 

 

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Sophie Barkerwood – Bookseller, Social Media, Online Orders

The Gallow’s Pole, Benjamin Myers

Beautifully stark and illuminating prose telling the story of the Cragg Vale Coiners. Set in pre-industrial revolution Yorkshire Dales, this book has a powerful sense of place and pioneers fictional nature-writing and alternative historical fiction.

For fans of: Jon McGregor, Amy Liptrot and Roger Deakin.

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Les Hurst – Finance Manager & Health & Safety

The Mass Psychology of Facism, Wilhelm Reich

“Like sadism, war among one’s own kind is an acquisition of ‘civilized’ man…” In this great work written at Hitler’s rise and revised during Worl War II, Reich examines the irrational hateds which still permeate society in the 21st Century.

 

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Charlotte Lunn – Bookseller & Events Co-ordinator

Rabbit, Sophie Robinson

Rabbit is caught in the age of social media yearning to connect. Poignant images weighted in trauma and structurally playful. Chosen for the Poetry Book Society Wild Card.

 

 

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Bev De’Ath – Bookseller & Second-hand Stock Control

The Story of Lucy Gault, William Trevor

Trevor’s arrangement of words in a sentence is a masterly appropriation of Irish syntax. A melancholy realism of thoughts unspoken drives the narrative. There is beauty in both the telling and the tale. Lucy’s story is how it is, Trevor is saying, not how we would like it to be.

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Gareth Hill – Bookseller

Mindfulness, Mark Williams & Danny Penman

An amazingly simple book. It helps you to make sitting quietly into a habit. It has helped me enormously. To reduce anxiety, build confidence and even improve my health. If you think it might help, try it.