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Two new feel-good novels about bookstores celebrate the power of reading.

Heller McAlpin

Booksellers in Japan and Germany are at the heart of two new translated novels. Sekihan/Flickr hide caption

Booksellers in Japan and Germany are at the heart of two new translated novels.

Readers and writers are drawn to bookstores like mountain climbers to views. For some of us, it's hard to walk by one without swerving to check out the window display, at the very least.

There's something inherently hopeful about bookshops. Safe havens for diverse minds, the best transmit a sense of possibility and community. It's no surprise that novels set in them abound. Most are heartwarming paeans to the salubrious bonds forged among readers. Many have been made into movies, like Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop (1978), Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop (2013) and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2014).

These novels are populated by outsiders or loners who often immerse themselves in literature at the expense of living. In a frequent plotline, the luckiest among them connect with a soulmate through a shared fondness for a specific bookstore or book. Other scenarios involve the growing threat of big bad business or declining book sales and literacy in the digital age of smartphones, social media and video games — and the passionate readers who band together to save their beleaguered local shop.

Sometimes booksellers are not bound within four walls but instead peddle their wares directly to customers from bookmobiles. In Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader (2008), one such customer is the Queen of England, who comes late to the joys and benefits of reading.

Two short, bestselling foreign novels newly translated into English — one from Germany, the other from Japan — hit many of the genre's sweet spots, including a devoted bookseller who makes house calls, toting his merchandise in a backpack.

The Door-to-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn

This charmer, translated from the German by Melody Shaw, is an unabashedly sentimental, determinedly uplifting novel about friendships forged through books.

Carl Kollhoff, a 72-year-old bookseller in southern Germany, is beloved among his customers for finding just the right books for them. But his raison d'être is threatened when his longtime boss' hard-nosed daughter takes over the family business, determined to push out her father's star employee and dear friend. (Bill Nighy, who was so stellar in the 2017 movie of Fitzgerald's The Bookshop , would be perfect in the role.)

The highlight of Carl's narrowly circumscribed life is to deliver books every evening to a handful of shut-in customers. The selections are dictated by their stated preferences — for happy endings, tragedy, philosophical works and so on. Trouble ensues when a preternaturally wise (and cloying) motherless 9-year-old girl tags along with him on his rounds. She decides Carl is not actually giving his customers what they really need, and hatches a plot to correct this.

Like Carl's backpack, Henn manages to fill his novel with books without weighing it down. Chapter titles allude to classics: A Man for All Seasons, The Stranger, The Red and the Black, Great Expectations. Carl, who is terrible with names, assigns a literary character to each customer — Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Longstocking, The Reader — to help him keep them straight.

We gradually come to know these townsfolk: the abused wife; the aspiring writer with the mellifluous voice who is paid to read classics to cigar factory workers; the retired schoolteacher who gets her kicks from spotting suggestive typos like, "At the sight of her, he could barely contain his arbor."

The Door-to-Door Bookstore is also sprinkled with amusing observations. Carl divides readers into hares, who race through books; fish, who allow books to carry them along on their current; curious lapwings, who jump ahead to see the ending first; and tortoises, who fall asleep each night after a single page and take months to get through a book, necessitating flipping back repeatedly to check what they've forgotten.

Readers will have fun finding themselves in these pages.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

Translated from the Japanese by Eric Ozawa, this slim novel — first published and filmed in Japan in 2010 — is another heartwarmer about how literature helps open up emotionally constipated people who are not good at expressing their feelings.

Takako, the novel's plainspoken 25-year-old narrator, is blindsided when a work colleague she's been seeing for more than a year announces he's getting married to a beautiful woman in the same Tokyo office. In her grief, Takako quits her job and takes to her bed. Given the choice between returning to her home in Kyushu or moving into the musty spare room above her oddball uncle's secondhand bookshop in the Jimbocho book quarter of Tokyo, she chooses the latter.

The unadorned simplicity of Takako's voice is anything but subtle, but it's somehow winning in its guilelessness. About the time she spent at the Morisaki Bookshop, she says, "That's where my real life began. And I know, without a doubt, that if not for those days, the rest of my life would have been bland, monotonous, and lonely."

Takako gradually comes to appreciate her Uncle Satoru, whom she at first characterizes as "the exact opposite of anyone's idea of a dignified man." Disheveled but kind, her uncle urges her to consider his bookshop as her harbor, and tells her about his own peripatetic youth before he took over his father's business. "Maybe it takes a long time to figure out what you're truly searching for," he says.

To her uncle's delight, Takako, a nonreader, is gradually pulled into the modern classic Japanese novels piled everywhere in his shop — Junijiro Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai. Her perspective expands. Satoru introduces her to his favorite coffee shop, where she befriends other bibliophiles. Takako tries to help her uncle figure out why his wife Momoko left him without a word of explanation years earlier, and what Satoru — and she herself — might do differently in their relationships.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop draws a strong connection between the empathy unleashed by great literature and Takako's growing sense of self-confidence and well-being. Reading, she tells us with typical directness in this sweet tale, "opened a door I had never known existed."

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• The Bookshop: A History of the American...

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

Featured Review

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In THE BOOKSHOP, we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost. Evan Friss’ history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many.

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

• Publication Date: August 6, 2024
• Genres: History , Nonfiction
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Viking
• ISBN-10: 0593299922
• ISBN-13: 9780593299920

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The Bookshop

Having all the right ingredients does not always make a good cake, or, given the setting of this film, I should perhaps say a bread pudding with just the right proportions of chewy and creamy. “The Bookshop” is based on a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald and it stars actors who are loved on both sides of the Atlantic: Emily Mortimer , Bill Nighy , Patricia Clarkson . It has an adorably quaint setting, a 1950s-’60s seaside town in England. It features books and shops and has as its heroine a brave widow who loves to read and is willing to stand up to the village doyenne, one of those villains whose superficial graciousness and courtesy are only cover for ruthlessness and fury. And the screenplay is written by director Isabel Coixet , whose 2003 quiet gem “ My Life Without Me ” was exceptionally sensitive and moving.

So we come to it with high expectations and it is especially disappointing that this movie never comes together.

Mortimer plays Florence Green, whose husband was killed in WWII. She met him in a bookstore, and she dreams of opening one of her own in an old abandoned building in a small East Anglian town. She is patient but firm in her dealings with the lawyer and banker who clearly think she should not be worrying her pretty head about business. When the banker tells her that he does not think anyone will buy books because he falls asleep after reading two or three pages every night, she cheerfully replies that he has just proven the value of books.

Florence underestimates how formidable a foe she has in Violet Gamart (Clarkson), the wife of a retired general who treats the village as though it was under her command. Wearing gold lame and a slash of bright red lipstick, with a long, thin pink cigarette elegantly poised between her fingers, she tells Florence, “I believe I can spare you many disappointments and maybe a bit of money,” meaning, “I will do whatever it takes to boot you out.”

The narrator intones, “Florence had managed to live life thus far by pretending that human beings were not divided into exterminators and exterminating, with the former at any moment predominating,” one of many instances of telling instead of showing or, even worse, telling on top of showing. 

Florence moves her bookshop into the old house, and moves herself in as well. And the narrator intrudes again to let us know that this moment would be her happiest in the shop, telling us before showing us, which is worst of all. Though beautifully read by an unseen and un-credited Julie Christie , the narration is unnecessary and distracting, only reminding us that an audible version of the original book with Christie’s voice would be a much more suitable adaptation.

This is a particular letdown for fans of period British drama, who love nothing more than settling in to watch a story about people who wear wellies and cardies to walk through picturesque cobblestone roads on their way to chat over cozy-covered teapots. Mortimer and Nighy are captivating as always, and so it takes a while to realize that the many slow pauses are not adding up to much. There is a build-up to Florence’s decision to sell the controversial Lolita, but it does not really go anywhere, either. While Fitzgerald wanted to explore small town small-mindedness and petty politics, it is fair to expect that a movie about a bookshop that has three characters commenting that they do not like reading will at least find one of them at some point captivated by a book, perhaps even Lolita .

Most grating is one of those impossibly precocious child characters who is completely unconvincing as anything but a writer’s shortcut for narrative convenience. And Nighy is burdened with a reclusive, book-loving character whose quirks are intended to be endearing, but even he cannot make it work. He tells Florence to go ahead and buy 250 copies of Lolita for the village: “They won’t understand it, but that’s all for the best. Understanding makes the mind lazy.” Not every story about a woman moving to town to open up a controversial shop has to be as endearing as “Chocolat.” But movies, like reading, should expand our ability to understand, and this one does not even understand itself.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

• Frances Barber as Jessie
• Hunter Tremayne as Mr. Keble
• Honor Kneafsey as Christine
• James Lance as Milo North
• Bill Nighy as Mr. Brundish
• Emily Mortimer as Florence Green
• Patricia Clarkson as Mrs. Violet Gamart
• Reg Wilson as General Gamart
• Michael Fitzgerald as Mr. Raven
• Alfonso de Vilallonga
• Bernat Aragonés
• Isabel Coixet

Cinematographer

• Jean-Claude Larrieu

Writer (novel)

• Penelope Fitzgerald

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Book Summary and Reviews of The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Summary | Reading Guide | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | More Books

The Lost Bookshop

by Evie Woods

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• Genre: Literary Fiction
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Book Summary

A Wall Street Journal , Publishers Weekly and Amazon bestseller. The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this charming bookish novel, which has a dash of romance, a sprinkle of historical fiction, and a lot of magic.

"The thing about books," she said "is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of." On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found… For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

• Opaline's love of books is what guides her through life, like talismans and passports of escape. As a reader, what do books mean to you? How have books impacted your life?
• Were there any significant plot twists that surprised you?
• Did the book provoke any emotional responses from you? Which scenes stood out in terms of their impact?
• What did you make of the magical elements in the book? Did they add to your experience of the bookshop?
• The plot highlights the impact of living in a patriarchal society in both timelines. What is your assessment of the male characters in the book and how their storylines developed?
• Were there any lines or passages that stood out to you or that you highlighted?
• Did the different settings make you eager to...

You can see the full discussion here . This discussion will contain spoilers! Some of the recent comments posted about The Lost Bookshop: As a reader, what do books mean to you? How have books impacted your life? Books have always been a part of my life for both academic learning and for pleasure. I didn’t become an avid reader until high school but I’ve been reading great books and not so great books for decades. I have insomnia, so I ... - arlenei Have you read any of the books referenced or found any new recommendations? Yes, I had read Flowers in the Attic way back during my high school years. I do own a copy of Never Let Me Go but have not actually read it yet. I do make a point of reading at least one classic a year, just haven't gotten to any of the ... - nanette s Henry observes that "As youngsters, we do it all the time, making new friends ... But when you get older, it feels as though there is so much more on the line." Do you agree with him? Having moved to 2 new cities in the last 5 years, this 63 year old sure wished it was like the good old days. "Will you be my friend?" "OK" And off to the playground we would go. Now, I feel I have to stick my toe in the ... - mb If you could discover a missing manuscript, what would it be? I would love to find a manuscript written by Stephen King, or one he had written with his 2 sons, or his wife. I would think it would be worth something to both read and sell. - nanette s In an allegorical sense, what do you think Madame Bowden represents? I, too, loved the character of Madame Bowden, and I wondered if she was supposed to be the energy of the bookshop in human form. She definitely played the role of Martha's guardian angel. Was she perhaps somehow also the spirit of a never-... - ErinJ

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Reader reviews.

The Lost Bookshop is a joy to read, a seductive tale that sparks the imagination, a truly immersive and charismatic read of self-discovery and strength imbued with a sense of hope and passion." — Swirl and Thread "This book will be treasured by literary sleuths, book collectors, and bibliophiles alike. Yes, it strains credibility, but what is magic… but imagination set free." — Fictionophile A mix of historical fiction, romance, fantasy and contemporary fiction. I adored this one a huge amount and I would highly recommend it." — Me and My Books

Author Information

Evie Woods is the pseudonym of Evie Gaughan, the bestselling author of The Story Collector , The Heirloom and The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris . Living on the West Coast of Ireland, Evie escapes the inclement weather by writing her stories in a converted attic, where she dreams about underfloor heating. Her books tread the intriguing line between the everyday and the otherworldly, revealing the magic that exists in our ordinary lives. She is currently working on her fourth novel.

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The Literary Edit

Review: The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald

I had only recently come across The Bookshop book when I saw the movie adaptation advertised at my local independent cinema in Paddington. While intrigued by the film, I made a note to read The Bookshop novel before booking myself tickets to the cinema. And so, when I saw the book at Gertrude & Alice; a small sliver of a read in comparison to the tome I was working my way through at the time, I settled down with a sweet chai tea into one of the bookshop’s oversized armchairs and began to read. I was in the mood for a cozy tale, and a book about a bookshop in an English village seemed the exact sort of thing I was after.

And yet, while on the surface The Bookshop is just that; a story about life in a quaint seaside village, it too is something else altogether. While there are those touches of quaint cozy English village life, at its core, the book is mainly about the rancor and spite that rises to the surface of the village when Florence Green, a widow who has just moved to Hardborough, decides to open a bookshop.

While in the late 1950s, such an opening could have been seen as an asset to the small village, it soon becomes obvious that this simply isn’t the case. Many see Florence as having overstepped social boundaries by buying a building that was wanted for other purposes and this social faux pas results in much grief for this kind hearted widow.

Something of a melancholy tale, The Bookshop is ultimately about more than just a bookshop. It’s a story about morals, about our treatment of others, about life in a small village and the consequential issues and intricacies that arise. A compelling, quick, and dark read, The Bookshop is clear evidence of Penelope Fitzgerald’s ability to weave a subtle and poignant story that will stay with its readers long after the last page has been closed.

Buy The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald on Amazon or from Waterstones .

The Bookshop  Synopsis

In 1959 Florence Green, a kindhearted widow with a small inheritance, risks everything to open a bookshop – the only bookshop – in the seaside town of Hardborough. By making a success of a business so impractical, she invites the hostility of the town’s less prosperous shopkeepers. By daring to enlarge her neighbors’ lives, she crosses Mrs. Gamart, the local arts doyenne. Florence’s warehouse leaks, her cellar seeps, and the shop is apparently haunted. Only too late does she begin to suspect the truth: a town that lacks a bookshop isn’t always a town that wants one.

About Penelope Fitzgerald

Penelope Fitzgerald was an English novelist, poet, essayist and biographer. In 2008, The Times included her in a list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”. In 2012, The Observer named her final novel,  The Blue Flower , as one of “the ten best historical novels”.

Penelope Fitzgerald was the author of nine novels. Her novel  Offshore  was the winner of the  Booker Prize . A further three novels —  The Bookshop ,  The Beginning of Spring  and  The Gate of Angels  — also made the shortlist.

She was educated at Wycombe Abbey and Somerville College, Oxford university, from which she graduated in 1938 with a congratulatory First.

Further Reading

I love this The Bookshop book review from Publisher’s Weekly; and you might also like this on the quiet genius of Penelope Fitzgerald’s books . This book review from Transactions with Beauty is also well worth a read.

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2 comments on “Review: The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald”

I have just read your review of Fitzgerald ‘s “ The Bookshop “.

The review made me want to see your blog

Thanks for stopping by Elaine – I hope you like what you find on my blog!

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‘The stranger, the horse and the child’: The Muslim Cowboy – a reading list

Seventeen unforgettable years

Adventures in reading

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald — a tragicomic gem about life

I began watching the film version of The Bookshop with high expectations — a bookshop setting; a heroine who believes books are an essential commodity and a community determined to prove her wrong. What could possibly go awry?

Many things as it turned out. Atmospheric seaside town vistas and first class acting by Bill Nighy (one of my favourites) and Emily Mortimer couldn’t make up for a script that meanders along, seldom rising above the level of gentle humour and subdued drama. Pleasant enough on a wet afternoon, but nothing to get excited about.  

Fortunately the novella written by Penelope Fitzgerald more than made up for what the film lacked. 

Fitzgerald’s The Bookshop is a poignant, tragicomic tale of a young widow who sinks her small legacy into the purchase of the dilapidated Old House in the tiny Suffolk town where she’s lived for the last eight years. Florence Green’s plan is to open a bookshop, the previous one having long, long gone out of business.

But the people of of Hardborough-by-the-Sea don’t share Florence’s enthusiasm for breathing new life into a damp-ridden and probably haunted property “built five hundred years ago out of earth, straw, sticks and oak beams”. Even before the ink has dried on the sales contract, the scheme runs into opposition. Hardborough’s leading lady Violet Gamart, has her own ideas for the Old House. It is, she declares, the perfect location for an arts centre that will draw in the summer visitors and cock a snoop at a neighbouring town.

Florence Green might look a pushover; “ in appearance small, wispy and wiry, somewhat insignificant from the front view, and totally so from the back . But she is not a woman who backs down easily. So she pushes ahead, recruits a very young assistant and throws open the doors.

She enjoys moderate success by forming a lending library, but chiefly by stocking copies of Lolita. But at every turn, obstacles are thrown in her path; a war of attrition in which Mrs Gamat evidently pulls the strings. Florence has few allies apart from the local scoutmaster and the reclusive Edmund Brundish who warns Mrs Gamart to leave his friend alone.

This beautifully observed tale superbly brings to light the bleakness of a fishing town that has seen better days. It’s an insular community whose connections to the outside world have shrunk over the decades.

The town itself was an island between sea and river, muttering and drawing into itself as soon as it felt the cold. Every fifty years or so it had lost, as though careless or indifferent to such things, another means of communication.

In a town “ where everyone could be seen coming over the wide distances and everything seen was discussed ,” pettiness and conservatism thrive. There’s a clear social hierarchy with people like Mrs Gamat and her husband, the General, ruling the roost. There’s even a social hierarchy among the books Florence places on her shelves:

The heavy luxurious country-house books, the books about Suffolk churches, the memoirs about statesmen in several volumes, took the place that was rightly theirs by right of birth in the front window. Others, indispensable, but not aristocratic, would occupy the middle shelves. … Back in the shadows went the Stickers, largely philosophy and poetry, which she had little hope of ever seeing the last of.

When the lending library gets underway, those books too must be appropriately classified:

The books available on loan were divided into classes A, B, and C. A were very much in demand, B acceptable, and C frankly old and unwanted. For every A she borrowed, she must take three Bs and a large number of Cs for her subscribers. If she paid more, she could get more As, but also, a mounting pile of Bs and the repellent Cs, and nothing new would be sent until the last consignment was returned.

Florence can keep her own premises in good order but she comes a cropper because she doesn’t fit into the ordered world of Hardborough. When her window display of Lolita proves a big attraction, the jealousy among neighbouring tradespeople leads them to what they believe is a momentous decision: “ It was decided not to ask her to join the Inner Wheel of the Hardborough and District Rotary Club. ” She becomes in essence, persona non grata in the town.

The Bookshop is a tightly written tale of determination worn down by the small-mindedness of an insular community. It has a melancholic tone, particularly in the final pages, but Fitzgerald livens the mood with passages that give a deliciously acerbic view of the petty attitudes prevalent in Hardborough. The new lending library in particular is the cause of animosity when members discover the only copy of The Life of Queen Mary   has been allocated to a notoriously slow reader.

As a novel about life in a small town in the 1950s, it’s beautifully observed. On the surface it’s a simple tale about opening a bookshop. But beneath that lies a tale of goodness and kindness versus ego, of the outsider versus the establishment and the battle between those who embrace change and those who resist. A gem of a novel that would be bleak if not for Fitzgerald’s subtle, yet pointed, humour.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald: Footnotes

Penelope Fitzgerald was an English novelist, poet, essayist and biographer. She worked for the BBBC during World War 2 and co-edited a magazine with her husband Desmond Fitzgerald in the 1950s. The couple were left in dire financial circumstances when his legal career came to an ignominious end, at times even homeless. Penelope Fitzgerald took various jobs to help provide for her family, including a stint in a bookshop in Southwald, Suffolk which gave her material for the novella The Bookshop.

Though she didn’t begin writing fiction until she turned 60 years old, she went on to be considered one of the best British authors of the late twentieth century. In 2008, The Times included her in a list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”. Her novel  Offshore   won the 1979 Booker Prize and three of her other novels, including The Bookshop (published 1978) were shortlisted for the prize.

Thanks for sharing

• Wilderness by B. E. Jones — betrayed and dangerous
• Six Degrees From The Lottery to A Burning

What do you need to know about me? 1. I'm from Wales which is one of the countries in the UK and must never be confused with England. 2. My life has always revolved around the written and spoken word. I worked as a journalist for nine years then in international corporate communications 3. My tastes in books are eclectic. I love realism and hate science fiction and science fantasy. 4. I am trying to broaden my reading horizons geographically by reading more books in translation

17 thoughts on “ The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald — a tragicomic gem about life ”

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I loved the film. Went into it thinking there’d be no way they could capture the feel of the book, but I thought they did a remarkable job of that. And they manage to make other POVs comprehensible, even though your heart belongs with the bookshop in the end.

I think I was missing the edge of Fitzgerald’s humour

I love this book and also Offshore, not sure I’d want to see the film though, somehow.

Interesting. I kind of liked the movie better than the book, but it was a good book and I went on to read her novel “The Blue Flower” and now I have her “Offshore” to read as well.

Oooh, having only this year had a memorable holiday in Southwold how is it I’d not heard of this?! This sounds absolutely marvellous and now I must locate a copy to read, and then perhaps more Fitzgerald books… Hardborough as 1950s Southwold? Now that’s very intriguing! Great review, thanks.

I was excited about the film, too, but couldn’t stay with it. Perhaps I’ll try the book.

I agree, the film is weak but the book is much better.

I’d been so looking forward to watching the film but it was a struggle to get through

Yes, me too.

I’ve read this and Offshore. Although I mildly enjoyed both, with a definite preference for The Bookshop, I never followed through on my plans to read Fitzgerald’s other novels (I did take an unsuccessful stab at The Blue Flower). I admire Fitzgerald’s skill but somehow she didn’t quite click with me emotionally. Perhaps her humor is a bit too gentle and/or I found the conclusion of The Bookshop a bit too depressing (I was very young and idealistic when I first encountered it!) Still, there’s a reason why I frequently re-read or re-visit books over the years, particularly those by good writers who didn’t quite work for me the first time around. It’s interesting to see how frequently my opinion changes over the years! I still have my copy of The Bookshop, which will be an ideal way to spend an afternoon this winter . . . .

I didn’t “get” Offshore at all but now I’m wondering – just like your experience with The Bookshop – whether it might be better second time around

This sounds great! Adding it to the TBR mountain!

It’s a very slim book so doesn’t take long to read

This sounds very good. Definitely going on my list to read someday.

I have read at least two novels recently where books, reading, bookstores feature prominently: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths, and The Thirteenth Tale, which I am in the middle of now. Both of those are longer novels unfortunately but enjoyable reads.

I have The Thirteenth Tale on my TBR. so many books, so little time :0

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Blog – Posted on Friday, Mar 29

17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

How much of a book nerd are you, really?

Find out here, once and for all. Takes 30 seconds!

Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

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THE LOST AND FOUND BOOKSHOP

by Susan Wiggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 7, 2020

A gentle love story perfect for anyone looking for love amid personal, family, and financial crises.

With her promotion to vice president of digital inventory at a Sonoma winery, Natalie Harper finally has the financial security she's always wanted, but a sudden tragedy sends her home to rescue her late mother's charming bookstore.

Once in San Francisco, Natalie moves back into her childhood home, an eclectic set of apartments above the bookshop, a home she shares with her grandfather Andrew, who is suffering from dementia and other mysterious ailments. Blythe, Natalie's mother, loved books, but she was not a savvy businesswoman. Natalie arrives to find unpaid bills and back taxes. Housed in the historic Sunrose Building, the bookshop certainly has stories of its own to tell: Originally a saloon and brothel, it was eventually bought by Natalie's great-grandparents, who converted it into a home and apothecary. Luckily, “hammer for hire” Peach Gallagher shows up. Strong and gorgeous, the contractor catches Natalie's eye, and he certainly is drawn to the curly-haired proprietress. But Peach doesn't date clients, and Natalie is gun-shy from her previous relationship. Plus, she's already met Peach’s adorable little girl, Dorothy. Natalie isn't about to break up a marriage, but she doesn’t know Peach is actually divorced. Wiggs skillfully manipulates the stock in trade of a master romance novelist as she orchestrates Peach and Natalie's inevitable love story. To challenge Peach, enter Trevor Dashwood, a gorgeous and wealthy children's book author, whose books have already won Dorothy's heart. Hosting a book signing with Trevor might help the store’s bottom line. Meanwhile, Natalie, Peach, and Andrew find historical artifacts hidden in the Sunrose building’s walls. Will it be enough to save the store?

Pub Date: July 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-06-291409-5

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: April 12, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020

ROMANCE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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IT STARTS WITH US

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.

The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.

Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE | GENERAL FICTION

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by Colleen Hoover

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SEEN & HEARD

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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Easy ordering experience

Easy ordering experience without having to make yet another account. I have too many as they have become required to buy anything anymore. I also love that you support independent bookstores. I'm trying to break away from a**zon, at least with some things.

Date of experience : September 04, 2024

I love bookshop

I love bookshop! I really appreciate how you guys try to ship things carefully (i cant tell you how many books ive ordered from amazon that arrive bent, with pages damaged). I feel like i can reliably order gifts and know that they will arrive safely and support small businesses as well!!

Great books, lovely service, happy compromise

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Date of experience : September 05, 2024

I value supporting local bookstores

I value supporting local bookstores, and Bookshop.org makes this easy. I appreciate when they offer extras like free shipping or discounts, but I would support them even if they didn't. I always look forward to seeing the books they feature in their emails.

you are independent yes

you are independent any one especially in G12 should be ashamed not to encourage their local boookshop it might not be there if laxness persists i love the fact you still use a roladex

Very Attentive Client Service

As soon as I bought the books I received an email saying how I could track their delivery progress. I received emails averytime there was an update on my order's status, which I really apreciate.

Date of experience : September 03, 2024

Excellent service

Simple, easy to use website. My latest purchase was sent within hours of ordering, as were all previous orders. Tracked delivery by Royal Mail with their usual excellent communication within a reasonable time span. And all this with the added rosy glow of helping to support independent bookshops. I couldn't ask for more

Wonderful alternative to amazon

I ordered a book for a friend in a different state, and the book was promptly shipped. I got regular tracking updates, and the order process was very smooth. I love that buying books this way supports local booksellers.

Horrendous checkout experience

I had a promo code to add to my order and couldn’t find anywhere to put it while checking out on my phone. I hit a button that I thought would take me to the final confirmation page before submitting my order, but we skipped that entirely and my order was placed, I wasn’t even sure if the books I had in cart were the ones I wanted to buy. I emailed to try to cancel my order or at the very least apply my promo code, but I was told it was impossible. I fear I will not be a bookshop.org customer anymore. As someone who works in e-commerce the entire experience was baffling.

Books arrived very promptly

Books arrived very promptly, well packed and in perfect condition. It's good to know that orders are helping independent bookshops too.

Ordering a gift for a friend from…

Ordering a gift for a friend from outside of the UK, I was very happy to find an alternative that works with smaller book shops. I made an error, necessitating contacting customer help to which I received a prompt and very helpful reply. The book arrived quickly. I was delighted with the entire process from start to finish.

Date of experience : September 02, 2024

Even though book was backordered

Even though book was backordered, delivery was fast, not expecting it so quickly. Quality of book is outstanding. Very happy and satisfied with Bookshop.org

A great selection of books, great prices, reliable place!

A great selection of books, reasonable prices, prompt shipping! I recently experienced a handful of bad experiences with other sellers second hand where they were careless in how they sent their hardcover books. Every time I order from Bookshop, my books come in with no issues or damage. It's good to have a place where I can go to order books where it also supports local bookstores.

Date of experience : August 29, 2024

A nice variation from the standard high…

A nice variation from the standard high st bookshop sites with some different titles and variations available for the more nuanced collector. Also a nice way to support independent bookshops, of course.

Love Bookshop.org

I love supporting independent bookshops! The book recommendation and recommendation emails keep my book shelf stocked up and I love being able to pre-order a copy. It comes through my mailbox as a lovely surprise!

What was great

What was good is that the transaction, from ordering to delivery, was clear and efficient the whole way. What was great about it is that even an online order feels going to a bookshop... rather than a warehouse.

book shipped quickly and safely

book shipped quickly and safely, no dings in the hardcover, and for the same price as other retailers I get to support small bookshops! :)

Always a great experience buying books…

Always a great experience buying books from Bookshops.org. The search function works well, as does making the actual purchase.

Will order from here again

Bookshop seems like a good company. Easy ordering process and when my order was messed up during shipping their customer service was very prompt and helpful. Will was great, they were friendly and took care of my issues without any fuss.

Date of experience : August 31, 2024

The books that I order are always in pristine condition and they arrive in my mailbox either on or before the expected delivery date! Knowing that a portion of my purchases goes to local bookstores makes it all the better and deeply worthwhile. I either purchase my books here or in local bookstores that I visit.

Date of experience : September 01, 2024