The Bookshop On The Shore

A grand baronial house on Loch Ness, a quirky small-town bookseller, and a single mom looking for a fresh start all come together in this witty and warm-hearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan. Desperate to escape from London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her four year old son Hari. She can barely afford the crammed studio apartment on a busy street where shouting football fans keep them awake all night. Hari’s dad, Jaz, a charismatic but perpetually broke DJ, is no help at all. But his sister Surinder comes to Zoe’s aid, hooking her up with a job as far away from the urban crush as possible: a bookshop on the banks of Loch Ness. And there’s a second job to cover housing: Zoe will be an au pair for three children at a genuine castle in the Scottish Highlands. But while Scotland is everything Zoe dreamed of—clear skies, brisk fresh air, blessed quiet—everything else is a bit of a mess. The Urquart family castle is grand, but crumbling, the childrens’ single dad is a wreck, and the kids have been kicked out of school and left to their own devices. Zoe has her work cut out for her, and is determined to rise to the challenge, especially when she sees how happily Hari has taken to their new home. With the help of Nina, the friendly local bookseller, Zoe begins to put down roots in the community. Are books, fresh air, and kindness enough to heal this broken family—and her own…?

Nina Redmond is a librarian with a gift for finding the perfect book for her readers. But can she write her own happy-ever-after? In this valentine to readers, librarians, and book-lovers the world over, the New York Times-bestselling author of Little Beach Street Bakery returns with a funny, moving new novel for fans of Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop. Nina is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more. Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile — a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.

Lissa loves her job as a nurse, but recently she's been doing a better job of looking after other people than looking after herself. After a traumatic incident at work leaves her feeling overwhelmed, she agrees to swap lives with someone in a quiet village in Scotland. Cormac is restless. Just out of the army, he's desperately in need of distraction, and there's precious little of it in Kirrinfief. Maybe three months in London is just what he needs. As Lissa and Cormac warm to their new lives, emailing back and forth about anything and everything, finally things seem to be falling into place. But each of them feel there's still a piece missing. What - or who - could it be? And what if it's currently five hundred miles away?

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop.

The gorgeous new book from Jenny Colgan that Goodreads reviewers are calling: 'A massive hug in book form', 'utterly charming', 'magical', 'heartwarming', 'feel good', 'a breath of fresh air', 'easily one of the best books I have read this year', 'perfect feel-good fare for the summer', 'a lovely, heartwarming read' ***** Escape to the Scottish Highlands where a tiny bookshop perches on the edge of a loch Zoe is a single mother, sinking beneath the waves trying to cope by herself in London. Hari, her gorgeous little boy is perfect in every way - except for the fact that he just doesn't speak, at all. When her landlord raises the rent on her flat, Zoe doesn't know where to turn. Then Hari's aunt suggests Zoe could move to Scotland to help run a bookshop. Going from the lonely city to a small village in the Highlands could be the change Zoe and Hari desperately need. Faced with an unwelcoming boss, a moody, distant bookseller named Ramsay Urquart, and a band of unruly children, Zoe wonders if she's made the right decision. But Hari has found his very first real friend, and no one could resist the beauty of the loch glinting in the summer sun. If only Ramsay would just be a little more approachable... Dreams start here... 'Wonderful story with a hint of magic about it. Just lovely' - Katie Fforde 'A funny warm book with fantastic characters... and books!' - Sophie Kinsella 'Gorgeous location, dancing dialogue and characters you'll fall in love with. Irresistible!' - Jill Mansell 'The Bookshop on The Shore is a charming, heartwarming, gobble-it-all-up-in-one-sitting kind of book, a tale of new beginnings with characters you'll love and root for from the very first page.' - Mike Gayle 'Such a sweet tale and beneath the surface she deals honestly and movingly with poverty, anxiety and loss. You read it quickly, but you won't forget it.' - Keith Stuart

Zoe is a single mother sinking beneath the waves as she tries to cope by herself in London. Hari, her gorgeous little boy, is perfect in every way, except for the fact that he just doesn't speak. When her landlord raises the rent on her flat, Zoe doesn't know where to turn - until she discovers an opportunity for not one but two jobs in the Scottish Highlands, and decides this could be the change she desperately needs. Faced with her new boss Ramsay and his three unruly children, she begins to wonder if she's made a terrible mistake. But Hari has found his very first real friend, and no one could resist the beauty of the loch glinting in the summer sun. If only Ramsay would just be a little more approachable...

"The feel-good summer read you've been looking for! ★★★★★" "I love J C Williams! I'm a happier person with his books in my life." "Deliciously funny, poignant and totally uplifting. I defy you to not smile reading this book." Libby Tebbit had absolutely had her fill of big-city life. So, when presented with the opportunity to take over her gran's shop, The Bookshop by the Beach, she'd have been crazy to turn it down, right? Idyllic notions of lazy days by the ocean shore, shooing away the surplus eligible bachelors circling around her like squawking gulls, filled her head. These things were certain to await her, she felt confident, in this next glorious chapter of her life - this wonderful seaside adventure on the Isle of Man. Only her business acumen was about as useless as her choice in men. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained. And, besides, what's the worst that could happen? Well, quite a lot as she'd soon discover. In a relatively short amount of time, a business that'd operated fairly successfully for forty years was on its knees - and, sadly, Libby's dance card was also emptier than her bank account. She wasn't ready to let go of her dream so easily. Not just yet. All she needed, then, was a plan to turn around the ailing fortunes of The Bookshop by the Beach, and fast! The feel-good, romantic comedy read for the summer. If you enjoy Sophie Kinsella or JOJO Moyes then you'll adore this book.

This Element surveys the place of the bookstore in the creative imagination (the fantasies of the bookstore) through a study of novels in which bookstores play a prominent role in the setting or plot. Nearly 500 'bookstore novels' published since the first in 1917 have been identified. The study borrows the concept of 'meaningful locations' from the field of human geography to assess fictional bookstores as narrative events rather than static backgrounds. As a meaningful location, the bookstore creates the potential for events that can occur both within the place of the store and in the wider space within which it functions. Elements of the narrative space include its spatio-temporal location, its locale or composition, and the events which these elements generate to define the bookstore's sense of place.