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Found in a Bookshop

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Loveday Cardew’s bookshop has fallen quiet due to the pandemic lockdown. The business is struggling and Loveday and her staff are trying to figure out how to connect with readers in some new way. Out of the blue, they get a letter from a woman named Rosemary, who sends them a check and asks them to pick out some books for her and send one every few days.

This surprising request prompts Loveday to open a book prescription service where people can contact them for book recommendations based on what they need. The customers can share how they are feeling and what they are looking for, and the bookshop staff will pick out some books that can be picked up at the store or mailed or even dropped off to them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a bit on the longer side, which allowed the time to really get to know Loveday and her staff as well as the stories of several of the customers who requested book prescriptions. There were also a ton of book recommendations with descriptions of why the book was being suggested for the particular person or situation, and all of the recommended books are gathered into a list at the end of the book in case you want to look them up.

There are several reflections on the act of reading scattered throughout the novel, and this is my favorite quote from one of them:

In short: you, dear reader, are correct. You are always correct.

Not only in what you imagine, but in what you feel. You are allowed to not-love the novel the rest of the world is raving about; you are allowed to cordially loathe your sister’s favourite author. Reading is not a test. Whether or not you love a book is not a matter for debate; and not something you can be persuaded into.

Books are the magical everyday that is all your own.

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ColorStory

I love rainbow puzzles, and this was a fun one. It’s so satisfying to work a puzzle section by section. I got this one at the puzzle swap and assumed I would do it once and pass it along, but I think I might keep it to do again.

The puzzle is from the ColorStory line, but I couldn’t find a specific title. The brand is Ceaco, and the artist is Lars Stewart. It is 750 pieces.

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A Walk on the Pier

A Walk on the Pier is a 300-piece puzzle from MasterPieces, and the artist is Art Poulin. I got it at the puzzle swap I attended recently.

This was another fun, quick puzzle with large, random-cut pieces. It was fun to do, and I like the image a lot.

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Sunday Promenade

Sunday Promenade is a 300-piece puzzle from Bits and Pieces, and the artist is Mary Ann Vessey.

I got this one for free secondhand and really enjoyed it. It was a nice, quick solve with oversized, random-cut pieces. It really is a charming image. One of the ladies in my puzzle group called it “quaint.”

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Plymouth Undercover

If you are looking for a light read for a trip or just a relaxing weekend afternoon, Plymouth Undercover by Pamela Kelley fits the bill. In this cozy mystery, a mother and daughter inherit a PI agency, Court Street Investigations in Plymouth, MA.

Most of the cases revolve around cheating spouses or workman’s comp fakers, but then they get asked to find a missing woman. Very shortly, the woman turns up dead, and now they are investigating a murder.

I really liked both Emma and her mother Cindy, as well as Mickey, the eighty-year-old part-time employee of the agency. The mystery perhaps came together a bit too quickly at the end, but it was still a fun read from an author I enjoy.

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Dream Universe

Dream Universe is a 500-piece puzzle. It is unbranded.

I got this at the puzzle swap I attended recently. Originally, I had thought I might skip it and just put it back in my swap pile, but then I saw that it had letters on the back of the pieces so that I could sort it into smaller sections. So I did it that way and quite enjoyed it.

The quality was pretty good, especially for a no-name brand.

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Young Jane Young

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin is the story of five women and the scandal that binds them together. The book is divided into five parts, one for each of the women. 

The writing is sharp and funny. I was a little thrown at first by the choose your own adventure device in part five, but enjoyed it once I got used to it. I appreciated the focus on women’s issues, especially the double standard that exists for men and women when it comes to sex.

Love this quote from the author’s note:

Jane’s favorite line is from the novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Roughly, it translates, “Humans are not born forever on the day their mothers have them; life necessitates giving birth to themselves over and over again.”

I am a big Zevin fan, and this book definitely delivered!

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Colorful Harvest

Colorful Harvest is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Tracy Flickinger. I first did it with friends at Thanksgiving last year, but have been wanting to do it again solo.

For the last few weeks, I have been participating in a puzzle by number challenge in a Facebook group I belong to, and one of the prompts was mushrooms. I had a 1000-piece puzzle picked out to do, but I kept putting it off. I do want to do that puzzle, but I have done some harder 1000-piece puzzles recently and was just not feeling it right now. I had another 300-piece option that I was considering, but then someone in the group posted this puzzle for the mushrooms prompt and I got excited, knowing I had this puzzle and hadn’t remembered it had mushrooms on it.

This is my last puzzle for the challenge, so I am looking forward to what I call “mood puzzling” again. There is actually one more prompt left on the challenge, but I get a freebie for being a subscriber to the YouTube channel run by the group organizer.

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Twisted

Twisted by Jonathan Kellerman is the second Petra Connor book and, as far as I can tell, the last. I read the first one, Billy Straight, at the beginning of April and finished this one near the end of the month.

I did like the book, but not as much as the first one. It seemed a bit more glum, for lack of a better word. It seemed like Petra was just going through the motions, both with her job and her relationships, and not really very happy or excited about either of them, which I guess is reality for a fair number of people but isn’t that much fun to read about.

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Garden Allotment

Garden Allotment is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Georgia Breeze. When I first encountered this puzzle, it seemed to only be available in the UK, but a few months later, I found it on the Ravensburger US website and ordered it immediately.

I loved this puzzle from beginning to end. The quality of the puzzle is fantastic, as always with this brand, and the art is so inviting and engaging. It has a lot of flowers without being too difficult as flowers sometimes can be, and it even has a few buildings, which I especially love.

Here are a few close ups. So cute!

I just heard of a new puzzle from this artist called Coastal Harbour (shown below). I am really hoping it becomes available in the US as well.