Can there just be more and more and MORE books about bookstores and libraries! This was so fun! This was such an unputdownable book!

I saw the cover of this book and immediately was intrigued. I love books, bookish people, and animals so if you love those things too, you will love this book! The writing wasn't the best and I didn't really care for the political parts of the book. There were also a little too many sub-plots going on within the book.

As a reader requesting books about books is a must but this one disappointed me. It was just stupid and none of the characters were well developed. It was too whimsical and far-fetched.

As a reader who loves independent bookstores, I read any and every book I can that takes place in one. "Bookish People" is the exact kind of quirky and moving that I like best.

A wonderful cast of characters emerges in Coll's world, each one with their own problems and concerns: finding their biological father, dealing with the recent death of a spouse, or keeping their career on track after a national scandal. Just reading that sentence makes me want to read it again for the very first time! Huge fan of Coll and her work, and this book cemented my lifelong affection for her writing.

DNF -- I got 100 pages in and couldn't finish. I love the cover and the description is really fun, but the long chapters and so many points of view had me losing the thread of the story, and losing interest.

I really could not get into this one. I didn't enjoy the writing style or the vignette style. Just didn't work for me at all.

Bookish People by Susan Coll has a great title and premise. This was a nice read but it lacked elements of depth and left me a bit wanting.

I'd recommend this book to fans of contemporary fiction, anyone who enjoys reading and bookstores and just wants a fine book to escape into for a while.

I just didn't vibe with one, it was slow and I didn't like the characters. There where some good parts but not enough to keep me interested.

This book was a bit slow in pacing, but I loved the weaving together of the narrators' stories and the distinct voices in the book. I would recommend it to folks needing a slice of life book that is fun to read.

So, so bad. I had to DNF. The writing is so amateur and the characters poorly drawn. Definitely not going to read any more by this author.

This book was admittedly chaotic, but I was in the perfect mood to read it when I did. I listened to the audiobook while frantically trying to pack for a trip, clean my house, and finish up tasks for work before I left the country, and my frazzled state of mind perfectly fit the tone of the book.

Sophie's bookstore is all over the place. Sophie just wants to retreat from the world in her little book nook, and Clemi is frantically trying to hold the store together while juggling a bit of an identity crisis. The other members of this ensemble are just as bizarre, and the story came together hilariously.

This book is light and funny and served as a great palate cleanser. I will say that while this is a character-driven novel with not much plot, there also wasn't enough depth to the characters. I was left wanting a little more from either the plot or the character development.

I am confused by the dog on the cover, since the pet in the story was a turtle.

I finished this book but honestly the story was mediocre at best. There are too many simultaneous story lines without enough detail to really care too much about any of them. I enjoyed the turtle but the vacuum situation was too much.

I normally love books about bookstores but this one missed the mark.

2 stars

⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper amuse for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really feel like the cover, and description of this book didn't match the content. Sometimes I don't always mind that but this book didn't work for me.

I received this book from netgalley for an honest review

I love books out books and the people that rapes. This book is very enjoyable and definitely kept me entertained for the weekend

TW// mention of suicide and self-harm methods.

Sophie is an independent bookstore owner in Washington D.C. whose quickly becoming weary and burnt out, after the death of her husband Solomon. Everything has slowly become overwhelming and difficult to keep up with, and nagging feelings of giving up are becoming more and more frequent. Clem is the events manager at the bookstore, beginning her career as a bookseller, her life is also beginning to spiral and slowly suffocate her. Choosing events for certain books are causing her more and more controversy and stress than she is prepared for, and as a result has had to put her own dream of writing a book on the back burner, as she juggle she constant changes and difficulties surrounding her job. The two women are slowly drowning in these feelings, and losing love for the thing that once brought them nothing but joy. It's got a lot of anguish and pain, but also a lot of humour, and quirkiness.

This was a really interesting story, about navigating this stifling world whilst experiencing grief, unrequited love, and consistently facing the hatred expressed by others, and trying to find ways through the tragedies and pain of the world with the ones you are about when everything just feels so dark and bleak. I found it quite moving at times, especially on the parts focusing on the anguish and loneliness that can come from managing anxiety and also trying to get onto the career trajectory you dream of, and just how difficult it can be to get out of your own way and slowly lose momentum and desire to come through for yourself when everything else is just piling on top of you. This story also highlights some really important topics such as racism and Anti-Semitism ingrained within the American system, which was really gut-wrenching to read at times, but so important to remember.

There's a lot of layers to these characters, which I found really enjoyable, shout out to the adorable Kurt Vonnegut Jr the turtle, a personal highlight. I also loved the way some of the character's lives were so complexly interwoven with each other. I really related to Sophie at times, when all she wanted was to move into the small nook in the bookstore that nobody knows about and just be with her books and escape the doom and hatred of the outside world, in her own safe space. I really adored how calamitous both Sophie and Clem are, they are so realistic and beautifully flawed, it's hard not to connect with them in some shape or form.

My only issue I had with the book is that sometimes the chapters were a tad on the longer side, so at times I felt like I was slogging along, other than that it was a really endearing read that highlights some super important topics, with realistic interactions between characters who are complex and charismatic

Reading this book, with its crazy characters and madcap plot, is like watching a Marx Brothers movie with many moving parts and sub plots occurring. All of the characters were agreeable and fun and their many stories were entertaining. Although this book has really no "redeeming social value" it was a lot of fun and it kept a smile on my face.

Schön zu lesen und ich hab mich Kurt Vonnegut JR verliebt. War wirklich toll und ich konnte es einfach nicht weglegen.

Thanks for the ARC for an honest review.
Unfortunately I DNFd after 20%.
From the cover and blurb I got the impression this was going to be funny. Personally, I wasn't getting that at all. In fact the two characters we are following both seem very depressed.
At 20% I like a book to already have hooked me, but I wasn't hooked by this one. Yes, there is potentially a controversial poet coming for an event at the bookstore. Unfortunately I didn't care enough about this to see it through.

If you are looking for a quirky book about book stores this is the title for you. I'm not sure that I would call it a great read, but it is at least a good one. The characters were interesting and I didn't feel like their were any parts of the story that I had heard before.

I will note that I would have given this 4 stars if it had not been so hard to follow at times. All the switching between points of view made it difficult to stay 100 percent focused on the story all of the time. I appreciated the different story lines, but the changing of narrators could have been clearer.

I was super excited by the blurb because it seemed promising, but unfortunately it is not for me. I am forever in search for a good over 30 MCs but this one did not deliver. However, I would definitely be on the lookout for the author’s upcoming books!