I love books about books, book stores and libraries, so I was excited to read this book. Set in a book store with a middle aged widow as the owner seemed right up my alley. It ended up being an okay read but I had much higher hopes.

Sophie Bernstein was recently widowed and trying to deal with her new reality and her 20-something son who wants no part of the book store. We also have Clemi who is the events planner who books all the authors who come in for readings/signings. She has booked a very controversial author and doesn't want to cancel because she thinks her may be her father.

The storylines re a little convoluted and don't flow together all that well. I did like many of the quirky characters an the addition of the eclipse gives it a timeline. The tortoise riding the Roomba was the funniest part.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I love love love reading books about books so I thought I would really enjoy this, unfortunately, it was not the book for me! The writing style was just difficult for me to get into.

Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #bookishpeople

I love books about books, especially ones set in Washington DC so I was looking forward to Bookish People but ultimately this fell flat for me. While I think it was meant to be cute and quirky it was a little too all over the place for me and I just couldn't get into the book.

Ensemble cast of characters connected by their work in an independent bookstore. I agree with the store owner, Sophie: there are two kinds of people in this world, those that read books when there’s nothing else to do, and those that cancel other plans to read books. I’m definitely the latter and I suspect the author is too.

If you ask most people, especially inveterate readers for whom books hold an almost mystically romantic quality, working in a bookstore would have to be the best of all possible worlds.

The people who work there talk highly about the merits and rewards of helping books and people make happily rewarding matches, but they are also sage, and to an extent, world weary enough to know that employment in a bookstore is not always the superlative employment opportunity it’s dreamily assumed to be.

One person who knows this better than most is the protagonist of Bookish People by Susan Coll, Sophie Bernstein, long-time owner of an unnamed independent bookstore in Washington, D.C., who, grappling with the burden of almost twenty years of bookstore ownership and the recent sudden death of her beloved husband Solomon, is wondering why on earth she’s even bothering any more.

She even goes so far as to admit that she’s “even starting to become hostile to books”, a startling admission for any booklover, but one borne of a thousand different pressures bearing down upon and within her, all of whom accentuated by the recent (for the 2017-set book, anyway) incident in Charlottesville where a white supremacist drove their car into anti-fascist activists, killing one and injuring more, which stoke in Sophie, a Jewish woman with an appreciation for how darkly cruel humanity can be, a fear that her already fragile world is crumbling into places she does not want to experience.

Scared that history is nightmarishly repeating one of its most horrific chapters, she makes plans to retreat to a walled-off room deep in the bookstore, a “350 square feet of windowless, dusty solitude” in which she can hide should the world plunge into the darkness she fears is coming.

On some level she knows this is not the way to handle either her grief, the increasingly noxious world around her or her disillusionment with bookselling, but rationality is not exactly a close companion when you’re in the state in which Sophie, who’s always been warmly enthusiastic and inclusive to staff (though she wonders if she could have done more) and customers alike, surprisingly finds herself.

A knowingly sober love letter to bookselling from someone who has spent many years in the trade, Bookish People captures all the joys and madness of working in a bookstore, echoing the idea that it has many benefits but also all too cognisant of the fact that like any profession, it has considerable downsides too.

Downsides which are being thrown into ever sharper relief for not only Sophie, who is wondering how she will cope when her decade-long bookstore manager, Jamal, moves with his husband and kids to Chicago to study law, but also events coordinator Clemi who, in-between trying unsuccessfully to write a breakthrough novel and become the writer of which she’s also dreamed, is trying to wrangle authors who are either too afraid to go on or embroiled in the kind of controversy of which no bookstore wants to be a part.

Moving between heartfelt introspection, existential exasperation and farcical hilarity – the day on which two events are being staged, each with their own challenges for Clemi (one is for controversial poet, Raymond Chaucer, who may or may not be her father) while Sophie is trying to secretly get work done on her hideaway, break into a vacuum cleaner (a long and amusing story) and deal with her son Michael’s inability to settle on a meaningful career, is a joy to read all by itself – Bookish People is one of those exquisitely good books that says a great deal without making a big fuss about it.

It is, much of the time, a slice of life, day-by-day affair and while things become increasingly hard to deal with for both Sophie and Clemi, Coll never resorts to melodrama or overblown description, choosing instead to place some extraordinarily wearing events in the context where they happen for pretty all of us – smack bang in the middle of the grinding banality of every day life.

This means that even as the farce amps up, and issues go from niggling to exasperatingly large, near terrifying or emotionally overwhelming, Bookish People always feels like s story which lives in the quiet moments rather than boisterously overblown ones.

So, even at its most outrageously funny and emotionally searing – the window on grief and loss, both actual and imagined, is tangible and richly affecting – Bookish People never feels overdone, sitting neatly in an accessible place which makes sense to any of use who have ever felt that life, despite its quite ordinary trappings, is off the charts exhaustingly bonkers.

While events pivot largely around Sophie and Clemi, Bookish People also does a neat job of bringing forth supporting characters such as Noah, a privileged young man who’s not really present for either the people he knows or the place he works, and Clemi’s housemate Florence, a passionate young woman teetering on the edge of a mental health crisis, unaware she is that close to dropping off the edge.

It’s the care and effort that Coll puts into these supporting characters that makes the story as a whole, and the main characters of Sophie and Clemi come even more alive, further enriching a novel already ripe with lived experience, insight into the way grief and loss can distort and reshape reality into frightening configurations, and a knowing understanding that even the things we love don’t always match expectations and can sometimes become more onerous hell than light joyfulness.

Bookish People is one those novels that stays quiet and thoughtful throughout (though with a gloriously fun, screwball comedy bent), while, with a ready mix of buoyant wit, sage insight and an appreciable sense of life’s sudden ups and down, going to some deeply meaningful and moving places, the kind that can test us, but which, if we’re surrounded by the people we know and love, around us, can lead us to something very good indeed.

Eventually, anyway …

With a cute cover and premise, I was really excited about this one but unfortunately it just didn’t do it for me. It felt like there was no real plot happening and it was just day to day relationships which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but just not what I was expecting. The storyline felt slow-going and while the characters are quirky, the tortoise was my favorite and I still don’t understand why it was even a part of the book.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this. I just couldn't get into this and after a whole dedicated to a vacuum I decided to give up. Maybe this one is for someone else but it is not for me. Although because the cover is insanely adorable I had higher hopes.

So much hilarious drama! This is an adorably yet emotionally charged book. There is so much to enjoy and much to relate to.

This was a very strange and often confusing book. There were a few parts that made me chuckle, so it earned the second star for that, but otherwise it would have been a one-star read for sure. There were so many weird characters, and so many odd situations that didn't fit into any of the rest of the book. The whole thing just made me confused. Not a recommendation.

I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as I’d hoped. If you’re looking for a book about bookish people, this isn’t it. None of the characters were likable, and I don’t mean that none were “good” people. None of them were complex enough to enjoy reading about.

There was also a lot of comments that were said in passing by various characters that were, at best, questionable. And those comments weren’t addressed or anything. They were allowed to stand.

I just can’t recommend this book. It was uninteresting and I wasn’t in any way invested. Honestly, I wouldn’t have finished it if I didn’t need to write a review.

It was overall just meh.

How cute is the cover of Bookish People by Susan Coll? I loved the characters and the humor in this book, about a book store owner and her employees. The writing was both interesting and witty, and I did laugh out loud a few times. Many thanks to Netgalley & Harper Muse for the advance reader copy in exchange for a honest review.

*3.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"She sometimes thinks the world divides into two types of people, those who think books are for reading when there's nothing else to do, and those who avoid other things to do in order to read books..."

I definitely avoid most things and would rather be reading Bookish People by new to me author Susan Coll.

Bookish People, such an eye catching title, is about one chaotic week in the life of 54 year old independent bookstore owner Susan and her somewhat zany employees and customers.

She is dealing with the death of her beloved husband, losing her manager, possible being sued by a customer who has a run in with another customer's dog, a problematic author whose only reading of his book is at her store after rumors of his involvement in his wife's suicide. Then it's a real strong possibility he may also be the biological father of one of her employees, unbeknownst to him of course.

There is also the frustration with her non ambitious child, a push to sell her non profitable store, a continuously broken vacuum cleaner and just the every day anxiety of the world news. Susan's wish is to be in a secret back room of her store with her books and absolutely no humans! It's okay Susan we have all been there.

Now it's not all problems there are great moments of Kurt Vonnegut Jr, the Roomba riding tortoise and honestly, he made me smile the most. There was a lot going on, a lot of characters, and random side stories. I would have loved more Susan and her journey. Who doesn't want a bookstore owner as a best friend? It's a lot of chaos, some fun, some sad, some annoying and all thrown together at once. Sometimes I was confused but never bored because you know, it's always good to be around Bookish People.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via #netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Books about books are my favorite. The writing was okay on this one, not one of my favorite authors. The story itself was fun but I didn’t feel or see myself in the characters and that is okay.

Thank you Harper Muse and NetGalley for the ARC of Bookish People by Susan Coll. I love stories about books, reading, and especially book shops. This fits in all these categories. Sophie Bernstein is a 54 year old that owns a bookstore and it has just become overwhelming. We get to see the ins and outs of running a bookstore and just how much work goes into it. The relationships the staff have with each other are very special and Coll does a great job of describing them. Most people become close with co-workers so this is something most can identify with.

Witty and full of dry humor, Bookish People has a fun cast of characters and plenty of subplots. The latter kind of made it a tad confusing for me but nevertheless I enjoyed this quick read.
The laugh out loud parts were my favorite, but I also liked the quiet nod to rediscovering the world around you with the help of friends, acquaintances, and authors at Sophie's bookshop.

Fiction books about books and the cute cover really got me for wanting to read it asap and this book right here.

As i was diving into the pages, the character development and the plot feels flat and mundane to me. I feel joy when the first chapter hits, but the pace is so slow 😭😭. I think it’s better to add such subplot that give thrills or anything so it won’t miss the delight in the book!
Thank you netgalley for giving me the e-arc!!

I think, like most people, I was drawn in for two reasons.

1. A love of books. A book about books? Great!
2. The cute cartoon cover.

While point one obviously delivered, I think point two is where this book was let down. That’s absolutely nothing to do with the author and more so how it’s being presented. In an age of Emily Henry and other cutesy cartoon rom com covers, you can’t simply slap one on and call it a day when it doesn’t fit the genre. It sets false expectations.

The book itself? The writing is engaging and there are loveable characters and moments I enjoyed. All together though it felt like a slog to the finish. Like the general consensus, the switching POV was fairly disorientating.

I think there’s a huge amount of people who are going to love this book but may not be the people who will be drawn in by this cover.

Thank you to Harper Muse, NetGalley and Susan Coll for a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

Am I the only person drawn to books about books? Fiction about a bookstore? Count me in.

As someone local to the DC area, it was nice to read a book that so thoroughly described some of the regional settings. But on the same hand, I worried that this book will be quickly dated - if in fact it isn’t already. From current (now recent past) events, such as the Charlottesville rally attack, to naming athletes long gone from a team, there was just something that I couldn’t get past. I think it had to do with these specifics not being necessary for the plot. Had this book leaned more political, or into a plot where timing and current events were necessary to set the scene, then it may have made sense.

But let’s talk about by favorite scene perhaps ever SPOILERS AHEAD- the chaos of the Chaucer poetry reading, Florence running in in a leotard and matches, Clemi essentially tackling her, Sophie shooting her self in the foot, and then beep boop boop Kurt Vonnegut Jr riding by on the Roomba. Pure comedy.

**I received this advance copy free from Harper Muse, HarperCollins via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

All it took was the title. Bookish People. I saw it on NetGalley and had to read it.

That may be kind of sad, but I just knew that the people within its pages would be my kind of people, and I was right.

Bookish People by Susan Coll introduces us to Mrs. Sophie Bernstein and her bookshop in Washington DC. The cast of characters is your usual suspects: the manager who has been working there far too long, the overworked events manager who is always frazzled with a very full email inbox, several teenagers who love reading--you know the crew. Sophie, unbeknownst to her, suffers from near crippling anxiety due to *gestures vaguely at America today* and she becomes somewhat of a secret doomsday prepper.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and while I did find Clemi to be interesting, unfortunately this story kind of fell flat for me. It was enjoyable enough that I finished it, but I struggled. It took me days to finish what should have been a ~4ish hour read, because I kept having to put it down--the story just didn't capture me, mostly because it got very rambling, very often. For example, there were entire pages devoted to vacuum cleaners and ovens. I get what the author was trying to do there, underlining the stress that the characters were under and making the reader feel their almost manic desperation, but it was too rambling that it got to be exhausting.

It felt very low stakes, and there was never really a climax of the plot. It felt more like you were sitting in on a week in these people's lives, and while it was admittedly a shitty week for the bookstore, it was also pretty mundane.

Even though it wasn't my cup of tea, Bookish People did give me this beautiful, so relatable quote: "She sometimes thinks the world divides into two types of people, those who think books are for reading when there's nothing else to do, and those who avoid other things to do in order to read books--and unsurprisingly she's in the latter camp, but really, is that so awful?"

No, no it's not. If you're in any reading camp, you should give Bookish People a chance--it may be right up your alley.

I'll leave you with a Doodle joke, as just about every one of Bookish People's "End of Day Reports" includes one:

I drew my dog while I was on a boring phone call and I'm really proud of it!
It's a golden doodle.

I really struggled to get into this book. I couldn't find the narrative off the bat and I think that made it difficult to enjoy.