Both my family and my boyfriend’s family have lake houses near Wolfeboro, NH. We were up at his family’s house for his mother’s birthday last weekend, which gave me the chance to visit my favorite bookstore ever: The Country Bookseller. Ever since I was a child, going to this store a few times of year has been the highlight of my summer. So naturally I was quite excited for this outing.
First up was the shelf of new releases. Right off the bat I had my eye on A Court of Silver Flames. I wasn’t sure if my mother had ordered it as my Easter present though, so I texted her to ask and continued browsing.
This is the bottom half of the new releases shelf. There wasn’t much here that I was interested, but I was happy to see the paperback of Docile by K. M. Szpara. I bought the hardcover copy from this store last summer even though I usually don’t buy hardcovers by authors I don’t know. It was highly recommend by one of my favorite BookTubers though, and it was completely worth it!
The staff picks display in the fiction section always has some excellent choices. The Bear and the Nightingale has been on there for several years now, which I appreciate because it’s such an amazing series. The staff clearly has great taste. I actually bought my copy of The Girl in the Tower from here. I feel like that’s something I’m going to say a lot through this post haha.
I took a look at the Ali Smith books. I mentioned in my last book shopping post that I’m interested in her. And the covers of these books are so lovely. But I’m not really sure where to start. If anyone has suggestions, I’d appreciate them!
I got excited to see a copy of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I read it on audiobook last fall and really enjoyed it. I’d never come across a physical copy, and it was nice to see the lovely cover in person. I thought about buying it, but I wanted to get some books I haven’t read.
I took a look at the Murakami selection because he’s an author I’ve been wanting to read for a while. If they’d had Norwegian Wood, I would have bought it. But they didn’t. Based on the summaries, I think that will be the easiest one for me to get into, and I’ve heard it’s a good place to start for readers who are new to Murakami. I don’t really know anything about Killing Commendatore, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, and Men Without Women. I know 1Q84 is supposed to be great, but it’s also ginormous and probably not the best place to start with him.
I came very close to buying The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell. It was featured in my first What’s On My Never-Ending TBR post under it’s alternative title Bone China. I bought my other two Purcell books, The Silent Companions and The Poison Thread, from this store. But I did tell myself I wouldn’t buy another book by her until I’d read The Poison Thread, which I haven’t done yet. So I controlled myself.
Plain Bad Heroines has been on my TBR for a while. I requested an ARC back before it was released and didn’t get approved. I adored The Miseducation of Cameron Post, and this one sounds like it is right up my alley. And the hardcover is so gorgeous! But I ultimately decided not to buy it this time around. It just wasn’t what I was in the mood for.
Next I came across We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. The book takes place in Danvers, MA, which is near where I grew up and the actual site of Salem Village of witch trial fame. Several of my ancestors were involved in the trials (both as accusers and accused), so I’m always interested in books about the town and descendants. It’s been on my TBR since I first heard of it, and since it was in paperback I decided to buy it.
I popped over to the YA section to look around, but nothing really caught my interest. The display is lovely though!
So I circled back around to the new releases shelf to grab A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas. I was a little hesitant about buying a physical copy. I’ve only bought her books on Kindle before. But I wanted it plus I wanted to support my favorite bookstore. So I got it!
In a big turn of events, my boyfriend also bought a book! While I was browsing, he found Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty and decided he wanted it. He’s not a reader, so I was quite surprised, especially since it’s so huge. It’s about economics, which is not my thing at all. But it’s one of his big interests, so I’m glad he found this.
We headed to check out and all three books were put on my book buyer’s card. Every book you buy and it’s price gets placed on the card. Once you’ve bought ten, they average all the prices together and you get that amount off a purchase. That’s definitely one of the reasons this is my favorite bookstore!
A Literary Princess 