Emily's Staff Picks
See what Doylestown bookseller Emily is reading...
Wolf Hall is without a doubt one of the best pieces of historical fiction I have ever read. This was my first Hilary Mantel and she immediately became an auto-buy author for me. I am currently reading Bring Up the Bodies, the second installment in the Thomas Cromwell Trilogy and it is just as brilliant as the first. Mantel's writing is so beautiful and vivid that it takes your breath away and absolutely transports you to Tudor England in a way I've never experienced before.
This beautiful coming-of-age story is one of my all-time favorites with one of the best narrators in literature. Cassandra Mortmain lives in a secluded castle with her crazy father, kooky stepmother, beautiful sister Rose, and younger brother Thomas. When a pair of handsome brothers buy the property, loves quickly become entangled and lives are changed forever. I Capture the Castle is utterly charming, funny, and heartbreaking and you won't be forgetting the Mortmains any time soon.
This is the diary of Shaun Bythell, the owner of a secondhand bookshop in Scotland whose tales of difficult customers and crazy coworkers had me in stitches. Possessed of a dry wit and withering sarcasm, Bythell pulls no punches and if you're interested in the inner workings of a secondhand bookshop or snarky descriptions of its customers, add this book to your list! Bythell is also on Facebook where he delivers a steady stream of book love and hilarious customer anecdotes.
Four women, fed up with their dreary London lives and looking to get away, pool their resources and rent a small medieval castle in Italy for the month of April. All they're looking for is a quiet escape but the beautiful landscape soon begins to work its magic and ultimately changes them in ways they never could have imagined. This is a dreamy, heartwarming book about getting a fresh lease on life and love.
From Lizzy Bennett and Anne of Green Gables to Flora Poste and the Little Mermaid, Samantha Ellis lovingly reexamines the heroines of her youth and how they affected her life and outlook as a woman. Would she have made better decisions if she'd spent her life trying to be Jane Eyre rather than Cathy Earnshaw? Part memoir, part literary analysis, How to Be a Heroine is an engaging exploration of our most beloved female roll models.
The entire Cemetery of Forgotten Books series is a whole lot of gothic fun but The Angel's Game is my personal favorite. The writing is lush and atmospheric with a few scenes so vividly drawn that I have never forgotten them. Zafón really leans into the genre in this book. With an insane asylum, forbidden love, cursed religious texts, and a mysterious benefactor who just might be the devil, this book truly has it all with twists and turns to spare!
Joanne Harris is a favorite of mine and this stylish campus thriller about a spat of murders at St. Oswald's School for Boys is one of her best. Gentlemen and Players is a riviting tale of intrigue and class warfare that will have you turning the pages past your bedtime right up until that fantastic twist ending!
Sugar spends her nights working in a brothel and her days secretly penning graphic sensation novels where the male characters meet violent ends. When one of her customers hires her as a governess to his daughter in order to get more time with her, she quickly becomes ensnared in the family drama. This is a wonderful, atmospheric book that utterly immerses you in the dark underbelly of Victorian London and introduces you to an unforgettable cast of characters.
