Today is Roald Dahl Day 2019 – a special day to remember the author who wrote more than 20 children’s books, including The Twits, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This photo shows Roald Dahl writing in his hut around 1990 – the year he died – but the hut hasn’t been touched since. All titles are buy one get one free on Friday and Saturday this week. 

Thursday 3rd October. More to follow ……………………………………..

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Ducks, Newbury Port by Lucy Ellmann

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

The Orchestra of Minorities by Chicozie Obioma

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

10 minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak

Winner announced on the Monday 14th October Continue reading “Booker Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2019” →

Did you know the best way to support us (and your high street) is to

PLACE YOUR ORDER DIRECT WITH US IN THE SHOP, VIA EMAIL, TELEPHONE OR THIS WEBSITE? 

and not use a third party. Use any of the search engines to find your books, music CD’s or vinyls then send us your order to MAXIMISE the benefit to our shop! If you would like YOUR ORDER DELIVERED, we can do that too! – free of charge within a radius of  5 miles from the shop. Just ask for details and we will do our best to provide you with a first class service. WE ARE COMING UP TO OUR 7TH BIRTHDAY and we would like to have many, many more – with your help!

 

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

With The Testaments, the wait is over. Margaret Atwood’s sequel picks up the story more than 15 years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead. `Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.’ Margaret Atwood.

 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019. The literary event of the year.’ Guardian. ‘It’s terrifying and exhilarating.’ Judges of the Booker Prize 2019  Out on Tuesday 10th September, our price £16.99

Same but different? Stephen Booth’s latest book Drowned Lives is the same quality psychological crime thriller he does so well; different because there is no sign of Ben Cooper and Diane Fry! Are they (or Stephen) just on a break?

If you missed the book signing on Saturday 31st August, we still have some signed copies of Stephen’s book on sale at £16.99

   This is young Alex White who is on a quest to get more people out enjoying nature. Illustrated throughout by Alex’s stunning photographs, this book will appeal to young and old alike. It suggests when and where to get out there; what to go looking for; how to do it; what to take… and a host of other tips. Get Your Boots On on sale here SP £13.99.  Thank you Alex – cracking book! Continue reading “Young Alex, Wildlife Champion” →

Come and meet Martyn next Saturday 27th July from 12 midday to 1.30pm, if you are into all things flying – well planes!. This is a book of ‘firsts’ in the aviation world dating from 1933 to 2018, a comprehensive reference charts many of the world’s most important airliners and commercial aircraft through their first flights.

Martyn is an experienced aviation photographer with over 40 years experience in documenting the changes in aviation over the decades. His work has appeared in publications around the world. Martyn lives locally.

 

Did any of you hang Airfix model planes from the ceiling in your bedroom when you were a child? I bet Martyn did! Come along and ask him . . . . .

 

Monday 24th June  –  Cream Tea at 6pm in the Town Hall, Chapel en le Frith with Sunday Times bestseller Harriet Evans and her latest novel The Garden of Lost and Found, this unputdownable new family epic from the author of The Wildflowers. Harriet writes the most delicious, epic stories from the heart since Maeve Binchy and Kate Morton. Harriet’s book is out on the 18th April 2019

Contact us or call at the shop for tickets £5. All ticket money will go to Blythe House Hospice 

From 15th – 22nd June.  More details to follow

The much-loved  children’s author, Judith Kerr has died at the age of 95. Judith Kerr OBE was a British writer and illustrator. She created the both endearing and enduring picture books the Mog series and The Tiger Who Came to Tea as well as acclaimed novels for older children such as the semi-autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which gave a child’s-eye view of the Second World War. She was born in Berlin in 1923 and fled to Britain with her family in 1933.

Emily Maitlis remembers asking Judith if the Tiger symbolised the 60’s sexual revolution where normal and suburban life became upended by this wild and exotic creature? She told me no, it was just a story about a tiger coming to tea!  I love this. . . .  thank you Judith from all the children who have enjoyed your books over generations.

The latest news is that Hilary Mantel’s next novel The Mirror & the Light will be published in March 2020, the final novel in the trilogy which started with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Hilary Mantel became the first British author and the first woman to be awarded two Man Booker Prizes.

 The Shortlist 2019

Fiction written by women for everyone

On Tuesday 19^th March 2019, the eight-strong shortlists for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest book awards for children and young people, are revealed. Selected by volunteer Youth Librarians from longlists of 20 books per Medal, these titles reflect the very best in children’s writing and illustration published in the UK.

See Younger Readers page for more details.

Feminist Book Fortnight 2019 will run from Saturday 4th – Saturday 18th May 2019

In 2018  a group of radical and independent bookshops around the UK and Ireland launched Feminist Book Fortnight, a celebration of feminist books. Independent bookshops around the country highlighted the diversity of feminist books over the two weeks with displays of books and lots of events. Participating bookshops reported lots of full events and a “thirst” for discussion of feminist issues as well as celebration of feminist achievements.

See Events page for more details

Congratulations to all of you who exchanged their WBD voucher for a free book! This year has been the best so far for us with visits to Kettleshulme St James Primary School and Chapel High School together with the ones brought to the shop an amazing 176 more books are out there! 

Thanks to children, parents and teachers for your support in this event and of course the National Book Tokens and lots of lovely publishers and authors who make it all possible!

Remember if you would like us to visit YOUR school next year make sure you book early!

 

This year’s Crime ‘n Dine evening will be on Friday 12th April at 7.30pm with two highly respected authors in the world of crime writing – William Shaw and Olivia Kiernan.

           

We are back at Rems for Gareth’s Hot Pot, ticket price £20 which includes dinner and a £5 voucher to spend on the night when William and Olivia’s books will be on sale.

Save the date, contact the shop now for tickets! See Events page for more details.

12 FANTASTIC BOOKS BY 12 AMAZING AUTHORS –  Mallory Blackman, Rick Riordan, Jeff Kinney, Abi Elphinstone, Lauren Child to name a few.

See Younger Readers page for more details. You have until the 31st March to redeem your vouchers.

Fing, David Walliams latest book is on sale in the shop NOW!

Meet the Meeks! Myrtle Meek has everything she could possibly want. But everything isn’t enough. She wants more, more, MORE! When Myrtle declares she wants a FING, there’s only one problem……. WHAT IS A FING?

Congratulations to the winning team ‘Fire Whisky’ at our Harry Potter Quiz night on Friday. Martha (first from left) was the best dressed Hermoine and best dressed adult, Professor McGonagall.  Thank you to all who came and hope you had a good time!

 

The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es

A masterpiece of history and memoir’ Evening Standard ‘Superb -this is a necessary book – painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting’ The Times

Little Lien wasn’t taken from her Jewish parents – she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Continue reading “Costa Awards Book of the Year” →

The winners of the prestigious Costa Awards were announced tonight with Sally Rooney’s Normal People voted the best novel.

Sally Rooney has become the youngest author to win the Costa Novel Award, four months after she was omitted from the Booker Prize shortlist.

The 27-year-old won the prize for her coming-of-age tale, Normal People, described by the Costa judges as “a trailblazing novel about modern life and love that will electrify any reader”.

See Book News page for the other category winners

We are delighted to celebrate our 6th Birthday this week and Lyndsay and I wish to thank all our loyal customers for your support and making READING MATTERS a well established independent bookshop in Chapel. The past six years have flown by but in that time we have met some wonderful people and heard interesting stories about their lives and their families, learnt how to find a book with the merest of information – ‘it was blue and in the window a few weeks ago’ But the best thing about owning an independent bookshop is – it’s our shop we can do what we like!

I have heard many times recently how more and more of you are shopping locally, and we thank you for this.

 

The overnight internet sensation that is Wonky Donkey is now on sale here!

Hurry copies are selling fast!

You Tube Wonky Donkey

Milkman by Anna Burns is this year’s winner of the Man Booker Prize.

Milkman is extraordinary. I’ve been reading passages aloud for the pleasure of hearing it. It’s frightening, hilarious, wily and joyous all at the same time.’ – Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous.
Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. The last thing she ever wanted to be.
To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous. Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences. Continue reading “Man Booker Prize Winner 2018” →

The winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2018 (formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize) is Serhii Plokhy with Chernobyl. Continue reading “The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner 2018” →

The broadcast brothers are of course our very own High Peak Radio Paul Jenner and his brother Steve.

Their book,  On the Radio is out now and on sale in the shop. Continue reading “Broadcast Brothers” →

Graham Hoyland 

Local author and mountaineer with his latest book,

Yeti: An Abominable History.

Last Hours on Everest, a truly fascinating account of  Mallory and Irvine’s fatal ascent and Walking Through Spring are also written by Graham.

What leads us to believe in monsters? What happens when we meet the brutal creatures of our nightmares? Tales of the Yeti, the `Abominable Snowman’ of the Himalayas, have been recorded for centuries. This huge, ape-like, hairy creature has tantalised explorers, mountaineers and locals with curious footprints and elusive appearances. But until recently, no one has been able to identify what this mythical creature might be, or even determine if it is real.
On an expedition to the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, Graham Hoyland found and filmed footprints of the mythical yeti in a part of the country that has never before been visited by Western explorers. In a lost valley near the unclimbed mountain Gangkar Punsum, Hoyland believes he was stalked by the mysterious yeti, a beast so unspeakably powerful that locals say it can kill a yak with one savage blow of its fist. As he delves into the fascinating history of this ancient legend, Hoyland hears tales of the yeti from Sherpas who have tried and failed to track it.

He explores the literary hinterland behind the legend and searches for the yeti’s American cousin Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and her African relative Mokele-Mbembe. From the dubious, mystical pseudo-science of the Nazis in the 1930s to our current era of `post-truth’ and `fake news’, Hoyland examines the age-old cultural phenomena that have shaped our collective consciousness and fuelled a belief in the existence of these monstrous creatures.         

  

Yeti: An Abominable History on sale now £16.99

 

 

Author of Walking Through Spring and The Last Hours on Everest.

        

 

 

 

Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

The first graphic novel to reach a Man Booker longlist and I believe it will reach the shortlist, announced later in the month. On my bedside table pile!

The answer is hidden on a videotape, a tape which is en route to several news outlets, and about to go viral. A landmark graphic novel, already hailed as one of the most exciting and moving stories of recent years, Sabrina is a tale of modern mystery, anxiety, fringe paranoia and mainstream misinformation — a book that tells the story of those left behind in the wake of tragedy, has important things to say about how we live now, and possesses the rare power to leave readers pulverised. Continue reading “Sabrina: A Graphic Novel” →

STOP PRESS: FALL DOWN DEAD IS No3 IN THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERS LIST THIS WEEK!

Lovely to have Stephen here last    Saturday signing his new book – Fall Down Dead – the 18th Cooper and Fry bestselling crime detectives in another gripping tale, this time on Kinder!

 

Fall Down Dead is on sale at £16.99 (RRP £20) and Dead in the Dark is now out in paperback.

This is Stephen with David King, a Chapel Parish Councillor. Stephen and David ‘chat’ on social media but until this day had never met! They did seem to have a lot to talk about :o)

BIENVENUE  

‘TO THE FRENCH SHELF’

This is our first selection of foreign language books we will now stock; some French Classics and a range of contemporary novels. Over the next few months we will introduce novels written in Spanish and German, to add to the collection.

                

This is only a small selection of the books we are able to supply. If you are interested in any other titles, please ask to see the catalogue.

We hope you will enjoy ‘something a little different’ whether you just enjoy reading or are learning a language. Reading will always improve your understanding, vocabulary and of course, give immense pleasure.

Please let us know your thoughts on this new addition to your little independent bookshop.

          

Thank you to everyone who came to Mandy’s special evening last night, her book launch with family, friends and lots more.  A good time was had by all – with plenty of book sales! Home is on sale at the shop now.      Continue reading “Amanda Berriman book launch” →

         

Our team Basilisks came 10th out of 20 national teams in the London quiz final last Saturday. Congratulations to you all – Isobel, Sophie, Sammy and Jayne! Continue reading “Harry Potter Quiz Final in London” →

Don’t forget we have our very own Gift Vouchers to spend on anything in the shop – not just books!  £5 or £10 with a matching envelope.

     

The first book in Cressida’s brand new series, The Wizards of Once is on sale in the shop NOW! Set in an ancient, magical time, full of Wizards, Warriors, Giants and Sprites. This is the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison; and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide. Continue reading “Cressida Cowell’s The Wizards of Once” →