BLOG TOUR: The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell

I was so excited when I was asked to take part in the blog tour for The Bookshop Book as what could be better than a book about books? If you are an avid reader, sniffer or stroker of books, blogger, independent bookshop champion then this book is for you! 

Every bookshop has a story...
The Bookshop Book explores bookshops in barns, disused factories, converted churches and underground car parks. Bookshops on boats, on buses, and in old run-down train stations. Fold-out bookshops, undercover bookshops. this-is-the-best-place-I've-ever-been-to-bookshops.
Meet Sarah and her Book Barge sailing across the sea to France; meet Sebastien, in Mongolia, who sells books to herders of the Altai Mountains; meet the bookshop in Canada that's invented the world's first antiquarian book vending machine.
And that's just the beginning.
From the oldest bookshop in the world, to the smallest you could imagine, The Bookshop Book examines the history of books, talks to authors about their favourite places, and looks at over two hundred weirdly wonderful bookshops across six continents (sadly we've yet to build a bookshop down in the South Pole).

This book is simply lovely. I have already bought several copies to give as gifts as I think it is the perfect present for book lovers.
Jen Campbell explores over two hundred bookshops all over the world and I now have a very large list of all those I want to visit. The descriptions are brilliant, I could picture these wonderful places in my head and I loved reading about the people who own and run them. The Bookshop Book really does emphasise the power of books and reading. People have been worried about the rise in e-readers but I think this book demonstrates why we will always have physical books too. There is something so powerful about being in a shop full of books, new or old, the possibility of new adventures and new characters to meet.
Jen Campbell has included interviews with bookshop owners and also several authors and it is interesting to see their different perspectives on what makes a good bookshop and also to hear their book recommendations.
The Bookshop Book is a fantastic read and it made me want to go and visit a physical bookshop rather than relying on the convenience of on-line book shopping. I highly recommend this book and as I said earlier it would be a lovely gift for anyone who likes reading or simply as a treat for yourself.

Many thanks to Emily for inviting me to review this book as part of the blog tour. 

Book Review: The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long-lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on it's envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother's emotional distance masks an old secret.
Evacuated from London as a thirteen-year-old girl , Edie's mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe and taken to live at Milderhurst Castle with the Blythe family: Juniper, her twin sisters and their father, Raymond, author of a 1918 children's classic, The True History of the Mud Man. In the grand and glorious Milderhurst Castle, a new world opens up for Edie's mother. She discovers the joy of books and fantasy and writing, but also the dangers.
Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother's riddle, she, too, is drawn to Milderhurst Castle and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiance in 1941 plunged her into madness.
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins  to unravel her mother's past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.

Dr S bought me this book two Christmases ago, it has been languishing in my TBR pile but it has certainly been worth the wait.
At 670 pages, it is pretty lengthy but I believe it to be Kate Morton's best yet, I finished it over three days ago and can't stop thinking about it. I'm not going to give you any more information on the plot as I think everything you need is in the above synopsis. Mysteries and Secrets are the key to this book, Morton jumps back and forth in time tying the present and past neatly together. Milderhurst Castle is as much of a character as any of the human ones, with it's tower, secret passages and hidden doors, it is the perfect place for keeping secrets, now and then.
Edie is the character who ties everyone together, she is the one in search of answers. The Blythe Sisters are a fantastic creation, they almost seem fairytale like, three princesses locked away in a crumbling castle with no chance of rescue. I loved how Kate Morton builds up a picture of each sister as an individual whilst also exploring and exposing the bond they share as a formidable threesome.
The Distant Hours draws you in and then holds on very tightly. I think that Kate Morton has a brilliant ability of creating stories and characters that you entirely believe in and want more and more of. As I said, this book is quite long but at no point did I find myself feeling bored. Kate Morton makes every description and encounter between characters count and I think that is what makes her such a fantastic writer.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5