Children's September Picture Book of the Month

The Girl and the Dinosaur by Hollie Hughes

The wishing stars burn bright tonight, the air is thick with dreams, and a deeply sleeping dinosaur is waking up, it seems . . .

In a town by the seaside, Marianne is often seen foraging on the beach. But she isn't playing with children her own age.

Instead Marianne is alone, and digging for dinosaur bones to build a special sort of companion. Then, one night, she goes to sleep wishing with all her heart that her dinosaur might come to life . . .

A masterpiece of storytelling with evocative and stunning illustrations, destined to be read for years to come.  The Girl and the Dinosaur is available for £9.90 throughout the month of September.  Drop us an email to request a copy.

Children's Fiction (10+) September Book of the Month

The Afterwards by A.F. Harrold

Fact: Ember and Ness are best friends. There's nothing more to say about it. It is what it is.

It is what will always be. Ember and Ness. Then Ness dies.

It is sudden and unexpected and leaves Ember completely empty. How can this be?When Ember finds a way into the Afterworld, she determines to bring Ness back. Because that's what friends do isn't it? They rescue each other.

They help. They never give up. Ember and Ness.

That don't change. A powerful, poignant, darkly comic and deeply moving story about friendship at its most extraordinary.

The Afterwards is available for £7.20 through the month of September.  Drop us an email to reserve your copy.

Children's Fiction (5+) September Book of the Month

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue by Paula Harrison

Join Kitty and her cat crew on the rooftops for a series of enchanting adventures by the light of the moon. Here, Kitty will discover that being a superhero is about more than using her special abilities-she must learn to be courageous too, scaling the city clock tower to rescue a very frightened kitten.

Perfect for fans of Isadora Moon and Claude - This is definitely going to be a new shop favourite.

Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue is available for £5.40 through the month of September.  Get in touch to reserve your copy today.

September Non-Fiction Book of the Month

Atlas of Vanishing Places by Travis Elborough

Maps offer us a chance to see not just how our world looks today, but how it once looked. But what about the places that are no longer mapped? 

Cities forgotten under the dust of newly settled land?  Rivers and seas whose changing shape has shifted the landscape around them? Or, even, places that have seemingly vanished, without a trace? 

Travis Elborough takes you on a voyage to all corners of the world in search of the lost, disappearing and vanished. Specially commissioned cartography showing each place as It once was and how it is today and archive photography bring these incredible stories to life.

The Atlas of Vanishing Places will be available for £19.80 throughout the month of September. Drop us an email to reserve your copy. 

September Fiction Book of the Month

The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing by Mary Paulson-Ellis

From The Times bestselling author of The Other Mrs Walker comes Mary Paulson-Ellis's second stunning historical mystery, The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing. 

Solomon knew that he had one advantage. A pawn ticket belonging to a dead man tucked into his top pocket - the only clue to the truth .

. . An old soldier dies alone in his Edinburgh nursing home.

No known relatives, and no Will to enact. Just a pawn ticket found amongst his belongings, and fifty thousand pounds in used notes sewn into the lining of his burial suit . .

Heir Hunter, Solomon Farthing - down on his luck, until, perhaps, now - is tipped off on this unexplained fortune. Armed with only the deceased's name and the crumpled pawn ticket, he must find the dead man's closest living relative if he is to get a cut of this much-needed cash.

But in trawling through the deceased's family tree, Solomon uncovers a mystery that goes back to 1918 and a group of eleven soldiers abandoned in a farmhouse billet in France in the weeks leading up to the armistice. Set between contemporary Edinburgh and the final brutal days of the First World War as the soldiers await their orders, The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing shows us how the debts of the present can never be settled unless those of the past have been paid first . .

The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing will be available for £15.30 throughout September.  Click here to request your copy.

Young Adult (YA) August Book of the Month

Heartstopper Volume Two

by Alice Oseman

Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love.

An LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between: this is the second volume of HEARTSTOPPER, for fans of The Art of Being Normal, Holly Bourne and Love, Simon.

Nick and Charlie are best friends. 

Nick knows Charlie's gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn't.

But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family ... and himself.  Heartstopper is about friendship, loyalty and mental illness.

It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.  This is the second volume of Heartstopper*, with more to come.

Imogen devoured this in no time at all - A great read in a format that a lot of people may not normally choose.  Definitely one to try out.  Heartstopper Volume Two is available for £9.89 throughout August 2019 (RRP £10.99).

Click here to order a copy.

* Volume one is also available at Mostly Books

Adult Non-Fiction August Book of the Month

Thomas Cromwell: A Life
by Diarmaid MacCulloch

Thomas Cromwell is one of the most famous - or notorious - figures in English history. Born in obscurity in Putney, he became a fixer for Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520s. After Wolsey's fall, Henry VIII promoted him to a series of ever greater offices, and by the end of the 1530s he was effectively running the country for the King.

That decade was one of the most momentous in English history: it saw a religious break with the Pope, unprecedented use of parliament, the dissolution of all monasteries. Cromwell was central to all this, but establishing his role with precision, at a distance of nearly five centuries and after the destruction of many of his papers at his own fall, has been notoriously difficult. Diarmaid MacCulloch's biography is much the most complete and persuasive life ever written of this elusive figure, a masterclass in historical detective work, making connections not previously seen.

It overturns many received interpretations, for example that Cromwell was a cynical, 'secular' politician without deep-felt religious commitment, or that he and Anne Boleyn were allies because of their common religious sympathies - in fact he destroyed her. It introduces the many different personalities of these foundational years, all conscious of the 'terrifyingly unpredictable' Henry VIII. MacCulloch allows readers to feel that they are immersed in all this, that it is going on around them.

For a time, the self-made 'ruffian' (as he described himself) - ruthless, adept in the exercise of power, quietly determined in religious revolution - was master of events. MacCulloch's biography for the first time reveals his true place in the making of modern England and Ireland, for good and ill.

A must-read for any history buff.  Available for £11.69 throughout August 2019 (RRP £12.99).

Click here to order a copy.

Children's Picture Book August Book of the Month

Cyril and Pat

by Emily Gravett

Cyril is the only squirrel in Lake Park, and he's very lonely. Until one day he meets Pat - Pat the big, grey . . . other squirrel.

Cyril and Pat have lots of adventures and fun together and Cyril is so pleased he's made a friend. But everyone says that Cyril and Pat simply cannot be friends, and they soon reveal why: Pat, as the reader has known all along, is actually a RAT! But Cyril's life turns out to be a lot duller and quite a bit scarier without Pat by his side, and in the end the two friends learn that some things are more important than being the same, or listening to others.

A gorgeous picture book reminding readers that it's OK to be friends with people who are different from you - guaranteed to entertain children and adults alike.  Available for £6.29 throughout August 2019 (RRP £6.99).

Click here to order a copy.

Adult Fiction August Book of the Month

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel
by Ruth Hogan

Tilly was a bright, outgoing little girl who liked playing with ghosts and matches. She loved fizzy drinks, swear words, fish fingers and Catholic churches, but most of all she loved living in Brighton in Queenie Malone's magnificent Paradise Hotel with its endearing and loving family of misfits - staff and guests alike.

But Tilly's childhood was shattered when her mother sent her away from the only home she'd ever loved to boarding school with little explanation and no warning. Many years later, Tilda has grown into an independent woman still damaged by her mother's unaccountable cruelty. Wary of people, her only friend is her dog, Eli.

But when her mother dies, Tilda goes back to Brighton and with the help of her beloved Queenie sets about unravelling the mystery of her exile from The Paradise Hotel, only to discover that her mother was not the woman she thought she knew at all ... Mothers and daughters ... their story can be complicated ...but it can also turn out to have a happy ending. 

A must read according to both Julia and Sarah!  All of Ruth's books have been excellent but this is the best by far.

Available in paperback for £7.19 throughout August 2019 (RRP £7.99).

Click here to order a copy.