Nicki Thornton Book Launch: 28th June

Mostly Books' previous owner, Nicki Thornton, is publishing her first book: The Last Chance Hotel on 7th June.

Nicki will be having a book launch to celebrate the new publication.  She received so many messages of support and good wishes when she won her award back in 2016, she wants the chance to say 'thank you' and she would love to invite customers of Mostly Books to help celebrate.

The launch will be taking place on Thursday 28th June at OLA Seniors from 7pm.

There is a limit on spaces, so if you would like to come, please RSVP by 1st June indicating how many places you would like, and we will do our best to accommodate you on a first come, first served basis.

Those that have RSVP'd will be contacted prior to the event to confirm the number of places that they have been allocated for the launch. So please do let us know if you would like to be added to the invite list.

If you cannot make the evening, or we become limited by numbers, don't forget that Nicki will be signing at Mostly Books on Saturday June 9th at 1pm (click here for details).

This is so exciting!!

Books Are My Bag 2014 - three events, five days, huge fun!

We had such a fantastic day with our authors at the 'Books Are My Bag' Bookshop Party on Saturday 11 October - but it was actually the start of an incredibly busy week. Not only did we have our own 'fab four' local authors in the shop (Alison Mercer, Tom Moorhouse, Neill Cameron and David Melling), we also hosted the book launch for 'The Word At War' on the Monday evening (with Peter Lewis and Philip Gooden), and then sold books at an event in Oxford for Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

So we thought we would share the week in photos - and thanks to all of our authors who created such a buzz in our little shop over a busy few days!

We started the Saturday with our 'Live Window' and the following schedule...

...We had Prosecco ready, and Imogen baked this cake (featuring the first and last words of all four authors' books - how cool was that?)

Author Alison Mercer - author of 'After I Left You' and 'Stop The Clock' - was first up into the window...

...so she got to cut the cake...

...and grab the first of our Tracey Emin bags as a big thank you!

Next it was the turn of Tom Moorhouse - author of 'The River Singers' and its brand new sequel 'The Rising' - to take the hot seat...

...and enthrall visitors young and old alike with videos of water voles that he helps conserve in Oxfordshire...

...Tom was able to stay whilst illustrator comic maker Neill Cameron got cracking on a truly awesome window illustration. He sketched an outline on the outside of the window... 

...and then got to work on the inside, breaking off periodically to sign copies of his books 'How To Make Awesome Comics' and 'Mo-Bot High'...

The shop was buzzing all day...

...Neill beavered away...

...whilst Tom looked on...

Tom was pretty chuffed to get a Tracey Emin bag...

...and then it was time for our final author David Melling to take his seat. Two incredibly talented illustrators in the shop at the same time!

...David spent the time in the 'live window' creating a 'Hugless Douglas' masterpiece for us...

Whilst Neill finished off the fabulous robot which is still adorning our window...

...which was beginning to attract a lot of interest!

David's finished work through the window...

...buzz, buzz!

...and another bag from a grateful bookseller!

On Monday we welcomed Peter Lewis and Philip Gooden for the launch of 'The Word At War' a collection of anecdotes and stories to show how language evolved rapidly during the Second World War.

On an awful, rainy night a packed shop steamed quietly as Peter and Philip shared stories of spam, chads and kilroy...

It's a cracking little book - a fab gift for anyone interested in how language evolves - and we have copies signed by both authors in the shop.

On Wednesday we were invited to provide books for an event with former Google CEO and current chairman Eric Schmidt and his co-author Jonathan Rosenberg. 

Despite Oxford's traffic chaos delaying Eric's arrival, the debating chamber was packed to hear Eric discuss everything from Google Glass to being hacked by GCHQ.

We were able take along some young coders from John Mason and Thomas Reade Primary Schools who got to meet Eric. A great was to round off our 'Books Are My Bag' celebration of bookshops and their communities!

Thanks to everyone who came along and supported all our events!

After I Launched You: Alison Mercer and the launch of 'After I Left You' at Mostly Books

Second chances - and facing up to the past so you live in the present - are two of the big themes in Alison Mercer's second novel 'After I Left You'.

Alison was at Mostly Books on Thursday to celebrate its launch. Friends, family, fans and colleagues listened as she explained the genesis of the book, how it been in her mind as an idea for years.

But the story of Anna and how she comes to terms with bruising realities in her past, was the one her editor most wanted to see after a meeting to discuss publication of Alison's first novel 'Stop the Clock', in what Alison described as being 'like the most scary job interview ever'.

Alison thanked her husband, Ian, for his support in giving her time to write, to her supportive team at Transworld and also the support of her work colleagues and other writing friends. There were at least two extremely well-known authors in the audience, as well as editors, agents, bloggers - including the Abingdon Blogger.

She read from the opening scene, one in which Anna bumps into an old flame. Her attire, the bridesmaid dress in her hands, makes this excruciating, a bad-dream sequence that she would never have wanted to happen.

In a similar way to 'Stop the Clock' the action catches up with university friends after time has passed and analyses how their lives have fared - who made good on early promise, whose marriages are on the rocks, who is no longer even around. The Oxford setting ensures plenty of local appeal, but the themes - and the writing - ensure that appeal is universal. But the style has a definite darker side - and a creeping sense of unease builds imperceptibly as past history slowly bubbles to the surface.

'After I Left You' features a compelling mix of characters, back stories seamlessly woven in and will appeal to anyone who ever attended a reunion and couldn't help but measure up against all their old protagonists.

For Anna, life started off well, heading to Oxford from an ordinary background and falling in with a glittering group of privileged friends. Bumping into old-flame, Victor, seventeen years after she last saw him is painful enough. But Anna must brave seeing all her old group again as she tries to lay to rest the time she has not ever really moved on from - the time when she realised her friends were not all they had seemed...

Once again the weather played ball allowing us to hold another magical evening in the garden. Following the launch of her debut in 2012, we were honoured to host the launch of 'After I Left You', to welcome so many great supporters of Alison to the shop - and a huge thank you to Transworld for supporting their author and the event so strongly.

(Find out much more about Alison and her writing here)

Alison is - as the publishing world demands - already writing her next book. So we are definitely looking forward to another launch event. As Dorothy Parker said "I hate writing, but I love having written". And we love having launched a new book!

'After I Left You' with Alison Mercer

On Thursday, August 7 at 7.30pm we are delighted to be hosting the launch event for Alison Mercer's novel 'After I Left You'. It's another absorbing and powerful novel of love, friendship and secrets, and follows the publication of her critically acclaimed debut 'Stop The Clock' in 2012.

'After I Left You' follows Anna, who has not been back to Oxford since her last summer at university, seventeen years ago. She tries not to think about her time there, or the tightly knit group of friends she once thought would be hers forever. She has almost forgotten the fierce sting of betrayal, and the secret she carries around with her, the last night she spent with them all. A chance meeting on a rainy day in London means Anna is forced to remember the events of that summer and the people she left behind...

Alison Mercer lives locally, with her husband and two children. She studied English at University College, Oxford, and did a diploma in journalism at Cardiff University. 'Stop The Clock' was published in 2012.

The launch takes place at 7.30pm at Mostly Books on Thursday, August 7. Although a free event, hosted by Mostly Books and her publisher Black Swan, you do need to let us know you are coming. Email us if you would like to reserve a place.

Stop The Clock: Alison Mercer starts her writing career

Last night we were very pleased to host a launch event for local author Alison Mercer and her debut novel  'Stop The Clock'. The weather had thwarted our best-laid plans for a pleasant Summer evening event in the garden, so instead we had a bustling throng in the shop:

It's always very exciting to be there at the start of an author's writing career, and we have hosted a few launches since we opened six years ago. What was particularly nice about this one was the atmosphere, and the tremendous support Alison has, not just from friends, family and colleagues - but also from a publisher so obviously 100% behind a book - and an author - they believe in. 

Alison's editor gave a heartfelt and superb speech about how the book came to be published...

 ..., and Alison herself was able to thank those people who had helped her on her writing journey.

Many of those people were in the shop last night, some travelling a long way to be there: 

Having made sure we kept in the background most of the night, we took our opportunity to have our picture taken with the proud author right at the end:

Published by Black Swan, 'Stop The Clock' is a story of three friends: the plans they had for their futures at the turn of the century, how those plans don't always work out, and even when they do - the results are not what was expected.

It is already garnering some excellent reviews (it pains me to say this, but...ack...go take a look on *that* website), as well as some excellent reviews in the mainstream media. A five-star review in Closer magazine says "Effortlessly readable and sharply realistic, this is grown-up chick-lit at its very best.".

Of course, we are very pleased to have signed copies in the shop - so come in and discover an author who we believe is destined for big things...

The only thing we have to fear is...

We may have given the impression over the last few months that our independent bookselling experience has become one long round of schmoozing, travelling to exotic locations and generally hanging around with famous publishing people. This really isn't the case, and most mornings you can still find us sweeping the front of the shop in the morning, juggling the competing (and often contradictory) priorities of a small business - and doing what we love, placing great books in the hands of our customers.

Last night we held a wonderful book launch in the shop, and for me - this is what independent bookselling is all about. Bringing together an author, readers, a great book and making it all happen right in your own bookshop. This happens at any event, but a book launch is particularly special as you are there right at the start of the story.

We first did an event with Andrew Rosenheim almost four years ago, and - having read the proof of the book before Christmas - it was fantastic to be able to launch 'Fear Itself' at Mostly Books last night.

Andrew's latest novel is (IMHO) a significant step-up in terms of ambition and scale. Fear Itself is a powerful 'what if' thriller set mostly in the US in the years leading up to - and then during - the second world war. Focusing largely on aspects of loyalty and trust within the German-American community (and there were approximately 40 million Americans who could point to German heritage) the novel features a young FBI agent Jimmy Nessheim investigating the pro-Nazi Bund organisation. and a potential plot that could alter the direction of the US and World War II.

What really raises this book up as a superior thriller is the way Andrew brings his trademark style to bear on the plot: superb and vivid characterisation, and an ability to get right inside the American psyche in all its multicultural hues. Whether it's the transatlantic relationship, or the growing pains of a young country dragged reluctantly into a global conflict, this is compelling storytelling during an already fascinating period of world history. Real individuals are brought onto the stage to anchor the fiction, and remind you that this really might have happened. A notably figure is J Edgar Hoover and - incredibly - you do get an appreciation of his unique (if slighly creepy) abilities, and probably the only person who could have made the FBI as effective as it was, with the resources available.

It was a delight to host the launch, and we obviously congratulate Andrew and his publishers in what deserves to be a very successful book. And of course, we have signed first editions on the shelves when you next pop into the shop...