Bookstore ~ Comedy ~ Parents ~ Turtles ~ Vacuum cleaners ~ Books ~ Roommates ~ Secret rooms ~ Car keys ~ Chaos ~ Death ~ Books ~ Interesting characters ~ Too much!

Interesting main story but with too many little subplots it created a chaotic atmosphere! My blood pressure was rising just by reading this book! And, what’s up with the dog on the cover?!?

Dnf at 40% I tried to complete this book but it just made me more and more confused. I had to reread previous paragraphs to understand what is happening and everything was not getting in sync with the overall storyline. The story has a lot of potential tho but sadly it was not for me.
Thank you netgalley and publishing house for giving me ARC of this book.

I really wanted to love this one- and in my defense I really tried to- but I didn't love it.

I thought the plot was promising, but I felt it hopped around so much I couldn't keep up. It took me longer than usual to read it in part because I felt lost but also because for example there was one portion that was pages about vacuum cleaners. This is an example of the reader trying to gain more perspective on Sophie, but the backstory is lost in the rambling.

I do think that the story line was interesting, and at times I was absolutely hooked. I think it could have been pared down a bit and it would have been a solid book perhaps. However, as it was I was not a fan.

Regardless, I appreciate the opportunity to read this one in exchange for my honest feedback.

Middle of the road book. The cover was a adorable and the plot was definitely there. But the book was hard to get through

Bookish People tells the story of a variety of characters all connected through a DC-area bookstore. This book is hailed as a comedy, but it really just dragged on. As a story taking place in a bookstore, I was really excited to read this, but was ultimately let down by the disjointed and disconnected multiple perspectives of this novel, as well as the lack of a true plot.
Each character and the problems they face do touch on real-world issues and have the potential to relate to the reader, but they really only scratch the surface and remained under-developed. For all of these reasons, I really can't give the book a higher rating.

Whoa! What a ride. It was very fast-paced. The writing style kept me hooked and I didn't find myself losing any interest. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and how real the story felt. The author did a great job painting the setting, so it was easy for me to visualize the scene played out before me. I recommend giving this one a chance!

UGH! I wanted to love this one so bad. I truly did. I love any book concepts that have to do directly with books. This one, however, I felt was so undeveloped in its plot. I didn’t feel connected to any characters, which is also really important for me in a novel. I would definitely give this author another try, though!

Sadly, I could not finish this book. It had so much of what I love but I could not connect. Sophie, the main character, is grieving the loss of her spouse. She owns a bookshop and my confusion just grew from there. There was a lot of detail about this little nooks she created for herself that she might want to live in. The subplots were hard to follow. I hate rating poorly but it was hard to finish the book.

Sadly a DNF at 25% for me. The premise sounded so intriguing but I couldn’t get into the various subplots and I got lost with the focus on vacuums. I struggle with leaving not positive reviews but this wasn’t the book for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for the advanced reading copy. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Bookish People is set in an independent Bookstore in DC., America. The plot with its various characters - the bookstore owner, booksellers and it's customers is crazy, chaotic and absolutely funny. And beneath it all there's solace to be found in ,not surprising, books and literature.

Sophie owns a bookstore and is dealing with her growing anxiety over the outside world on her own after the death of her husband. Clemi is the head of events at the store, and is insisting on hosting a controversial poet for a signing because she thinks he might be her biological father. Autumn T is the new store manager now that Jamal is moving away with his partner. The book centers around these and other characters as they deal with their personal lives while they all revolve around life at this bookstore in Washington DC.

I wanted SO MUCH to like this book. Seriously. I'm obsessed with reading books about bookstores, libraries, book restoration sand preservation... If the book is ABOUT books, I'm in. But it's taken me 38 days to get 41% into a book about books. I don't like any of the characters. I'm not rooting for them. I don't feel any attachment to them at all. There were two chapters devoted to discussing vacuums. They're supposed to be the "comic relief" in the book, I think. I wasn't laughing. I was just bored.

I HATE not finishing a book. I don't like leaving a story unfinished. I always want to know more, tell me about the lives of these people, I need more! With Bookish People, though, I just felt like I was given someone's stream of consciousness writing and told that it's pure gold... I just... Can't.

The literal only bright spot for me was Autumn T's end of day reports. If we SAW more of those moments, instead of being told about them in passing, after having read pages upon pages about someone's almost-romance over a turtle, or waxing poetic about a Roomba, the book might be more engaging. Bring told that now fun was had, but we missed it felt like a slap in the face.

I'm guessing that there are people out there that "get" this type of storytelling better than me, or think that this book is hilarious. There must be. This book was just 100% not for me. I wish the story was told in a different way. Or with more focus elsewhere. I just... Don't get it.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity.

I love books about booksellers but I couldn't finish this one. I found it had too much tell and not enough show rather than the other way round. It may have been the wrong book for me at the time, but I was disappointed that I didn't love it.

What is this book? It's so hard to read with everything going off script all the time. This is my first DNF book in years. It was just so hard to read. One minute she's at a party, then somehow that turns into her thinking about her dead husband, which is fine and expected but how did we end up with some college roommate she may or may not be friends with? I just didn't get it. I'm sorry.

Giving 3 because I wanted to enjoy the book more than I did, but the different storylines didn’t mesh well for me and seemed to switch at random times and nothing truly felt resolved by the end. Except maybe the nook? I think that all the different storylines and points of view were interesting, but none of them got a chance to be fully formed and that just left me wanting more out of this book. The book summary also seems misleading because that doesn’t cover but a small portion of the book.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. Any opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

the total had the name Bookish in it and that was it for me. I signed up to read this one right away. Loved it.

I just reviewed Bookish People by Susan Coll. #BookishPeople #NetGalley

This book had me wondering what it was about regularly and then slowly but surely it all came together and I ended up thinking it was a good read. The book is about a bookshop, it's owner and various members of staff working there. Some of the author events lead to weird situations, not always unbelievable . This is a book that takes some concentration when reading, partly because of the writing style and partly because it is written with different narrators with their own way of thinking, which are quite different. I suppose the binding factors are the news bulletins from the new floor manager and the bookshop itself.
Now I have finished, I would say that this is an entertaining read, during reading it felt like wading through treacle at times.
Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review .

Sophie Bernstein is an independent bookseller in Washington, D.C.. Her staff is made up of people with their own eccentricities, a pet turtle named Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and a vacuum cleaner which has it's own agenda. A controversial poet is scheduled to speak at the shop which is causing stress for Sophie who repeatedly asks Clemi, the events manager to cancel the event. For reason of her own, Clemi does not. Throughout all of this Sophie is still morning the loss of her husband and is obsessed with hiding away, like the Frank family, in a secret nook in her bookshop.
While some may find the storylines to be comedic, I did not. Not that I do not have a sense of humor, but I could not find a central thread that wove this all together. The narrative was messy and actually put me off from trying to tie these quirky events together. It seemed much more a book of ideas for stories rather than a polished cohesive offbeat comedy that I was hoping it would be., I truly hate writing review for books that did not work for for me if only because I know how much work goes into every publication. It's like telling a parent you don't like their kid. Unfortunately, this is not a child I would invite over for another playdate.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to read the book because of the cute cover and amazing plot line but I was disappointed. This book just didn’t hit. Maybe it was the writing styles because I was left so confused most times and sometimes it was worse because I didn’t know who’s POV it was. This book just left me confused but to some extent the plot was good. I did struggle with finishing this book. Those were the major things that made it annoying for me to go through the book and that’s why I gave the book a 2-star rating.

“Bookish People” takes place in an independent bookstore outside D.C., following the staff over the course of one comedy-of-errors filled week. The main characters are book store owner Sophie and events manager Clemi, with the rest of the store staff filling out supporting roles.

This book was amazing! I enjoyed every single chapter, and it kept me hooked the entire time, which I loved!