Bookish People by Susan Coll is a story about a bookstore and the intriguing lives of its owner and employees. Told from a variety of perspectives, we jump into the daily life and upkeep of this business to get a true glimpse into this world.

While there were certainly some silly anecdotes throughout the story: a rogue homeless turtle, mayhem that ensues when a dog steals a child’s bagel, a vacuum cleaner that just will not work…the plot was just a little too disjointed for me. There were just too many characters and subplots to really bring this piece together. That being said, the book felt quaint and cozy, but perhaps that is because I just love a bookstore.

I think that the watermark was also a deliberate choice for the book in its prerelease state, but it was a real challenge to read when it appeared so frequently, just a note to the publisher.

Many thanks to Harper Muse and NetGalley for this title in exchange for my honest review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I walked away from this book with one thought in mind… “Damn the Man, Save the Bookstore” (if you get this reference, you’re my vintage, we should talk)

An independent bookstore, a rag tag bunch of book lover staff and a store owner who’s considering moving into the crawl space between the shelves sets the scene for what becomes an on trend, off beat work of bookish art.

I loved the quirky characters, the literary references and the genuine, heart you’ll find in this novel. Infused with humour, tenderness, sadness and a good dose of huh? Bookish People is the ideal read for … bookish people! A triumph of bibliophilia!

I wanted to love this book, but I have to admit it was a struggle. The bookstore setting was wonderful, but the actual story was such a hodgepodge that I kept putting it down. It felt like as soon as I caught on to the storyline and became invested in the main character (she seemed so interesting! Why couldn’t we just stay with her???) the story jumped to another character in some other situation. After awhile it was just too much to keep track of without enough excitement to make it worth the effort.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

Fun, crazy, comedy. Kind of all over the place so could use a little editing but it takes place in a bookstore and I am a sucker for bookstore fiction

As a DC resident, I loved reading about all the scenes in DC. Also, the descriptions of the independent bookstore world felt very realistic and set the stage well. There were so many characters that also felt simultaneously true to DC "types" but still real people. The character's emotions were conveyed really well through the writing so you felt those emotions as well, on their behalf. This helped keep all of their stories clear and coherent, even though there were multiple storylines that converged beautifully at the end of the book. Overall, a fun read that made me nostalgic for bookstore browsing!

Oh, how I wanted to love this book. Bookstores are one of my favorite settings for a story to take place. The synopsis of this novel sounded perfect. Widowed and grieving bookstore owner, Sophie Bernstein, finds herself lost in life and completely over books. The sad state of the world has her hatching a plan to go into hiding in the secret room at the back of the bookstore. Her bookstore is suffering, and her son is floundering in life. Her favorite manager is moving away. Sophie cannot seem to get a grip on things. The chapters in the story jump between Sophie and a few other quirky characters. There is the narcissistic poet Raymond Chaucer, recently scheduled to do a book signing at the store. He is also in the middle of an ugly scandal and being accused of his wife’s death. Then there is Clemi, the events coordinator at the store and aspiring writer, who is Raymond’s illegitimate love child. Clemi has recently figured out who Raymond really is to her and refuses to cancel the signing event even though she knows it will be a disaster. Comedy of epic proportions ensues. The rest of the motley, multi-generational, cast features authors, booksellers, and a Russian Tortoise named Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The one thing they all share is their love of books.

 The major premise of this book was wonderful. It was the execution that I struggled with. The story is told from alternating points of view. And while I enjoyed getting an intimate look into each character, it did not flow well. At several points, the disjointed scenes left me confused. Instead of having a single primary plotline, it was a series of ideas and sub-plots. They just didn’t seem to move well together through to the end. I struggled to follow the story and had to go back and re-read sections. It was an enjoyable story. I just didn’t enjoy the writing style. How the author wrapped everything up at the end was perfect and left me feeling satisfied. This was a 2.5 rounded up to 3-star read for me.

2.5 stars rounded up

I’m not entirely sure what I just read. This seemed like a lot of small subplots without a full plot to tie into. It was fairly difficult to read because nothing really made sense in a full scope. Not a lot of character development either.

I was given an ARC of this book by NetGalley and Harper Muse in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was comprised of a million half-stories, I’m not entirely sure what it was actually about. Honestly, reading this book gave me anxiety-it was insanely hard to follow and seemed like nothing really happened. There were too many points of view and too many insignificant events occurring that it was impossible to both decipher the plot and follow. Apart from all of that, I did quite like the ending. I’m still not entirely sure what happened though.

I loved the characters and the humor in this book, about a book store owner and her employees. Sophie Bernstein, 54, lost her husband recently and decides she wants to shut herself off from society in a secret nook at the back of her bookstore. While trying to make the dusty nook into a habitable one room apartment, she has several misadventures in the store, involving a vacuum cleaner, an errant tortoise belonging to two of her employees, customers and their dogs, and a blackout from a busted electrical system.

Amid the humor, brought about by Sophie herself and her responses to circumstances, are the customers and their foibles, book signing authors with their own quirks, and finally someone interesting to help Sophie look anew at the world and want to participate in it, with all its complicagted and unexpected happenings.

A wonderful read, a laugh out loud entertaining rom com/women's fiction.

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher Harper Muse and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Bookish People.. I loved the cover and the title of this book. I loved the premise. As an avid reader and book lover, I have always had dreams of working in a book store or owning one. So, I had really high hopes for this book. It really had a great story. The store owner, now widowed, is at a crossroads in her life. The store is its own kind of universe with many moving parts and sub stories within. The stories within the story, like Sophie being the grieving widow and muddling through, finding her way and Clemi with her overbearing literary agent mother and unknown father and early adult life with its problems were good stories and contributed to the whole, but I do feel that some of the story lines went on and on.. a bit further than they had to. The AGA and vacuum cleaner stories and details were a bit much. They delivered details that made the story more whimsical, but it went on too much. The book was well written and tons of people are going to love it. I'm just not one of those people. I liked it. I did not love it.

I requested to read “Bookish People” because I love novels that center around bookstores, readers and writers; the icing on the cake was that most of the novel takes place in politically charged D.C. Here, we meet Sophie who has become disenfranchised with bookstore ownership after mourning the loss of her husband. Yet, when a poet wishes to use Sophia’s bookstore to address his own scandal, Sophia wants to hide, even when her events coordinator believes the poet might be her biological father. This is just one of many story lines that the book introduces, and because of this, “Bookish People” reminded me more of a collection of scenes versus a uniform novel with a solid set of plot and subplots. Because of that, I had a difficult time investing in the any of the characters, with the exception of Sophie. But there is plenty of literary humor and if you’re willing to be introduced to characters who quickly disappear, you might enjoy this novel’s roller coaster ride. Unfortunately, this novel was not for me.

Thank you to Harper Muse, Netgalley, and the author for a chance to read and review this novel.

This was a slow burn of a story . Whimsical characters without a lot going on with them. I do love to see how books influence life, but really this had a lot of book mentions without as many tie ins. I wanted this to be more of meatier story rather than a visit with characters. . 3.5

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book has so much potential. I loved the different stories in the different POVS, however there really wasn’t anything happening. There were essentially just a bunch of subplots, there was a small amount of character development with Sophie but that’s about it.

Overall, a nice casual one time read for me.

Bookish People is brimming with both character and characters, an artfully curated composition of calamitous comedy with Sophie's bustling, casualty-ridden bookshop (and the many catastrophes that befall it) at the core of it. Significant chunks of this book were absolute chaos, in the best way, and while I didn't personally click so much with the alternate-POV protagonists (their perspectives were slightly asymmetrical and thus their storylines, too, and their well-meaning political anxieties seemed like a stretch sometimes - plus, the poet stayed a caricature of himself for the most part) it was a pretty good time all in all - with the story twisting and coiling and changing course without warning, turning circuitous with some startling turns, the whole thing having an addled Shakespearean charm to it.

Bookish People appears crafted to appeal to any aficionado of books, bookstores and the topsy-turvy antics that beset them, with the added attraction of being a checkerboard-esque cross-generational workplace comedy (that, sure, plays into sundry stereotypes on many counts) cheering enough to win anyone over.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for kindly passing on this ARC! 💫

OMG this book is hysterical! I fell in love with each and every character and did not want the book to end. If you consider yourself a bookish person, you will want to read this book.

While I did find the storyline easily palatable, I was really not vibing with the formatting of the book. The constantly present Harper Muse label made it so hard to read because you were thrown out of the book almost every page.
The plot itself was enjoyable and fun to read. I just hope the finalized version is better formatted.

Other than that, though, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves romance reads. This one is for us bookish people.