Book Nooks is a compilation of tips, tricks, lists, and styling ideas to help you display your book collection and other objects beyond the simple bookshelf. The book is split into 13 sections by room (bedroom, kitchen, etc) or interest (think gardening or art) with each section accompanied by a few paragraphs of ideas followed by photographic examples. They’ve also interspersed booklists from noted writers. The photos are beautiful and there are several full bleed double page spreads sprinkled throughout the book. The overall size ( 7.5 in x 9 in) and cover choice seems odd for a coffee table book.

Highlights for me included the pictures of little free libraries, the margarita recipe in the bar cart section, and a list of banned books from Pen America.

While I did make note of a few of the ideas presented, I felt for the most part that they weren’t that groundbreaking. Some of the book nooks included looked like staged vignettes while others were clearly actual homes. I would have loved if the photos of actual real life book nooks had been accompanied by brief quotes from the home owner. Things like why that spot, why those books, why that collection of objects displayed like that? It would have given the whole book a more personal touch.

Overall, it could make a good gift for those who like books about books.

Book Nooks
Author: Vanessa Dina + Claire Gilhuly
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Love the inspiration from this book! They feature so many fun libraries and ideas on how to organize and style different books. I also really enjoyed the book recommendations sprinkled throughout the book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Chronicle Books, and Vanessa Dina + Claire Gilhuly for an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts in this review are my own.

This book is a little gem. It is full of fantastic photos of different nooks. Separated into sections such as room type and decorating type, it provides guidance on achieving the nook of your dreams. As a bonus there are famous authors’ list of different recommended books. One example is Gillian Flynn’s Favorite Mysteries. This is a total delight

Underwhelmed by this home decor book.

As an avid book lover, I've paid attention to how books can enhance a space for years. From browsing inspirational photos on Pinterest and perusing the Bookshelves community on Reddit to paying attention to catalog photos from Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, West Elm, and similar, I've found plenty of ideas for storing books in small spaces, using books to highlight a hobby space, and organizing books in personal libraries. Most recently, Bookstagram has been a fantastic resource for seeing how other readers like to design their reading spaces.

Within the pages of this book, I didn't find a single piece of new inspiration. Ideas like stacking books to create an end table, or covering books to ensure a monochromatic design, or grouping themed books into a space like gathering quote books and humor books into your bathroom for light reading are all classic ideas.

Even the photos were pretty meh. Sure, they were well light and composed, but I wasn't seeing anything new or truly inspiring to me for designing my personal library.

This book felt like it was for people who don't like books, but who want to appear smarter by decorating with books they've probably never read, except maybe the humor books in the bathroom. Even the book lists featured throughout the book felt prescriptive: Buy these ten books to create a more interesting shelf that guests can see when they visit your home.

Thank you tNetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing me with an Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for my honest review.

Love it! This coffee table book is perfect for everyone, especially book lovers and decorating fanatics. Lots of inspiration and some truly Pinterest worthy photos! 😆

This can be an enjoyable book to flip through and browse, but it isn't very practical. The pictures are usually of lavish homes with high-end interior design, and the tips that people can translate into their own spaces are usually pretty basic, involving different ways to stack books and ways to color-coordinate them. There's not a lot of real advice here, and this is more about decorating with artsy collectible books than about learning how to style and display your personal library.

I enjoy the Book Nooks. It was a great book for those of us who love, collect and treasure books. It was interesting the different interior design elements that work in different home styles. Seeing the different nook, corners and places to make a reading experience more special. It was so sweet to even see how influential the children’s corners and places were so well decorated and styled to a child. I mostly enjoyed being able to see ow books are incorporated into a home that fits your style whether traditional, eclectic or modern. There was something for everyone. I only wished there were more, but I’m a book lover and collector of Literary Fiction and notable books so I am a bit biased towards “show me more”. With that said it’s a great table or .reference book for styling books in a home.

Book Nooks, by Vanessa Dina and Claire Gilhuly, is page after page of eye candy for any reader. This would make a great gift! And I bet it would be a perfect coffee table book. I am totally going to look for it in bookstores once it's released. Highly recommend!

This book is pure inspiration and escapism. The pictures transport me to my fantasy of an ideal book nook (paradise!) and, to top it all off, it includes lists of author's favorite books, balancing out the aesthetics (some of which are so visual that the books take 2nd ranking) with actual books to read and enjoy. My favorite images were the ones that married beauty with practicality and comfort (why would you want to read on a hard plastic chair, no matter how color-coordinated it is?).

This could’ve been so good, and I was really excited about it. The pictures were a bit lackluster and I didn’t get cozy comfy book nook. It just seemed cluttered. I did like the included lists of book recommendations though.

This book has some beautiful photos of how to STYLE books as part of your interior design. If you want to add books to up your homes vibes, this is for you. But if you are looking for how to affordably display hundreds of your fanasty and/or spicy books… this will be a little less helpful in that. If really enjoyed the photos and some of the ideas I will be absolutely be adding to my own shelf’s!

As someone with 1100+ books organized by color, I was very intrigued by this book. I love looking at book collections of any kind, and the pictures in this book were so aesthetically pleasing. I found a few ideas for book decor throughout the sections.

I absolutely loved the lists of Author's favorites in the genre they are known for, especially Gillian Flynn.

This book is perfect for book lovers of any kind, but those who consider books as decor will particularly enjoy this collection.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was definitely expecting something else from this book. I expected a visually stunning book that focused on how to store your books in unique and interesting ways. I was not expecting a book that focused more on stacking than on actual displays. The text was more about book collecting and reading but the images just didn't line up the way I wanted them to. Maybe that's me. But I do think that someone looking for ideas for storing their books and creating reading spaces will be underwhelm by the idea of putting books on the floor as an end table. In fact, a lot of readers would cringe at that idea or at putting their books facing spine in. And yes, the text did say do this if you don't want to read the books.

The book lists were a neat addition but I can get that information from other sources and with more personal touches. A list is just a list.

So to sum up, this is a book for using books as decor and not really a book about creating intentional reading spaces or showing how to house your extensive book collection. If you want to be inspired as a reader, social media will serve you better.

A mix of book recommendations and ways to display books, Book Nooks celebrates all reading spaces. The photos are beautiful, and they display books in different ways and add to your space using your favorite reads. I love the added book recommendations throughout the book and thought it added a nice touch and added coziness.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a lovely book that is full of ideas on how to arrange, and decorate with, books!

Thank you, NetGalley for this free e-book featuring cute, cozy book nooks!
I absolutely adore homes with special spots for books, and this book has some great, practical images and ideas for how to create and organize a space in every home. We have pockets around our home where we display books, and this book gave me some ideas of how we can change things up a bit. This was a fun one to look through, and it's something I'll keep coming back to!

From rainbows to monochrome, home libraries to little free libraries, and mixed with suggested reading lists by genre, this is the quintessential book lovers book!

It is difficult to begin this review because the topic is spectacular! But, the book which I had high hopes for fell flat.

The format is beautiful, the category pages beautiful and, the categories are great. I loved the nod to Little Free Library at the end of the book. But honestly, on my Pinterest, I have pinned much better book nooks that are interesting, spectacular, and inspiring. This one wasn't.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Chronicle Books for the opportunity to read and review Book Nooks by Vanessa Dina and Claire Gilhuly.

Beautiful book with lovely pictures of books and decorations. This will be a great collectible book. Love the bonus reading lists.

This book offered several cute ideas for storing your books! I also enjoyed the tidbits that could be made into bookmarks. Thank you for this ARC.