Review: The Secret Book Club

Title: The Secret Book Club (previously: The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks)

Author: Shauna Robinson

Publisher: 18th January 2024 by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter

Pages: 336 pages

Genre: contemporary, books about books, women’s fiction

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books.

If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules.

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. 

Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.

My Thoughts

“I want us to have open minds and come away feeling excited about books we might never have appreciated. How does that sound?”

There are some author books that catch you completely by surprise. The ones you were not expecting to love but upon completion come to realise just how refreshing it was. Shauna Robinson (take note of this author’s name - I think we will be hearing a lot more from her) is reportedly a young introverted woman with a charming writing style mostly concerned with … books! I read and loved her,  Must Love Books (HERE) and eagerly anticipated her latest offering, The Secret Book Club. It was great! The more I read, the more I fell in love with it - especially the lead character, Maggie. 

“I’m not a big people person, I guess you could say.” ... “Why?” “I prefer to be left to my own devices.” “You mean books?” “Books are my primary devices, yes.”

All up this is a quick and fun read. It was just delightful to watch Maggie turn into a reader and pursue what she felt deep down to be her calling in life. If you love small-town dynamics with quirky characters, laughter and a sweet romance then this is the book for you. I loved all the friendships that were formed in the book, especially Maggie's friendship with Vernon - their interactions brought a smile to my face. I loved Maggie and Malcolm’s relationship - a romance that did not dominate the story and the challenges they set each other were terrific. There is just loads more to love about this book - the discussions about the romance genre; culturally relevant and silenced voices in literature; the secret book club meetings and, not feeling bad about no set plan for life. You don’t have to have it all together from the start. 

‘No wistful nostalgia for century-old books. No assumption that one type of book mattered more than another. Only excitement about new stories waiting to be discovered.’

There is just so much to love about The Secret Book Club! If you love books about books, small town dynamics, the plight of small town communities (I especially loved Maggie’s book events where famed authors presented a twist of a classic tale) and a cast of relatable and lovable characters (yes! That’s you Vernon!) then I recommend to all lovers of romantic comedy Shauna’s latest offering. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. 

‘I’d just been supposed to work quietly at the bookstore for a few months, enjoy a reprieve from living with my parents, and use the time to figure out my next steps. Instead, I’d founded a secret community, incited a rebellion, and gotten people fired.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Papyrus

Title: Papyrus

Author: Irene Vallejo

Publisher: 11th October 2022 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: nonfiction, history, books about books

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

An enthralling journey through the history of books and libraries in the ancient world and those who have helped preserve their rich literary traditions 

Long before books were mass-produced, those made of reeds from along the Nile were worth fighting and dying for. Journeying along the battlefields of Alexander the Great, beneath the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, at Cleopatra's palaces and the scene of Hypatia's murder, award-winning author Irene Vallejo chronicles the excitement of literary culture in the ancient world, and the heroic efforts that ensured this extraordinary tradition would continue. 

Weaved throughout are fascinating stories about the spies, scribes, illuminators, librarians, booksellers, authors, and statesmen whose rich and sometimes complicated engagement with the written word bears remarkable similarities to the world today: Aristophanes and the censorship of the humorists, Sappho and the empowerment of women's voices, Seneca and the problem of a post-truth world. 

Vallejo takes us to mountainous landscapes and the roaring sea, to the capitals where culture flourished and the furthest reaches where knowledge found refuge in chaotic times. In this sweeping tour of the history of books, the wonder of the ancient world comes alive and, along the way, we discover the singular power of the written word.

My Thoughts

‘The papyrus scroll represented an extraordinary amount of progress. After centuries of searching for the right format, of humans writing on stone, mud, wood, or metal, language had finally found its home in organic matter. The first book in history was born when words - as ethereal as air - found refuge in the pith of an aquatic plant.’

What’s not to love when you come across a rare and fascinating book about books. Where the love for the written word is poured into every page. Papyrus is such a book that will take readers on a special journey. Author Irene Vallejo’s ode to books/reading and her knowledge of literature, particularly with regards to history of the written word, is wonderfully written. A definite must-read for anyone who loves books.

‘I suspect that as they searched for traces of every book as if they were pieces of scattered treasure, without knowing it, they were laying the foundations of our world.’

Irene has done her research and provides a smorgasbord of goodness. Readers will learn a little of the history of how books started and complemented with facts, philosophy, thoughts and ideas. It is a wonderful reference that will see you coming back time and again. A plethora of anecdotes and personal notes from the author surrounding the emergence of books - precious moments from the history of literature. 

‘This account is an attempt to continue the adventure of those book hunters. I would like somehow, to be their unlikely travel companion, on the scent of lost manuscripts, unknown stories, and voices in danger of being silenced.’

This is neither a complete academic essay or personal reflection but the successful melding of the two. I thoroughly enjoyed Irene’s writing and thought the weaving of both fiction and nonfiction was well done. The history of papyrus and books is reflected on through personal retellings that results in a rich tapestry for book lovers to delight in. 

‘Let's talk about you for a moment, the person reading these lines. Right now, with the book open in your hands, you are engaged in a mysterious, unsettling activity, though habit prevents you from being amazed. Think carefully. You are completely quiet, eyes moving over rows of letters made into meaning, that deliver ideas independent from the world now surrounding you. In other words, you have withdrawn to an inner chamber where absent voices speak; where there are ghosts only you can see ….  and where the pace of time's passage is the measure of your level of interest or boredom. You have created a parallel world …. a world that depends on you alone. At any moment, you can avert your gaze from these lines and return to the action and movement of the outside world. But in the meantime, you remain on the edge, in the place where you've chosen to be. There is an almost magical aura to the act of reading.’

If you delight in books and reading, you are in for a treat. Looking to learn a little more of the evolution of ancient literature, this proves a most accessible read. It does not adopt a linear approach, or have pages filled with high end vocabulary. What it does offer is an entertaining history of books with interesting back stories and reflections. From the first attempts on clay tablets, to papyrus, to paper books, to ebooks, Irene has written a tale of past, present and future that I highly recommend to lovers of literature.

‘I'm so amazed by the true and recorded history I discover that it seeps into my dreams and acquires, without my volition, the shape of a story. I'm tempted to step into the skin of those who traveled the roads of an ancient, violent, tumultuous Europe in pursuit of books.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.