Top 5 Book Recommendations For Bookshop Day

By Jacqueline Munro | Oct 5, 2022

Graphic for Bookshop Day with cartoon family buying books at a book shop, orange wording reads 'BOOKSHOP DAY' and 'BOOKS ARE FOR EVERYONE' — Provided by Books Are My Bag.

It’s Bookshop Day on October 8th and there are bookish celebrations both big and small across the whole of the UK. Find your nearest event with Books Are My Bag. To celebrate, we asked Bookseller Hazel Broadfoot, from Village Books Dulwich, for her top book recommendations for you to get in time for Bookshop Day.

Book Recommendations

1. “The Bullet That Missed” by Richard Osman (Viking, £20)

Book cover for The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman with green border and silhouette of a fox

Provided by Viking.

This is the third outing for the Thursday Murder Club team and it’s every bit as engaging and funny as the first two.

2. “Love Untold” by Ruth Jones (Transworld, £20)

Book cover of "Love Untold" by Ruth Jones, a blue cover with a little envelope tied to a gold balloon floating alongside the title

Provided by Transworld.

The new novel by actress and comedienne Ruth Jones tells the story of four generations of women – it’s a joy-filled, life-affirming, treat.

3. “The Night Watch” by Neil Lancaster (HarperCollins, £14.99)

Book cover of "The Night Watch" by Neil Lancaster, birds eye view of lantern on cliff edge and rough coastal seas and title in large orange print

Provided by HarperCollins.

Neil Lancaster is a Scottish crime writer with a growing fan base – including me! A lawyer is found dead at Dunnet Head and DS Max Craigie is called in to investigate.

4. “The Exquisite Art Of Getting Even” by Alexander McCall Smith (Birlinn, £12)

Book cover for "The Exquisite Art Of Getting Even" by Alexander McCall Smith, a mustard yellow cover with an illustration of an angel flying with red ribbon

Provided by Birlinn.

I adore Alexander McCall Smith, especially when he’s writing about Scotland. These four stories take us from Mull to Edinburgh, and are all told with his trademark warmth and humour.

5. “Act Of Oblivion” by Robert Harris (Hutchinson, £22)

Book cover of "Act Of Oblivion" by Robert Harris, grey cloudy cover with two silhouetted figures in the bottom corner.

Provided by Hutchinson.

Harris is the master of historical suspense and his latest is brilliant – a manhunt across America in pursuit of the men who executed Charles I.

Bookshop Day Events

Around Bookshop Day, a number of bookshops will be collaborating with their local literary festivals, working closely with festival organisers and individual publishers to provide copies of books by speakers , cover multiple festival venues, and organise distribution of author-signed copies. Author events taking place at literary festival across the UK on Bookshop Day include:

Kamila Shamsie, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018 and author of the new novel Best of Friends, will appear at Manchester Literature Festival on Saturday 8 October, with books provided by Waterstones Manchester. She will be in conversation with broadcaster and BBC presenter Razia Iqbal. More info here.
Ian McEwan, Mary Berry, Tom Read Wilson, Susie Dent, Damon Galgut, Katy Hessel, Joseph Coelho, Oliver Jeffers, Louie Stowell and many more will be doing author events at Cheltenham Literature Festival on Saturday 8 October, with books provided by Waterstones Cheltenham. More info here.
Ruth Jones, Simon Mayo, Jennifer Saint, Elodie Harper, Natasha Carthew, Michael Schmidt and more will be doing in-person and virtual events as part of Ilkley Literature Festival on Saturday 8 October, with books provided by The Grove Bookshop (Ilkley), one of the North’s most well-known independent bookshops. More info here.
Kit de Waal, Lenny Harry, Katherine Rundell, Melvyn Bragg, P.P Arnold, Manjeet Mann, Amanda Quartey and more will be doing in-person and live-streamed events on Saturday 8 October at Henley Literary Festival, with books provided by The Bell Bookshop (Henley-on-Thames). More info here.