Bookish People (24 in 2024 #13)

Author: Susan Coll
Title: Bookish People
Publisher: Harper Muse
Date Published: 08/02/2022

Read Dates: 07/03/2024- 07/12/2024
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Bookish People is a multi POV contemporary fiction novel about a week in an independent bookstore in Washington D.C. it follows Sophie, the recently widowed bookstore owner, Raymond Chaucer, an acclaimed but currently much hated poet scheduled for an event at the store, and Clemi, the overwhelmed events manager with an ulterior motive.

This book was just… not for me. It wasn’t a bad book per se but it struggled to keep my attention. I ended up reading a chapter a day just to get it finished. The writing was clever and the characters were interesting and I’m sure a lot of people will really enjoy it, I might like it more if I give it a try again at a different time.

A perfect storm of comedic proportions erupts in a DC bookstore over the course of one soggy summer week—narrated by two very different women and punctuated by political turmoil, a celestial event, and a perpetually broken vacuum cleaner. Independent bookstore owner Sophie Bernstein is burned out on books. Mourning the death of her husband, the loss of her favorite manager, her only child’s lack of aspiration, and the grim state of the world, she fantasizes about going into hiding in the secret back room of her store. Meanwhile, renowned poet Raymond Chaucer has published a new collection, and rumors that he’s to blame for his wife’s suicide have led to national cancellations of his publicity tour. He intends to set the record straight—with an ultra-fine-point Sharpie—but only one shop still plans to host Sophie’s. Fearful of potential repercussions from angry customers, Sophie asks Clemi—bookstore events coordinator, aspiring novelist, and daughter of a famed literary agent—to cancel Raymond’s appearance. But Clemi suspects Raymond might be her biological father, and she can’t say no to the chance of finding out for sure. This big-hearted screwball comedy features an intergenerational cast of oblivious authors and over-qualified booksellers—as well as a Russian tortoise named Kurt Vonnegut Jr.—and captures the endearing quirks of some of the best kinds of the ones who love good books.