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| Every year we, the booksellers in question, read thousands* of books. You can imagine, then, how difficult a task it is to select just a few of our favourites to highlight!
Nevertheless, after much deliberation (and the occasional battle over the same title– we’re looking at you, Claire-Louise Bennett) we have managed to do the impossible and narrow down our truly gigantic list of favourites to just 5 books per bookseller.
The only criteria for selection is that the book be published in 2025, fairly niche, and objectively good writing. So you can be sure that if you bought the entire of one booskeller’s picks, that would be 5 books ready for immediate gifting right there. Please note that although only one title per bookseller is reviewed below, if you click the link at the bottom of the email then you will be taken to the full list(s) with reviews of every title. Magic!
If none of our gift guides have quite hit the spot yet, then please know that a booksellers favourite question is “can you recommend me a book for my child/aunt/grandad/enemy/dentist/dog?”.
And if you are still unsatisfied, then we also have our very own shop vouchers that can be purchased in-store or online (just email or call us) and redeemed against any of our books, diaries, or stationary!
Lots of love,
Bookseller’s Tom, Helen, Libby, Leah and Joe
*or…near enough |
The National Telepathy
by Roque Larraquy, translated by Frank Wynne
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| I nearly decided against including The National Telepathy in this list. It is a challenging book to recommend, and will be a tricky book to give to someone as a gift. There are some coughs politely interesting themes and content, including a sloth with the power to create temporary telepathic-sexual connections between people. Merry Christmas, uncle. It stays on the list, however, because it is quite simply one of the wildest and most brilliantly imagined novels I’ve read for some time. It would be largely pointless to try to describe here the events of the book, because they would make little sense, but you can know that the book takes place in the first half of the 20th century, in South America, and deals with some of the worst aspects of that century as well as venturing into gloriously strange fantasy. Choose the recipient of this one carefully, but if you think you have a good candidate then take the risk. |
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| Tom’s other picks: The National Telepathy by Roque Larraquy, The Place of Tides by James Rebanks, Red Water by Jurica Pavicic, Clear by Carys Davies, Potrait of an Island on Fire by Ariel Saramandi |
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Big Time
by Jordan Prosser
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| A question I’ve been asking myself with increasing regularity since 2020 is, how do you write about dystopia whilst living in one? Prosser not only manages to superbly craft a world just believably worse than this one, but manages to serve up a huge dollop of satirical humour and excitement beside the bleak imaginings of autocracy and labour camps. There’s extreme coincidences, conspiracies, a drug that may just allow you to see the future, road trips, and the egos of band members in their 20’s who had a successful album all vying for page space in this fun, frenetic, kaleidoscopic epic. |
| Helen’s other picks: Two Lights by James Roberts, We Used to Dance Here by Dave Tynan, Big Time by Jordan Prosser, Wired Our Own Way (an anthology), Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line by Elizabeth Lovatt |
The Position of Spoons
by Deborah Levy
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| I read this in hardback last year and devoured it. Twice. If you haven’t been bitten by the memoir bug yet, just know you’re missing out. And if you’d like to stop missing out, The Position of Spoons is a wonderful place to start. Deborah Levy excavates her inner world through the lens of media, literature and artworks that have moved her– the building blocks that have shaped her very being. The range of topics she covers is vast and deep. You might even think there aren’t enough pages to hold it all, but they are deftly handled by Levy, who is an expert at intellectually engaging with life’s most difficult moments. |
| Libby’s other picks: The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy, The Coin by Yasmin Zaher, A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland, Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, Fair by Jen Calleja |
In The Good Seats
Published by the Irish Journal Paper Visual Art
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| This collection of essays showcases some excellent writing from Ali Smith, Michael Magee, Daisy Lafarge, Devika Ponnambalam, Maria Fusco and Maggie Armstrong, amongst others. From thwarted attempts to secure a network connection in order to pacify some young children with Netflix, to the capacity for film to capture and reflect the unspeakable experiences of growing up in a war zone, each essay offers a refreshing and insightful take on how cinema influences and infiltrates our lives. Thoughtfully edited, the distinct experience of each writer is elegantly drawn out making for an incredibly strong collection of essays that is both comforting and enlightening. |
| Leah’s other picks: In the Good Seats (an anthology), House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk, How to End a Story by Helen Garner, Big-Kiss, Bye Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett, Theory & Pratice by Michelle de Krester |
| Granta continue to publish marvels at regular intervals, and this debut novel from poet Issa Quincy is no exception. Quincy’s unnamed narrator recalls incidents and episodes from his past which together form a wholly absorbing meditation on memory and forgotten lives and places. Absence has been compared to the work of Rachel Cusk and W.G. Sebald amongst others, but to me it has a style all of its own, one that is founded on an unflinching care and precision; this is a writer who makes the most of detail and specifics. And the effect of encountering the losses and absences it describes is devastating. It’s one of the most moving and atmospheric works of fiction I’ve read in many, many years. |
| Joe’s other picks: Careless People by Sarah-Wynn Williams, One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad, Absence by Issa Quincy, Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn, England is Mine by Nicola Padamsee |
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