Our Booksellers Recommend
Choosing favourites is hard. We’re not saying we love all our books equally, but compressing hours and hours of enjoyment over the course of a year into just a handful of books is an agonising process. Still, we’ve been brave and put ourselves through the wringer to choose 10 books each that we felt stood out. We all have our tastes, tendencies and peculiarities when it comes to reading, but as booksellers we try to make sure there is a certain breadth to our reading. What is undeniable though, is that there is a very strong representation here of books published by small independent presses, publishers we love to champion and who are putting out much of the most exciting new writing (and re-issues) gracing our shelves.
- Tom Recommends
- Leah Recommends
- Joe Recommends
The Shop’s Bestsellers of 2023
These are the books that our customers, in their wisdom, have bought in droves. It’s always fascinating for us to see which books really take off. Some of the titles on the list will also be national bestsellers, and some are much more particular so Bristol or even to Bishopston. Some sell because we adore them and recommend them widely, some are word of mouth hits that sell without us ever needing to mention them, and some sell because they were written by Barbara Kingsolver.
- Fiction
- NonFiction
- Childrens’
Big Releases of 2023
These are the books that made a splash nationally. For the most part these are autumn releases, as that’s when the larger publishers tend to focus their biggest books, but there are a few from earlier in the year too as reminders of some of the excellent books we’ve had in the shop over the last 12 months. We’ve limited this selection to hardbacks, but our shop 2023 bestsellers list is awash with paperbacks.
- 2023 Fiction
- 2023 NonFiction
- 2023 Childrens’
Some Gift Suggestions
This is our selection of books we think would make great gifts for awkward uncles, fun friends, work colleagues you actually like, parents if they’ve behaved themselves, partners if you really love them. These might not be on wish lists, but that’s only because people don’t yet know that they desperately want them in their life. You can help.
Shop Favourite Children’s Books
Here are some of our favourite children’s books from 2023 including adventure and reference books, picture books, comic-strips books, and proper books for middle-grade readers! Some of these are big releases from authors we know and love and others are new authors who’ve charmed us with their inventive illustrations and unique stories.