A little while ago a podcast started, We Have Ways. It then became an annual festival too and we were invited by the hosts to take along our pop-up bookshop and stock it with books from a whole bunch of military historians. Over the last few years the podcast, hosted by James Holland & Al Murray, has grown into the most wonderful community of enthusiasts and friends. This weekend we’re at this year’s We Have Ways Fest and what a hoot it is! The weather today is a little cooler than it was yesterday, but the warmth exudes from this gang gathered in these Buckinghamshire fields.
This weekend we’ve launched the first of what we hope will become a wonderful collection of reproduction military maps. Produced in conjunction with historians Merryn Walters & Andy Aitcheson, each map is printed on high quality 120gsm High White Laid Paper. Trying to understand the world as it is, then reflecting on recent history is a good place to start – being part of James and Al’s We Have Ways gang is a great way to learn.
All Day it has Rained by Alun Lewis
And I can remember nothing dearer or more to my heart
Than the children I watched in the woods on Saturday
Shaking down burning chestnuts for the schoolyard’s merry play,
Or the shaggy patient dog who followed me
By Sheet and Steep and up the wooded scree
To the Shoulder o’ Mutton where Edward Thomas brooded long
On death and beauty – till a bullet stopped his song.
One series that is always met with enthusiastic applause in our shop is Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters. The unforgettable final novel, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, must be a top pick for this week. Finished by Riley’s son after her death, the truth about each of the sisters’ intertwined lives is revealed, but as the life of Pa is unveiled, new questions emerge. How much did the sisters really understand about their father? Our other top pick is In Search of Berlin by John Kampfner, a well-researched and daring look at a city in flux. Tortured by its past yet imaginative in its future, Kampfner’s dialogue across history spectacularly illustrates the city’s constant reinvention.
Shaking up crime fiction, A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith sees Gabriel Smith waking to the body of the Lord Chief Justice on his doorstep; his investigation leads him behind the murky doors of the Inner Temple, the heart of London’s legal world. We’ve got plenty of brilliant general fiction to keep you company during those long hours in the sunshine, too! Katherine, a young widow, finds herself in a wellness retreat unlike any other, complete with erotic massage and scream therapy, in Daisy Buchanan’s Pity Party. Heather Morris’ latest novel, Sisters Under the Rising Sun, is a story of resilience and sisterhood, as dozens of women in a Japanese POW camp find joy in shared music; and Smothermoss by Alisa Alering is an unsettling coming-of-age tale set in an isolated Appalachian community in the 1980s, where two young girls grow up haunted by a brutal murder and question what that means for their lives in the mountains.
In non-fiction, Chris Guillebeau navigates unconventional streams of income in Gonzo Capitalism, a guide for the new economic landscape; Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly details Jeremy Clarkson’s optimistic days on the farm, filled with hilarious tales of animals and absurd business ideas; Ultimate Unprocessed Recipes features recipes for the comfort foods, made healthier and more nutritious – perfect for cooks at all levels; and The Singularity is Nearer is Ray Kurzweil’s prediction for the future of ‘super-intelligent’ AI.
For children 7+, the party never ends in Grimwood: Party Animals by Nadia Shireen.Three parties in one day might have exhausted Sharon the Party Crow, but luckily, she has a fun-loving bunch of friends to help her get her mojo back!Finally, new in picture books is Lily Murray’s Maisie Jones and the Dinosaur Bones, based on the true story of paleontologist Mary Anning; Maisie won’t let a stuffy man in a top hat steal her discovery, not when she’s dreamed of finding her own fossils for so long. This is an endearing illustrated story about chasing your dreams.
As always, if there’s something you need help with, or a book you need ordering, please call or email us!
From Sophie
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