A Bookseller's Fascinating Journey of Discovery: A Novel

GG: What an abomination. This book is written in a way that seems to be trying to be so erudite that it doesn’t get past first base. The ongoing presentation of emails punctuated by something akin to narrative in italics without even the whiff of a story for the first 10% just says waste of time for me. Don’t even…

Canada on Oct 23, 2021

Nicki KendallNicki Kendall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Thanks to #netgalley and #lakeunionpublishing for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. A heartwarming, funny and very entertaining read. This book gave me Eleanor Oliphant vibes in all the very best ways. I loved the writing style of this book, it's written in a mix of emails and diary entries. I found this style to be very engaging and easy to read. It gave a delightful look into Fawn"s life as a second hand bookstore owner, the functioning and disfunctional relationships in her life, her hopes and dreams and the actual reality of her day day. #confessionsofacuriousbookseller #elizabethgreen #tea_sipping_bookworm #amazonkindle #litsy #goodreads #thestorygraph #bookstagram #bookqueen#chicklit

Australia on Mar 21, 2021

Ms D: Well I finished it, but have to say that I missed bits out towards the end. The story's about a woman with a long-established bookshop who takes it amiss when another bookshop opens nearby. The new shop does a roaring trade, whereas she, with her premises falling to bits around her, doesn't. In addition, Fawn (the main character) doesn't get on with her family; another cause for her complaints.
Fawn is not a likeable character, although she does have some good points-she feeds the feral cats living at the back of the shop & takes meals to her elderly tenant-but, oh she can be nasty and offensive.
I wasn't overly keen on the format of the book; a mixture of email, blog & twitter-like communications, and got fairly bored towards the 60 percent mark. Persisted because I wanted to find out how the author was going to end the story, so I suppose that's a point in the book's favour. I don't think I'd read a sequel, if one is written.
Good things about the book: cats and books, which is why it got three stars rather than one.

United Kingdom on Jan 17, 2021

AmazonCustomer: Imagine the movie You've Got Mail, substitute the lead character with the person of Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "bouquet") from the UK sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (or, if you've never heard of her, David Brent from The Office, or heck, even Donald Trump will do), add some toxic black mould and leaky toilets, and you have this quirky little story. As stories go, it wasn't bad. But for dull readers like me who mostly wander around the non-fiction aisles, it has other mighty uses too, like recommendations on what great fiction books learned people should read if they don't want their friendly, cat-loving local bookseller to think them dim-witted and hopelessly under-educated.

First, I must say, as some others have posted here, that it would be a mistake to down-star this book simply because the main character is, well, a bit of a tosser. And to leave a review when one hasn't even finished the book is just lazy and insulting to the writer. So please stay silent if you have not read to the last page (and no, I am not the writer of the book nor a stalker of hers nor a fond pen-pal; I am a fair and just person who likes to read reviews of books both before and after I buy and...

United States on Jan 14, 2021

Rachel MorganRachel Morgan: I was surprised to see so many poor reviews for Confessions of a Curious Bookseller. I then noticed that a lot of those customers didn't bother to finish the book! I'll admit, the main character Fawn is deeply flawed personality-wise but THAT is what is so intriguing about her and this story! Her interactions with others are cringe-worthy, to say the least, but it led me to not being able to put the book down at times. I caught my jaw down to the floor, shocked with Fawn's decisions and her communication choices with her family, staff and other business owners in her community. I feel that those who did not enjoy this book, may not have understood the humor (and tragedy) behind it all. This is NOT a romanticized Nora Roberts novel where the characters are TOO perfect - no money problems, flawless bodies, just happen to find and marry their soulmate within three hundred pages... this is about a woman who owns a used bookstore who you more than likely would not enjoy being around if you met them in real life. I felt Elizabeth Green took a giant leap with this one and I can NOT wait to see what they surprise us with next.
Sybil C.
(Just kidding... my name is Rachel - that's...

United States on Jan 11, 2021

j.r.: This was one of my Amazon First Reads picks. It sounded interesting in the blurb I read. It started out interesting but . . . well, once I realized how Fawn was trying to fool others I was less sympathetic to her.

I started out feeling sympathetic to Fawn as a new bookstore moves in down the street and competes for her business and hoping that Fawn's bookstore would survive.

I had to ask an English teacher if "The Curious Cat" had a particular connection to Mark Twain.

But then...

-Fawn pretends to a pen pal that she has an entirely different life than what her is truly like. (If it was only this, I probably would have looked past it.)
-Fawn is the owner, but she seems to shovel a lot onto her employees and just expect them to comply. (Such as telling them at the last minute that they have to work certain days. I'm not saying it's wrong to have days that retail employees must work, but it should be spelled out when they're hired or at least a month in advance so that they can make their plans accordingly.)
-For being the owner, Fawn doesn't seem willing to jump in to do many of the tasks that her business requires. She seems to constantly be...

United States on Dec 26, 2020

Ben: The epistolery technique is a good technique employed in a mixed fashion. Other reviewers gave up on the book (overly-long, it needed some editing from its >400 pages!) early. If they had have persisted, they would have found that the lead character is slightly more complex than first presented. She is annoying, opinionated, rather stupid in some aspects, but has moments of revelation that she's made mistakes and isn't happy with how her life has ended up. She dotes on cats but is blind about humans. She cooks for her tenant, who thinks it's her distant daughter providing for her.
But the interesting literary device doesn't save what's an over-long book about a dislikeable lead character, sadly. It's very easy to skim and skip pages, getting the gist of the story--for that reason this is a 3-star rather than a 2-star book.

Australia on Dec 25, 2020

Tree HuggerTree Hugger: When this came up on my Amazon First Read email, I have to say I didn’t really care for what it was about – it just had the word book bookseller in it and I clicked!
Any book about books, bookshops, and literature turns my head. Yet, I was quite surprised to find it was a succession of emails, letters, journal entries, etc.
But though I thought this would initially grind with me, it actually turned out to be a breath of fresh air.
I loved this book and yes, the use of various media, as opposed to a straightforward novel was perhaps a huge part of that love. But, more so because what transpired from a succession of emails, review comments, and journal entries was a better way of understanding the complexity of its main character.

Though I personally feel the negative reviews are unjust and unfair, I can see why the structure of this book might make people think twice. However, what I will say is that this distinctive way of writing made the entire book a lot more entertaining. You just need to put your notion of a typical book to one side and be willing to accept a different format. Just because it’s different, it by no means suggests it's not worthy of your...

United Kingdom on Dec 03, 2020