The Bookseller at the End of the World

The Bookseller at the End of the World | Ruth Shaw

pick

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Ruth Shaw has led one incredible and adventurous life. Although her journey was filled with much pain and heartbreak, she looks back upon her life with tenderness. Throughout most of her memoir, my thoughts were, "How did she do all this? How would one even begin? I could never!"

This is more than the story of a bookseller in New Zealand. It's the story of a daughter, mother, sailor (extraordinaire!), lover, survivor, and fierce friend.

steph_phanie Wanted to add: some of the most frightening moments were told quite matter-of-factly. Sometimes, I think this was a way to protect herself and to shield the real identity of the people involved. There were also some episodes where I wanted more detail; I thought she could have spent more time providing context to whatever adventure she was on at the time. Also, lots of CWs with this! 9mo

13 likes1 comment

yourfavouritemixtape

The Bookseller at the End of the World | Ruth Shaw

so-so

I like to dive into books without much checking them out beforehand. But sometimes it‘s better to read some trigger warnings. This was this month‘s pick for #foodandlit. It started lovely but then got very dark very fast. And then even darker. It‘s a fascinating autobiography, I read it till the end. But for you so you don‘t make the same mistake: trigger warnings are in the comments.

yourfavouritemixtape Rape, adoption, child death, attempted suicide, domestic violence 10mo

18 likes1 comment

squirrelbrain

The Bookseller at the End of the World | Ruth Shaw

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Ruth owns a bookshop in the very south of the South Island of #newzealand and has also had a very varied life.

I struggled to connect at first, as Ruth had a tough life, and keeps running away from her grief, but tells her story in a very matter-of- fact way, which gave her story quite a distant feel. However, later in the book, it is easier to feel closer to her and I loved her ‘Tales from the Bookshop‘ inserts.

#readingoceania24

Librarybelle, BarbaraBB

squirrelbrain There were some obvious editing errors though…. How about this one? @oryx, you‘ll like this! ‘When my sister and I were in Dublin, we went to the Crown Hotel - the oldest pub in Northern Ireland‘ 😬 I‘m sure there were some other continuity errors too, but listening on audio makes it difficult to go back and double-check. 11mo

Librarybelle The idea of a bookstore at the edge of the world sounds interesting, but editing issues would bother me. 11mo

TrishB That‘s a bad one. 11mo

See All 9 Comments

MicheleinPhilly Yikes. 11mo

rockpools Ouch! I mean I‘d read it for the title alone, but… 11mo

BarbaraBB That‘s a reason to not read it! 11mo

Oryx @squirrelbrain I have this book as well - need to get round to reading it! I'll try to ignore that error!! Funny as I'm in New Zealand now 🌞 11mo

squirrelbrain Ooh, I didn‘t know you were there @Oryx - summer time of course for you! 😃 11mo

Oryx @squirrelbrain I'm not sad to be missing January. 😁 11mo

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Soubhiville

The Bookseller at the End of the World | Ruth Shaw

so-so

I was excited for this when I read the blurb. It‘s about a woman in her 70‘s who runs 2 “wee bookshops” in New Zealand. She had a very tumultuous life before settling into her bookselling role.

Unfortunately the writing was lacking for me. While many interesting things have happened to Ruth, she just grazes over events without allowing much emotion to show through.

There are cute snippets of interactions with customers, the best bits.

Big CWs

Soubhiville But aren‘t these endpapers great?! 2y

TNbookworm Love the endpapers 💕 2y

68 likes2 comments