The Bookshop on the Corner
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Read between May 22 - May 25, 2024
6%
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Therefore, let me reassure you: there is no twist ending in this book. Except I would say that, wouldn’t I, if there actually was.
7%
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Nina Redmond, twenty-nine, was telling herself not to cry in public. If you have ever tried giving yourself a good talking-to, you’ll know it doesn’t work terribly well.
8%
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“The Nazis. They packed up all the books and threw them onto bonfires.” “They’re not throwing them onto bonfires!” said Nina. “They’re not actually Nazis.” “That’s what everyone thinks. Then before you know it, you’ve got Nazis.”
9%
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Surinder had bought a bottle of wine, which Nina looked at warily. This was normally a bad sign, the start of the “what’s wrong with Nina” conversation that generally began after the second glass.
15%
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She was starting to lose patience. Ten minutes ago she’d been all ready to call it off and go home. Now she wanted to show this stupid man she was perfectly capable of whatever he didn’t think she was capable of.
15%
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as long as she could still be around books, still be close by, surely that would be enough.
15%
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Nina had been told regularly since she was a child that she needed more fresh air, at which she would take her book and clamber up the apple tree at the bottom of their tatty garden,
16%
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“Just do something. You might make a mistake, then you can fix it. But if you do nothing, you can’t fix anything. And your life might turn out to be full of regrets.”
20%
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It felt very odd that somewhere she’d spent such a small amount of time—and which had ended up so badly—had had such a profound effect on her.
23%
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When the second man reached Nina, she saw that he had curly black hair, rather too long, and tired-looking black eyes with long eyelashes. His skin was olive, and he had taut high cheekbones. He was of medium height, thickset.
26%
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Nina widened her eyes. “You’re allowed to do that?” “Completely and absolutely not,” he said.
34%
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Instantly, a black and white dog leaped out of the back of the Land Rover and whizzed to his side, and he put his hand down and automatically caressed its ears. Nina found herself thinking how useful that would be, to have an automatic comforting device. The dog looked nice.
35%
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Underneath the tarpaulin were what Nina knew were over seventy boxes of books. She eyed them guiltily. “I had no idea there were that many,” she lied. “Really?” said Surinder, hoisting two at once. “No, how could you, with only all the many, many warnings from me to move the damn things?”
36%
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“Do you think he looks a bit like Mark Ruffalo?”
38%
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“You’re going to pull out a lamb with a rope?” “Unless you’d rather perform a Caesarean section?”
41%
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Nina shrugged. “You’ll think it’s stupid . . .” “You’ve moved an entire country away with a big bunch of books and a van,” said Surinder. “I already think you are totally stupid.”
45%
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She was exhausted, but happily, wonderfully, down-to-the-bone dancing-and-laughing exhausted.
46%
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“Anyway, what’s wrong with reading?” “Nothing is wrong with reading,” said Surinder, “as I have told you a million billion times before. But it finally seems you’re doing both. Read/live/read/live. And proceed, et cetera.”
50%
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the more sensibly dressed the person, the more unutterably depraved they liked their fiction;
53%
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“Are you going to find out the first part of his name?” said Nina. “I don’t feel it’s very important at this juncture.” “Okay, well try and learn it before you get married.”
55%
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“Do you know anything about him?” he said. “Because I know men who travel far and work the longest, the hardest shifts. And it’s always . . . it’s always for their families.”
55%
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She heard a soft baaing as the car door opened, and a gentle murmuring, which annoyed her even more, seeing as he patently had it in him to be perfectly kind and sweet, as long as you had four fricking legs.
56%
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Hattie was constantly trying to persuade Nina to do a story session that involved her leaving all the children there, but Nina strenuously refused, muttering “Health and Safety” as a warding-off spell, to which Hattie had once sadly responded, “Well, I don’t mind if you lose one of them, I’ve got loads of others,”
58%
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“He’s not hot!” said Nina. “Let me see. Six foot two, curly hair, long, lean body of the kind I totally know you like, muscles, blue eyes, jaw like an Action Man . . .” Surinder was counting off on her fingers. “Saves baby animals, strides about in a manly fashion, has a posh barn. No, absolutely nothing hot about that at all.”
58%
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She touched Nina on the arm. “This is the place for you. Genuinely. I think you belong here.”
60%
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It was lovely. People coming in to share stories or books or things they liked. Now, it’s people coming in because they’re desperate. They’re cut off from the world because they don’t have the Internet or their benefits have been taken away and they can’t make ends meet, and nobody is left out there to care because they cut and they cut and they cut. I’m a librarian, and now I’m an IT support worker with a side order of psychology, addiction counseling, and social work.
62%
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Nina squinted at the picture. “Your wife?” “No, no, no . . . my girlfriend. She is Aras’s mother. She live with my mother.” Marek’s eyes were downcast for an instant. “So you’re still together?” He looked puzzled. “What do you mean?” “You’re a couple?” “Yes. But I work here for a year. So far from home. And I am so lonely, Nina. So lonely. And I meet you and suddenly . . . it is like sun coming out!
Kendra Hudson
Thank god, I am so sick of this guy.
62%
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Her emotions had shifted 180 degrees, from anger and bewilderment to enormous pity.
63%
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“I did warn you.” “I know. I know you did. I just . . . I built him up in my mind so much.” “Too much reading.”
63%
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Plus I need to get back to work and actually earn some money so I can pay for gas and the occasional bottle of pinot grigio.
63%
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Nina was determined, somehow, to find something she’d like. So far historical, romance, comedy, and one of those novelists who specialized in child abduction had failed to hit the spot.
64%
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Nina had grown to understand the longer she stayed there that because they were so far away from big-city attractions, and because the weather was so often not their friend, they had to rely on each other through the long winter evenings and difficult days. It was an actual community, not just a long row of houses full of people who happened to live next to one another.
88%
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Later, she moved away from the tree. “You’re not going to cut it down now, are you?” He grinned. “Yes! Do you never listen?”