“Once you learn to read, you will be FOREVER FREE.”

Iconic Waterstones on Solihull High Street has an amazingly friendly team of booksellers who are on hand to guide you to your next brilliant read. Here are some favourite picks from Bookshop Manager Jo and some of her bookseller superheroes.

Such an inspiring true life tale of a couple, forced into leaving their former lives behind, and, whilst navigating life with a terminal illness, finding that the life that they stumbled upon was so much more than they ever could have imagined it being.

Bookworms unite! This is essential reading for anyone who has had a lifelong passion for books. Mangan marks the different eras of her childhood by the books she read at the time, it’s a journey of nostalgic delight.

by Ava Reid

When Evike is taken from her Pagan village by the Woodsman as sacrifice to the king, she become an unlikely heroine in a much darker plot torn between her loyalty to her village and her quest to reconnect to her father and find out where she came from. A richly imagined exploration of faith, folklore and staying true to our own beliefs.

Clanlands by Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish

Marie’s Picks

Take two of ‘Outlander’s’ finest, place them in the Highlands, mix in a campervan, (un) healthy amounts of whiskey, a big dose of banter, humour and friendship – and what do you get? This book! Plus, it has Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish on the cover in kilts!

by Peter Wohlleben

This book blew my mind, even as a lifelong tree lover. We all now know that trees communicate and interact with each other; Wohlleben takes this to a whole new level. By personifying trees, the woods and forests, using bang-up-to-date data and research, he allows us into the incredible and complex lives they lead and shows us why we need to protect and preserve them more than ever. Absolutely amazing!

by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

A beautifully co-written, hauntingly lyrical ride through time and space, chronicling the blossoming relationship between two agents on opposing sides of an epic war, This Is How You Lose The Time War is one of those books that you’ll finish, and then immediately re-read.

A Memory Called Empire is an elegant, complex and intelligent space-opera which ruminates on the effects of empire and the importance of cultural identity. Wellpaced, full of twists, and with excellently comprehensive world-building, I devoured it within two days!