BOOKS Mr B shares his lockdown literary list

BOOKS NIC BOTTOMLEY

“Two playful mysteries, that are also full of comic touches, could off er much needed levity and escape this lockdown”

Story time

More lockdown means more time, which means more lovely books

With Christmas browsing needing to be done at a distance the Bath Life editorial squadron has off ered up a larger than usual space (even my column needs social distancing) for me to bombard you with some of the books I think would be especially well received if they appeared under the tree this year, and. So here goes, six books that might appeal to diff erent readers and that represent some of our current favourites here at Mr B’s.

Let’s start with the youngest readers. More than ever this year, we’re going to need weaponry on hand to combat cabin fever amongst the kids this Christmastime. In fact I’m getting just a little bit shaky thinking about the worst case scenario of lockdown running straight into a largely indoor sugarfuelled Christmas.

A great book for lengthier distraction is the third instalment of the Pierre the Maze Detective series, The Curious Case of the Castle in the Sky by Hiro Kamigaki (Laurence King, £14.99). Don’t worry if you’re new to these, each dastardly maze and mystery mash-up is separate and so there’s no need to have tried the previous volumes. On each page you are greeted by a vibrant twisty-turny overfi lled scene with a fresh maze that might ultimately lead Pierre and Carmen to the fabled castle in the sky. At least it will if you can help them navigate it and, along the way, track down the many well-hidden objects needed to unpick the mystery of the missing Maze Egg.

For young readers in need of escapism, and laughter, try out InvestiGATORS by John Patrick Green (Macmillan, £9.99). Illustrated in comic-book panel style, this is an exciting

double-mystery as our snappy secret agents try to fi gure out where the local baker has gone and what caused an explosion in the science laboratory. The hilarious Mango and somewhat stricter Brash often descend into comedy arguments as they use their ‘Very Exciting Spy Technology’ to solve clues and travel great distances at speed by fl ushing themselves down the loo. A brilliantly oddball addition to the world of misfi t crimefi ghting duos!

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri (Levine Querido, £12.99) is a memoir that is offi cially aimed at teen readers but that any adult would enjoy as well. It’s also Juliette’s (my wife and Mr B’s co-owner) book of the year by just some distance. Daniel tells his remarkable life story from the perspective of his 13-year-old self, weaving memories together like Scheherazade.

By that point in his life he and his mother and sister were living in Edmond, Oklahoma where Daniel was attempting to fi t in at school whilst his family tried to make a life and a living from scratch. But it hadn’t always been that way. Through fragmented childhood memories (fragmented because he had so few people to corroborate them) we hear how Daniel’s family were forced to fl ee the secret police in Iran and leave their lavish lifestyle behind. That was the start of the journey that would end in Oklahoma, but only after it had taken in a prince’s palace in Dubai, a refugee camp in Italy, and plenty of dramatic, almost cinematic, misadventures.

Despite the hardships along the way, this is an overwhelmingly funny book, particularly as Daniel recalls the utter disbelief of his schoolmates when this kid who, to them, was just poor, strange and smelt of weird foreign food, described an early childhood lived in grand houses surrounded by saff ron fi elds and with aviaries between the walls.

Two playful mysteries, that are also full of comic touches, could off er much needed levity and escape this lockdown. Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club

(Viking, £14.99) has been one of our bestsellers for the last few weeks and that’s likely to continue throughout the season. Pointless fact-machine Osman has turned his trademark tongue-in-cheek wit to the crime genre. The result is a charming and gripping story set in a luxury retirement home with four amateur sleuth residents who suddenly fi nd themselves closer to actual criminal activity than they’d anticipated.

Meanwhile, The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos (Puskin, £9.99) features a young editor who discovers a masterpiece amongst a Breton library of unpublished manuscripts. The author is apparently the eponymous Henri Pick, a deceased pizzeria owner. However when the book is published under his name, the locals cast doubt on the whole aff air; because the Henri Pick who they knew, and whose pizzas they ate, had never read a book in his life let alone written one.

Henri Pick would make a great gift for anyone who loves a story set in and around the book world, as would Cathy Rentzenbrink’s Dear Reader (Picador, £12.99). This is part-memoir and part ode to the way that books can act as guides and companions through the trials, tribulations and joys of our lives. Now an author, previously a bookseller, and always a booknut, Rentzenbrink has had books beside her throughout and credits them with changing her life in all kinds of ways.

This beautifully written love aff air to books and their potential for positive impact also, of course, happens to be a treasure trove of the author’s own book recommendations. Which makes it that most beloved of items for any bookseller – a dangerous gateway for any reader to more must-reads, and so to ever more crammed bookshelves.

Nic Bottomley is the general manager of Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, 14/15 John Street, Bath; 01225 331155; www.mrbsemporium.com