Fiction
The Weather at Nash Point
A Vale novel about a lighthouse keeper's daughter in 1952 that made me miss my stop. Plain prose, enormous feeling.
Chosen by Ceridwen£9.99
Staff picks
What we are reading, and the cards say why.
The shelf by the till with a handwritten card under every book: who chose it and why, in a sentence or two. Eight this month, from a lighthouse at Nash Point to a soup chapter the café cooks from. Ask any of us for the next three; recommending is the job.
This month\'s eight
Nature
Salt Marsh
The best nature book about this coast since Gwenallt: the Severn, the levels, the birds, and a man walking off a grief. Read it slowly.
Chosen by Rhodri£10.99
Crime
The Second Register
A crime novel set in a Cardiff registry office. The detail is so right it must be true, and the ending is a trapdoor.
Chosen by Ffion£8.99
Memoir
Pencil and Rain
A memoir of a childhood above a Penarth ironmonger's in the sixties. Half the shop has bought it for a parent.
Chosen by Ceridwen£12.99
Poetry
A Field Guide to Nowhere
Poems about places that have been built over. Short, dry, devastating. Our bestselling poetry for two years.
Chosen by Rhodri£10
Children
The Fox Who Counted Stars
The picture book I read at storytime most. Four-year-olds say the fox's line with me by the third page.
Chosen by Ffion£7.99
Young adult
Sixteen Streets
Young adult, set in Grangetown, about a girl who maps her neighbourhood before it is demolished. The teen club chose it; they were right.
Chosen by Rhodri£8.99
Cookery
The Slow Kitchen
Cookery for people who have a Tuesday and a tin of beans. The soup chapter alone is worth it, and the café uses it.
Chosen by Ceridwen£22
Prices are the ones printed on the books. Any pick can be ordered on the order page for collection or posting; the card comes with it if you ask.
The front table
New this month, read in proof, and the ones we sent back.
The front table changes on the first of the month: about twenty new hardbacks, every one read in proof by one of us or by a bookseller we trust. The publishers send us ten times that many; the ones we did not like go back, and if you ask about one we will tell you why. Paperbacks of the month are on the stairs.
- About twenty new books a month, read first
- Signed stock from the Thursday events by the till
- The Welsh wall: a third in Welsh, launches most months
Loved something? Bring it in; we will find three more.
The quickest way to a good recommendation is the last book you loved and the last one you gave up on. Tell us both at the counter, or on the order page, and leave with three. Gift wrapping in brown paper and string is free.