Sophie Archives

Book-to-screen: The Murderbot Diaries

by Sophie, Else & Iris The TV adaptation of Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries is nearing the end of its first season. Since so many of us at ABC have read and loved this series of science fiction novellas, we figured we'd remind you of our Staff Choice descriptions and let you [...]

Iris W2025-07-07T16:47:45+02:00Tags: Book to Screen, Else, Iris, Martha Wells, Murderbot Diaries, Sophie, TV adaptation|

Bookbits for 2 July 2025

By Sophie Apparently today marks the exact mid-point of the half-century: from tomorrow, we will officially be closer to 2050 than to 2000. Hope that factoid helps cool your brains in this warm weather! - Awards! Dutch author Yael van der Wouden won this year's Women's Prize for Fiction with The Safekeep. [...]

Sophie2025-07-04T16:54:39+02:00Tags: Awards, graham norton, interview, john le carre, lists, Sophie, summer reading, Yael van der Wouden|

ABC Summer Bingo

By Sophie Summer's here! And nothing is so quintessentially summer as reading - in a hammock, on the beach, in the shade of a glorious tree... We decided to make reading even more fun and colorful by making not one, but two ABC Summer Bingo cards, one for kids and one [...]

Sophie2025-06-20T09:25:58+02:00Tags: ABC Summer Bingo, Matty, Sophie|

Topical Tips: NATO

By Sophie In case you have been absent from the local news the past few months: next week The Hague will host the NATO Summit. A multitude of international leaders will descend on our City of Peace and Justice, and the amount of security measures are, quite frankly, astounding. Good luck [...]

Sophie2025-07-04T16:40:48+02:00Tags: Global politics, Military History, NATO, NATO summit, Politics, Sophie, The Hague, Topical Tips|

Bookbits for 4 June 2025

By Sophie Happy Pride Month everyone! - And if you think "why do we still need Pride Month?" read the story of what happened to our Amsterdam store's window display. Also, for example, this crackdown on LGBTQIA+ books in Russia. - Awards! May was awards-heavy, as you can check out in [...]

Sophie2025-06-04T08:21:45+02:00Tags: AI, Awards, book news, Bookbits, Events, Interviews, lists, Pride, Pride Month, Sophie|

Literary Prize Bonanza: International Booker, Pulitzers, and Nibbies

By Sophie It's May, and that means a trio of big literary prizes has been announced! First off, the International Booker Prize was announced this past Tuesday. Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq was the winner. These 12 stories were translated into English from Kannada (a language spoken in South India) by [...]

Sophie2025-05-22T11:14:16+02:00Tags: Autobiography, Biography, British Book Awards, children's books, Cookbooks, Crime Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, General Non-Fiction, History, International Booker Prize, Nibbies, Poetry, Politics, Prize winners, Prizewinning Books, Pulitzer Prizes, Sophie, Thrillers, Translated Fiction|

Book review: The Names

The Names by Florence Knapp It is 1987, and in the aftermath of a great storm, Cora sets out with her nine-year-old daughter to register the birth of her son. Her husband intends her to follow a long-standing family tradition and call the boy after him. But faced with the [...]

Damla2025-05-05T20:21:41+02:00Tags: Book review, Book Reviews, Damla, Fiction, Florence Knapp, General Fiction, Sophie|

Bookbits for 1 May 2025

By Sophie How are we in May already?! It seems this past April's literary scene has followed what we do when this country has a spell of glorious weather: enjoyed the sun and take it east. Still, here are a few fun tidbits for you. - Summer reads! Well, since we're [...]

Sophie2025-05-01T15:46:53+02:00Tags: Awards, Bookbits, film and TV tie-ins, interview, Lauren, lists, mario vargas llosa, podcast, RIP, Sophie, summer reads, writing letters|

ABC’s 100 Top Tips, part 5

By Sophie ABC's 100 Top Tips, part 5: Robinson - Zusak To celebrate our birthday this year (officially on 21 April but we're celebrating it on the weekend of 12 and 13 April) we decided to ask all of the ABC staff what their most memorable books were of the past [...]

Sophie2025-04-07T20:49:32+02:00Tags: ABC's 100 Top Tips, Art, Autobiography, Bruna, Carla, Comics, Damla, Else, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Isabelle, Jilles, Jouke, Lília, living, Manga, Martijn, Matty, Music, Nature, Nicki, Philosophy, Psychology, Science Fiction, Simone, Sophie, Staff Choices, Tiemen, YA fiction, Young Adult|

ABC’s 100 Top Tips, part 4

By Sophie ABC's 100 Top Tips, part 4: McCarthy - Reid To celebrate our birthday this year (officially on 21 April but we're celebrating it on the weekend of 12 and 13 April) we decided to ask all of the ABC staff what their most memorable books were of the past [...]

Sophie2025-04-08T12:57:14+02:00Tags: ABC's 100 Top Tips, Autobiography, Comics, Damla, economics, Else, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Humor, Iris, Jitse, Juno, Jurgen, Matty, Poetry, Renata, Science, Shirley, Simone, Sophie, Staff Choices, Tiemen|

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