By Sophie
ABC’s 100 Top Tips, part 2: Eggers- Jemisin
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 25 years – and they, of course, delivered!
I’m very happy to present ABC’s 100 Top Tips, from A-Z by author’s last name, in 5 posts of 20 books this week. There are of course a few rules, some provisos, a couple of quid pro quos… First of all, a title has to be personally loved by a current ABC staff member. Secondly, no current ABC Favorites were selected. Thirdly, the book had to be published between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2024. And finally, only 1 book per author.
I also want to thank our Matty, who designed the poster on the right, and Van Ditmar, who helped print it. It features all the recommended titles and customers will be able to get one when they buy a book in one of our physical stores starting the weekend of 12 and 13 April.
Happy reading!
The Circle – Dave Eggers
“Fantastical literature set backstage at a huge tech multinational from a guy who writes totally off the internet, with his portal glued shut.” – Lynn
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich
“A Minneapolis bookstore haunted by a customer, indigenous perspectives on souls alive and dead written in an engaging way.” – Lynn
Surrounded by Idiots – Thomas Erikson
“Interacting with other people will never be the same (and a lot smoother) after reading this one.” – Tiemen
Shame – Annie Ernaux
“So interesting to see how this tiny book gave me so many things to think about.” – Bruna
BOSH! – Henry Firth & Ian Theasby
“For everyone wanting to eat less-to-no-meat; not one recipe that I’ve made has been less than yummy.” – Sophie
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
“A really good read: nice plot, interesting twists.” – Shirley
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
“Part feminist rage story, part love story, part parent-child relationship story, part unexpected friends and family story – this book, like the best mixtures, has a little bit of everything, and the sum is greater than its parts.” – Sophie
This is How You Lose the Time-War – Amad el-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
“What a glorious little book; simultaneously very strange and a thoroughly gripping love story that builds and builds and builds to a fantastic and breathless finish.” – Sophie
Fates and Furies – Lauren Groff
“Beautiful prose and an ingenious structure make for the unforgettable story of a marriage.” – Sophie
Malice – John Gwynne
“The pace is relentless, and you’ll race forward wanting to know what’ll happen.” – Martijn
Nexus – Yuval Noah Harari
“Harari gives us the tools to think about how the emergence of AI will impact our life.” – Tiemen
Angelmaker – Nick Harkaway
“I’d like to live in this book, life-threatening though that might be.” – Sophie
Pandora’s Jar – Nathalie Haynes
“I loved the tone and humor throughout the book as well as the use of pop culture (even though some of the movies mentioned are now spoiled for me, but it was worth it).” – Jonna
The Love Hypothesis – Ali Hazelwood
“Fantastic characters in a sweet grumpy-sunshine romance in a STEM setting.” – Sophie
Book Lovers – Emily Henry
“This is a book that will make you start laughing, crying and rooting for the heroine all at the same time.” – Lília
The Kiss Quotient – Helen Hoang
“Simultaneously very sweet and very spicy, an entertaining romance by and about an autistic main character.” – Sophie
Mornings with My Cat Mii – Mayumi Inaba
“I’ve never cried so much at the end of a book, and I couldn’t even stop sobbing after I finished it.” – Jonna
Uzumaki – Junji Ito
“There is disturbing… and then there is Uzumaki by the master of manga horror Junji Ito.” – Tiemen
A Brief History of Seven Killings – Marlon James
“James is a master at telling terrible happenings in such a compelling way you can’t stop reading.” – Sophie
The Fifth Season – N. K. Jemisin
“One of the most original and heart-rending epic fantasy novels I have read.” – Tiemen
Previous posts in this series can be found here.
