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Sophie

About Sophie

Bookseller, stock buyer, display maker & Girl Friday at ABC The Hague & ABC Leidschendam. Has been at ABC since almost the last millennium. Current sections under her care are YA, Politics & Current Affairs, Sports, Prizewinners, and Staff Choices. Loves any book that makes her think, learn, and look at life from a new angle, whatever genre. Cat person, feminist, easily bribed with Nutella, preferred state of being = barefoot in the garden.

Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage

"A myth-busting voyage into the female body. A camera obscura reflects the world back but dimmer and inverted. Similarly, science has long viewed woman through a warped lens, one focused narrowly on her capacity for reproduction. As a result, there exists a vast knowledge gap when it comes to what we know about half of the bodies on the planet. That is finally changing. Today, a new generation of researchers is turning its gaze to the organs traditionally bound up in baby-making―the uterus, ovaries, and vagina―and illuminating them as part of a dynamic, resilient, and ever-changing whole. Welcome to Vagina Obscura, an odyssey into a woman’s body from a fresh perspective, ushering in a whole new cast of characters."

2025-02-12T17:49:49+01:00Tags: , , , |

How we work

The book buyer: Lynn Kaplanian-Buller interviews Lília Visser Lilia is a seasoned ABC book buyer. Asked how she would define a good one, she says the most important characteristic for book buyers is listening to customers. Besides that, a book buyer must keep an eye on what sells, its [...]

2023-01-25T17:01:46+01:00Tags: , , |

Blind Book Date

It’s confirmed: our bestselling title at ABC Leidschendam in 2022 was the Blind Book Date! So what, exactly, is a Blind Book Date, aka BBD? It’s a curated title we gift wrap with only a few clues—just enough to get people interested in the story. It is indeed a blind [...]

2023-01-18T17:02:07+01:00Tags: |

ABC Anecdotes: Postcards in Amsterdam

written by Lynn The ABC started in 1972 after Mitch Crossfield and Sam Boltansky, who knew each other from Baltimore, came to Amsterdam in 1971 and saw the lines of English-speaking tourists outside Madame Tussaud's on the Kalverstraat, then one of the busiest shopping streets in Europe. They went to the jewelry [...]

2023-01-19T18:03:15+01:00Tags: , , |

Folklore & Fairy tale

Witches and the Folklore of Poisonous Plants written by Emma V Some of the most striking scenes of witchcraft in literature picture witches bent over a bubbling cauldron—from the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth tossing in ingredient after ingredient to cause “double, double toil and trouble”, to Harry, [...]

2023-01-13T13:56:45+01:00Tags: , , |

New year, new reads

written by Lauren The holidays are over, the kids are back in school and life for many is settling back into its less frenzied, everyday pace. With more time at hand and cold weather prodding us into a kind of cozy hibernation, January is the perfect time to dive into [...]

2023-01-13T12:11:28+01:00Tags: , , |

Our Share of Night

“Gaspar is 6 years old when the Order first come for him. For years, they have exploited his father’s ability to commune with the dead and the demonic, presiding over macabre rituals where the unwanted and the disappeared are tortured and executed, sacrificed to the Darkness. Now they want a successor.”

2025-02-12T17:49:51+01:00Tags: , , , |

Conversations with customers

Marie is a good example of a “growing up with ABC” customer: niece of our Sophie, she has known the ABC since she was born. Her ABC store may have changed from The Hague to Amsterdam, where she moved to study and work, but her loyalty remains the same. [...]

2023-01-07T13:40:18+01:00Tags: , , |

Death Deserved

"Oslo, 2018. Former long-distance runner Sonja Nordstrom never shows at the launch of her controversial autobiography, Always Number One. When celebrity blogger Emma Ramm visits Nordstrom's home later that day, she finds the door unlocked and signs of a struggle inside. A bib with the number 'one' has been pinned to the TV. Police officer Alexander Blix is appointed to head up the missing-persons investigation, but he still bears the emotional scars of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier, when he killed the father of a five-year-old girl. Traces of Nordstrom soon show up at different locations, but the appearance of the clues appear to be carefully calculated ... evidence of a bigger picture that he's just not seeing... Blix and Ramm soon join forces, determined to find and stop a merciless killer with a flare for the dramatic, and thirst for attention. Trouble is, he's just got his first taste of it..."

2025-02-12T17:49:52+01:00Tags: , , , |

Cackle

"All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her long-time boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching job that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. Her new home is picturesque and perfect. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is lovely too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation. Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That's how Sophie lives. Annie can't help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the town seems... a little afraid of her. And, okay. Sophie's appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power . . . but she couldn't be . . . could she?"

2025-02-12T17:55:50+01:00Tags: , , , |
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