I LOVED THIS. Memoir written in novel style, this story is beautiful whilst being truthful. Despite some sad topics; including divorce and misogyny, this story left me feeling warm and inspired. Really recommend. <3

Although I liked the main character in this book, I found the story quite dull. I didn’t particularly like the writing style, I’m not sure if that was due to translation. And as much as I liked some of the other characters, I felt that there were some who didn’t really add anything.

It may seem that this is simply a book about a bookseller giving recommendations to people but the truth is that it is essentially a book about reinventing yourself when life doesn't work. When you find yourself lost and meeting new people allows to explore who you are and where you are going.

I really enjoyed the audiobook of this one, I think anyone who is going through a major change in their lives will relate to some of her emotions. The book allows you to get lost in the encounters and learn about many different authors.

I wish there would be a list online with all the book recommendations and which ones are available in translation. I was gutted when I realised that one of the books that she mentions, a letter collection between a chef and a poet, is not available in English or Spanish.

If you want something easy and reflective, this book is for you.

Firstly I adore the cover. I would 100% pick this book up in a bookshop based on the cover alone. I loved the plot of a nearly divorced woman meeting people on a site ‘perfect strangers’ that are people searching for other people for meet ups and conversation. Our MC offers strangers book recommendations and the book follows her as she meets strangers and discusses the books she recommends to them. It’s wholesome and cosy. I loved it.

2.75

The Bookshop woman is a non-fiction memoir written by Nanako Hanada, translated by Cat Anderson. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Yuriri Naka.

This is a memoir of self-discovery and healing from life's trials and tribulations. Nanako's life is falling apart, but through opening herself up to the world and seeking connection with strangers she finds her place and her purpose.

This is a gentle, pleasant and at times naive story that touches on some interesting themes, such as societal expectations of women in their 30s, the human need for connection with others, and the male-gaze on women and sexuality. But it disappointingly remains quite surface-level. For a book on self-exploration and self-actualisation it lacked the depth I was hoping for.

Nanako highlights the magic of reading and the power of books throughout the memoir. She explores the question: "how much should I know someone to recommend a book?" and this forms the premise for many of her meet-ups via the site, 'Perfect Strangers'. Unfortunately for English language readers, many of the books Nanako recommends aren't translated to English, which makes it challenging to properly connect and enjoy these parts of the memoir.

The book recommendations are only a very small part of the overall memoir and with the title of the book being what it is I had expected something much more in the realm of "Dear Reader" by Cathy Rentzenbrink (which I loved) and other similar titles. I felt somewhat misled by the title and entered into the book expecting something quite different to what it is.

I believe the memoir was originally published as a series in a magazine. It can read as quite fragmented at times and I would have liked to see a more coherent connection between the key themes of the book (societal expectations of women, love of books, and how they can help us forge connections with others) and think it's a missed opportunity this wasn't revisited when collating the series into a book.

By keeping the memoir quite surface-level however, it does mean this is a light, gentle read that poses some interesting question and provides insight into a niche part of Tokyo culture. I enjoyed the narrator's rendition of the book also.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for kindly sending me this ARC.

A very different book about books and book people. Online dating- meets book fan. It’s a bit on the weird side, but I do love the main character. Her goal to be able to select books for people based on very little detail is quite a challenge. The different people she meets along the way and the number of good books spoken about kept me gripped. An entertaining read.
The audiobook version was great. A really clear narrator to take you through.

This is a real hidden gem. What a delight and so unexpected. The story is part memoir but written as fiction and Nanako has captured the so many details, personal, professional and about a way of life that’s so different. I believe the translation is sympathetic as it reads well in English. This is a story not only about books, but one of finding oneself, helping others and with humour and compassion. It’s a short listen, but one I’m going to listen to again because there’s so much in it. Narration is really good; gentle and well balanced, just like the story.

I am amazed at how Nanako Hanada was able to take a seemingly simple story about a woman recommending books and embed within it beautiful and touching truths about life and one’s sense of self.

All while giving some excellent book recommendations!

The Bookshop Woman is a lovely nonfiction book that’s also a love letter to reading. This book starts off with Nanako Hanada: homeless, recently separated, and she’s worked all her life as a clerk at a Village Vanguard (a Japanese bookstore chain). Nanako knows two things about herself, she likes reading and she loves recommending books. So she sets off to a rather bizarre venture: she joins a dating website to meet people only to give them book recommendations.

Through the book, she builds something like a passion but also a persona (and I dare say, she builds a little platform for herself), she finds herself and takes charge of her life. And, eventually, she decides she wants to work in something related to books.

This book was the ‘love letter to reading’ that I wanted Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop to be. It had direction, it had character growth, and I loved the care and thought Hanada put into the question of “how much should I know someone to recommend a book?” and how her recommendations changed as she gained experience with it.

I liked it! 3.5 stars rounded down because the book just did what it had to do. It’s cozy, cute, and healing.

The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada
(Narrated by Yuriri Naka)

A perfect book to read in this summer, especially for those who love books and agree books will lift you up!

Nanako just had a tough life that you could not imagine. After separating with her husband, spending nights in a small room and could not think about the future, she had a chance to meet people she knew online.

She always started the conversation with books, sharing books with her new friends, not only she loved books, because she managed a bookshop. However, the men she met wanted more than books…

I enjoy the story because it’s about bookshop, meeting new friends and books could bring people together. The story plot was strong and entertaining. I could imagine Nanako was a lovely lady with a good personality.

The narrator had a great voice. She presented the story in a perfect pace and tone. Her voice just drew me in to the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pub date: Jun6, 2024

3,5 stars. A curious concept about books and the one for you.
The range of characters is rich, and I enjoyed the setting plenty.
It did not feel like a memoir.
Highly entertaining, humorous and cute.
Plus, it is set in Japan.

An unexpected gem of a listen. Really enjoyed both the plot and premise of the book. The narrator was a super match for the audio. It’s subtle humor and the close to real life narrative of a part memoir made it different to the norm but a brilliant different listen

The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada is a bit atypical in that it feels more like fiction, autofiction, than straight-up nonfiction. still it was fairly enjoyable.

I had my eye on this new release and thankfully got the opportunity to read it via NetGalley. To sum up this book in one word, I would choose “indecisive”.
I was initially interested in this title because I love books about books and The Bookshop Woman promises the joy of giving book recommendations. However, I should have read the synopsis more closely as I didn’t realise that Nanako would be meeting the new people to give book recommendations to via an online dating site, I thought that was pretty strange! It led to lots of mentions of sex throughout the book and I definitely didn’t enjoy some of the characters she met.
I did like some of the humour in the prose and I feel like the choice of narrator was perfect for the first person writing style.
The plot was quite repetitive and I felt bored listening to this book unfortunately. Even though the book is actually quite short, 220 pages and less than 6 hours via audiobook, I feel like the book really did ramble on, with very long chapters plus an epilogue and afterword.
Whist this wasn't the book for me, I can see it being quite popular in the right reader’s hands.
2/5 ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Octopus Audio and Nanako Hanada for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Review posted to Goodreads.

'The Bookshop Woman' is nonfiction that reads like fiction and really, that's not a compliment. I don't know whether something got lost in translation or whether the people this woman met during her time on this website were just genuinely the worst people in the world - but I was so bored. This is such a dull book. It also dissolves into conversations about sex horrifically quickly. If you're looking - like me - to pick up this book because it promises a 'love story with books', you're going to be disappointed. The book conversation makes up less than 10% of this book and the rest is about the author having an existential and work crisis at the same time and the overly long, sprawling conversations she has with strangers, many of whom appear to just want to fuck her. It's a surface level book that never wants to go deeper than what's on page.

Ah that lovely thing, but in abundance, not just a book within a book, but multiple books within a book. This is a quick easy and fun read, and such a fantastic idea!!

When we meet Nanako her life is on a downward spiral, she’s separated from her husband, living place to place and witnessing the demise of her beloved bookshop. She’s going to turn it around though!

Nanako joins a dating site, where people meet their matches for 30 minutes at a time, Nanako markets herself as “The sexy bookseller” and her headline is a promise to match each date with their perfect book by the end. Each of the hundreds of people she meets along the way open another little piece of Nanako up to life, and are soon discovers she’s not just a quirky little book lover.

The writing is beautiful, on the surface the story is funny and Nanako is an endearing character, but if you dig a little bit deeper there’s a message of hope and inspiration.

The narration and translation were beautifully done.

This is a special one.
All the stars 🌟
#Jorecimmends

I’d like to extend my gratitude for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook for review to Ovtopus audio and NetGalley.

Look out for publications on June 6th.

This was SO GOOD!

I love books about books, I am a huge fan of Japanese literature and I love a good memoir, so The Bookshop Woman felt like it was tailor-made for me! It's such a beautiful ode to the power of books and their ability to bring people together and help us when we're not sure where to go and/or what to do with our lives.

In The Bookshop Woman, we meet Nanako, who has worked as a bookseller for quite a few years but has been feeling really down with both her personal and professional life. To meet new people, she decides to join a meet-up site where people meet for 30 minutes for all sorts of reasons (e.g., romance, sharing ideas, building a network). She says on her profile that she's able to give anyone she meets a perfect recommendation for a book, and the result of that is that she ends up meeting a wide range of people and getting a new perspective on her own life and the variety of individuals out there.

I'd say this fits the healing "fiction" kind of genre, but it's even better because it's not fiction, it's based on Nanako Hanada's own experiences. It had been quite a while since I'd read a memoir and this felt like the perfect book to get me back to this genre. Some memoirs read "like fiction", if that makes sense, in the best possible way because the writing feels smooth and fluid, and this was the perfect example of a book like that. Of course, part of the credit here goes to the translator, Cat Anderson, for making that come across in English.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book, narrated by Yuriri Naka, after reading it for the first time on my Kindle and it was also such a good experience, especially being able to hear the pronunciation of some of the names that had been a bit tricky to pronounce when I first read it.

Thank you very much to Brazen and NetGalley for the ALC!