Cogito Books

We're sharing the Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist for 2020. It's an incredible list this year, just so brilliant. And look out later on today for our own take on this list, highlighting Cogito bookseller favourites.

Here's our second #EmmaCarroll review today, this time for her latest book 'The Somerset Tsunami' Faber Children's Books This one was a great success with our Cogito Children's Book Group:
Emma Carroll brings 17th century Somerset wonderfully to life in this gripping novel that weaves together real events - the devastating West Country flood of 1607, witchcraft trials, the beginnings of the slave trade - with the story of the young protagonist, Fortune. Brought up in a villa...ge run by women, Fortune’s secure world is shattered when a matriarch of the hamlet is arrested. King James is making it his mission to rid the country of so-called witches, and in the spreading atmosphere of suspicion and fear, Fortune’s mother sends her away for her own protection. Disguised as a boy, Fortune ends up with a position as a servant at Barrow Hall - but here, too, nothing is really what it seems. When a devastating flood sweeps across the land, destroying everything in its path, Fortune must fight accusations of witchcraft to prove that she was not responsible, and in doing so save her friends and family. The claustrophobic threat of male oppression and corruption is very real but not overpowering, and Fortune is a very relatable heroine as she learns to trust herself and her instincts, finding her own way in a world that is not friendly to women.
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As promised here's our review of the hugely loved 'Letters from the Lighthouse' by #EmmaCarroll Faber Children's Books
Humanity is at the heart of this perceptive and moving story. Set in February 1941, siblings Olive and Cliff are evacuated to Devon. Since their father’s plane was shot down over France and their older sister Suki is missing during the bombings in London, their family know only too well about the trauma caused by war. Emma Carroll’s writing is impressive: what appears as a clear, straight forward story of evacuation and the British wartime efforts on the home front is underlined with some very large moral issues relating to antisemitism and society’s ability to help refugees. This would make an excellent class read.
Look out for another one later on today.

One of our very favourite children's authors, Emma Carroll, will be chatting about her fantastic book 'Letters from the Lighthouse' Faber Children's Books on #FaberBooktime this afternoon (Tuesday 21st April) at 2.00pm. And if you like, before then you can click on the link below to catch up on previous episodes of Booktime with Chris Mould and Kieran Larwood! 👇www.youtube.com/playlist…
We just adore Emma's books here at Cogito and we'll be posting reviews of two of our favourites, so do keep an eye out for them.

How's everyone doing today? I hope that you're all able to enjoy the sunshine, even if it's only seeing blue sky through the window, it's nevertheless so uplifting. We just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who's ordered books from us in the last few weeks, your support is so very much appreciated and means more than we can say. And of course, we're still here taking orders, recommending books, delivering in Hexham and posting parcels out to those of you further afie...ld.
Many of you will already know that we have a super range of hand picked book recommendations on our website. If you’re a regular visitor, then we’ve got great news: we’ve added a whole host of extra reviews to give everyone an even better chance of discovering books they’ll love. There’s a huge range of curated titles, both fiction and non-fiction, all personally recommended by our Cogito booksellers.
Although the Recommendations section covers books for Advent Calendars, Summer Reading and Cogito Favourites, we’d urge you to look at them all as each one is packed with brilliant reads that can be enjoyed at any time. There’s also a section entirely dedicated to children’s books; so, whether you’re home-schooling, looking for gift ideas or just want some great recommendations, then do explore this section which caters for all ages from first books for babies to the very best in young adult fiction. It's all here just waiting for you.
https://www.cogitobooks.com/recommendatio ns
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What's everyone reading this weekend?
Do join our Read and Recommended group here on Facebook and let us know about the books getting you through lockdown. We thought we'd share a review of an absolute favourite this morning; we just cannot recommend this one highly enough. It's #MelissaHarrison's 'All Among the Barley' @BloomsburyPublishing :
This is a remarkably ambitious novel, cleverly grounded in the deceptively simple story of a young girl, Edie Mather, growing up on he...r family’s Suffolk farm in the 1930s. However, this is no bucolic coming of age tale. Although the evocation of a way of life long gone is beautifully realised in the author’s descriptions of the natural world and the changing seasons which regulate the cycle of agricultural life, she also makes us vividly aware of the dark undercurrents which are constantly present in this small rural community. Edie’s sensitivity; her view of the world shaped by the reading she loves, often makes her an outsider within her own family and therefore inherently vulnerable, as she tries to reconcile a growing inner conflict. But it’s the arrival of the liberated and politically engaged Connie FitzAllen which acts as the catalyst in bringing personal and social tensions to a head. Edie begins to question her own prospects in terms of gender, and the burgeoning fascist sympathies of the villagers foments violence in the wider community. The author’s deft handling of both the development of Edie’s character and the febrile political landscape results in an incredibly poignant and moving novel which, amongst many other things, sounds a stark warning against romanticising the past.
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In a brief follow on from our home-schooling post yesterday we thought we'd share a recommendation of a title for older children (10+) which was a great success with a recent meeting of our Children's Book Group. So, here's Alice's review of the wonderful 'North Child' by Edith Pattou Usborne Publishing:
'North Child' by Edith Pattou is an epic, vivid retelling of the Norwegian folk tale 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon', with a hefty dash of 'Beauty and the Beast' and a fe...w sprinklings of Narnia thrown in. Rose was born facing North, and North-born children are destined to wander and roam far across the world. Her superstitious mother, however, terrified of the fate that might befall her daughter, has always told her that she is an East-born child, and that East children are docile and content with hearth and home. Naturally adventurous and yet wanting, as a lot of children do, to please her mother, Rose is torn. How is it possible to be yourself, when those closest to you want you to be something different? When an enormous white bear arrives at the family farm, asking for Rose to go with him in exchange for the returned health of her ailing sister and a reversal of the family’s declining financial situation, Rose can no longer ignore the North in her. She agrees to go, and so begins a remarkable quest that changes her life forever. North Child is a feast of rich storytelling, with a wonderfully courageous yet realistic heroine in Rose. It’s also the perfect escapist combination of myth, fairytale and love story - a lovely read for adults as well as children!
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As the Easter holidays draw to a close and another week of home-schooling appears on the horizon we've got some wise (and super relatable) words on the subject from Cogito bookseller Jenny:
As many of us are grappling with home-schooling at the moment, I thought I’d say hi and share a few thoughts. There’s nothing like a detailed list from school (combined with an indefinite number of hours to fill) to spark stirrings of panic in even the most relaxed of parents. It’s the nat...ure of the beast; likewise in the way it brings your parenting style into sharp focus.
On day one, I found myself vacillating wildly between ‘let them learn from nature, this is the school of life’ to ‘oh heck, we should be doing five hours of maths a week’. I may have had visions of turning into a superparent, sprouting a cape and delivering an entire curriculum through creativity and play, but I know my limits. I also know we would go mad if we spent every day shackled to the kitchen table.
Unsurprisingly, the result is somewhere in between. So, we’ve pressed flowers, identified a buzzard and made gingerbread, but we’ve also had battles over handwriting and done a bit of maths.
An absolute highlight has been delving into books. We’ve loved exploring the invisible world of microbes and the diversity of life on earth through Nicola Davies Walker Books and Emily Sutton’s Emily Sutton Artist beautifully illustrated books ‘Tiny’ and ‘Lots’. Usborne Publishing ‘See Inside’ series also manages to communicate an extraordinary level of detail in an accessible format. A bit of escapism has never been more welcome, so we’ve been loving Enid Blyton’s ‘Faraway Tree’ books. And if you’re after something still more transcendent, there’s always Cosmic Kids Yoga… an inspired approach to yoga through storytelling, which has rescued my sanity more than once! https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYo ga
If you'd like further information about the books Jenny has highlighted, then please do give us a call in the bookshop on 01434 602555. Nicola Davies's book 'Lots' is pictured below along with a new title by the same author entitled 'Grow'. Gingerbread: author's own.😆
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We hope you enjoyed our earlier post, browsing the shelves of our 'Natural History' section. Our Cogito bookseller Jenny is a big fan of nature writing so we thought we'd share her review of a book she's recently enjoyed:
'Homing' by Jon Day. John Murray
‘If you lived in Pigeon Street,... Here are the people you could meet, Here are the people who would say, Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye, everyday…’
If you watched children’s TV during the 1980s, these words might spark a rush of nostalgia. Enough time has elapsed for us to don our rose-tinted glasses, but there are more significant reasons why we feel warm and fuzzy when we remember ‘Pigeon Street’.
Peopled by characters such as Bob (pigeon fancier and owner of Bob’s Bikes), park keeper Reg and his ballroom dancer wife Doreen, the spinsters Daisy and Rose and of course, Long Distance Clara, Pigeon Street celebrates ordinary lives and the vital role each person plays within their community: which struck me as uncannily apt at this moment in time.
Likewise, Jon Day’s rather wonderful ‘Homing’ taps into the rich, urban tradition of pigeon-keeping. Using the pigeon’s remarkable ability to ‘home’ as his focal point, he leads us on a deeply philosophical and wide-ranging meditation on what it means to belong.
‘Homing’ is suffused with Day’s warmth and affection. He shares snippets of insight into his own home life as he and his young family struggle to settle into a new area. His first two pigeons are quickly named ‘Eggy’ and ‘Orange’ by his small daughter as she sits at the breakfast table. The tension he experiences between spending time with his family and indulging his new obsession with pigeons feels disarmingly real.
Day’s accounts of the people he meets through the ‘fancy’ are equally engaging. While the setting could not be more different, ‘Homing’ recalls Richard Askwith’s brilliant ‘Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession’, in presenting a timely portrait of a disappearing community through the focus of a sport in decline.
Discursive, thought provoking and funny, Homing struck me as quietly radical, too. With a lyricism usually reserved for the more bucolic side of nature, Day elevates the lowly pigeon to a position where we might admire its beauty. And as for the question of what makes a home… it is the very freedom of his birds – and the fact that they choose to return – which in the end helps Jon Day to feel rooted.
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We're back with you after the Easter break and just wanted to continue our 'virtual' tour of our lovely bookshop shelves. So, given that we live in Northumberland, one of the most spectacularly beautiful counties in the land, we've chosen our 'Natural History' section. We know how passionate many of you are about this subject and how, under normal circumstances, are happily able to appreciate the natural world right on your doorstep. However, given our current state of lockd...own, on this gorgeous Spring day, we hope that these bountiful shelves will act as an absorbing substitute.
These are some of our own favourites from this particular section: 'Still Water' by John Lewis-Stempel Doubleday Books 'Wilding' by Isabella Tree Picador books 'Love of Country' by #MadeleineBunting Granta Books 'The Shepherd's Life' by #JamesRebanks Penguin Books 'Between Stone and Sky' by #WhitneyBrown Constable & RobinsonLittle, Brown Book Group
If you do see anything that interests you, just give us a call on 01434 602555, as we're manning the phones, taking orders and arranging to deliver or post books out to you.
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Good morning folks. As Easter approaches we just wanted to let you know that the bookshop will be taking a short break from Good Friday until Easter Monday but we’ll be back again on Tuesday April 14th to take enquiries over the phone and via email. We realise that this Easter will be one unlike any other, but we hope that although we’re all practising social distancing, families and communities will still be celebrating and supporting each other. Take care and stay safe.