In his memoir – described as both charming and grouchy – poet, essayist and travel writer Marius Kociejowski expounds on life as a bookseller. Born and raised in Ontario, as an adult he moved to London, where he worked in some of the city’s best antiquarian bookstores. The book will appeal to bibliophiles, as Kociejowski recounts his interactions with buyers, sellers and customers, including famous ones like Patti Smith and Johnny Depp.

“The bookshop is, and will always be, the soul of the trade … “ Kociejowski writes. “The multifariousness of human nature is more on display there than anywhere else, and I think it’s because of books…”

One of the most anticipated books of 2022, this is Natalie Jenner’s follow-up to 2020’s The Jane Austen Society, and the Ontario-based writer delivers another enticing blend of historical fiction and literary references. In post-war London, Evie – the maid from Jenner’s previous novel – has finished her studies at Cambridge University and is now working at Bloomsbury Books, where she bonds with the female clerks who chafe against the stifling misogyny of their employer, and the times.

“[Vivien] had been first to call [Alex] the Tyrant,” Jenner writes. “‘He doesn’t even read women’, Vivien would bemoan to Grace, who would nod back in sympathy while trying to remember her grocery list before the bus journey home. ‘I mean, what – one Jane Austen on the shelves? No Katherine Mansfield. No Porter.”

If paranormal romance is a new genre for you, The Dead Romantics by South Carolina writer Ashley Poston is a fun place to start, with extra appeal for those interested in the publishing world – and funeral parlours. Ghost writer (get it?) Florence Day is behind on her latest romance novel, and her new, very handsome, editor refuses to extend her deadline. When she must return to her hometown for her father’s funeral, it’s not his ghost that haunts her, but that of her very confused and deceased editor.

“I heard editors and marketing and PR shadows talking in hushed tones about acquisitions, marketing plans, contractual obligations, tours . . .” Poston writes. “Publishing was all very romantic until you found yourself in publishing. Then it was just another kind of corporate hell.”

Inspire your next reading project with this gorgeous book about books by Henry Eliot, a British-based author and literary commentator. From iconic cover designs to era-defining authors from the last 100 years, Penguin Modern Classics are a staple of any great home library. This reading companion details every title – 1,800 books from 600 authors, with 2,000 cover images – and includes reading lists, publishing anecdotes and key literary moments.

“In 1952, Alan Tritton, a member of the British Antarctic Survey, wrote to complain about a Penguin Handbook: he had been disappointed to discover that Bee Nilson’s Penguin Cookery Book (1952) contained no guidance on cooking penguins,” Eliot writes.

British author Poppy Alexander draws inspiration from village life in Sussex for her novels, and her latest celebrates the ways reading draws people together. It features librarian Jess Metcalf, who spontaneously buys a run-down cottage in a small English village after the death of her beloved grandmother, Mimi, who used her waning energy to sort her belongings after a terminal diagnosis. Unable to part with her grandmother’s book collection, Jess sets up a library in the disused red phone box on her new property, as she navigates the village politics — and a prickly relationship with the handsome man next door.

“Every day Jess arrived home from work to two piles inside the front door, one for the charity shop and one for the dump,” Alexander writes. “Occasionally she protested at Mimi expending her strength on such things, but her grandmother had been adamant … But when it came to the books, Jess tried to put her foot down.

‘You always told me books were sacred,’ she insisted, the first day she came home and found them by the door.”

Fans of Hallmark movies and romance novels often cite the comfort of the familiar character types and story lines, and Ohio-based writer Emily Henry plays with those elements in her latest summer read. Big-city literary agent Nora Stephens imagines herself as a literary villain after several boyfriends dump her for sweet, small-town women. Her summer escape to a small town gets complicated when she keeps running into an editor from the city, with whom she has had a very prickly professional relationship.

“When books are your life – or in my case, your job – you get pretty good at guessing where a story is going,” Henry writes. “The tropes, the archetypes, the common plot twists all start to organize themselves into a catalogue inside your brain, divided by category and genre. … The details may change from book to book, but there’s nothing truly new under the sun.”

The library in the movie adaptation of Beauty and the Beast set many book-lovers’ hearts a-flutter. Rom-com queen Jasmine Guillory has set her retelling of this classic tale in the world of publishing. As the only Black employee at her publishing house – and one of only a few people of colour, including her friend Priya – editorial assistant Isabelle Marlowe is starting to feel disillusioned about her career choice. When she overhears her terrible boss talking about a beastly client – a former child actor writing a memoir who won’t deliver his manuscript – Isabelle offers to work with the recluse in his coastal mansion.

“During Priya’s first week, there had been an editorial meeting where one editor had waxed poetic about how diverse their books were that season,” Guillory writes. “Of the twenty-five books in their imprint, there were three whole authors of color, none of whom were Black. She and Priya had locked eyes across the room. They’d been friends ever since.”