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Village Books #1
Книжная лавка
Если вы думаете, что книжный магазин можно сравнить с сонным царством, то глубоко заблуждаетесь. На самом деле жизнь в «Книжной лавке» бьет ключом. Управляющий магазином, импозантный итальянец Данте, скрывает от своей авторитарной мамочки страшную тайну. Продавец Себастьян в стремлении получить от жизни все заходит слишком далеко. Интеллектуал Олдос, чья эксцентричность не пользуется популярностью у прекрасного пола, оказывается «темной лошадкой». За скромной внешностью ворчливого старичка Эбенезера прячется тонкая романтическая натура влюбленного рыцаря. Неуравновешенная психика кассирши Мины — еще полбеды, зато ее муж в буквальном смысле слова вооружен и очень опасен. Автор повествования, помощник управляющего, мечтает совсем о другой жизни, но боится что-то менять. Однако после судьбоносной встречи с необычной покупательницей становится понятно: перемен не избежать.
События развиваются с такой скоростью, что работники «Книжной лавки» едва за ними поспевают. Еще и магазин оказывается на грани закрытия. Кто победит — скромная «Книжная лавка» или огромная международная корпорация, поглощающая все на своем пути? И смогут ли герои воплотить свои мечты?..
События развиваются с такой скоростью, что работники «Книжной лавки» едва за ними поспевают. Еще и магазин оказывается на грани закрытия. Кто победит — скромная «Книжная лавка» или огромная международная корпорация, поглощающая все на своем пути? И смогут ли герои воплотить свои мечты?..
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 248 reviews
August 2, 2014
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Village Books is a local institution…which is good, because most of the staff probably belong in one.
There’s the manager, Dante Andolini, who’s hiding more than just his hypochondria from his overbearing mother…Sebastian Donleavy, whose hedonistic lifestyle is two rails short of being on the rails…Aldous Swinghammer, whose philosophical eccentricities have not been the biggest hit with the ladies…Ebeneezer Chipping, whose crotchety exterior hides a burning passion for the Spanish émigré next door…Mina Bovary, whose crazy husband may have just gone AWOL with an arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices…and the store’s long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along.
That something better may be new assistant manager Leah Dashwood, an aspiring actress with an ambitious plan to transform the store and its staff in a way that will turn their carefully disordered world on its head. Will the store survive? Will it be bought over by its evil corporate competition? All questions will be answered (but not necessarily in that order) in this hilarious debut novel.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt, the thirtieth, was a "double-dip" and frankly I don't care what they picked, I was ready for this game to be over last week.
This is a first novel, and it's not too awful terrible well-constructed on a plot level. Too many things are dropped, then re-appear; too many people are shuffled from pillar to post and then needed back at pillar so whoopsie-daisy there they are. Motivations are, to put it mildly, unclear.
But you know what? I liked the characters. I liked the crazy bookstore people. I laughed out loud several times:
Most of the humor isn't pull-quotable because it requires some familiarity with the situation. No matter, it was amusing, and several things rang very true. The Irish publican who served a drink called "the Englishman's Tits" to people he doesn't like. It's a shuddersome decoction. It involves beets.
So I meandered through the plot holes, I skipped over the male fantasy-fulfillment stuff, I sighed in mild annoyance at the pat ending. And I enjoyed a few hours of uncomplicated pleasantries exchanged among people I thought needed a swift kick. I'm not going to tell you to break your thumbs one-clicking it, but believe me it's got a little something extra to reward the tired, smile-hunting Kindle reader.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: Village Books is a local institution…which is good, because most of the staff probably belong in one.
There’s the manager, Dante Andolini, who’s hiding more than just his hypochondria from his overbearing mother…Sebastian Donleavy, whose hedonistic lifestyle is two rails short of being on the rails…Aldous Swinghammer, whose philosophical eccentricities have not been the biggest hit with the ladies…Ebeneezer Chipping, whose crotchety exterior hides a burning passion for the Spanish émigré next door…Mina Bovary, whose crazy husband may have just gone AWOL with an arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices…and the store’s long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along.
That something better may be new assistant manager Leah Dashwood, an aspiring actress with an ambitious plan to transform the store and its staff in a way that will turn their carefully disordered world on its head. Will the store survive? Will it be bought over by its evil corporate competition? All questions will be answered (but not necessarily in that order) in this hilarious debut novel.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt, the thirtieth, was a "double-dip" and frankly I don't care what they picked, I was ready for this game to be over last week.
This is a first novel, and it's not too awful terrible well-constructed on a plot level. Too many things are dropped, then re-appear; too many people are shuffled from pillar to post and then needed back at pillar so whoopsie-daisy there they are. Motivations are, to put it mildly, unclear.
But you know what? I liked the characters. I liked the crazy bookstore people. I laughed out loud several times:
Trying to make her angry is like trying to find a corner on a bowling ball.
***
He went to India to "find himself" last year, but evidently he wasn't there, and he came back empty-handed.
Most of the humor isn't pull-quotable because it requires some familiarity with the situation. No matter, it was amusing, and several things rang very true. The Irish publican who served a drink called "the Englishman's Tits" to people he doesn't like. It's a shuddersome decoction. It involves beets.
So I meandered through the plot holes, I skipped over the male fantasy-fulfillment stuff, I sighed in mild annoyance at the pat ending. And I enjoyed a few hours of uncomplicated pleasantries exchanged among people I thought needed a swift kick. I'm not going to tell you to break your thumbs one-clicking it, but believe me it's got a little something extra to reward the tired, smile-hunting Kindle reader.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
March 22, 2013
I'm giving it two stars because I feel it is wrong giving one star to a book I didn't finish. I quit at 85%.
It started okay but then I wanted something to happen. Nothing happened. The plot was almost non-existent. I could not click one more percent.
It started okay but then I wanted something to happen. Nothing happened. The plot was almost non-existent. I could not click one more percent.
August 9, 2014
More like 4.5 stars. I am always worried when I read books told in the First Person because sometimes the voice is not clear & also becomes a bit of a turn off. And sometimes, it takes a while to fall into the story if it's told by a narrator that doesn't have an engaging tone. None of that was the case for me while I read this book. I really liked the narrator & thought he was quite witty. The story was told colorfully & I felt a connection with the characters he related in the telling. I must admit that I've not read too many books where you never learn the narrator's name but it is a refreshing device when done well, as it is here. After the opening, I realized that I didn't know it & kept an eye out for it until the end. I cared about him so much, I still want to know this dude's name! I can only say that I find that a good character portrayal.
The story isn't so much about any one thing than a telling of a time in the narrator's life and what events took place that propelled him to the next stage in life. That happens for all the characters & some locations in the story and it happens in believable ways. I must admit that I worried for a long time how his relationship with Leah would resolve. Dante was great & I was happy for his ending. Sebastian & Aldous made me laugh a lot. Lolita, Mother Teresa & Miroslav had smaller parts but I felt that those were integral to the story & enjoyed them. I completely loved how the brick found in the back of the book shop was brought back into the story & tied to one of the characters & the unexpected twist that led to. Well done!
There were too many highlight worthy, quotable bits in this book and this will definitely be one of the best books I've read in 2012 (I've read more than a few). Don't let its being an indie deter from the opportunity to sit down and read it. I saw two typos but I've seen that many in professionally published works. Everything else is pristine. Especially the prose. I look forward to reading more from McLay.
The story isn't so much about any one thing than a telling of a time in the narrator's life and what events took place that propelled him to the next stage in life. That happens for all the characters & some locations in the story and it happens in believable ways. I must admit that I worried for a long time how his relationship with Leah would resolve. Dante was great & I was happy for his ending. Sebastian & Aldous made me laugh a lot. Lolita, Mother Teresa & Miroslav had smaller parts but I felt that those were integral to the story & enjoyed them. I completely loved how the brick found in the back of the book shop was brought back into the story & tied to one of the characters & the unexpected twist that led to. Well done!
There were too many highlight worthy, quotable bits in this book and this will definitely be one of the best books I've read in 2012 (I've read more than a few). Don't let its being an indie deter from the opportunity to sit down and read it. I saw two typos but I've seen that many in professionally published works. Everything else is pristine. Especially the prose. I look forward to reading more from McLay.
April 2, 2021
This was no doubt the funniest book I have read this year. I was laughing out loud on every page (ask my family and co-worker). The movie and book references are spot on and hilarious. The crew that works at Village Books are an extremely diverse group, but they all seem to get along somehow. It takes a while for any really plot to start and even then it’s not much of one. The characters like to ramble on about things and the way the topic changes in conversation made me feel like I was sitting in a room with my friends. I person says something that make another think of something else, and so on.
Village Books is the type of small town bookstore that I like, especially with a café right next door. As with any small business, there is a large company trying to buy them out. We don’t meet the woman who owns the bookstore until the end of the book and she is a firecracker. The ending is bitter sweet. Bad things happen that end up helping the staff of Village Books in many ways.
This book had so much going on, but it was so enjoyable. Excellent characters and the friendships are priceless.
Village Books is the type of small town bookstore that I like, especially with a café right next door. As with any small business, there is a large company trying to buy them out. We don’t meet the woman who owns the bookstore until the end of the book and she is a firecracker. The ending is bitter sweet. Bad things happen that end up helping the staff of Village Books in many ways.
This book had so much going on, but it was so enjoyable. Excellent characters and the friendships are priceless.
October 29, 2014
This had the makings of a good book -- a pretty good plot, fairly good characters, etc. But it was a miserable failure. I got it free and got exactly what I paid for -- nada, niente, zilch, zero.
A novel about a non-chain bookstore in Toronto and its zany staff could have been a good book. But the author's filthy mind and depressing sexual obsession completely turned me off.
I know I'm more prudish than many people when it comes to literature, but I could not in good conscience recommend this to anyone.
A novel about a non-chain bookstore in Toronto and its zany staff could have been a good book. But the author's filthy mind and depressing sexual obsession completely turned me off.
I know I'm more prudish than many people when it comes to literature, but I could not in good conscience recommend this to anyone.
February 7, 2017
Really funny in places!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book where everything is based in and around a Canadian bookstore. Some truly witty and dry characters make this a book lovers perfect read. Authors writing style was easy to follow, overall, a really entertaining story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book where everything is based in and around a Canadian bookstore. Some truly witty and dry characters make this a book lovers perfect read. Authors writing style was easy to follow, overall, a really entertaining story.
May 9, 2018
I gave this a low rating as I didn't feel the story went anywhere. It was an easy read but very unfulfilling.
April 9, 2013
''Village Books is a local institution...which is good, because most of the staff probably belong in one.
The manager's addiction to WebMD has turned him into a closeted hypochondriac. The cashier's husband may have just gone AWOL with a small arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices. The fiction lead is buying urine on the black market. Trying to hold it all together is the store's long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along.
That something better may be Leah Dashwood, an aspiring actress and new assistant manager with an ambitious plan to transform the store and its staff in a way that will turn their carefully disordered world on its head. Will the store survive or will it be bought over by its evil corporate competition?''
A good, fun, easy to read tale about a book shop and the characters who work there. The humour is a bit 'blokey', but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
The manager's addiction to WebMD has turned him into a closeted hypochondriac. The cashier's husband may have just gone AWOL with a small arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices. The fiction lead is buying urine on the black market. Trying to hold it all together is the store's long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along.
That something better may be Leah Dashwood, an aspiring actress and new assistant manager with an ambitious plan to transform the store and its staff in a way that will turn their carefully disordered world on its head. Will the store survive or will it be bought over by its evil corporate competition?''
A good, fun, easy to read tale about a book shop and the characters who work there. The humour is a bit 'blokey', but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
July 30, 2015
Я поняла: все книги, которые хвалит Лев Данилкин в своих обзорах к Афише, надо немедленно сжигать. Страшно скучное, картонное повествование о группе людей, которые работают в книжном и, видимо, поэтому обладают потрясающей шаблонностью мышления. Я не знаю, кому это нравится(((
September 12, 2018
I was looking for a nice, easy, enjoyable read and this really fit the bill. I liked all the quirky characters and the bookshop setting. The storyline was good, but the characters made it for me.
October 27, 2015
Это тот самый случай, когда начинаешь читать книгу, потому что тебя заинтересовала обложка. Думаешь, о, наверное, какая-нибудь филологическая проза, или хотя бы что-то близкое к ней.
А вот и нет.
Сюжет крутиться вокруг работников магазина "Книжная лавка". Кто в кого влюбился, кто с кем переспал, кто забыл гашиш у черного входа и т.д. Все очень динамично, без лишних соплей, читается очень легко. По ходу чтения все больше кажется, что легкость эта оттого, что автору нечего сказать. Совсем. Опять же мне не нравится, когда о дальнейших судьбах всех героев рассказывается в эпилоге - быстро-быстро по верхам, абзац на каждого. Поверхнострость - вот слово, очень подходящее к этой книге. Есть, конечно,и вкрапления юмора, но некоторые из пассажей вызывают скорее недоумение, чем смех. Герои чуть не откинулись от смеха, а ты сидишь и зеваешь.
И да - там такой слащавый хэппи-энд, ну реально аж противно.
Не читайте это.
А вот и нет.
Сюжет крутиться вокруг работников магазина "Книжная лавка". Кто в кого влюбился, кто с кем переспал, кто забыл гашиш у черного входа и т.д. Все очень динамично, без лишних соплей, читается очень легко. По ходу чтения все больше кажется, что легкость эта оттого, что автору нечего сказать. Совсем. Опять же мне не нравится, когда о дальнейших судьбах всех героев рассказывается в эпилоге - быстро-быстро по верхам, абзац на каждого. Поверхнострость - вот слово, очень подходящее к этой книге. Есть, конечно,и вкрапления юмора, но некоторые из пассажей вызывают скорее недоумение, чем смех. Герои чуть не откинулись от смеха, а ты сидишь и зеваешь.
И да - там такой слащавый хэппи-энд, ну реально аж противно.
Не читайте это.
February 23, 2013
I loved this book. I especially loved that it was mostly set in a Bookstore. Have to say there were some really wacky people in this book. I think my favorite characters were the germophobic cashier and the owner. There were not any that you could not like. I personally think thats what makes it so good. No evil involved. I would also recommend this book to everyone over the age of 18, for those younger there's a few things they don't need to read. Overall, I gave this book 5 stars because you have to finish to see what happens. And you want to know what happens to all the wacky people involved! At times, its quite hilarious.
March 10, 2013
Many thanks to the author, Craig McLay, for making Village Books available for download on Amazon.com.
This is a surprisingly good read. The story did not grab my attention like other books have, though I was kept interested to the very last page. The author has an amazing writing style and I was pulled into the daily lives of a group of people that work at "Village Books".
The best way I can explain myself is with this sentence: "Reading Village Books is like watching a good movie in my mind". I feel about this story the same way I do when I re-watch my 2 favorite movies, "Sleepless In Seattle" and "You've Got Mail".
This is a surprisingly good read. The story did not grab my attention like other books have, though I was kept interested to the very last page. The author has an amazing writing style and I was pulled into the daily lives of a group of people that work at "Village Books".
The best way I can explain myself is with this sentence: "Reading Village Books is like watching a good movie in my mind". I feel about this story the same way I do when I re-watch my 2 favorite movies, "Sleepless In Seattle" and "You've Got Mail".
February 11, 2013
It was okay. It may have not been my style, which is understandable, but in the seven minutes I have to write this, I have to say: It wasn't my favorite. It had a rather unsatisfying ending to it all, and the characters kind of just... got everything they wanted. The last couple of chapters were a rush to conclude the plot after the entire book plodded along. Again, maybe it wasn't my style, but I found it a rather unsatisfying read.
May 15, 2013
(After just starting). Decent. Entertaining in that "beach read" kind of way. And I've laughed out loud a few times!
(Upon completion). Ok. It was a pretty boring plot with an over the top "happy" ending of fairly shallow characters. But I think this author isn't so awful that I would say they never write a book again....just keep trying. I did think it started out well. Read this on a beach if you will.
(Upon completion). Ok. It was a pretty boring plot with an over the top "happy" ending of fairly shallow characters. But I think this author isn't so awful that I would say they never write a book again....just keep trying. I did think it started out well. Read this on a beach if you will.
November 25, 2016
Обожаю хэппи энды, умиленно рыдаю над счастливо спасенными от разных перипетий судьбы животными, детишками и прочими личностями) но всему должна быть мера. в этой книге ее нет. Это не сахар и не мед, это густейший сироп, липкий и приторный, от которого слипается все. Кроме того написано очень примитивно. Сначала стиль несколько напомнил Барстоу "Любовь... Любовь?", но Барстоу я перечитываю очень часто, а "Книжную лавку" в руки больше не возьму. И никому не советую)
January 24, 2015
Light, frothy read with odd, quirky characters. Loved that it was set in an indy bookstore, but its plot was rather predictable. A free kindle read and I did enjoy it.
October 26, 2016
A standalone novel about life in an independent bookstore in Toronto.
I can see why, in 2012, Village Books won the eFestival of Words award for Best Literary Fiction.
My Take
McLay is intelligent with a sense of humor. I particularly enjoyed XX's comment to the woman attempting to return a $4 used out-of-print book for which she had no proof of having purchased it from Village Books.
Even though this was mostly one of those day-in-the-life sort of fictional stories (I thought it would be a mystery, so I kept waiting for the "punchline"), I enjoyed this. That punchline, er, I mean, the story conflict becomes the battle to prevent a chain from taking the bookstore, although it's the cast of characters who range from snarky and intelligent to social misfits to genuine idiots that are the real backbone of the story. McLay provides them all with widely differing backgrounds and issues that kept me fascinated.
Poor Dante. Besieged by his mother to marry and it results in him becoming a hypochondriac... His mother develops a deadly illness and wants to see him married before she dies, lol. I know, I know...it's rather crass to laugh, but Dante is in such a fix as his mother refuses to acknowledge that he's gay. As for Aldous...*laughing* he is something else both at the start and the end with quite a difference between the two.
They are a close-knit crew with an uneven knowledge of each other's personal lives. Sebastian needs to work on his choices. Between Mina's enraged husband that has him hunting for obscure sleeping spaces and his drunken behavior, he's on a downward spiral that results with a fascinating career at the end. You absolutely must read the epilogue...ahem, if only to read about Sebastian's community service, lol.
My one quibble? Who the hell is "I"? McLay never gives his narrator, the chief protagonist, a name.
The Story
There's the manager, Dante Andolini, who's hiding more than just his hypochondria from his overbearing mother…Sebastian Donleavy, whose hedonistic lifestyle is two rails short of being on the rails…Aldous Swinghammer, whose philosophical eccentricities have not been the biggest hit with the ladies…Ebeneezer Chipping, whose crotchety exterior hides a burning passion for the Spanish émigré next door…Mina Bovary, whose crazy husband may have just gone AWOL with an arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices…and the store's long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along.
That something better may be new assistant manager Leah Dashwood, an aspiring and ambitious actress. A positive that is offset by the threat of a bigbox store wanting to buy Village Books out and a conniving pair of "children".
The Characters
XX is the snarky assistant manager and covers the first floor. He eventually has a daughter, Charlotte.
Leah Dashwood, a wanna-be actress, becomes the Zone 2 (second floor) manager. The wealthy (and controlling) Grover Whetstone is her fiancé.
Village Books is...
...an independent bookstore started up by Cynthia and Marty Ackerman over 30 years ago. Dante Andolini is the store manager barely surviving under his mother's thumb (Lucretia whom Dante refers to as "Beelzebub" or "Bubby"); he has a master's in English literature. Sebastian Donleavy, XX's best friend, is an evening part-timer attending school, also part-time. He refers to his mother as "the pope" (she is the principal at a Catholic girls' school). Mina Bovary is the psychotic bed-hopping head cashier; her husband, Master Corporal Nicholas Bovary, is in Afghanistan. The retired schoolteacher, Ebeneezer "Ebby" Chipping, has a ton of product knowledge and is in love with Fermina; his deceased wife, Viola, had been a member of a local theatre company. Aldous Swinghammer is a philosophy dropout who thinks he knows it all and believes his dreadlocks give him street cred. "Mother" Teresa Barker works children's books and is quite religious. Willard Kurtz (he's obsessed with everything Superman) is the head of shipping and receiving and cohabiting with Janine, an unregistered "massage therapist" trying to get her GED and their two-year-old daughter, Raven. (He works a second job in a Serbian restaurant and is a musician in Death in Van Nuys.) Miroslav Defoknik is their village idiot whose sole redeeming feature is his gross, sexist sense of humor; he also volunteers for drug trials. The sexy Invanka Urfe is the magazine lead, who is studying criminology and Brazilian wrestling while working as a personal trainer. Lolita Havisham is their germaphobic obsessive compulsive who thinks no one can do it right; she also works as a greeter at a funeral home. Mischa is the manager out on maternity leave; Helmut is her husband, but the staff think the baby more closely resembles Simon, a sales rep for Hakamoto Books. Esmeralda is the cleaning lady.
Walter and Maude Ackerman are Cynthia's kids. He's a loser, and she's a soulless lawyer. XX's dad collected promotional movie posters.
Information central, Fermina Marquez is a Spanish émigré who runs the next-door coffee shop, Café Olé. Her husband, Miguel, died five years ago. Falstaff's is an Irish pub where the bookstore employees like to drink, especially the owner's, Mickey Lee O'Malley's, Scrumpy. Ya gotta "qualify" to be served the Scrumpy. Doug is Dante's latest boyfriend. Julie Tomassini, Connie's daughter, sets him up with Jann Devries, a history professor. Lucia Andolini is Dante's sister and a former classmate of XX's. Some of the women from Leah's theatre troupe include Girta (the pretentious director), Ribika (the coke-snorting lighting director), and Penelope. Pete owns the Prestige Theatre. Carmelina is one of Dante's mother's choices; Mom is also Carmelina's godmother. Al is Carmelina's now-dead husband whom she's not really missing. Julian Bartlett is a quiet author with connections. Tom Prufrock is Julian's agent. Peter Brzinski is one of the unlucky customers. Simone is a French exchange student. Yvette Desormaux is a former employee of the Black Rose gentlemen's salon and spa. Jasmine and Ryan are clueless fans of Leah's.
Umex is a national bookstore chain buying out independents.
Jeremy Smithwhite is an agent. Millicent is a teamster. Callum Guthrie is associated with the series, Royal Target. Juliet is a casting director. Joanne plays Officer Tessa Dominikos. Matt Damon encouraged Woody Allen to hire Leah, who also works in a film with Paul Giamatti.
XX's and Sebastian's rating system for women: Brontë is a "Withering Sight", a "Fellini" is an attractive woman requiring a lot of work, a "Scorsese" is a psycho, a "Polanski" is too young, a "Kubrick" is cold, detached, unattainable, mechanical, yet strangely compelling, and a "Spielberg" tries too hard. Some of XX's dates have included the dairy maid, June, with the banjo-playing brother, Maynard. Noomi, aka Cicely, has a postgraduate degree as a Rhodes Scholar and is a bisexual who looked like a biker chick.
The Cover and Title
The cover is cozy with its stone-and-green-trimmed bookstore window filled with books. The title is the sign at the top with the author's name at the bottom. I do like the door with its sign inviting you in.
The title is the shop, Village Books.
I can see why, in 2012, Village Books won the eFestival of Words award for Best Literary Fiction.
My Take
McLay is intelligent with a sense of humor. I particularly enjoyed XX's comment to the woman attempting to return a $4 used out-of-print book for which she had no proof of having purchased it from Village Books.
Even though this was mostly one of those day-in-the-life sort of fictional stories (I thought it would be a mystery, so I kept waiting for the "punchline"), I enjoyed this. That punchline, er, I mean, the story conflict becomes the battle to prevent a chain from taking the bookstore, although it's the cast of characters who range from snarky and intelligent to social misfits to genuine idiots that are the real backbone of the story. McLay provides them all with widely differing backgrounds and issues that kept me fascinated.
"When you're surrounded by the innermost thoughts of some of the world's greatest minds and greatest perverts (often one and the same), it can have a tangible effect on the brain.Oh, geez, I cracked up over XX's comment about a swinger's club being a fitness club for genitals. I tried out his comment about substituting any of the gods — Thor, Zeus, Poseidon — in a sentence that mentions God, and he's right.
Poor Dante. Besieged by his mother to marry and it results in him becoming a hypochondriac... His mother develops a deadly illness and wants to see him married before she dies, lol. I know, I know...it's rather crass to laugh, but Dante is in such a fix as his mother refuses to acknowledge that he's gay. As for Aldous...*laughing* he is something else both at the start and the end with quite a difference between the two.
They are a close-knit crew with an uneven knowledge of each other's personal lives. Sebastian needs to work on his choices. Between Mina's enraged husband that has him hunting for obscure sleeping spaces and his drunken behavior, he's on a downward spiral that results with a fascinating career at the end. You absolutely must read the epilogue...ahem, if only to read about Sebastian's community service, lol.
My one quibble? Who the hell is "I"? McLay never gives his narrator, the chief protagonist, a name.
The Story
There's the manager, Dante Andolini, who's hiding more than just his hypochondria from his overbearing mother…Sebastian Donleavy, whose hedonistic lifestyle is two rails short of being on the rails…Aldous Swinghammer, whose philosophical eccentricities have not been the biggest hit with the ladies…Ebeneezer Chipping, whose crotchety exterior hides a burning passion for the Spanish émigré next door…Mina Bovary, whose crazy husband may have just gone AWOL with an arsenal of fragmentary explosive devices…and the store's long-suffering assistant manager, who is spinning his wheels in retail while he waits for something better to come along.
That something better may be new assistant manager Leah Dashwood, an aspiring and ambitious actress. A positive that is offset by the threat of a bigbox store wanting to buy Village Books out and a conniving pair of "children".
The Characters
XX is the snarky assistant manager and covers the first floor. He eventually has a daughter, Charlotte.
Leah Dashwood, a wanna-be actress, becomes the Zone 2 (second floor) manager. The wealthy (and controlling) Grover Whetstone is her fiancé.
Village Books is...
...an independent bookstore started up by Cynthia and Marty Ackerman over 30 years ago. Dante Andolini is the store manager barely surviving under his mother's thumb (Lucretia whom Dante refers to as "Beelzebub" or "Bubby"); he has a master's in English literature. Sebastian Donleavy, XX's best friend, is an evening part-timer attending school, also part-time. He refers to his mother as "the pope" (she is the principal at a Catholic girls' school). Mina Bovary is the psychotic bed-hopping head cashier; her husband, Master Corporal Nicholas Bovary, is in Afghanistan. The retired schoolteacher, Ebeneezer "Ebby" Chipping, has a ton of product knowledge and is in love with Fermina; his deceased wife, Viola, had been a member of a local theatre company. Aldous Swinghammer is a philosophy dropout who thinks he knows it all and believes his dreadlocks give him street cred. "Mother" Teresa Barker works children's books and is quite religious. Willard Kurtz (he's obsessed with everything Superman) is the head of shipping and receiving and cohabiting with Janine, an unregistered "massage therapist" trying to get her GED and their two-year-old daughter, Raven. (He works a second job in a Serbian restaurant and is a musician in Death in Van Nuys.) Miroslav Defoknik is their village idiot whose sole redeeming feature is his gross, sexist sense of humor; he also volunteers for drug trials. The sexy Invanka Urfe is the magazine lead, who is studying criminology and Brazilian wrestling while working as a personal trainer. Lolita Havisham is their germaphobic obsessive compulsive who thinks no one can do it right; she also works as a greeter at a funeral home. Mischa is the manager out on maternity leave; Helmut is her husband, but the staff think the baby more closely resembles Simon, a sales rep for Hakamoto Books. Esmeralda is the cleaning lady.
Walter and Maude Ackerman are Cynthia's kids. He's a loser, and she's a soulless lawyer. XX's dad collected promotional movie posters.
Information central, Fermina Marquez is a Spanish émigré who runs the next-door coffee shop, Café Olé. Her husband, Miguel, died five years ago. Falstaff's is an Irish pub where the bookstore employees like to drink, especially the owner's, Mickey Lee O'Malley's, Scrumpy. Ya gotta "qualify" to be served the Scrumpy. Doug is Dante's latest boyfriend. Julie Tomassini, Connie's daughter, sets him up with Jann Devries, a history professor. Lucia Andolini is Dante's sister and a former classmate of XX's. Some of the women from Leah's theatre troupe include Girta (the pretentious director), Ribika (the coke-snorting lighting director), and Penelope. Pete owns the Prestige Theatre. Carmelina is one of Dante's mother's choices; Mom is also Carmelina's godmother. Al is Carmelina's now-dead husband whom she's not really missing. Julian Bartlett is a quiet author with connections. Tom Prufrock is Julian's agent. Peter Brzinski is one of the unlucky customers. Simone is a French exchange student. Yvette Desormaux is a former employee of the Black Rose gentlemen's salon and spa. Jasmine and Ryan are clueless fans of Leah's.
Umex is a national bookstore chain buying out independents.
Jeremy Smithwhite is an agent. Millicent is a teamster. Callum Guthrie is associated with the series, Royal Target. Juliet is a casting director. Joanne plays Officer Tessa Dominikos. Matt Damon encouraged Woody Allen to hire Leah, who also works in a film with Paul Giamatti.
XX's and Sebastian's rating system for women: Brontë is a "Withering Sight", a "Fellini" is an attractive woman requiring a lot of work, a "Scorsese" is a psycho, a "Polanski" is too young, a "Kubrick" is cold, detached, unattainable, mechanical, yet strangely compelling, and a "Spielberg" tries too hard. Some of XX's dates have included the dairy maid, June, with the banjo-playing brother, Maynard. Noomi, aka Cicely, has a postgraduate degree as a Rhodes Scholar and is a bisexual who looked like a biker chick.
The Cover and Title
The cover is cozy with its stone-and-green-trimmed bookstore window filled with books. The title is the sign at the top with the author's name at the bottom. I do like the door with its sign inviting you in.
The title is the shop, Village Books.
October 21, 2017
I gave up around the 40% mark. It felt like the plot wasn't going anywhere (was there a plot? I couldn't tell since what I thought was the plot seemed to solve itself in the first third of the book) and the conversations between the characters were just long-winded babble. They went on for far too long and just like with the plot, they didn't seem to go anywhere.
unfinished
June 16, 2017giving up. have no interest in any characters. no idea what story is supposed to be. don't care for the writing and keep wanting to skip ridiculous babble, so might as well give up
September 7, 2016
'Village Books is a comfortable place where I can hide out from the world for a while. Which is exactly what a good book is supposed to be. I suppose the reason I have so much trouble picking a favourite [book] is because I'm in no hurry to come out of hiding.'
This novel pleasantly surprised me! There isn't a strict plot, rather it follows the lives of a rather eclectic bunch of employees at Village Books, an independent bookshop in Canada. It is written in first person, so that character takes centre stage (I don't even know his name? Does it ever come up??).
This was a very humorous and quick read and delivered me out of my reading slump! This is the most well-written self published eBook I've read! The characters were strong - surprisingly there weren't any that I genuinely disliked - I especially enjoyed scenes with Ebeneezer, and Dante. The main merit goes to the the dialogue; there were some laugh out loud conversations, as well as some thought-provoking quotes. Examples:
'Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due.'
"Stories are dangerous," he says. "They can turn us into lifelong spectators. We spend all of our time looking for fictions. They trick us into relinquishing responsibility for our own narrative."
'His look [style] is based on the assumption that people frequently mistake eccentricity for genius.'
I must warn that this book is for over 18s only as there is crass language and content. This was the only downside for me, as I did not find it necessary for the story at all; in fact the potential audience is reduced due to the this, but I guess some people really enjoy that type of humour. Otherwise, I would recommend to anyone who wants a quick and funny read!
This novel pleasantly surprised me! There isn't a strict plot, rather it follows the lives of a rather eclectic bunch of employees at Village Books, an independent bookshop in Canada. It is written in first person, so that character takes centre stage (I don't even know his name? Does it ever come up??).
This was a very humorous and quick read and delivered me out of my reading slump! This is the most well-written self published eBook I've read! The characters were strong - surprisingly there weren't any that I genuinely disliked - I especially enjoyed scenes with Ebeneezer, and Dante. The main merit goes to the the dialogue; there were some laugh out loud conversations, as well as some thought-provoking quotes. Examples:
'Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due.'
"Stories are dangerous," he says. "They can turn us into lifelong spectators. We spend all of our time looking for fictions. They trick us into relinquishing responsibility for our own narrative."
'His look [style] is based on the assumption that people frequently mistake eccentricity for genius.'
I must warn that this book is for over 18s only as there is crass language and content. This was the only downside for me, as I did not find it necessary for the story at all; in fact the potential audience is reduced due to the this, but I guess some people really enjoy that type of humour. Otherwise, I would recommend to anyone who wants a quick and funny read!
May 7, 2014
After reading a few reviews for this book I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it because quite a few of them were not exactly favorable. Now I know why.
Village Books is a more boring (and book centric instead of music centric) version of the 1995 movie Empire Records. (I'm not sure how many people will understand the reference but I just thought I'd put it out there). Village Books is about a crazy crew of bookstore workers (some in managerial positions, some part time, some who the reader barely hears from personally) and the owners and customers to the store. And the characters are pretty entertaining but unfortunately they don't make up for the complete lack of a plot.
From the blurb for the book I knew the story centered around the addition of a beautiful aspiring actress to the renegade team of bookstore employees. But I figured there would be more to it, especially with the mention of how the shop owners were aging and ailing and how some horrible corporate company wanted to buy the store out from under everyone. There should have been more of a conflict there, right? Shouldn't saving the store which was so important to the plot and all these characters, be a key plot point? Apparently not.
So I'd say the main saving grace of the book, for me, was that all the characters worked around books (which I love) and that quite a few of the "types" of workers and customers are ones I've seen while working at a library. But it just wasn't enough for this to be a truly good book.
Plus the ending was just too predictable and happily ever after. Everything worked out for the good guys while the bad/annoying guys got their comeuppance but that all happened in a pretty brief epilogue.
Village Books is a more boring (and book centric instead of music centric) version of the 1995 movie Empire Records. (I'm not sure how many people will understand the reference but I just thought I'd put it out there). Village Books is about a crazy crew of bookstore workers (some in managerial positions, some part time, some who the reader barely hears from personally) and the owners and customers to the store. And the characters are pretty entertaining but unfortunately they don't make up for the complete lack of a plot.
From the blurb for the book I knew the story centered around the addition of a beautiful aspiring actress to the renegade team of bookstore employees. But I figured there would be more to it, especially with the mention of how the shop owners were aging and ailing and how some horrible corporate company wanted to buy the store out from under everyone. There should have been more of a conflict there, right? Shouldn't saving the store which was so important to the plot and all these characters, be a key plot point? Apparently not.
So I'd say the main saving grace of the book, for me, was that all the characters worked around books (which I love) and that quite a few of the "types" of workers and customers are ones I've seen while working at a library. But it just wasn't enough for this to be a truly good book.
Plus the ending was just too predictable and happily ever after. Everything worked out for the good guys while the bad/annoying guys got their comeuppance but that all happened in a pretty brief epilogue.
February 15, 2015
I liked the setting of a small independent bookstore struggling to survive faced with competition from giant chain stores, online shopping, and e-readers. The main character was likable. But some of the other characters were not just eccentric or quirky - they were fairly unbelievable. It became difficult to accept that an employer would continue to put up with so many employees who didn't show up for their shifts, didn't do their jobs properly, and were not at all customer friendly. Surely there were better job applicants around and it wasn't necessary to put up with this behavior. When I was able to overlook this flaw, I was faced with way more sexual talk than was necessary, and an overabundance of references to literature, movies, and popular culture - some of which I understood, but many of which I did not get. I'm sure this was all intended to appeal to a particular audience and much of it was from the viewpoint of the young main character's experience and interests, but I think there was way too much of it for the average reader. And I find it annoying when a book presents any halfway religious character as a freaky nutcase. There are many normal, nice, loving people who are also devoted Christians, but they never seem to appear in most books. Instead all Christians are presented as wacko extremists, narrow-minded judgmental cranks, or perverted hypocrites. Other than those annoyances, the rest of the novel was fairly enjoyable for light entertainment, but definitely not something I would recommend.
February 10, 2015
I have an entirely impractical dream of owning a small, independent bookstore. That's why Village Books intrigued me. It soon convinced me that I'd better hang on to my day job. McLay does a fine job of populating his story with colorful characters, each of which has at least one notable eccentricity. The narrative voice is witty and ruthlessly skewers everything from the quintessential evil corporate conglomerate to midlist authors at book signings. (No, I have never done a book signing, because I suspect it would turn out exactly as McLay describes.)
The romance is fairly predictable and somewhat trite, but I didn't read this book for the romance. I chuckled through most of it, and that was good enough for me. A few of the secondary characters seemed to blend into one another after a while, and some could even have been eliminated without affecting the story. But that's a minor quibble. Overall, a light and enjoyable read.
The romance is fairly predictable and somewhat trite, but I didn't read this book for the romance. I chuckled through most of it, and that was good enough for me. A few of the secondary characters seemed to blend into one another after a while, and some could even have been eliminated without affecting the story. But that's a minor quibble. Overall, a light and enjoyable read.
March 16, 2013
I found that I really enjoyed reading Village Books. McLay introduced a cast of colorful characters who worked together at a bookstore, and the reader has no idea what these characters would do next. Each character is developed nicely and has a unique personality of their own. The narrator is a manager at the bookstore who finds love at the bookstore with a newly hired manager. I enjoyed the bookstore setting, the customers the characters had to deal with, and the surprises that happened along the way. McLay does a great job at setting up a entertaining story that keeps the reader turning the pages to see what would happen next. Overall this was a fun read that was enjoyable, and I would like to see what this author comes up with next.
March 16, 2013
Enjoyed the characters and data on the inner workings of an independent bookstore. Took me a while to realize the setting was Canada, but that was okay.
The story was a little glib. Bookstore assistant manager--a retiring, perceptive guy--meets a would-be actress and falls hard. Since the storyline wasn't really their romance, I guess the lack of surprises in their relationship didn't really matter.
I'm slow, so it took me a while to realize this was a replay of small bookstore eaten up by big bookstore. But when I thought I had it figured out, I didn't. A couple of twists near the end surprised and delighted.
The story went on a little long after the climax, but it's still a nice read for anyone who enjoys gentle humor with some literary/film references.
Nice read.
The story was a little glib. Bookstore assistant manager--a retiring, perceptive guy--meets a would-be actress and falls hard. Since the storyline wasn't really their romance, I guess the lack of surprises in their relationship didn't really matter.
I'm slow, so it took me a while to realize this was a replay of small bookstore eaten up by big bookstore. But when I thought I had it figured out, I didn't. A couple of twists near the end surprised and delighted.
The story went on a little long after the climax, but it's still a nice read for anyone who enjoys gentle humor with some literary/film references.
Nice read.
August 20, 2013
This was a fun read. It was a free download from Amazon for my Kindle Often these ebooks are just okay, but I really enjoyed this one. The author has quite a wit and writes in a very contemporary style.
Village Books is a local bookstore in Canada with a strange mix of employees. It's told in the first person by the store's manager. He's been working there for three years without much direction in life, but things are about to change. There's a fair amount of friendly blue language bantered about, and if you don't find that too objectionable, you'll find the story quite witty and entertaining.
Village Books is a local bookstore in Canada with a strange mix of employees. It's told in the first person by the store's manager. He's been working there for three years without much direction in life, but things are about to change. There's a fair amount of friendly blue language bantered about, and if you don't find that too objectionable, you'll find the story quite witty and entertaining.
January 28, 2018
Quirky characters,
Crazy situations and Jeopardy worthy quotes (the store manager and assistant mgr often color their dialogue with well known literary or cinematic quotes)are the building blocks for “Village Books”. Having been a VP at B &N (and come up thru the ranks), I found many of the bookstore scenes familiar and warm in a memory lane sort of way. There are many conflict and resolution situations and each one is resolved - hallelujah! This is a free standing novel with no future expectations. The book has been edited with British spelling. An enjoyable, not the same old thing to read! Bravo!
Crazy situations and Jeopardy worthy quotes (the store manager and assistant mgr often color their dialogue with well known literary or cinematic quotes)are the building blocks for “Village Books”. Having been a VP at B &N (and come up thru the ranks), I found many of the bookstore scenes familiar and warm in a memory lane sort of way. There are many conflict and resolution situations and each one is resolved - hallelujah! This is a free standing novel with no future expectations. The book has been edited with British spelling. An enjoyable, not the same old thing to read! Bravo!
April 22, 2021
They burned down the store! So nice to read about a great bookstore, and I was really happy to read how everyone fared after the store had burned down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2013
I did not read it in a day, I started about the 5th or 6th of March. It was an enjoyable read until about haldf way through, the use of the F*** word increased as did the obsession with talking about sex. Other than that I really liked the characters and their odd differences. You trily felt like you knew them and rooted for their lives. Takes a while to get into it.
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