London Bookstore Strategies + Books We'd Stock In Our Own Bookstores (S8E43)

The Currently Reading Podcast

Meredith Schwartz

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Elizabeth are discussing:

Bookish Moments: overseas bookstores and book resources
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately
Deep Dive: Meredith and Elizabeth imagine books in their own bookstore
Before We Go: our new segment featuring a bookish friend post and Elizabeth updates us on her grandbabies

Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site).

1:53 - Ad For Ourselves

2:12 - Currently Reading Patreon

3:20 - Bookish Moments of the Week

4:19 - Waterstones

4:22 - Barter Books

4:37 - Foyles

4:38 - Notting Hill Bookshop

5:10 - Goldsboro Books

6:10 - Booklist magazine

8:27 - Current Reads

9:42 - The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (Elizabath)

14:19 - Where are the Children by Mary Higgins Clark (Meredith)

18:54 - Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark

19:43 - The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff (Elizabeth)

19:47 - The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff

21:51 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live

23:12 - Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Meredith)

24:23 - Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

29:39 - Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves (Elizabeth, pre-order releases July 7, 2026)

30:00 - The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

32:35 - Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

32:37 - Life, and Death, and Giants by Ron Rindo

32:50 - Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

32:57 - Page & Palette

34:30 - The Astral Library by Kate Quinn (Meredith)

37:29 - Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

37:30 - The Book Wanderers by Anna James

40:21 - The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

40:22 - The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

40:59 - A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

43:36 - Deep Dive: Books We'd Stock In Our Own Bookstores

44:37 - God of the Woods by Liz Moore

44:38 - Fabled Bookshop

44:49 - Roots by Alex Haley

45:56 - Scythe by Neal Shusterman

47:48 - The Iron House by John Hart

49:03 - I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

49:53 - Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

51:06 - The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

52:12 - Red Notice by Bill Browder

52:42 - Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge

54:40 - The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

54:49 - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

54:50 - The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

55:22 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

55:23 - A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

56:13 - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

57:26 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

58:03 - Running with Sherman by Christopher McDougall

59:06 - Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

1:00:02 - The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

1:00:52 - Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

1:01:17 - Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

1:01:19 - Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert

1:01:30 - The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini

1:03:00 - Before We Go

Meredith highlights a bookish friend post

Elizabeth brings an update and bookish support

Support Us:

Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch

Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon

Bookish Friends Receive:

The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. June's IPL is brought to you by one of our beloved repeat stores, Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, MI.
Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller
From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts

Connect With Us:

The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna

Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans

Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey readers, welcome to the currently reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently, and as you know, we won't shy away
0:21.5	from having strong opinions, so get ready. We are light on the chit-chat, heavy on the book talk,
0:27.2	and our conversations will always be spoiler-free. Today we'll discuss our current reads,
0:32.3	a readerly deep dive, and a little something bookish before we go. I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz.
0:37.2	I'm both a mom and a Mimi and a full-time CEO living in Austin, Texas.
0:41.9	And it's been a long time since periods have annoyed me this much.
0:47.5	And I'm Elizabeth Barnhill, the book buyer at Fabled Bookshop in Waco, Texas.
0:51.9	And I found researching fantastic bookstores can be almost as
0:57.0	thrilling as researching fantastic new book titles. This is episode 43 of season 8, and we are so
1:03.9	glad you're here. All right, we have a lot of good stuff to talk about Elizabeth, but before we do,
1:10.2	we're going to get into a couple of things.
1:11.9	First of all, I'm going to let you know that our deep dive today is we are imagining that
1:17.5	we both own a bookstore of our own.
1:20.6	So what are the books that we would always have in stock in our own personal bookstore. This was an interesting exercise,
1:29.7	so I'm looking forward to this one. Me too. I think about this all the time. Of course, I have a
1:34.2	list for my bookshop. And I have had questions about this, so I thought this would be a really
1:39.5	fun thing to discuss with you, with your bookstore, take your books and go. Right. Exactly. I love it.
1:46.8	Okay. Before we get into all of that, we are going to take a little bit of a pause. It is the first
1:52.5	day of the month, which you know means the one commercial for the entire month that you will hear
1:58.7	on the currently reading podcast. It's a commercial for
2:01.1	ourselves. Delighted as of now that we have a bookish friend to talk to you and tell you why they
2:08.5	think it's worth the money to join us as a bookish friend on Patreon. Hey all. My name is Kaylin Means
	...

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