What is reservation? Áine Toner has a roundup of new books for your reading list

Warm and cozy

Christmas at the Village Sewing Shop by Helen Rolfe

Orion, £7.99

Pardon the pun, but can three sisters piece together their fractured family? Loretta loved working in her sewing studio in Butterbury raising her daughters Fern, Daisy and Ginny. Having developed a love for quilting from her grandmother, Loretta used this hobby as a way to connect her daughters and understand where they came from, their hopes and dreams. But this Christmas, which is approaching, it is as if the family had collapsed. Fern thinks she’s failing at motherhood and marriage, Ginny’s career passion quickly plummets while Daisy hides a few secrets from her loved ones. But what does Loretta keep to herself? The four work together to create a festive new quilt and in the process rekindle memories and hopefully mend a breakup. But when Loretta tells her daughters the real reason she brought them together, how will they react?

Resilient Reading

The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase, translated by Alison Watts

Scrubber, £12.99

A dog changes the lives of all who take him on his journey to find his first owner in this tribute to the bond between humans and dogs and the vital power of connection. We warn you: there may be tears. Following an earthquake and a tsunami, a young man living in Japan discovers a stray dog ​​named Tamon. He is the first in a series of owners as Tamon ventures south to find the boy whose disaster snatched him away. Tamon is taken to six very different homes over the next five years, and one thing is for sure: he is a gift to all who are lucky enough to welcome him into their lives. It’s no wonder the author won the prestigious Naoki Prize for this sometimes heartwarming and suspenseful novel detailing true resilience and survival.

frightening events

Phillip Jordan’s Devil’s Elbow

£4.99

With the anniversary of one of the Troubles’ most infamous atrocities just days away, Detective Inspector Veronica “Ronnie” Taylor and her team face another tense Halloween policing their divided city. As pressure mounts to find the perpetrators of a series of illegal dumps, a mysterious witness puts Taylor and his colleagues on the trail of a missing student. What connection – if any – is there between an academic paranormal society and a case of coercive control? Do the answers lie in the supernatural…or the sinister? If that sounds like your kind of reading, pick up Phillip’s new book immediately and continue enjoying or start the author’s Belfast Crime series. Perfect if you’re looking for a spooky Halloween-inspired read.

toxic friendship

The Goose Book by Yiyun Li

Fourth Estate, £16.99

A compelling story of toxic female friendship, obsession, heartbreak and class divisions. Agnès and Fabienne grow up in each other’s pockets in a rural French town, although one is always more dominant than the other. Easily driven and infatuated with her friend’s reckless energy, Agnes is always the follower, while Fabienne sits apart on the pedestal Agnes is building her. But in the end, it is not Fabienne who will have the chance to access fame and fortune, because Agnès is the prodigy, it is she who will have the chance to leave the French countryside for a private education in English. . Told entirely retrospectively, at the beginning of the novel, Fabienne is already dead. Now in her twenties, Agnès must filter through her memory and come to terms with everything their friendship was – and everything it wasn’t. A gripping coming-of-age story and a perfect book club read. Review of Scarlett Sangster.