An In-The-Know Bookshop Owner Shares Her Favourite Reads

What makes LaLa different from other bookstores?

We work very hard to make people feel welcome, like they’ve walked into the well-stocked library of a friend. Very few people are on their phones, they’re engaging in conversation with us and with each other, and sit outside at our tables, or even on the pavement for hours chatting to each other. If someone can’t afford a book or a ticket to an event or even a coffee, we offer them use of our community-funded pay-it-forward fund. There’s no reason you can’t leave with something special.

When and where do you read?

On public transport, always, which is a great way to spend the inevitable hour it takes to get anywhere in London. And always before bed, even if it’s just ten minutes. There’s a myth that bookshop owners get to read at work all day – the shop is way too busy for that! I’m currently reading Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor.

How do you choose what to read?

I get sent a lot of books by publishers and I usually read the first 10-15 pages to see if it’s something that interests me. Besides that, I trawl online book reviews and new release catalogues, get recommendations from customers and have a very long list I keep updating in my Notes app.

Do you have a favourite author?

It’s changed over the years. At the moment, I’d have to say Percival Everett, as he’s such a remarkable and prolific author. I’ve read eight of his books to date – all ranging from very good to utterly genius. He’s published something like 27 books so far, so there’s always another one to turn to.

What's been your favourite read of 2026 so far?

May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry. She’s a London based poet and published her first novel in January this year. It’s an intriguing debut about a modern-day curator and a medieval king that turns the concept of historical fiction upside down.

Favourite biography?

Autobiography of Cotton by Cristina Rivera Garza. It’s an astounding book that defies genre – but ultimately pieces together Garza’s grandparents’ journey from mining towns to cotton fields as it intersects with the little-known history of cotton cultivation along the Mexico-US border. 

Favourite non-fiction book? 

I often go back to One of Us by Asne Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist who chronicles the massacre carried out by Anders Breivik in Oslo in 2011, but also examines Norway’s national character, its politics and its debate about immigration. It is a deeply emotional, meticulously written horror story – but one that every aspiring journalist should read.

What book would you give as a gift?

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. Finnegan is a journalist who chronicles his early life travelling on a shoestring budget to surf in remote islands of Indonesia and anywhere else, really, just to catch a wave. The feeling of freedom in it is just glorious. 

What’s your favourite film or TV adaptation of a book?

The 1990 adaptation of The Witches by Roald Dahl. Oh my God, Angelica Houston in a black bob wig, a structured black dress with padded shoulders and a German accent? Just divine. 

What are some of your favourite books to have come out in the last year?

My favourite has been To Rest our Minds and Bodies by Harriet Armstrong, on a very small, independent London-based press called Les Fugitives. Harriet is a very exciting young writer and her debut novel is about unrequited love and the absolute intensity of emotions we can feel when we’re in our late teens and early 20s. It’s a rare thing – a true literary page-turner written in a singular, confident voice. I've recommended this book hundreds of times and it’s one of our bestsellers in the shop.

Vaim  by Jon Fosse. He’s a Norwegian Nobel Prize laureate and this is probably the best introduction for new readers. It’s a spectral, odd story about two fishermen living on a remote island in Norway who have their lives upended by one very strong-willed woman. If you enjoyed the Booker-Prize winner Flesh by David Szalay (which I loved), I’d encourage you to try this one too.

Brawler by Lauren Groff, who is a strong contender for one of my favourite authors. It’s a short story collection, which I don’t usually reach for but I’ll read anything by her. If there’s a connecting theme among the stories, it’s about women and the best and worst of humanity. Like a lot of her work, each story is so richly written and just saturated with emotion.

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan. It’s about the time in our lives – say, our early 30s – when relationships, both familial and romantic, begin to carry more serious weight. It’s also about trans panic, race and millennial angst, and I love Nicola’s ability to write convincing dialogue more than any other. She’s one of London’s best young writers.

One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. It is a fierce, articulate work of rare moral clarity. Although written in response to the atrocities in Gaza since 2023, its arguments reach beyond, including our collective limits and too-often performative nature of our empathy. It’s really a must, if uncomfortable, read.

I also really enjoyed Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash. It has a bonkers plot, following a family with a failing open marriage and three precocious-to-genius daughters that end up mired up with terrorists and a tech-billionaire conspiracy. It’s zany by design but still serious themes to chew on – capitalism and corruption, human trafficking, middle-age malaise. You’ll either love or loathe this book, but I personally had a great time reading it.

And which books are you looking forward to coming out later this summer?

Safe Spaces, a new novel by Tice Cin, who is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer living in London. Her previous novel, Keeping The House, explored Turkish communities of north London between 1999 and 2012, and I think no one has ever quite captured the essence of London like her.

Sparrow on the Rooftop by Rachel Long, one of London’s finest poets. I loved her debut collection My Darling from the Lions, and she’s just a daring, witty and exceptionally talented poet. I can’t wait to read her new collection. Bernadine Evaristo has called it "exceptionally brave and daring".

The Mulai by Munir Hachemi. I adored Munir’s previous book Living Things, which was a funny, weird eco-thriller set in the vineyards of southern France. The Mulai is speculative fiction – close to sci-fi, really – translated from Spanish, set years after the climate wars on Earth, about a race (the Mulai) who have settled into life in temperature-controlled domes on an unnamed planet. 

I’m also really looking forward to Solvej Balle’s On The Calculation of Vol 5, the fifth volume of this seven-part series about one woman, Tara Selter, who finds herself caught in the loop of an eternal 18th November. It might sound like a simple Groundhog Day-style plot, but Balle has really expertly plotted a series of existential and philosophical questions throughout. I can’t wait to see where it’s going.

And everyone is also going to be reading John of John by Douglas Stuart, who previously won the Booker Prize for Shuggie Bain. I didn't get an advance copy, but everyone who did has been raving about it. I've heard it's an epic tale of gay love, loneliness and the Outer Hebrides.

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