Oh I loved this! It's a love letter to reading and books, but with critique and inspiring reading recommendations. Cathy writes warmly and I think anyone whose ideal afternoon involves coffee and bookshops would love this.

Part memoir and an exploration about how books can change the course of one's life and offer comfort and temporary escape during difficult times. The author offers recommendations of her favourite books. Touching when writing about her lifelong personal grief over the loss of her brother, mixed with a quiet humour when she talks about the people she has met through her love of books.

Many thanks to Picador Books and Netgalley.co.uk for my ARC.

This is a wonderful book for book lovers, readers. I loved it!
It will definitely grow your TBR pile.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Cathy Rentzenbrink takes us on a wonderful, and sometimes sad, journey through her life with all the important books that have accompanied her along the way. The books she mentions from her childhood brought back fond memories for me too and I have made a note of many of the books she recommends.
This is a great read and made me think about the many books that have had an impact on me.
Thank you to Cathy Rentzenbrink, Net Galley and Picador for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a love letter to books and reading and was a wonderfully enjoyable read, I love watching and hearing people talk about books online to finding a book that accomplishes that was a joy,

This lovely book is a love letter to books and reading - and was a wonderful enjoyable light read. As a bookseller myself I really connected with her love of talking about and recommending books - it is always my favourite part of the job, and also the reason I joined my book group.
I loved the favourite book lists interspersed with the writing. It was always a little thrill when one of my favourites was included, and helped increase my To Be Read pile.
You could tell the real joy that books and reading bring to her and I particularly loved tbe anecdotes involving her father. They were so touching and just made me feel really happy.

Cathy Rentzenbrink’s Dear Reader is an absolute gem of a book, an absolute masterpiece which I enjoyed tremendously. I love books, I love reading and reading takes me to so many wonderful places that I have not visited and takes me to many worlds which never exist in real life. Books for me help me in so many different ways - they take you through every emotion possible. They provide help and they provide wisdom and knowledge. Books are steadfast and comforting and always with you whatever your situation, to pick up and take you to a completely different world.

Dear Reader shows Cathy Rentzenbrink's absolute love for everything about books ... owning them, holding them, reading them, working with them, talking about them and sharing her love and knowledge with everyone. Every bookshop needs a Cathy! Not that I do but no one would ever leave a bookshop empty handed if Cathy was working there - she has immense knowledge and love for books and her experience is amazing.

There are so many book recommendations that my TBR has grown considerably since reading Dear Reader! I have read quite a few of the books already talked about and it was lovely to have Cathy Rentzenbrink's insight into them and her passion shines through and through on every page. It was such a fascinating and awe-inspiring read and insight into Cathy Rentzenbrink's love of books and her life as a bookseller. A delightful memoir which I will pick up again and again to read Cathy Rentzenbrink's book recommendations! A book to treasure and keep forever.

Cathy Rentzenbrink’s ‘Dear Reader’ has been an absolute joy to read and I have loved every moment of it. It was a comforting and captivating read, and it certainly found me at the right time. While I often rush through books, ending them too quickly, I purposely slowed down while reading ‘Dear Reader’ wanting to cherish every word.

You can feel Cathy Rentzenbrink’s love for reading and books throughout each and every page of ‘Dear Reader’. It was heart-warming, this feeling of books speaking to some readers in such a manner, and I felt the instant kinship with the author since the very first page of ‘Dear Reader’.
Essentially the love letter to books and all readers, ‘Dear Reader’ is a beautiful memoir filled with some many book recommendations from one reader to another.

Some of the books mentioned by Cathy Rentzenbrink I have read, others I have not even heard about it, but each of them has meant so much to her, and in many ways many of them helped the author through the hardship of her experiences. Each of our experiences is different, we live through different hardships and different joys, and yet books are often the bridges between so many different people. ‘Dear Reader’ does a perfect job of underlying that, especially with Cathy Rentzenbrink’s job at prison and making people fell in love in stories, even if they had not felt like they had that right in the very first place.

The author’s life is expressed through some many different books, accompanying Cathy Rentzenbrink throughout different parts of her life - from young age as a young pupil, to her bookselling career and finally writing.

‘Dear Reader’ is so much more than just a book. It’s in many ways like a friend taking you on a journey that comfort and brings joy to you, while still dealing with so many heartbreaks and grief. It’s beautiful and endearing, and it’s the book I will read more than once.

If you’re one of those readers who feel lively in stories, has a profound devotion for book characters, dream to be in books, who explores bookshops and bookstores for the next good read, who love books about books, then this is the book to fall in love with.
Dear Reader is an endearing book about books and reading that I couldn’t put down. I devoured it in two sittings. Reading it was just like looking around enormous bookcases with a bookworm friend Cathy Rentzenbrink who keeps on recommending and sharing her love for books. It was such a gratifying experience.
It’s her memoir, her contemplation of what it means to be a reader, the power of reading, and what books do to us. She shares how books changed her life, how reading has soothed her soul in stressful times. She learned to get the better of her real-life terrible and saddening situations from the characters in her books. They provided her comfort and solace. Books taught her to face arduous times.
I’ve highlighted all the books she had read, quoted, and recommended. I loved all the book mentions, especially the ones related to Books about reading and Books about Bookshops. It’s an absolute treat for bookworms. If you will read a book about books this year, make this one because you’ll surely read it again.
This lovely book with beautiful cover is coming out in September this year.

As soon as I saw Cathy Rentzenbrink was writing another book, I knew I had to read it. Dear Reader is an ode to the joy of reading. I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of autobiography and book recommendations. Her writing is so easy to read that I was able to race through Dear Reader in an afternoon, emerging with a new list of books to enjoy once lockdown is over. As a bookseller, I found her experiences immensely relatable as well as comforting. Thanks Cathy, I can't wait to see what you write next


Edit: I was really intrigued by Cathy's work with Quick Reads and her thoughts on encouraging adults - who might not have read a book since school - to read.

I smiled and chuckled all the way through this book, which I read most of sitting in the garden so I was thankful our neighbours weren’t nearby. Or at least, if they were, they were polite enough not to mention that I was giggling to myself.

I hadn’t come across Cathy Rentzenbrink's writing before, but the description of the book as ‘Dear Reader is a moving, funny and joyous exploration of how books can change the course of your life, packed with recommendations from one reader to another’ sounded perfect. I think, as we head into our eleventy hundredth week of lockdown, I’m finding it really hard to settle on a book, or a podcast, or something – I always seem to be jumping from one thing to another. I currently have no fewer than 6 half read books, which I have vowed to go back to and finish soon. Of course.

So this book, released in September this year, is an author’s ode to reading. It had such a great balance between memoir and chatty book loving friend, Cathy Rentzenbrink is clearly a book lover as well as a great writer. Her candid-ness, her gentle wit and the way she’s so upfront about devastating parts of her life reminded me a bit of Nora Ephron’s writing.

Against the backdrop of something of an unorthodox childhood which saw her and her family live in lots of different places and go to lots of different schools, she talks through her favourite books from childhood in the first section. She explains that books were her constant, her escape – not that she is saying she had a bad childhood, of course, but books allowed her to experience different things and to travel to different places.  Her list includes the Narnia books, which she references a few times and always elicited a feeling of nostalgia and a desire to read them again.

There were so many books like that – memoirs, legacy sagas, love stories, mysteries – all handily broken into phases while our author and guide grows up, marries, moves to New York and loads of other amazing things. For every book I’ve read and loved, there were two that I immediately added to my Goodreads list. It might not have solved my #FirstWorldProblem of having too many books to read, but it also resurrected my love for reading and reminded me how it feels to make new friends in far away lands.

I can think of at least a dozen friends of mine I know who would love this – it’s so accessible and engaging, and impossible to put down. I had hoped it would come with an index so I didn’t have to remember all of the books, but the digital ARC didn’t. Maybe the published version will!

Rentzenbrink has written a couple of more standard memoirs before this one, The Last Act of Love and A Manual for Heartache – I’m looking forward to reading those ones, too.

As usual, a big thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher, PanMacMillan, for the ARC.

This is a perfect read for the current moment. It is honest, introspective and touching. Cathy tells her story through the power of stories themselves. Part memoir, part reflection on the power of reading and part analysis of what it is to be a reader and a writer.
I loved the behind the scenes glimpses of Waterstones and found the aspects linked to adult literacy and accessing books incredibly moving.
I will definitely be sharing this one with the teenagers in my library- there are some inspired recommendations.

This is a beautiful love letter to books and the joy, comfort and pleasure they bring to readers.

Part memoir, part literary anthology, I enjoyed the author's journaling of the books that have enriched her life and helped her through the most difficult parts of it.

This is a real treat for bookworms and very enjoyable read.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

What a wonderful little meditation on the love tangle of life and books, the pleasures of memories and reading!
In the tradition of "Howard’s End is on the Landing" by Susan Hill and Lucy Mangan’s "Bookworm", this is a splendid personal love declaration to books, as only fanatical and lifelong readers can appreciate.
Interweaving her own memories with the books that seasoned them, drove and comforted her until her own departure as a writer, Cathy Rentzenbrink’s little tome is like having your own tiny book club in your reading nook where you can rave and reminisce to your heart's content. If you’re one of those people who’d rather probe other people’s bookshelves than their Facebook profile in search of a clue of who they are, who has a book on the go in every room of the house, a quote for every occasion, who has aspired to live like a novel and lived vivaciously through stories, this book will delight you to no end.

"Most people apart from my parents told me what I wasn't allowed to do. Books, on the other hand, urged me on, There were no limits."

In this memoir, Cathy talks about reading and books just as any bookish lover would, and as a reading lover myself I really appreciated this.

I was drawn to this book from the beginning, all it took was seeing the title and reading the blurb to know that I would love it. From the first few pages I know this was the book for me, I could relate to her in so many ways just by the fact of how she discussed the reasons for books being important in her life.

I love reading about other book lovers and how certain stories and novels have changed their life. Through this memoir, Cathy does just this, relating titles and authors back to important moments and memories in her own life from job searching and marriage to the death of love ones and the birth of new life.

This book provides many recommendations and descriptions to books that the author read, and I swear if you read this book you'll finish it with a new list of books for the next time you're in a bookstore or browsing online.

It all begins with her love for 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' by C.S. Lewis and only continues on to develop and reflect onto her life as she grows and changes too.

Thanks to Netgalley, Cathy Rentzenbrink and the publisher of this book for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review. I look forward to seeing this book on shelves in bookstores in September so I can grab my own physical copy!

This is a little treasure of a book, especially if you enjoy books that tell you about other books! This does precisely that.

We embark on a book journey with the author as she describes her life to date via different books she read along the way. She also gives some background as to why each was important or relevant to her at that time.

If you've ever had a chance to think about the soundtrack to your life, this is a little like that only done in books and it certainly got me thinking about what my own life would look like in this medium.

If you're bookish - I'd definitely recommend this one.

Thanks to Netgalley, Cathy Rentzenbrink and the publisher for enabling me to read an early copy of this book.

“We are all in the gutter, but books allow us to see the stars.”

A funny, insightful and heart-warming book.

'Dear Reader' is a bookworm’s declaration of love for books. Author Cathy Rentzenbrink explores how books have changed her life - and can change yours too. She prescribes books for any problem, from break-ups to bereavement to newborn babies.

Rentzenbrink is honest, down to earth and an excellent conversationalist. Reading her book feels like catching up with a long lost friend over a cup of coffee. She covers all the important issues and her enthusiasm for books bounces off the page.

Reading is a remedy for a broken heart. After a family tragedy, Rentzenbrink escapes reality by immersing herself in fiction. Here she discovers comfort, joy and a light in the darkness. The characters in stories become her 'fictional support group’. They show her how to carry on by overcoming conflicts of their own. This book makes you think deeper about the life lessons you can learn from a novel's characters.

Her account of the highs and lows of bookselling in Harrods is a real highlight. It's exciting to get a sneak peek behind the scenes of the world-famous department store! And the stories about her interactions with customers are particularly rib-tickling. She soon discovers that ‘what people say they want, isn’t always what they want’. But a few tricky customers don’t stop her from recommending her favourite reads to anyone who’ll listen. Talking about books is her way of connecting with others. And her book is a testament to how books build bridges.

Her recollections of working for a literacy charity are inspiring! I'm ashamed to admit that I was unaware of the link between illiteracy and crime. By teaching prisoners to read, she taught me how important reading is for self-esteem. She shows how books are a means of empowerment.

Rentzenbrink links the events of her life to specific books. She’s an experienced bookseller and reader so her book recommendations are a real treasure! I’ve added several of her suggestions to my ‘to read’ list. And I can see myself returning to her memoir often to discover more books to help me through hard times.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who reads. It is a book for those of us who seek comfort under the covers of books. ‘Dear Reader’ will captivate fans of Penelope Fitzgerald's ‘The Bookshop’, and Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s ‘The Shadow of the Wind’. Rentzenbrink is a reader touching the heart of another through the pages of a book.

My thanks to Cathy Rentzenbrink, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for giving me the joy of reading an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rentzenbrink is so generous with herself and her experiences you feel so welcomed into her story. Once again, she’s created something beautiful and engaging - just as The Last Act of Love was. I’ve been completed transported by this perfect book for book lovers. I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t even notice the time passing I was so engrossed. Just frustrating that it restores your hunger to read books and provides you with more suggestions than you could ever get through at a rate satisfactory to quell that desire.

'We are all in the gutter, but books allow us to see the stars.'

I was looking through my Netgalley to-read list and didn't much feel inspired by any of the selections. Normally, I try to read by when the book will be released, but something about 'Dear Reader' was calling to me.

In this book, Rentzenbrink talks about how she gets a 'tingle' in her fingers when she knows it will be a great read, touching the covers of the books. And I like to think that I got the same feeling when I clicked on this book on my Kindle screen, hoping it would offer me a brief respite from the world.

Book lovers rejoice - this is the read for you. Comforting, warm and charming, this sort-of memoir is a celebration of the reader and how books have acted as a balm for our soul's throughout our lives. Rentzenbrink tracks her life- from her eventful childhood moving all over the UK, to her career selling books - first as a temp before rising to Waterstones' head office - and how books have had a profound impact on her life. This is the kind of book that will remind you WHY you're a reader, why you buy far too many, why you fear ever reaching the end of your TBR list.

It took a moment for me to get into, but once I was hooked, I absolutely raced through this book, drinking in her descriptions of life as a bookseller, of her recommendations, of how she pressed books into the hands of customers in the hallowed walls of our favourite bookshops. I think this is definitely an instance where I read the right book at the right time. I've been feeling a little bit of a burnout recently with reading and this was a reminder of why I love to sit and read, why I spent my childhood with a nose in a book. This is a book that will re-ignite your passion and love for the written word.

My only hope is that the book would be released just a little earlier so everyone could get the same comfort and calm that I felt reading this.