Waterstones Ipswich

18/08/2026

Book of the Month Spotlight ✨

The Wild Ones by Steve Cole

Perfect for fans of I am Rebel by Ross Montgomery, comes The Wild Ones, where Cole's animal adventure story finds a plucky terrier attempting to lead a group of pets to safety after the humans disappear and prowling beasts take their place.

Scamp lives at a pet care centre. He has friends, food and a warm bed. But one terrible night - the Night of the Great Growl - his world changes for ever.

The people have vanished and all that's left outside are the Things: vicious, starving beasts that roam the ruined city. Driven into the wilds - with Chandelier the cat, Punzel the rabbit, Patticake the dachshund, Falstaff the parrot and hamsters Nudge and Wink - Scamp sets off in search of safety.

On their epic journey, Scamp must discover his own wildness if he's to lead the pets to the one thing they so desperately need - a new home.

A moving, beautifully written survival quest story perfect for fans of I Am Rebel. Set to win the hearts of children the world over. With irresistible full-page illustrations.

Ipswich Children's Book Group

15/08/2026

Book of the Month Spotlight ✨

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

The true horror stories of working for Facebook!

This book is going viral across social media for the truth its exposed about one of the biggest online platforms and the company behind it.

This book delves all in to the dirty underbelly of Meta and how corruption and greed affected Wynn-William's life. Even being faced with legal orders to silence her. But here, her story is told. And a dirty one it is.

Perfect for fans of Logging Off by Adele Zeynep Walton, The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson, business books and anti-social media books, and people who would like more education in the behind the scenes of how this app is run.

11/08/2026

Book of the Month Spotlight ✨

Dead Heat by Sabine Durrant

This is the perfect poolside accompaniment, if you're planning on jet-setting somewhere nice and sunny sometime soon! ✈☀🌴

This is perfect for people who prefer crime books that are easier to read and are a bit less "literary" but still enjoyable entertainment. Especially if you are planning on switching your brain off, this could be a good one for you!

Set on an island in Greece with the main character on holiday himself, staying with two of his friends at their cottage, when, of course, there's a murder! Parties, fights, dinners... and everything that happens between them!

Full of revenge, secrets and lies, deceptions, jealousy, anger and resentment and what it can build into. Perfect for fans of authors like Freida McFadden and easy-reading crime books!

08/08/2026

Book of the Month Spotlight ✨

And we are starting with our Debut Prize winner!

May We Feed the King is a beautifully lyrical book about things lost to history: people, facts, their stories. Without documentation (and preservation), these things are destroyed. Without those people and their stories, they are gone. With this, grief is a theme that underpins the entire novel, the curator speaks of losing someone at the beginning who leaves a hole in their living space, and the king too, loses family members.

It is also the story of performance and how being reluctant to perform, can bring conspirators who would love nothing more than to bring the king down for not being who they want him to be.

With her previous poetry work, it is no surprise at how wonderfully atmospheric and beautifully described this world is. I felt I was transported into the dusty corners of a museum, or I could peer out of the castle window itself! This is perfectly suited to a rainy day with a warm beverage and a snuggle on the sofa, and the transitional period between summer and autumn may be the perfect time for this!

Perfect for historical fiction fans, Philippa Gregory, and Hilary Mantel.

06/08/2026

A dreamy combination on 13 August as V. E. Schwab will be in conversation with Julia Armfield about her spellbinding q***r love story, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, at our online event. Get your tickets to join them both here: https://www.waterstones.com/events/online-event-v-e-schwab-in-conversation-with-julia-armfield/online-events

04/08/2026

Welcome to August's Books of the Month ✨📚

NON-FICTION: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. This exposé is going viral across social media with the author's case against Meta.

NON-FICTION: Moonlight Express by Monisha Rajesh. From the author of Around the World in 80 Trains, we are once again whisked away to different places in the world, this time, on nighttime locomotives.

YOUNG ADULT: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. The very highly anticipated prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy where Katniss' mentor, Haymitch, is competing in this deadly tournament!

CHILDREN'S: The Wild Ones by Steve Cole. A story of friendship and survival as all humans have disappeared and it is up to Scamp and his friends to find shelter.

THRILLER: Dead Heat by Sabine Durrant. The perfect poolside entertainment, set in Greece, this scorching thriller will have you flicking pages until the end!

SCI-FI/FANTASY: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. Three different timelines, three different women, one consistent problem: vampires. This story bites into the cycles of toxic relationships and the people in them.

FICTION: May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry. A story of grief and lost history, a curator is bought to design anniversary displays, but often creates stories of the places she inhabits. What follows is the story of a reluctant king whose court transpires against him.

30/07/2026

30/07/2026

A big thank you to Mike Brooks - Author and everyone who came along to our author event at Geek Retreat Ipswich last weekend! 💙📚

We chatted about his brand new novel This is Where The Future Bleeds, and everything from capitalism to giant wasps, diversity in publishing to the destiny of worlds.

Not only can you now pick up a signed copy of his book in the shop, but the author has dropped off matching bookmarks, slydewasp stickers and BEER MATS from the inn in the story (!) to give away when you buy a copy!

29/07/2026

Book of the Month Spotlight ✨

Star Breakers: Zeke Zero vs the Galaxy by Ed Caruana

Treasure Planet meets Guardians of the Galaxy meets Indiana Jones.

The main character is 13 year old Zeke Zero, who has been on his own on crime planet Grimlax 17b since his father traded him for a new battery. He trusts nobody except his bird hologram sidekick, Elara.

After a series of unfortunate events (all of his own doing), Zeke reluctantly joins a ragtag crew of treasure hunters ‘The Starbreakers’ as they search the galaxy for a God’s eyeball. But other people are searching for it too, including the evil, centuries old ‘Princess’ Grizelda Grim, who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Ipswich Children's Book Group