Click here to visit Ruth's RNZ Nine to Noon interview
Review by Karen (retired Bookseller); Do read Ruth Shaw's memoir. Her extraordinary journey of travel, adventure, devastating heartbreak, illness, love, family and friendships brought tears and laughter. Interwined in her memoir are chapters of her lifetime love of books and reading, her delight in sharing that knowledge & love with others. Ruth's 'Two Wee Bookshops' sound delightful and I can't wait to visit one day.
'An extraordinary story.' Shaun Bythell, The Diary of a Bookseller
Ruth Shaw weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops, musings about favourite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life.
She's sailed through the Pacific for years, been held up by pirates, worked at Sydney's Kings Cross with drug addicts and prostitutes, campaigned on numerous environmental issues, and worked the yacht Breaksea Girl with her husband, Lance.
Underlining all her wanderings and adventures are some very deep losses and long-held pain. Balancing that out is her beautiful love story with Lance, and her delightful sense of humour.
This will make you weep and make you laugh and make you want to read more books - and make you want to visit Ruth and her two wee bookshops.
'A fascinating, funny and moving story.' Nicky Pellegrino, New Zealand Woman's Weekly
'Shaw can write about these peaks and troughs [of her life] without a skerrick of maudlin introspection or mawkishness. Battered and emotionally bruised, she marches on. In a word, dauntless, and it's exactly this quality that makes this memoir so readable.' Chris Moore, NZ Listener