PERSONAL BOOK CONCIERGE
The bookstore conversation, without the bookstore.™
One very warm, very real conversation with a lifelong reader who really knows books. You walk away with a custom list of your next just-right reads to buy, borrow or download from.
Thirty Minutes With Sandy
✻
A List of Just-Right Reads
✻
Personal Book Concierge
✻
Yours To Keep, Always
✻
Thirty Minutes With Sandy ✻ A List of Just-Right Reads ✻ Personal Book Concierge ✻ Yours To Keep, Always ✻
MEET SANDY KOROPP
Your Personal Book Concierge
As a lifelong reader, opening my own bookstore was magical. What I miss the most is that moment when the customer's face lights up because I put exactly the right book in their hands. Usually it took a few tries by me with feedback by you, but that's the fun part!
I closed the store because I went back to practicing law part-time, but I never stopped reading, never stopped recommending, never stopped trading (strong) opinions with other readers.
What I do not miss is the cash register. In my store, after I chatted with a customer and made a book match (or five!) I knew (I could sense) that some folks preferred downloading, or the library — to buying another stack of reads. I myself read books the old-fashioned way, but I get it.
Bespoke Books is the best of both worlds. We chat, I search my brain for the best book suggestions based on our consult, I write up a list with plot summaries and why each is just right for you. Take it, keep it, download, borrow or buy — as you wish!
“Sandy has strong opinions about books, thank goodness. But she's not recommending books at you, or giving you the same ones you see everywhere. She's figuring out which ones are right for you based on your back and forth interaction together.”
Susan T.
HOW IT WORKS
Three steps, all of them custom.
01
We talk
Thirty minutes by phone or video call. What you loved, what you abandoned, what you're in the mood for right now.
02
I curate
I go looking. You get a book bundle with a note on each title — why it's right for you, right now.
03
You keep the list
Buy from the list, borrow, or download on Audible or Kindle — whatever feels right. I don’t sell the books; I find them for you.
What you get (it's more than a list).
Here's part of what Sandy sent Emily, a reader who: 1) is crazy busy with two teens and her own business; 2) craves great writing; and 3) likes to read the latest-greatest because she's quite social and likes to chat books. Every consult and custom book bundle is unique. Because, you know — it's bespoke. Tailored just for you.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1
Beth Brower · cozy fiction · 140 pp
Note the 140-page count! But know that there are eight of these wee, trim volumes, with the ninth on the way. They're buzzy right now, too. Beth Brower has penned a witty, warm-hearted fictional diary series based on the very spirited Emma, who returns to her family cottage in a corner of Victorian-era London and sets about reclaiming it from … well, you'll find out. Utterly charming and addicting. (Go ahead, buy the whole set — it's gorgeous.)
Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan · literary fiction · 128 pp
Have you MET Claire Keegan? She's perfect for you, as she's a critics' darling and her writing is deceptively (masterfully) short and simple. Here we meet a coal merchant in 1985 small-town Ireland who makes one quiet, enormous decision. Keegan's prose is as pure as it gets, and you can read the whole thing in an evening — the single best return on an hour I can give a busy reader. If it lands, Foster is next — I think I liked that one even better.
You Are Here
David Nicholls · literary fiction · 2024 · 352 pp
I'd bet cash money that you will really like David Nicholls — he's not new, but his characters and contemporary domestic settings will hit home, plus he has a great backlist. Loved this one: two quietly bruised forty-ish very new mates walk coast-to-coast across northern England and slowly fall into step. Nicholls writes small moments so beautifully, and here the moody British landscape is a third character. Just tops in my book, plus really — I laughed out loud at the banter.
Land
Maggie O'Farrell · literary fiction · 256 pp
Ireland, 1865, the decade after the Great Hunger: Tomás is a quiet local doing survey work for the British, turning Gaelic place names into English. Then he walks into a strange wooded copse, stumbles out babbling, quits, and blows the family savings on a ruined cottage nearby — he'll map the land as it eternally is instead. The decision scatters his family and we follow them for decades, each one more moving than the last. Gorgeous prose, as always — and even I, a good Scot of Clan MacGregor, felt Irish after this one.
A full bundle can run many pages and features a letter to each client summarizing Sandy's reading direction based on the consult. Then follows book suggestions with short plot summaries, and reflections on why each is right for the client, and a peek at what Sandy is reading next. Ask to see Emily's, in full.
Every bundle also says where to find the books, starting with your local bookshop. As a Bookshop.org affiliate, and an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Let’s Stay In Touch
Subscribe to my Newsletter
Join the newsletter for new book recommendations, behind-the-scenes stories, and subscriber-only offers.
SERVICES
Select Your Service
Choose the consult that fits the moment — for yourself, for your family, for a gift, or for your whole book club.
For one reader. Thirty minutes together, then a book bundle of just-right reads with a note on why each one is right for them, right now starting at $75. A longer consultation is also available for $150.
A book bundle for each reader in the house (up to four members), from the picture-book years up through parents and grands.
I work with your group to understand its personality, then curate a season of selections that spark real conversation — not the usual suspects everyone has already read. Reach out for custom pricing.
Need a gift for that reader
who's “read everything” ?
Your days of guessing which books to gift an avid reader are over! Give a One-on-One Book Consult and let Sandy do the sleuthing. Thirty minutes with Sandy and then voilà: your loved one gets a customized book list for their next stack of just-right reads.
This is truly gifting made easy: as the giver, you'll get a classy, customized gift certificate to share with the lucky reader in time for the occasion.
Their name, your name, and the occasion, hand-set
A shareable or print-ready PDF, ready on your timeline
No expiry date, and no deadline to book
“Just opened your recommendations. I have not read even one of these books. That both astonishes and delights me! My friends gave me this consult because they said I’ve read everything, so well done.” - Sally
For the reader who already has everything… except their next favorite book.
Give the gift of a one-on-one book consult. I’ll spend time learning what they love, then send a just-right list of reads they didn’t know to ask for. The list is theirs: buy, borrow, or download as they wish. Personal in a way that gift cards simply aren’t.
What Bespoke Books customers say:
Every one of these started with a 30-minute consult:
“Something Sandy said in the middle of our call stuck with me. She said she meets monthly with other big readers, so if she liked one and they don't, or vice versa, it rounds out her recommendations. It's not just her own opinion, so I think that's better.”
Lisa K.
“I was a little nervous about the Zoom, and about three minutes in we were both talking over each other. A lot of “I know, right?” was happening. I forgot it was a consultation.”
Kate D.
“What you get isn't a list, like bullet points. It's really a packet. I printed it to keep and marked it up, because she has quick plot summaries and number of pages for each suggestion, and the best is exactly why she picked each one just for me.”
Elizabeth P.
“My wife says I’m an eclectic reader … actually she says I read ‘all over the place’. Sandy persisted until she got me! There’s a bit of everything in here: sci-fi with flair and some brain-benders, Jean Shepherd-like essays, character-based nonfiction especially of chefs and musicians, new takes on American history and only the best sports narratives. Even Becoming Duchess Goldblatt, I can’t wait.”
Malcolm M.
“My own husband never bought a book from me at Prairie Path Books. He only reads on his iPad. Many of my favorite-ist clients were library only because they read constantly and it can be expensive. Plus they wanted the freedom to DNF (did not finish). Being a consultant with zero pressure to sell the books is as good as it gets. I’ve never been happier. Except I miss decorating the store for the seasons, and the smart curious people that walked through my door. You never knew who’d walk in! Hopefully they will find me here. I learn as much from them as they might from me.”
Sandy
“It's impossible to shop for books for my wife, but that's what she always wants. I can't keep up with what she's already read. The gift certificate for a consult was perfect.”
Marty K
“We built our kids’ libraries with books from Sandy’s store. Each one became a part of their childhood because they were relatable but often aspirational, often whimsical and funny but always full of heart. Forever keepsakes for us. And I gave many of her favorites as gifts at bridal showers. I loved that they were off the ‘beaten shelf,’ like no one at the party had heard of them but they all wrote them down after they were passed around.”
Shannon G.
“I mentioned three authors I liked. She had six recommendations before I finished my sentence.”
Margaret K.
FREE DOWNLOAD
See a real book bundle, free
See exactly what a consult produces. I'll send you a full book bundle I built for a recent client — the suggestions, with short plot summaries and the reasoning behind each one. It's the clearest picture of how this works. I’ll follow up to see what you think. Nothing else.
WHERE TO BUY
Visit Your Local Bookstore, or Visit The Online Storefronts Below
Go to your local bookstore first! Truly. Take the list in, hand it to a bookseller, and let yourself absorb all the bookish bonhomie while you're there. Gotta get ‘em online? Sometimes we all do — and IF you do, it would mean a great deal if you used the links in your bundle, or opened these easy apps to link your purchase to me.
Bookshop.org
For readers who want their money to stay with independent bookstores.
Bookshop sends a share of every sale to indie book businesses. Shipping is slower than Amazon, so it's the better choice for the books you're not in a hurry for.
How to use it
Open the Bookshop.org app or site.
Search for Bespoke Books by Sandy and select it as your shop.
Buy anything, anytime — your purchases stay credited to the shop until you change it.
Amazon
For the book you need tonight, or the one nobody else is carrying.
Fast, familiar, and sometimes the only source for a backlist title or a particular edition.
How to use it
Amazon has no “choose your shop” setting like Bookshop — if you want to support my shop with your book purchase you need to start with the link I’ve put here. So — you have to START with the link and not your usual Amazon cart. You’ll know you’re doing it right if you see the purple “SiteStripe”box in the upper left.
Tap the Amazon link below (I’ll include it in your bundle too, once we’ve had our consult), and then search for your recommended book.
Add to cart and check out as usual — same price, same Prime.
Let’s Find Your Next Read
Your next great read is just Thirty minutes away
Trust me — you’re going to love this. Consultations take place by phone or video call.
Set yours up by booking a service:
