Setting up a reading group
Find out how to set up a reading group with Suffolk Libraries.
Set up a reading group
Recommendations
Book Club Favourites #33
by Brandon King
Looking for inspiration for your book club? Take a look at our recommended titles, perfect for reading groups!
Find more book club recommendations.
The Stray Cats of Homs, by Eva Nour
Sami's childhood is much like any other - an innocent blend of family and school, of friends and relations and pets (including stray cats and dogs, and the turtle he keeps on the roof). But growing up in one of the largest cities in Syria, with his country at war with itself, means that nothing is really normal. And Sami's hopes for a better future are ripped away when he is conscripted into the military and forced to train as a map maker. Sami may be shielded from the worst horrors of the war, but it will still be impossible to avoid his own nightmare.
Borrow The Stray Cats of Homs rarr;
The Library, by Bella Osborne
Tom is a teenager and blends into the background of life. After a row with his dad, and facing an unhappy future at the dog food factory, he escapes to the library. Tom unwittingly ends up with a bagful of romance novels and comes under the suspicion of Maggie. Maggie is a pensioner and has been happily alone for ten years, at least that's what she tells herself. When Tom comes to her rescue a friendship develops that could change her life. As Maggie helps Tom to stand up for himself, Tom helps Maggie realise the mistakes of her past don't have to define her future. They each set out to prove that the library isn't just about books - it's the heart of their community. Together they discover some things are worth fighting for.
The Second Woman, by Charlotte Philby
Two women are found dead. Both had a secret. Both had a choice. Artemis leaves the remote Greek island she grew up on to start a shiny new life in 1990s London with her British husband, a successful entrepreneur. Finally, she has escaped the ghosts of her past. Until she is found hanging from the stairs of her beautiful family home. Two decades later, the apparent suicide of an heiress uncannily mirrors Artemis' mysterious death. And when the ensuing investigation uncovers links to a criminal cartel, National Crime Agency officer Madeleine Farrow begins to pull apart the web of deceit surrounding the two women.
Conversations With Friends, by Sally Rooney
Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student in Dublin and aspiring writer, she works at a literary agency by day. At night, she performs spoken word with her best friend Bobbi, who used to be her girlfriend. When they are profiled by Melissa, a well-known journalist, they enter an exotic orbit of beautiful houses, raucous dinner parties and holidays in Provence. Initially unimpressed, Frances finds herself embroiled in a risky ménage a quatre when she begins an affair with Nick, Melissa's actor husband. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new - a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.
Borrow Conversations With Friends →
Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane
Gillam, upstate New York: a town of ordinary, big-lawned suburban houses. The Gleesons have recently moved there and soon welcome the Stanhopes as their new neighbours. Lonely Lena Gleeson wants a friend but Anne Stanhope - cold, elegant, unstable - wants to be left alone. It's left to their children - Lena's youngest, Kate, and Anne's only child, Peter - to find their way to one another. To form a friendship whose resilience and love will be almost broken by the fault line dividing both families, and by the terrible tragedy that will engulf them all. A tragedy whose true origins only become clear many years later.
The Memory Box, by Kathryn Hughes
Jenny Tanner opens the box she has cherished for decades. Contained within are her most precious mementoes, amongst them a pebble, a carving and a newspaper cutting she can hardly bear to read. But Jenny knows the time is finally here. After the war, in a mountainside village in Italy, she left behind a piece of her heart. However painful, she must return to Cinque Alberi. And lay the past to rest. After a troubled upbringing, Candice Barnes dreams of a future with the love of her life - but is he the man she believes him to be? When Candice is given the opportunity to travel to Italy with Jenny, she is unaware the trip will open her eyes to the truth she's been too afraid to face. Could a place of goodbyes help her make a brave new beginning?
The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah
Texas, 1934. Elsa Martinelli had finally found the life she'd yearned for. A family, a home and a livelihood on a farm on the Great Plains. But when drought threatens all she and her community hold dear, Elsa's world is shattered to the winds. Fearful of the future, when Elsa wakes to find her husband has fled, she is forced to make the most agonizing decision of her life. Fight for the land she loves or take her beloved children, Loreda and Ant, west to California in search of a better life. Will it be the land of milk and honey? Or will their experience challenge every ounce of strength they possess?
The Trust, by M.H. Eccleston
A stately home. A grisly murder. A list of suspects. Can you trust the Trust? When a local man is found murdered in a National Trust stately home, the community is shaken to its core. None more so than newcomer Astrid Swift, who finds the body. When she moved from London to the sleepy Dorset village and got a job at the house as an art restorer, she thought she was heading for a quieter life. Far from it. Because it turns out that rather than being the genteel organisation it seems on the surface, the Trust is a hotbed of politics and intrigue. As the suspicious deaths mount up and the threat draws closer, Astrid must use every gadget in her restorer's toolkit to solve the mystery, save her reputation - and maybe even her life.
The Wedding Dress Maker, by Leah Fleming
Yorkshire, 1945: Netta Nichol lives in the shadow of a terrible disgrace. After bearing a son out of wedlock, Netta was banished from her beloved Galloway to a Yorkshire mill town. She must stand aside as her son is raised by family back home. Bereft and broken-hearted, Netta finds solace in the quiet pleasure of sewing. Despite the shortages of wartime, she becomes known for her beautiful wedding dresses, made with ingenuity and skill. With the help of her dressmaking, Netta begins to win back her self-respect. But will it be enough to claim back her child?
Borrow The Wedding Dress Maker →
Before the Storm, by Alex Gray
Inspector Daniel Kohi of the Zimbabwean police force returns home one night to find his worst nightmare has been realised. His family dead, his house destroyed, and in fear for his life, he is forced to flee. Far away in Glasgow, DSI William Lorimer has his hands full. Christmas is approaching, the city is bustling, and whilst the homicide rate has been relatively low, something much darker is brewing. Counter-Terrorism have got wind of a plot to carry out an unspeakable atrocity on Christmas Eve. The investigation is complicated by a spate of local murders, and by the rumours that someone is passing information to criminal organisations from inside the police force. Soon Lorimer finds himself in desperate need of assistance. Then he meets an extraordinary man - a refugee from Zimbabwe whose investigative skills are a match for Lorimer's own.
The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman, by Julietta Henderson
What do you get when you cross a painfully awkward son, lofty comedic ambition and a dead best friend? Norman. Norman and Jax were a legendary comedic duo in waiting. They had a plan to take them all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe in just 5 years' time. But when Jax dies before they turn twelve, Norman decides a tribute act for his best friend just can't wait - so he rewrites their plan: 1. Look after mum 2. Find Dad 3. Get to the Edinburgh Fringe. Sadie won't win a mother of the year award anytime soon and not knowing exactly who her son's father is isn't topping her list of achievements. But if performing at the Fringe and finding his dad is what will help Norman through, they're going to make it happen.
Borrow The Funny Thing About Normal Foreman →
The Bermondsey Bookshop, by Mary Gibson
Set in 1920s London, this is the inspiring story of Kate Goss's struggle against poverty, hunger and cruel family secrets. Her mother died in a fall, her father has vanished without trace, and now her aunt and cousins treat her viciously. In a freezing, vermin-infested garret, factory girl Kate has only her own brave spirit and dreams of finding her father to keep her going. She has barely enough money to feed herself, or to pay the rent. The factory where she works begins to lay off people and it isn't long before she has fallen into the hands of the violent local money-lender. That is until an unexpected opportunity comes her way - a job cleaning a most unusual bookshop, where anyone, from factory workers to dockers, can learn to read and then buy books cheaply. A new world opens up, but with it come new dangers, too.
Borrow The Berdmondsey Bookshop →
Diary of an MP's Wife: Inside and Outside Power, by Sasha Swire
What is it like to be a wife of a politician in modern-day Britain? Sasha Swire finally lifts the lid. For over two decades she has kept a secret diary detailing the trials and tribulations of being a political plus-one; the travel, the security, the challenges to family life and the unpredictable events. A professional partner, as well as a life partner, and one with strong political opinions herself, she detonates the image of the dutiful stereotype. Swire gives us a ringside seat through the great political events of the decade, from the election of David Cameron and the forming of a coalition, three general elections, to the referendum and the turmoil of Brexit. She speaks candidly about the key players, at work and in repose. It is a searingly honest, wildly indiscreet and often humorous account of what life is like inside the Westminster hot house.