Riddell, Shona (2020) Guiding Lights: The Extraordinary Lives of Lighthouse Women. Exisle. Women have a long history of keeping the lights burning, yet their stories are generally not well-known. Lighthouses are a beacon of fascination for many, including me, and it is the intrepid and the brave keepers of the light that are the inspiration… Continue reading August Picks
Category: Popular reads
July Picks
Williams, Pip (2021) The Dictionary of Lost Words. Affirm Press. This is a book about words, based on the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, exploring how word meanings differ in importance for men and women. In 1901 the word 'bondmaid' was discovered to be missing from the OED and in this novel it is the fictional central… Continue reading July Picks
June Picks
Shipstead, Maggie (2021) Great Circle. Doubleday. From the moment the infant Marian Graves (and her twin) are rescued from a sinking ship, until she flies a great circle around the globe, polar cap to polar cap, Marian's life is one big momentous adventure. For she is a woman who will not allow her gender to… Continue reading June Picks
May Picks
Finlay, Alex (2021) Every Last Fear. Minotaur Books. The suspicious deaths of his parents and young siblings, whilst holidaying in Mexico, brings Matt Pine to the attention of the FBI and once again propels him into the media spotlight. For a true-crime documentary has made his family infamous in their fight against the wrongful conviction… Continue reading May Picks
April Picks
Johnson, Stephanie (2021) Everything Changes. Vintage. Buying a rundown motel and tearooms to establish an off-grid retreat, in Northland's Brynderwyn Hills, seems like a chance to start again for Collette, husband Davie, pregnant daughter Liv, and their disreputable dog Muzza. As this dysfunctional family starts to renovate their new home, with the help of Choir,… Continue reading April Picks
March Picks
Gardner, Lisa (2020) Before She Disappeared. Century. Itinerant recovering alcoholic, Frankie Elkin, makes it her life's mission to find missing people once the police have given up. Her new case brings her to Mattapan in Boston where she begins searching for a lost Haitian teenager. Frankie’s search puts her in danger as she encounters gangs,… Continue reading March Picks
February Picks
Haig, Matt (2020) The Midnight Library. Canongate. Nora's life is full of misery and regret. She decides she wants to die. But between life and death there is a library - the Midnight Library. Nora finds herself in the Midnight Library where she is presented with numerous books to try out other lives - to… Continue reading February Picks
January Picks
Case, Anne & Angus Deaton (2020) Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton UP. In the US in the past two decades deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism have risen, especially amongst those who lack bachelor’s degrees. Case and Deaton shed some light on the economic and social forces that… Continue reading January Picks
December Picks
Eriksson, Kjell (2020) The Night of the Fire. Minotaur Books. Veteran detective, Ann Lindell, has retired from the Violent Crimes Unit and is now making artisan cheeses in a small town in Uppland, Sweden. When someone sets fire to the former village school, and later a bomb explodes in a Stockholm suburb, Ann's well-honed investigative… Continue reading December Picks
November Picks
Hammer, Chris (2020) Trust. Allen & Unwin. Martin Scarsden and his partner Mandalay Blonde's idyllic family life is shattered when Mandy's past comes back to haunt her. Her troubles start when she is kidnapped but it is when the body of her former fiancé is found that the story really kicks off, unfolding in contemporary… Continue reading November Picks
7:30 Bookclub 