Reading list for book club
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 March | Small Things Like These and Foster by Claire Keegan | Angela | Janeane | Fiction |
| 17 April | The Fraud by Zadie Smith | Jo | Chris C | Fiction |
| 15 May | The Midnight Library by Matt Haig | Trish S | Chris M | Fiction |
| 19 June | The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer | Marian V | Trish R | Non-fiction |
| 17 July | Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka | Bev | Marian V | Fiction |
| 21 August | Trust by Hernan Diaz | Belinda | Belinda | Fiction |
| 18 September | Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith | Sue | Belinda (was Trish S but she is ill) | Fiction |
| 16 October | American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard | Chris M | Judy | Non-fiction |
| 20 November | Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko | Judy | Jo | Fiction |
| 7 December | Christmas do | Saturday | TBA | Cost $TBA |
Off-piste - other ideas for 2024 reading that did not make the cut:
| Book | Recommended by | Notes | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks | Belinda | A novel about a tech billionaire altering the DNA of an IVF pregnancy | Fiction |
| Living with a Dead Language by Ann Parry | Amanda | About learning Latin as an adult | Non-fiction |
| Unfinished Woman by Robyn Davidson | Belinda | The author tries to come to terms with the effect of her mother’s suicide when she was eight | Non-fiction |
| Nine Quarters of Jerusalem by Matthew Teller | Jane | About the city | Non-fiction |
| A City with a River Problem by Margaret Cook | Elizabeth | About Brisbane floods | Non-fiction |
| On Our Best Behaviour by Elise Loehnen | Jane | About the price women pay to be ‘good’ | Non-fiction |
| Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton | a few people | Newest book | Fiction |
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 March | Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus | Janeane | Sue | Fiction |
| 19 April | Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris | Chris C | Ange | Fiction |
| 17 May | Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life by Brigitta Olubas | Belinda | TBA | Biography |
| 21 June | The Romantic by William Boyd | Marion B | Trish S | Fiction |
| 19 July | Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver | Bev | Amanda | Fiction |
| 23 August ~ | The Plague by Albert Camus | Belinda | Marian | Fiction |
| 20 September | Wifedom by Anna Funder | Sue | Bev | Fiction |
| 18 October | Tom Lake by Ann Patchett | Jane C | Janeane | Fiction |
| 15 November | Booth by Karen Joy Fowler | Trish S | Jo | Non-fiction |
| 2 December | Christmas do | Saturday | TBA | Cost $TBA |
~ Later week because of Ekka Public Holiday.
Off-piste - other ideas for 2023 reading that did not make the cut:
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 March | The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey | Bev | Judy | Fiction |
| 20 April | American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins | Ange | Chris C | Fiction |
| 18 May | Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty | Sue | Marian V | Fiction |
| 15 June | River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road by Cat Jarman | Amanda | Trish S | Non-fiction |
| 20 July | Fury by Kathryn Heyman | Trish S | Marion B | Memoir |
| 17 August | Leaping into Waterfalls: The enigmatic Gillian Mears by Bernadette Brennan | Gabrielle | Gabrielle | Biography |
| 21 September | The Magician by Colm Toibin | Belinda | Jo | Fiction |
| 19 October | Being Mortal by Atul Gawande | Janeane | Belinda | Non-fiction |
| 16 November | Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal | Marion B | Chris M | Non-fiction |
| 16 November | Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk | Judy | Chris M | Fiction |
| 3 December | Christmas do | Saturday | TBA | Cost $TBA |
Off-piste - other ideas for 2022 reading that did not make the cut:
| Book | Recommended by | Notes | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sister Stardust by Jane Green | Elizabeth | Fictional account of Talitha Getty - Francesca’s first project! | Fiction |
| The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles | Judy | New book from author of A Gentleman in Moscow | Fiction |
| Everyone knows your mother is a witch by Rifka Galchen | Chris C | Based on the real world witchcraft trial of Katharina Kepler, mother of astronomer Johannes Kepler | Fiction |
| The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking by Saifedean Ammous | Marion | All about bitcoin | Non-fiction |
| Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen | Jo | New book | Fiction |
| The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs by Marc David Baer | Belinda | History of the Ottoman empire | Non-fiction |
| The Origins of Sicily by Jamie Mackey | Belinda | History of Sicily from earliest times | Non-fiction |
| Devotion by Hannah Kent | ? | New book from author of Burial Rites | Fiction |
| Still Life by Sarah Winman | Jo | A story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood and the ghost of E. M. Forster | Fiction |
| Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr | Jo | New book from author of All the light we cannot see | Fiction |
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 March | The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre | Belinda | Angela | Fiction |
| 21 April | Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld | Marian V | Belinda | Fiction |
| 19 May | Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell | Bev | Elizabeth | Fiction |
| 16 June | Becoming Beauvoir by Kate Kirkpatrick | Elizabeth | Jo | Non-fiction |
| 21 July | All our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton | Sue | Trish R | Fiction |
| 18 August | Enid: the scandalous life of a glamorous Australian who dazzled the world by Robert Wainwright | Gabrielle | Chris M | Biography |
| 15 September | Apeirogon by Colum McCann | Trish S | Judy | Fiction |
| 20 October | Monogamy by Sue Miller | Jo | Janeane | Fiction |
| 17 November | The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams | TBD | Marian V | Non-fiction |
| 4 December | Christmas Lunch | Saturday | Moreton Club | Cost $TBA |
Off-piste - other ideas for 2021 reading that did not make the cut:
| Book | Recommended by | Notes | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sandpit by Nicholas Shakespeare | Belinda | Quasi-sequel to The Dancer Upstairs and a cracking mystery | Fiction |
| Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler | Trish S, Belinda | Genuinely wry and amusing | Fiction |
| Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart | Trish S | “2020 Booker prize winner and a harrowing read superbly written, could only have been written by someone with firsthand experience of alcoholism and apparently it is autobiographical” | Fiction |
| Box 88 by Charles Cumming | Trish S | “With an endorsement by Mike Herron has to be good” | Fiction |
| A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane by Samanth Subramanian | Christine M | Biography of Haldane - have linked to ABC podcast about it | Biography |
| With my Little Eye by Sandra Hogan | Belinda | About a family of kids raised by ASIO spies | Biography |
| Trio by William Boyd | Belinda | Set on a film set in the 60s in Brighton, this is about three people figuring out if life is worth living | Fiction |
| Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel | Belinda | Reviews and writings from many years | Non-fiction |
| Face it by Debbie Harry | Belinda | Autobiography from Blondie lead singer | Biography |
| Mx Libris: 100+ books to read and re-read by Michiko Katutani | Belinda | One of those lists books | Non-fiction |
| The cold millions by Jess Walter | Belinda | this got a really good rap in the Readings/Gleebooks list - a US depression era story | Fiction |
| Unquiet by Linn Ullman | Belinda | About Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman’s complicated relationship | Non-fiction |
| Son of the brush by Tim Olsen | Belinda | The son of John Olsen and this is about all his travails … | Non-fiction |
| An unconventional wife by Mary Hoban | Belinda | The life of Julia Sorell Arnold, a colonial belle of the 19th century on Hobart | Biography |
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 March | Educated by Tara Westover | Janeane | Jo | Memoir |
| 15 April | The Return by Hisham Matar | Elizabeth | Trish R | Memoir |
| 20 May | Last Boat out of Shanghai by Helen Zia | Jo | Belinda | History |
| 17 June | No book | n/a | Christine M | Fiction |
| 15 July | Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann | Chris C | Amanda | History |
| 19 Aug | The Children’s House by Alice Nelson | Amanda | Bev | Fiction |
| 16 Sept | Maus by Art Spiegelman + Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast | Trish S | Chris C | Graphic works |
| 21 Oct | The Anarchy by William Dalrymple | Christine M | Janeane | History |
| 18 Nov | Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens | Sue | Marian V | Fiction |
| 5 Dec | Christmas Party at Angela’s | This is a Saturday night | Angela | Cost TBD |
Off-piste - other ideas for 2020 reading that did not make the cut:
| Book | Author | Proposed by | Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsheltered | Barbara Kingsolver | Belinda | An Amazon Best Book of October 2018. |
| The Secret Scripture | Sebastian Barry | Belinda, Angela, Gabrielle | Beautifully written. Best book of 2019 for Belinda. |
| The Undoing Project | Michael Lewis | Janeane | A book about the origins of psychology. |
| Stalingrad | Vassily Grossman | Gabrielle | A work of fiction along the lines of a modern day War and Peace. |
| The Weekend | Charlotte Wood | Sue | A novel about three women in their sixties who are clearing out the house of a friend who has died. |
| Bruny | Heather Rose | Janeane? | Dystopian novel set in the future in Tassie. |
| The Bass Rock | Evie Wyld | Belinda | Evie Wyld won the Miles Franklin for an earlier book All the Birds, Singing. |
| Three Women | Lisa Taddeo | Gabrielle | An extraordinary offering, according to Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. |
| The Sixteen Trees of the Somme | Lars Mytting | Belinda | A novel about the unravelling of a mystery about the deaths of the main character’s parents. |
| Evicted | Matthew Desmond | Marion B? | Offers a dark mirror of middle-class America’s obsession with real estate, laying bare the workings of the low end of the market, where evictions have become just another part of an often lucrative business model. |
| The Dutch House | Ann Patchett | Sue | The Dutch House is the story of a ‘modern family’, as this was the era when families started to become fractured and step-parents and step-siblings became more prevalent. |
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 March | Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton | Sue | Judy | F |
| NOTE CHANGED DATE: 10 April | The Feather Thief: The Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson | Elizabeth | Trish R | NF |
| 15 May | Books That Saved My Life: Reading for Wisdom, Solace and Pleasure by Michael McGirr | Janeane | Jane | NF |
| 19 June | Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie | Trish S | Bev | F |
| 17 July | The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray | Marion B | Gabrielle | NF |
| 21 Aug | A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur by Gayatri Devi | Judy | Amanda | NF |
| 18 Sept | Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday | Bev | Belinda | F |
| 16 Oct | Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak | Angela | Gabrielle | F |
| 20 Nov | Warlight by Michael Ondaatje | Belinda | Christine M | F |
| 14 Dec | Christmas Party at Enoteca | Booker: Elizabeth | This is a Saturday night | $105 per head |
Off-piste - some other ideas for 2019 reading:
| Date | Book | Reviewer | Host | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 March | The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry | Janeane | Marion B | NF |
| 18 April | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari | Christine M | Jo | NF |
| 16 May | Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone by Martin Dugard | Elizabeth | Marian V | NF |
| 20 June | The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art by Sebastian Smee | Judy | Belinda | NF |
| 18 July | Days Without End by Sebastian Barry | Belinda | Trish S | F |
| 22 Aug | Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks | Christine C | Amanda | NF |
| 19 Sept | Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders | Trish S | Judy | F |
| 17 Oct | Darktown by Thomas Mullen | Angela | Angela | F |
| 21 Nov | The Unfinished Palazzo: Life, Love and Art in Venice: The Stories of Luisa Casati, Doris Castlerosse and Peggy Guggenheim by Judith Mackrell | Bev | Janeane | NF |
| 8 Dec | Christmas Party at Enoteca | Booker: Elizabeth | This is a Saturday night | Put it in the diary |