Yes we are five this year and to celebrate, we will be having lots of fun things for you to do on the site during the month of July which is our birthday month!

Stay tuned for more details!

NB:  Please note that during this month, registration is closed on the forum.  If you have been referred by an existing member, please contact us by using the contact form here on the blog.

Book Addicts 5th Birthday – July 2010 is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

We are working approximately a month to two months ahead, suggestions can be made throughout the year and we are looking for volunteer hosts only as far as a few weeks ahead.  We are currently working on the groups for February as per the above post, and looking for suggestions for March and that’s it.  Amazing huh?

So far so good and people seem to like this though for my well ordered and categorised, everything planned in advance brain, I am freaking out a little, even though it was my idea.  Perhaps I have a split personality, something to mull over.  Meanwhile it does feel more interactive and people are getting more involved.  I think it gives the whole group a feeling of immediacy as people are suggesting and voting for books that they want to read next week rather than in six months time.

Fingers crossed for the rest of the year!

Book Addict Book Group Schedule 2010 is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

There really is no other option to preserve sanity than curling up in bed with a good book, so that’s what most of us have been doing.

This month we kicked off the 2010 Book Group with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, who by the way is a tragic loss to the world of crime fiction.  The group was competently and entertainingly hosted by bluzkat, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves – thanks bluzkat!

The current read for the remainder of January is Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, and hosted by the lovely Ginger, who is taking us on a wild journey through the Cornish landscape with Mary Yellen.  We’ve only just started discussing this book so there is still plenty of time to join us.

Coming up in February we will have another two books to discuss.  The polls are still open for another week if you want to vote for your favourite.  The books that are in the running are:

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantell (Historical Fiction, Henry VIII)

Scar Tissue – Anthony Kiedis (biography of Red Hot Chilli Peppers frontman)

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (Modern Classic)

The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson (Crime fiction)

19 Minutes – Jodi Picoult (Modern Fiction)

The Enchantress of Florence – Salman Rushdie (Modern Fiction)

Vagabond (Grail Quest #1) – Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction)

Existing members can join the Book Group via their profiles.  If you are not yet a forum member you can register by clicking on the forum link at the top of the page.

Our Paranormal Social Club picks for January are Beneath the Skin by Adrian Phoenix (Maker’s Song #3) and Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick as previously advised.  We have been a bit slow in kicking off these groups due to some problems getting hold of the Adrian Phoenix book in the UK.  The book was showing the same publication date for both US and UK but despite that, there have been some delays which have meant that instead of the group starting on 4th of January we have decided to wait until everyone has had a chance to read the book!

The PSC book for February is still being decided, so if you have any suggestions as to what urban fantasy or paranormal romance we should read, then please post your suggestions in the thread.

Buy the books and support the site:

One more thing… I nearly forgot to mention that the replacement for the Richard and Judy Book Club (UK) launched last Sunday evening at 7.30pm on More 4 and is repeated on Monday lunchtimes on Channel 4.  It’s run by the same people as the defunct R & J book club and the same people are selecting the books, so if popularity is based on the book selection alone and not the popularly of the presenters then it shouldn’t matter who’s spearheading it and it should be successful.  However I have a sneaking suspicion the popularity of the books was generated mainly by the influence that Richard and Judy held over the British public so I don’t have high hopes for this new TV Book Club.  Don’t get me wrong, I hope it does succeed because I’m all for generating interest in reading books and overall getting more people to put down the playstation and pick up an actual book and read something that isn’t a few lines of text on a website, but judging by the first show, I don’t think it’s a go-er in it’s current format.

The main problem is the presenters – who are they and why are they telling us what to read, and more importantly why should we care?  Jo Brand has done a lot of promotion for literacy and encouraging children especially to read, but the others?  Dave Spikey was introduced as the comedy element or there for comedy value but Jo Brand is also a comedian.  Perhaps they forgot.  Gok Wan was one of the most interesting and vocal of the presenters and is obviously under contract to Channel 4, and I like him a lot but I want to know why he was chosen, same as with the others.  Do they read a lot?  Did they really read the actual books?  Nathaniel Parker I absolutely love and TV will not be the same without Inspector Lynley – which is incidentally based on a series of books by Elizabeth George – but again, why him and also he was a little bit quiet, or more talked over by Gok et al.  By far the most interesting person to speak on the show was Chris Evans (who I don’t even like) who was there to promote his new biography It’s not what you think.  Quite honestly after listening to him talking about it I am actually considering reading it!  Well done Chris!

They had a taped interview with Cecelia Aherne talking about how the “book club” influenced her reading choices and how some of her favourites were from “the book club” with no reference whatsoever to it being the Richard and Judy Book Club and not this new one.  The featured book before I forget, was Sarah Waters – The Little Stranger, so we had another taped interview with her talking about the book and how there were no lesbians in this one unless you possibly count the male doctor or the house, both of which are obviously lesbians in disguise.  So bad luck anyone who was planning to play spot the lesbian because there isn’t one!  So I think that was about it.  It will be interesting to see how it develops and whether the presenters get better and get more confident in their new roles.  What?  What do you mean there were five presenters?  Really?

*pretends to check notes*

oh yeah there was some chick in a red dress who smiled a lot and laughed a few times.  Been in some crap show and some dancing show but I don’t want that crap so why bother mentioning her.  I predict now that the panel will lose a few people along the way – sooner rather than later please – and they may well be replaced by some other B list celeb but I think it would run better with less people and more actual discussion, headed up by Jo Brand and maybe Gok Wan if he has time.  I need to see more from the other three before commenting further.

January and February is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Click here to buy the book and support the book group

We will be discussing The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.

In 1932, two North Carolina teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love. Spending one idyllic summer together in the small town of New Bern, Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson do not meet again for 14 years. Noah has returned from WWII to restore the house of his dreams, having inherited a large sum of money. Allie, programmed by family and the “caste system of the South” to marry an ambitious, prosperous man, has become engaged to powerful attorney Lon Hammond. When she reads a newspaper story about Noah’s restoration project, she shows up on his porch step, re-entering his life for two days. Will Allie leave Lon for Noah?

If you’re in the mood for a sentimental but charming love story, then please grab the kleenex and join us to discuss this book and the movie!

This group is hosted by Forgotten.  Please visit the forum to join in this discussion.

Click here to buy the book and support the book group

In the PSC we will be discussing On the Edge by Ilona Andrews, author of the Kate Daniels series.  This book is the first in a brand new series.

The Broken is a place where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is nothing more than a fairy tale.

The Weird is a realm where blueblood aristocrats rule and the strength of your magic can change your destiny.

Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, the place between both worlds. A perilous existence indeed, made even more so by a flood of magic-hungry creatures bent on absolute destruction.

Click here to buy the book and support the book group

The second book we are aiming to do this month, time permitting, is Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong.

Smart, sexy, supernatural—the men and women of the Otherworld live and love, fight and die, among us. Unseen and unsuspected, this realm of witches, ghosts, and werewolves is now threatened with exposure by a brutal series of bizarre murders that has left even the supernatural world baffled—and cold with terror….

Being the world’s only female werewolf has its advantages, such as having her pick of the Otherworld’s most desirable males. And Elena Michaels couldn’t have picked a more dangerously sexy and undyingly loyal mate than Clayton Danvers. Now their bond will be put to the ultimate test as they follow a bloody trail of gruesome slayings deep into Alaska’s frozen wilderness.

And I particularly liked the following quote:

“Don’t go giving all the credit to the recent Twilight phenomenon…. Long before American author Stephenie Meyer came on the scene — four years before to be precise — Canadian fantasy novelist Kelley Armstrong began paving the way with Women of the Underworld….”
— Winnipeg Free Press

Looking ahead to January:  We will be reading and discussing Beneath the Skin by Adrian Phoenix.  This is book three in the Makers Song series so make sure you catch up with this series and we’ll see you in January!

December Book Addicts News is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

I heard this last night on the radio when I went food shopping.   

If I had a Borders in my local town then I would be in it every day.  Unfortunately the nearest one is over 50 miles away but when I am in Glasgow, I go there and I buy books. I love the Starbucks there, I love to sit there surrounded by books while I drink my coffee and decide what I’m going to buy.   This btw is the only Starbucks I use too.  I just don’t get up to Glasgow very often at the moment.

The Glasgow Borders is the busiest Borders in the world:

and it is always full of people!  I really hope they find a way to keep it open and running as a bookshop.  That would be one less reason for me to go to Glasgow if it closed.  They do sell other things like magazines and CDs and DVDs but they have 5 floors of books!!! If I had the money I would buy it!  Maybe the cartoon has a point though…

Cartoon from The Guardian 25 Nov 2009

When they announced the internet dating site, I had a good old laugh at that.  It smacked of desperation not ingenious marketing, and I did wonder then if there was trouble afoot.  I don’t mind the magazines and the stationery supplies, after all magazines are just a different form of reading material and well you need something to wrap up your book present in don’t you.  CDs and DVDs I never buy in Borders so for that’s a whole floor you could use for something else right there.  My other issue with my “local” is that the childrens books are on the top floor.  If you’re shopping with children who wants to drag them up several flights of stair, escalators or wait an interminably long time for the slow as death lift to arrive?  Not me.  Get rid of the CDs/DVDs, move the childrens books to the basement where the CDs/DVDs used to be, and try incorporating some kind of childrens story time on the weekends.

I know it’s difficult to compete with an international giant like Amazon but Borders UK might have had more luck if they hadn’t been ditched by the parent company and left to fend for themselves!

But perhaps people are just not buying books anymore?  There does certainly seem to be a decline in reading and with it literacy skills and maybe even intelligence?  How much do you truly learn by pressing a few buttons on a game console or getting to another level of X or Y game?  How much imagination does it take when it’s all nicely laid out on the screen in front of you?  Instant gratification is the name of the game here (no pun intended) Books do not provide that, you have to use your imagination, you have to read, you have to think for yourself.  The closest thing to instant gratification a book can provide is with audiobooks.  There you don’t even have to read the book yourself, you get to listen to someone else read it, but at least it’s still a book!  You can listen to audiobooks when you commute or at other times when you don’t need your ears and use that time to “read” all the books you don’t otherwise have time to read, and get yourself more educated, and even thinner, in the process.  (See post about Stephen Fry walking to audiobooks and losing 5 stone!)

But of course that raises another point doesn’t it.  The time it takes to read a book.  Yes like I said no instant gratification here mate.  Reading is “work” (compared to staring at a TV screen or watching a movie) but if you find the right kind of book for you, one that captures your imagination, one that you just can not put down because it is so gripping, then you will find that you will fly through it in no time at all.  The more you read the better reader you will become.  You may not become a speed reader (who would want to?) but you will get faster, you will understand more, and reading will become a necessary part of your daily life.

Get reading, join a book group – ours is very good btw – encourage your children to read and think twice before buying them “instant gratification” toys.  Save our bookshops because what’s going to be next to go, our libraries?  Will publishers stop publishing or stop paying authors?  Will authors be forced to find alternative employment?
But then if a charity bookshop selling cheap secondhand books can’t stay open…

The Ayrshire Post 25, Sep 2009

This was a great charity bookshop, lots of books, lots of cheap books, and staffed by volunteers and they still couldn’t stay open. 

Borders in administration!!! is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

May – Dracula Month

	Dracula – Bram Stoker
	Hosted by: Ellie Start Date: Fri 1st May 2009 Sign-up here
	When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned shipis wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the ‘Master’ and his imminent arrival. In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. Book Discussion Here

	Fevre Dream – George RR Martin
	Hosted by: Nabs Start Date: 13th May 2009 Sign-up here
	Abner Marsh has had his wish come true – he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his dreams. Joshua York put up the money for the Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about his the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in it’s a wake one too many dark tales, forcing Abner to face down the man who made his dreams become reality. Book Discussion Here

	The Vampire Lestat – Anne Rice
	Co-Hosted by: Kittystyles & LizSara Start Date: 20th May 2009 Sign-up here
	Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now Lestat is a rockstar in the demonic, shimmering 1980s. He rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his terrifying existence. His story, the second volume in Anne Rice’s best-selling Vampire Chronicles, is mesmerizing, passionate, and thrilling. Book Discussion Here

	Enchantment – Orson Scott Card
	Hosted by: Jerseygirl Start Date: Mon 1st June 2009 Sign-up here
	The moment young Ivan stumbled upon a clearing in the dense Carpathian forest, his life was forever changed. Atop a pedestal encircled by fallen leaves, the beautiful princess Katerina lay as still as death–while a malevolent presence stirred in the hidden depths below. Now, years later, Ivan is compelled to return. He finds the clearing just as he left it. This time he does not run . . . Book Discussion Here

	Grimm’s Grimmest
	Hosted by: Snapesgirl Start Date: Mon 8th June 2009
	Murder, kidnapping, cruel and unusual punishment, violent revenge—these are not the bedtime stories mummy used to read. Newly reissued with a fresh cover, Grimm’s Grimmest presents nineteen original, unsanitized, wholly unholy tales as they were first collected by the Brothers Grimm circa 1822—all fiendishly illustrated. The tales harken back to a time when travelers risked roasting or worse, and bad manners yielded frightful consequences. An insightful introduction makes sense of the mayhem, shedding light on how the Grimm brothers went from macabre to mainstream in fairly short order. From the true horror of Aschenputtel (the original Cinderella story) to Rapunzel’s dark secret, Grimm’s Grimmest features the authentic stories born long ago in the land of the Black Forest, at a time when fairy tales never ended happily ever after. Book Discussion Here

	The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
	Hosted by: Ellie Start Date: Mon 15th June 2009 Sign-up here
	From familiar fairy tales and legends – Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves – Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories. They include “The Company of Wolves”, on which the prize-winning film of the same name was based. Carter relates traditional fairy tales through her own unique perspective. The mind of the modern feminist unravels the mysteries of the subconscious and its related symbolism. Book Discussion Here

Book Group May and June 2009 is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

May Book: Dead and Gone – Charlaine Harris

Your Host for this discussion is : Jerseygirl
Start Date: May until we finish
Other Info: book nine in the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire/True Blood series 
Publication Date:  5th May US and 18th June UK (yeah right, I’m ordering from the US)

Synopsis: A new Sookie Stackhouse book is always a treat! Sookie is a sexy, sassy cocktail waitress who works at Merlotte’s Bar in Bon Temps, Louisiana. She’s just a regular gal, with all the normal hopes and fears, about dating, boys and life in general – oh, and she’s telepathic. And her boyfriends have included Vampire Bill, her first love and the were-tiger Quinn. And Bon Temps is a pretty normal rural town, where murders are mercifully rare. Well, maybe not that rare, as Sookie keeps finding out in this award-winning, New York Times bestselling series! And now Sookie’s come to the small screen in TRUE BLOOD, ‘the fall’s weirdest and most compelling show’ (ROLLING STONE), created by Alan Ball (SIX FEET UNDER) and starring Anna Paquin as the irrepressible heroine. Yup that’s all the synopsis I have right now lol So here’s a link to the first chapter

Sign-up Process:

To sign up for this discussion please post in this thread and when we are ready and everyone has the book, we’ll get started.  The discussion will be very informal.

As usual if you are not a member of the Book Addicts Book Group, the above forum link will not work for you

Paranormal Social Club – May 2009 is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

Here is the Book Group schedule for Jan-Mar this year.  You can see the full schedule by visiting the forum.

January Book Groups

Interview with a Vampire – Anne Rice

Hosted by: BW Start Date: Mon 12th Jan 2009 Sign-up here

In a darkened room a young man sits telling the macabre and eerie story of his life – the story of a vampire, gifted with eternal life, cursed with an exquisite craving for human blood. Anne Rice’s compulsively readable novel is arguably the most celebrated work of vampire fiction since Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published in 1897. As the Washington Post said on its first publication, it is a ‘thrilling, strikingly original work of the imagination …sometimes horrible, sometimes beautiful, always unforgettable’.

Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie

Hosted by: Thea Start Date: Thurs 22nd Jan 2009 Sign-up here

The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything — until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems!

February – Book-to-Movie Month

The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

Hosted by: Ysoeye Start Date: Mon 2nd Feb 2009 Signup Here

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the cover of night. A spectacular popular and critical success, “The Name of the Rose” is not only a narrative of a murder investigation but an astonishing chronicle of the Middle Ages.

I Am Legend – Richard Matheson

Hosted by: Nabs Start Date: Mon 9th Feb 2009 Signup Here

Robert Neville is the last living man on earth … but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood. By day he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive like this? One of the most influential “vampire” novels of the 20C. This book has been made into three movies – The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – Patrick Suskind

Hosted by: Forgotten Start Date: Mon 16th Feb 2009 Signup Here

Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human’s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill.

March – WWII Germany Fiction Month

Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky

Hosted by: Ellie Start Date: Mon 2nd March 2009 Signup Here

In 1941, Irene Nemirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through, not in terms of battles and politicians, but by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. She did not live to see her ambition fulfilled, or to know that sixty-five years later, “Suite Francaise” would be published for the first time, and hailed as a masterpiece. Set during a year that begins with France’s fall to the Nazis in June 1940 and ends with Germany turning its attention to Russia, “Suite Francaise” falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion and make their way through the chaos of France; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation who find themselves thrown together in ways they never expected. Nemirovsky’s brilliance as a writer lay in her portrayal of people, and this is a novel that teems with wonderful characters, each more vivid than the next. Haughty aristocrats, bourgeois bankers and snobbish aesthetes rub shoulders with uncouth workers and bolshy farmers. Women variously resist or succumb to the charms of German soldiers. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places.

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Hosted by: Forgotten Start Date: Mon 9th March 2009 Signup Here

1939 – Nazi Germany – The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. Some important information – this novel is narrated by death. It’s a small story, about: a girl; an accordionist; some fanatical Germans; a Jewish fist fighter; and quite a lot of thievery.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne

Hosted by: Ginger Start Date: Mon 16th March 2009 Signup Here

Lines may divide us, but hope will unite us …Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. Bruno’s friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation. And in exploring what he is unwittingly a part of, he will inevitably become subsumed by the terrible process.

Please note you must be a member of the forum and logged in to be able to visit the signup links above.

Paranormal Social Club – Book Discussions *reminder*

January – Veil of Midnight by Lara Adrian

February – Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

March – White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison

April – Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

May – Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

June – Lover Avenged by JR Ward

To see more of what’s happening in the Paranormal Social Club, please visit that board as it has its own schedule.

Book Group Schedule – Jan-Mar 2009! is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

We have our first Paranormal Social Club Author of the Month – ADRIAN PHOENIX – who is visiting with us to answer all your questions about her books and writing.  She will also be running a couple of contests to win some signed copies of her first two books in The Maker’s Song series – A Rush of Wings and In the Blood.

If you have read the books or even if you haven’t, this is a great opportunity for all PSC members to chat to her, ask questions about the series, her writing, publishing etc, and also to be in the running to get your hands on a free signed copy of one of these great books!

The featured author board has been set up here with information about both books published so far.  The Q & A threads have been set up as one for each book for those who have read them (will contain spoilers) and a General Q & A thread for asking general questions about the series, writing etc, for those who have not read them yet.

How to win a copy of one of Adrian’s Books:
Ask questions!
Each question constitutes an entry.  More details can be found in the board above.  Please note: To be eligible, questions need to be submitted in the above board in the forum – not on the blogs or any other part of the site.

Please join me in giving Adrian a big PSC welcome!

More details about this event and what else is coming up for Book Addicts this year will be in the forthcoming newsletter.

Adrian Phoenix – Paranormal Social Club Featured Author of the Month – January is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group

The Brutal Art
Jesse Kellerman

Sucked into an investigation four decades cold, Ethan will uncover a secret legacy of shame and death, one that will touch horrifyingly close to home – and leave him fearing for his own life.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Kate Summerscale

This true story has all the hallmarks of a classic gripping murder mystery. A body, a detective, a country house steeped in secrets and a whole family of suspects – it is the original Victorian whodunnit.

The Gargoyle
Andrew Davidson

As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life – and, finally, to love.

When Will There Be Good News?
Kate Atkinson

Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend – Jackson Brodie – himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.

The 19th Wife
David Ebershoff

Bold, shocking and gripping, The 19th Wife expertly weaves together these two narratives: a pageturning literary mystery and an enthralling epic of love and faith.

The Bolter
Frances Osborne

Osborne tells the moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak behind Sackville’s road to scandal and return, painting a dazzling portrait of high society in the early twentieth century.

Netherland
Joseph O’Neill

Netherland is a novel of belonging and not belonging, and the uneasy state in between. It is a novel of a marriage foundering and recuperating, and of the shallows and depths of male friendship. With it, Joseph O’Neill has taken the anxieties and uncertainties of our new century and fashioned a work of extraordinary beauty and brilliance.

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite
Beatrice Colin

Gripping and darkly seductive, The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite showcases all the glitter and splendor of the brief heyday of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of Hollywood to its golden age. As it foreshadows the horrors of the Second World War, the novel asks what price is paid when identity becomes unfixed and the social order is upended.

December
Elizabeth H Winthrop

A compelling, ultimately uplifting novel about a family in crisis, showing the delicate web that connects a husband and wife, parents and children, and how easily it can tear.

Steven Galloway

Told with immediacy, grace and harrowing emotional accuracy, The Cellist of Sarajevo shows how, when the everyday act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude – and frailty.

Richard and Judy Book Club 2009 list of books is a post from: Book Addicts Book Group