Book Corner

Our monthly book club from the comfort of your own armchair.

June’s Book Club: Daughter by Jane Shemilt

Daughter

Penguin, August 2014.

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is: Daughter by Jane Shemilt

About the book…

Jenny is a successful family doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon.

But when her youngest child, fifteen-year-old Naomi, doesn’t come home after her school play, Jenny’s seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.

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May’s Book Club: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

TheBookThiefBook Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

About the book:

HERE IS A SMALL FACT – YOU ARE GOING TO DIE

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.

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April’s Book Club: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Serpent's Tail, June 2014.

Serpent’s Tail, June 2014.

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.

About the book:

Rosemary doesn’t talk very much, and about certain things she’s silent. She had a sister, Fern, her whirlwind other half, who vanished from her life in circumstances she wishes she could forget. And it’s been ten years since she last saw her beloved older brother Lowell. 

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March’s Book Club: All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

Telegram Books, Feb 2006.

Telegram Books, Feb 2006.

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is: All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman.

About the book:

All Tom’s friends really are superheroes. Tom even married a superhero, the Perfectionist. But at their wedding the Perfectionist is hypnotized by her ex, Hypno, to believe that Tom is invisible. Nothing he does can make her see him. Six months later, the Perfectionist is sure that Tom has abandoned her, so she’s moving to Vancouver. She’ll use her superpowers to leave all the heartbreak behind. With no idea that Tom’s beside her, she boards the plane. Tom has, until they touch down, to convince her he’s there, or he loses her forever.

What are your general thoughts about this book? Did you like it? Dislike it? Discuss in the comments below.

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February’s Book Club: Everyday by David Levithan

everyday

Published by Electric Monkey, August 2013

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is: Everyday by David Levithan.

About the book:

Every day I am someone else.

I am myself – I know I am myself – but I am also someone else.

It has always been like this.

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January Book Club: The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

time keeperBook Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

About the book:

Banished for centuries, as punishment for trying to measure time, the inventor of the world’s first clock is finally granted his freedom, along with a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two people the true meaning of time.

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December Book Club: Christmas Themed Books

christmas-with-billy-and-me

Penguin, November 2014

Secret

Ebury Digital, November 2014

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is Christmas.

As it’s December, we invite you to come and chat about any book you’ve read or are reading that is Christmas themed from A Christmas Carol to something more current. We are going to be reading Christmas with Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher and Secret Santa by Scarlett Bailey (two festive short stories.)

You are welcome to read these or pick your own festive themed book and then come and discuss what you loved or didn’t love about it.

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November’s Book Club – Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding

Mad About the Boy

Jonathan Cape, October 2013.

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding.

About the book:

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice?

Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

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October’s Book Corner: Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson

BIGTSBook Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below.

This month, our pick is Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson.

About the book:

Memories define us.

So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love – all forgotten overnight.

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September’s Book Corner – A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride

A-Girl-is-a-Half-Formed-Thing_largeBook Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below.

This month, our pick is A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride.

About the book:

This experimental debut novel tells the story of a young woman’s traumatic coming-of-age in rural Ireland, as she struggles with her abusive family and clings to her relationship with her terminally ill brother.

(Published by Faber & Faber. April 2014.)

Buy from Amazon in paperback and e-book.

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August’s Book Corner – Before I Die by Jenny Downham

before-i-die

RHCP Digital, 2008

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below.

This month, our pick is Before I Die by Jenny Downham. (This was also published as Now is Good.)

About Before I Die:

Tessa has just a few months to live.

Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is sex.

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July’s Book Corner – Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

whered-you-go-bernadetteBook Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below.

This month, our pick is Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.

About the book….

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she’s his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife.

To fellow mothers at the school gate, she’s a menace. To design experts, she’s a revolutionary architect.

And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, quite simply, mum.

Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her.

Buy it from Amazon.

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June’s Book Corner – Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Headline, 2005

Headline, 2005

Book Corner is our monthly book club. 

How it works…

Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below.

This month, our pick is Stardust by Neil Gaiman. 

About the book: 

Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall – named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining…

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May – The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

Penguin: Re-issue edition, January 2012.

Penguin: Re-issue edition, January 2012.

 

Book Corner is our online monthly book club.

How it works… 

Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. 

This month, our pick is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend. It was the first book in her brilliant series about teenager, Adrian Mole.

About the book:

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is the first book in Sue Townsend’s brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series.

Friday January 2nd Continue reading

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April – The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Book Corner is our online book club. 

The_shock_of_the_fall_coverApril’s book – The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. 

How it works… 

Anyone can take part in our book club. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. 

This month, our pick is The Shock of The Fall by Nathan Filer. This was Nathan’s debut novel and he was the winner of the Costa Book of the Year award for 2013 for this book. 

About the book:  Continue reading

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March – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Phoenix, 2013.

Phoenix, 2013.

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is our pick this month. We’ve heard good things about this book and we’re looking forward to reading it. Have you read it? Are you planning on reading it? 

How this works: Anyone can take part in our book club; just simply comment below. I will be adding some questions relating to the book throughout the month. 

A little about the book: 

Who are you? Continue reading

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Book Corner: February 2014

Rosie ProjectThe Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (published by Penguin, 2014,) is our book club title for February. 

About the book…

‘I’m not good at understanding what other people want.’

‘Tell me something I don’t know . . .’

Love isn’t an exact science – but no one told Don Tillman. A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don’s never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner. Enter Rosie – ‘the world’s most incompatible woman’ – Continue reading

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Book Corner: January 2014.

heres looking at youHere’s Looking At You by Mhairi Mcfarlane (published by Avon, December 2013.) – our book club title for January. 

About the book: 

Anna Alessi – history expert, possessor of a lot of hair and an occasionally filthy mouth – seeks nice man for intelligent conversation and Mills & Boon moments.

Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn’t be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren’t always this way, and her years spent as the ‘Italian Galleon’ of an East London comprehensive are ones she’d rather forget.

So when James Fraser – the architect of Anna’s final humiliation at school – walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change, right? So why does Anna feel like she’s a fool to trust him?

Buy the book. 

Discuss Here’s Looking At You…  Continue reading

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What Are You Reading?

Book Corner: December 2013: Tell us about what you’re reading?

As it’s December, instead of focusing on one book, we are opening up book corner where this month, you can come and discuss any book you like. What are you reading at the moment and what are your thoughts? Is there a book this year that you’ve read that you’ve loved or has made an impact? Have you tried to read a particular book this year and not liked it? Why?

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Book Corner: November 2013

KnotThe Knot by Mark Watson.

(Published by Simon & Schuster, June 2013.) 

Dominic Kitchen is a wedding photographer. Every Saturday since his career began in the sixties he has photographed a bride and groom on the happiest day of their lives, captured the moment they tied the knot forever, and then faded away into the background. But throughout his life, Dominic has felt a knot inside him tighten, threatening his own chance of a happy ever after. And as the years go by, it becomes more difficult to ignore, until the ties that bind threaten to tear him apart… Continue reading

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October’s Book Corner

Picador, 1996

Picador, 1996

To celebrate the release of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy being released in October, our Book Corner title this month is Bridget Jones’s Diary – the original best-selling novel by Helen Fielding. 

The blurb: 

Bridget Jones wants to have it all – and once she’s given up smoking and got down to 8st 7 she will. Based on Helen Fielding’s diary in the Independent newspaper, this is a novel about a year in the life of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement and Inner Poise.

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September’s Book: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Penguin, 2010

Penguin, 2010

Do you know your desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups?

Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn’t on it – even though she’s just become his latest ex. He’s got his life back, you see. He can just do what he wants when he wants: like listen to whatever music he likes, look up the girls that are on his list, and generally behave as if Laura never mattered. But Rob finds he can’t move on. He’s stuck in a really deep groove – and it’s called Laura. Soon, he’s asking himself some big questions: about love, about life – and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.

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August: The Second Life of Amy Archer by RS Pateman.

The-Second-Life-of-Amy-Archer-front-cover1This month’s Book Corner is reading The Second Life of Amy Archer by RS Pateman (Orion, July 2013.) 

 

On 31st December 1999, ten-year-old Amy Archer went missing from her local playground. Her body was never found and the lives of her parents, Beth and Brian, were torn apart.

On the tenth anniversary of the disappearance, Beth is alone, still struggling with the enormity of her grief and the horror of not knowing the fate of her only child. But the fear and confusion have only just begun, and Beth’s world is turned upside down when a stranger knocks on her door, claiming to know what happened to Amy.

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July’s Book: The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke.

Harper, 2013.

Harper, 2013.

Two sisters, one life-changing journey…

There are some currents in the relationship between sisters that run so dark and so deep, it’s better for the people swimming on the surface never to know what’s beneath . . .

Katie’s carefully structured world is shattered by the news that her headstrong younger sister, Mia, has been found dead in Bali – and the police claim it was suicide.

With only the entries of Mia’s travel journal as her guide, Katie retraces the last few months of her sister’s life, and

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June’s book: The Fault in our Stars by John Green.

Penguin, January 2013.

Penguin, January 2013.

Here’s the blurb:

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

The Fault in our Stars explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

 

Laura’s Verdict:

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May’s Book

silverliningsplaybookThe Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. 

Picador, 2009.

Pat Peoples has a theory that his life is actually a movie produced by God, and that his God-given mission in life is to become emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending – which, for Pat, means the return of his estranged wife Nikki, from whom he’s currently having some ‘apart time.’ It might not come as any surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility. When Pat leaves hospital and goes to live with his parents, however, everything seems changed: no one will talk to him about Nikki; his old friends now have families; his beloved football team keep losing; his new therapist seems to be recommending adultery as a form of therapy. And he’s being haunted by Kenny G. There is a silver lining, however, in the form of tragically widowed, physically fit and clinically depressed Tiffany, who offers to act as a go-between for Pat and his wife, if Pat will just agree to do something for her. 

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April’s Book

maggie-o-farrell-instructions-for-a-heatwaveInstructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’ Farrell

It’s July 1976. In London, it hasn’t rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he’s going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn’t come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta’s children – two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce – back home, each wih different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share..

 

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March’s Book

Hitchhikers_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_bookcoverThe HitchHiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams

It’s an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. At this moment, they’re hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big, friendly words: DON’T PANIC. The weekend has only just begun….

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February’s Book

Pear_ShapedPear Shaped by Stella Newman

Sophie Klein walks into a bar one Friday night and her life changes. She meets James Stephens: charismatic, elusive, and with a hosiery model ex who casts a long, thin shadow over their burgeoning relationship. He’s clever, funny and shares her greatest pleasure in life – to eat and drink slightly too much and then have a little lie down. Sophie’s instinct tells her James is too good to be true – and he is. An exploration of love, heartbreak, self-image, self-deception and lots of food. Pear-Shaped is in turns smart, laugh-out-loud funny and above all, recognizable to women everywhere.

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January’s Book

rumoursCoverRumours by Freya North

Everybody’s talking – but what’s really going on?

Rumour has it that Stella Hutton landed her new job thanks to family connections. She’s guarded about her past and private about her new life. Over in Long Dansbury, there’s always a rumour circulating about Xander – but the eligible bachelor shrugs off village gossip. Then a rumour starts that Longbridge Hall is up for sale. Home to the eccentric Fortescues, it has dominated Long Dansbury lives for centuries.

Stella is summoned to sell the estate. But Xander grew up there. His secrets and memories are not for sale. He’ll do anything to stand in Stella’s way. Anything but fall in love.

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November’s Book

jodimy_sisters_keeperMy Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

‘A major decision about me is being made, and no one’s bothered to ask the one person who most deserves it to speak her opinion.’

The only reason Anna was born was to donate her cord blood cells to her older sister. And though Anna is not sick, she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukaemia that has plagued her since she was a child. Anna was born for this purpose, her parents tell her, which is why they love her even more. But now that she has reached an age of physical awareness, she can’t help but long for control over her own body and respite from the constant flow of her own blood seeping into her sister’s veins.

And so she makes a decision that for most would be too difficult to bear, at any time and at any age. She decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.

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October’s Book

Adult-Cover-Hunger-Games-UKThe Hunger Games bySuzanne Collins.

Scholastic (2009.) 

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games – a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before and survival for her is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

 

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September’s Book

the_ice_cream_girlsThe Ice Cream Girls byDorothy Koomson

As teenagers Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ by the press and were dealt with by the courts. Years later, having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened, while Serena wants no one in her present to find out about her past. But some secrets will not stay buried – and if theirs is revealed, everything will become a living hell all over again . . . Gripping, thought-provoking and heart-warming, The Ice Cream Girls will make you wonder if you can ever truly know the people you love.

 

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August’s Book

The_Night_Circus_UKThe Night Circus byErin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads:

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.

Le Cirque des Rêves

The Circus of Dreams.

Now the circus is open.
Now you may enter.

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July’s Book

Me_Before_YouMe Before You by JoJo Moyes

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

To join the discussion, click here

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June’s Book

SnapBackSnapback by Bob Harvey

A series of news-breaking events. An innocent bystander with a camera. A devastating backlash. Invading people’s privacy can have serious repercussions, as amateur photographer Matt Holmes is about to find out. Within a few days of acquiring a new camera, Matt becomes a key witness to a string of news-breaking events, including an attempted suicide by a well-known comedian from Richmond Bridge, a warehouse fire, a jewel robbery and a kidnap, his dramatic photographs suddenly given prominence in the national press. But Matt’s moment of fame takes a sinister turn as suspicions are aroused by his prolific scoops and his accidental intrusions make him a target for revenge.

As Matt looks back over his collection of photographs he makes discoveries that put everything into focus and he realises that his ultimate fate rests on the simple truth that nothing is ever quite what it seems.

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May’s Book

The_ChaperoneThe Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

On a summer’s day in 1922 Cora Carlisle boards a train from Wichita, Kansas, to New York City, leaving behind a marriage that’s not as perfect as it seems and a past that she buried long ago. She is charged with the care of a stunning young girl with a jet-black fringe and eyes wild and wise beyond her fifteen years. This girl is hungry for stardom and Cora for something she doesn’t yet know. Cora will be many things in her lifetime – an orphan, a mother, a wife, a mistress – but in New York she is a chaperone and her life is about to change. It is here under the bright lights of Broadway, in a time when prohibition reigns and speakeasies with their forbidden whispers behind closed doors thrive, that Cora finds what she has been searching for. It is here, in a time when illicit thrills and daring glamour sizzle beneath the laws of propriety that her life truly begins. It is here that Cora and her charge, Louise Brooks, take their first steps towards their dreams.

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April’s Book

Something-BorrowedSomething Borrowed by Emily Griffin

Rachel has always played by the rules and is the “Good Girl.”

She’s a hard working attorney at a Manhattan law firm and a diligent Maid of Honour to her best friend Darcy, who seems to live a charmed life. Since school, Rachel has been happy to sit on the sidelines and watch Darcy shine, quietly accepting her role.

That is until her thirtieth birthday, when Rachel confesses her feelings to Darcy’s fiancé and is both horrified and thrilled when he tells her that he feels the same way.

As the wedding gets nearer, events spiral out of control and Rachel finds that she must make a choice between right and wrong and that the lines between the two are sometimes blurry. She discovers that sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

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March’s Book

TheFivePeopleYouMeetInHeavenThe Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

Eddie, a war veteran, thinks he has lived an uninspired life. When an accident kills him on his 83rd birthday, he wakes in the afterlife to find that Heaven is not a destination but a place where your life is explained by five people, some you knew and some who may be strangers. One by one, Eddie’s five people revisit their connections and the mystery of Eddie’s ‘meaningless’ life and reveal the haunting secret behind the question, ‘why was I here?’

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February’s Book

Who is Mr SatoshiWho is Mr Satoshi by Jonathan Lee

On the day his mother dies, reclusive photographer Rob Fossick – forty-one and already in the twilight of his career – finds among her belongings an unexplained package addressed to a ‘Mr Satoshi.’

So begins a quest that will propel Rob, anxious and unprepared, into the urban maelstrom of Tokyo. With the help of a colourful group of new acquaintances – a vigilant octogenarian; a beautiful ‘love hotel’ receptionist; an ex-sumo wrestler obsessed with Dolly Parton – the scene seems set for him to unravel the secrets surrounding Mr Satoshi’s identity. But until he has faced his own demons, and begun to reconnect with the world around him, the answers Rob craves will remain tantalisingly beyond his reach.

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Novel Kicks is a blog for story tellers and book lovers.

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