Who 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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When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

For Elly and her brother Joe, one earth-shattering event threatens to break their bond forever.

This is a book about a brother and a sister. It’s a book about growing up, friendship and families, triumph and tragedy and everything in between. More than anything, it’s a book about love in all its forms.

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The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

Lou Suffern wishes he could be in two places at once. His constant battle with the clock is a sensitive issue with his wife and family.
Gabe is the homeless man who sits outside Lou’s office. When Lou invites Gabe into the building and into his life, Lou’s world is changed beyond all measure.

A Christmas story that speaks to all of us about the value of time and what is truly important in life.

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The Haunting by Alan Titchmarsh

How can the mysterious disappearance of Anne Flint in 1816 and the drowning of a young girl in a chalk stream so long ago possibly affect the life of schoolteacher Harry Flint some two centuries later?

Having left his job and a failed marriage behind him, Harry begins to research his ancestors. The deeper he digs, the more he realises that the past is closer than he had ever imagined.

The Haunting is a story of love and betrayal, intrigue and murder. Where people are not what they seem, and the past is no more predictable than the future….

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Foursome by Jane Fallon

Rebecca, Daniel, Alex and Isabel have been best friends since university. Rebecca married Daniel, Alex married Isabel and, for twenty years, they have been inseparable. But all that is about to change. When Alex walks out on Isabel, Rebecca thinks things can’t get any worse. But then she finds out the reason why and she’s left harbouring a secret she’d rather forget. And there’s more upheaval to come in Rebecca’s life as her emaciated, neurotic, self-obsessed colleague, Lorna – her arch nemesis at work – suddenly becomes a regular feature in her social life.

Rebecca’s once-happy foursome is now a distant memory and with hearts broken and friendships fractured, it seems that change is never a good thing. Or is it?

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One Day by David Nicholls

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Isabella Swan expects her new life in Forks to be as dull as the town itself. But her new classmates don’t seem to mind her awkward manner and low expectations. They seem to like her – with the expectation, that is, of Edward Cullen. The problem is that Bella finds herself fascinated by him. What she doesn’t realise is that the closer she gets, the more she is at risk. And it might be too late to turn back.

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e. by Matt Beaumont

e is a tale of everyday sleaze, dishonesty and incompetence in Adland. It tells the story of the Miller Shanks agency’s desperate chase for the Coca-Cola account and it tells it entirely in emails.

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Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown

Portsmouth, 1984. Thirteen-year-old Jake’s world is unravelling as his father and older brother leave home, and his mother plunges into alcoholic freefall.

Despite his turbulent home life, Jake is an irrepressible teenager and his troubled mother is not the only thing on his mind: there’s the hi-fi he’s saving up for, his growing passion for Greek mythology (and his pretty classics teacher), and the anticipation of brief visits to see his dad. When his parents reconcile, life finally seems to be looking up. Their first family holiday, announced over scampi and chips in the Royal Oak, promises to be the icing on the cake – until long-unspoken family secrets begin to surface.

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Notes on a Scandal – Zoe Heller

From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George’s, history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced that she’s found a kindred spirit.
Barbara’s loyalty to her new friend is passionate and unstinting and when Sheba is discovered to be having an illicit affair with one of her young pupils, Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba’s chief defender. But all is not as it first seems in this dark story and, as Sheba will soon discover, a friend can be as treacherous as any lover.

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Wicked – Gregory Maguire

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, we heard only one side of the story. But what of her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch?

Long before Dorothy drops in, a girl is born in OZ with emerald-green skin. Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous witch, is a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived ideas about the nature of good and evil.

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Secrets of the Tudor Court – Darcey Bonnette

When young Mary Howard arrives at the grand court of King Henry VIII to attend his mistress, Anne Boleyn, she is overjoyed. Mary is certain Anne will one day become Queen. But Mary has witnessed the kings fickle nature before and knows how quickly he can turn on those he claims to love.

Despite all of Mary’s efforts to please him, she soon becomes a victim of the King’s wrath. Not until she becomes betrothed to Henry Fitzroy, the Duke of Richmond and illegitimate son to the King, does Mary find the love and approval she’s been seeking.

But when Mary believes she is finally free, the tides turn. She has uncovered an intricate web of secrets within the palace walls, secrets that she must guard with her life…

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A Tiny Bit Marvellous – Dawn French

Mo is about to hit the big 50. She doesn’t understand either of her teenage kids, which as a child psychologist, is fairly embarrassing. She has become entirely grey. Inside, and out. Her face has surrendered and is frightening children. Dora is about to hit the big 18 . . . and about to hit anyone who annoys her, especially her precocious younger brother Peter who has a chronic Oscar Wilde fixation. Then there’s Dad . . . who’s just, well, dad.
A TINY BIT MARVELLOUS is the story of a modern family all living in their own separate bubbles lurching towards meltdown. It is for anyone who has ever shared a home with that weird group of strangers we call relations. Oh and there’s a dog. Called Poo

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Life of Pi

One boy, one boat, one tiger… After the sinking of a cargo ship, one lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue pacific ocean. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan and a 450- pound Royal Bengal tiger.

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A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is a timeless classic that is a must at Christmas. Scrooge is a lonely, mean man who, one Christmas Eve is visited by three ghosts and shown what will happen if he continues on his current life path.

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Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

For most seagulls, life consists simply of eating and surviving. Flying is just a means of finding food. However, Jonathan Livingston Seagull is no ordinary bird. For him, flying is life itself. Against the conventions of seagull society, he seeks to find a higher purpose and become the best at doing what he loves.

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The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred’s nor that of the two men on which her future hangs…

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The Help – Kathryn Stockett

Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child whilst nursing the hurt caused by her own son’s death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they’d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell….

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Magnolia House – Pauline Barclay

When Jane Leonard gave half of her house to her only son, little did she realise that within twelve months, she would be forced to sell the home she had lived in for nearly five decades. The choice for this action was not hers, but the events that led up to her handing over fifty percent of Magnolia House paled by comparison to what happened after the ink had dried on the documents that named the new owners. As Magnolia House is put on the market for sale, love and betrayal, hopes and dreams and ultimately family loyalty will affect the lives of all of those who become involved.

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The Book of Tomorrow – Cecelia Ahern

Tamara Goodwin has always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. Until a travelling library arrives in her tiny village, bringing with it a mysterious, large leather-bound book locked with a gold clasp and padlock. What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.

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The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who involuntarily travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trip that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.

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Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent – even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101

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The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its owners – mother, son and daughter are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with the conflicts of their own.

But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entined with his.

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