Please order book club books (or any other books) using the ‘Order & Collect’ form on the website Book Orders — The Book Nook (booknookstewarton.co.uk) or pop into the shop.

Books chosen for reading for the meeting on Thursday 28th November are below (and the December books are below those!):

Books for meeting on 28th November (by two Michaels!)

The Torments by Michael J Malone
We are delighted that Michael is going to come along and join our book club on the evening to discuss this book with you. it will not be an author event in the usual style but instead Michael will joiun the groups for discussion abut his book.

Annie Jackson and her brother Lewis return to investigate the disappearance of a family friend, leading them to spellbinding mystery that digs deep into a past that should, perhaps, remain undisturbed … A chilling gothic thriller from the critically acclaimed author of The Murmurs… Annie and her brother, Lewis … find themselves uncovering a world of black magic and murder. A creepy tale with the terrifying legend of the ‘baobhan sith’ at its core' Observer `Malone is the master of twists, turns and the unexpected´ Herald Scotland

Better the Blood by Michael Bennett - Michael’s recent event at The Book Nook was greatly enjoyed by all.

'A compelling, atmospheric page turner with an authentic insight into Maori culture' Val McDermid Detective Senior Sergeant Hana Westerman is a tenacious Maori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland’s Central Investigation Branch. When she’s led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man hanging in a hidden room.
With little to go on, Hana knows one thing: the killer is sending her a message. As a Maori officer, there has always been a clash between duty and culture for Hana, but it is something that she’s found a way to live with. Until now.

Books for meeting on Thursday 19th December (this will be our party too so feel free to bring nibbles and drinks!)

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

In a large Swedish forest, Beartown hides a dark secret . .
Cut-off from everywhere else, it experiences the kind of isolation that tears people apart. And each year, more and more of the town is swallowed by the forest. Then the town is offered a bright new future. But it is all put in jeopardy by a single, brutal act. It divides the town into those who think it should be hushed up and forgotten, and those who'll risk the future to see justice done.
Who will speak up?Could you stand by and stay silent?Or would you risk everything for justice?Which side would you be on?_________'A mature, compassionate novel' Sunday Times'You'll love this engrossing novel'

and/or
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the second book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and follows on from The Kamogawa Food Detectives. Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner. Running this unique establishment are a father-daughter duo who serve more than just mouth-watering feasts.
The pair have reinvented themselves as 'food detectives', offering a service that goes beyond traditional dining. Through their culinary sleuthing, they reconstruct beloved dishes from the memories of their customers, creating a connection to cherished moments from the past. Among those who seek an appointment is a one-hit wonder pop star, finally ready to leave Tokyo and give up on her singing career.
She wants to try the tempura that she once ate to celebrate her only successful record. Another diner is a budding Olympic swimmer, who desires the bento lunch box that his estranged father used to make him. The Kamogawa Diner doesn't just serve meals – it revives lost recipes and rekindles forgotten memories.
It's a doorway to the past through the miracle of delicious food. 'Feelgood and foodie themes collide in this follow-up to The Kamogawa Food Detectives' - The Times

Previous Book Club Reads

October book choices were -
The Future by Naomi Alderman
The latest novel from the Women’s Prize-winning author of The Power, The Future is a white-knuckle tour de force and dazzling exploration of the world we have made and where we are going. Lai Zhen is about to die. As an Internet-famous survivalist, she’s spent her life prepping for the end of the world.
But now, desperate and cornered in a mall in Singapore, she’s mad she might go out not knowing what the hell is going on. If she makes it out alive, what kind of a future will be waiting for her? Across the world, Martha Einkorn works the room at a gathering of mega-rich companies hell-bent securing a future just for them. Covert weapons, private weather, technological prophecy, when Martha fled her father’s compound she may have left the cult behind, but if the apocalyptic warnings of his fox and rabbit sermon are starting to come true, how much future is actually left? Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide.
While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful … or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

And/or
The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Introducing Detective Georges Gorski…From twice Booker-listed author of His Bloody Project and Case Study. Manfred Baumann is a loner. Socially awkward and ill at ease, he spends his evenings surreptitiously observing Adèle Bedeau, the sullen but alluring waitress at his local bistro. But one day, she vanishes into thin air.
When Detective Georges Gorski begins investigating her disappearance, Manfred’s repressed world is shaken to its core and he is forced to confront the dark secrets of his past. The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau effortlessly conjures up an otherworldly atmosphere that simultaneously intrigues and unsettles. A compelling psychological portrayal of a peculiar outsiderpushed to the limit by his own feverish imagination, it is byturns haunting, strange and mesmeric – Graeme Macrae Burnet’s acclaimed debut, a literary mystery novel that is well on its way to achieving cult status. 

September book choices were

The Fascination by Essie Fox
The estranged grandson of a wealthy collector of human curiosities becomes fascinated with teenaged twin sisters, leading them into a web of dark obsessions. A dazzlingly dark gothic novel from the bestselling author of The Somnambulist.   'Makes skilful use of the tropes of Victorian gothic fiction… a story of society’s outsiders seeking acceptance and redemption' Sunday Times   ‘An inventive slice of gothic fiction, big-hearted and full of strangeness’

and/or

Crow Moon by Suzy Apsley
An investigative reporter gives up her job when her young twins are killed in a fire, but when she stumbles across the body of a missing teenager, she's thrust into a chilling investigation that will leave no one unscathed…   ‘Bloody good read’ Val McDermid  

August book choices were

Brodie by Gillian Shirreffs

On a spring day in 1988, Sandra Galbraith runs her long, curious fingers over a bookshelf tightly packed with the titles of her favourite writer, Muriel Spark. She's on a quest to find the perfect birthday gift for her niece, Violet, and plucks Brodie, a pristine, new copy of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, from a neat cluster of identikit books. Brodie adores Violet and, over the next two years, hidden in plain sight, learns family secrets of betrayal and a double life.
When Violet leaves for university, her brother kidnaps Brodie to give to his disinterested love interest. On the thirty-year journey that follows, Brodie passes through hands and lives and is witness to death, sex, and a wicked stepmother. Throughout it all, Brodie's longing to return to Violet never fades.

and/or

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger 2024)

New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River: an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston's history. In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessey is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors.
Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of 'Southie', the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat's teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn't come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances.
The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched - asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don't take kindly to any threat to their business. Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city's desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism.

July book choices were:

Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang When failed writer June Hayward witnesses her rival Athena Liu die in a freak accident, she sees her opportunity… and takes it. So what if it means stealing Athena’s final manuscript? So what if it means ‘borrowing’ her identity? And so what if the first lie is only the beginning… Finally, June has the fame she always deserved. But someone is about to expose her… What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault....

and/or

Catch the Moments as They Fly by Zoe Strachan

Today Rena is going to change her life... Rena Jarvie is ahead of her time. Ambitious, attractive, and determined her family escape their shameful past.

When she moves to a new town and marries the charming and cosmopolitan Bobby Young, doors finally begin to open. But as Bobby already knows, some things cannot be run from. Spanning the 1930s to the 1960s, Catch the Moments as They Fly is an assured portrait of a rapidly changing Scotland, vivid with humour, and hardship, and love.

June book choices were:

The Offing by Benjamin Myers

A moving and subtle novel in many ways, infused with a love of the minute pleasures in life, and the lasting regrets’ – Scotland on Sunday_______________________One summer following the Second World War, Robert Appleyard sets out on foot from his Durham village. Sixteen and the son of a coal miner, he makes his way across the northern countryside until he reaches the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay. There he meets Dulcie, an eccentric, worldly, older woman who lives in a ramshackle cottage facing out to sea.
Staying with Dulcie, Robert’s life opens into one of rich food, sea-swimming, sunburn and poetry. The two come from different worlds, yet as the summer months pass, they form an unlikely friendship that will profoundly alter their futures.

and/or

Demon Copperhead by Barabara Kingsolver

Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can. Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster care.
For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he's willing to travel to try and get there. Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.

May book choices were:

Water by John Boyne ( A BookNookers favourite author)

From million-copy-bestselling author John Boyne comes a masterfully reflective story about one woman coming to terms with the demons of her past and finding a new path forward.
The first thing Vanessa Carvin does when she arrives on the island is change her name. To the locals, she is Willow Hale, a solitary outsider escaping Dublin to live a hermetic existence in a small cottage, not a notorious woman on the run from her past. But scandals follow like hunting dogs.
And she has some questions of her own to answer. If her ex-husband is really the monster everyone says he is, then how complicit was she in his crimes?Escaping her old life might seem like a good idea but the choices she has made throughout her marriage have consequences. Here, on the island, Vanessa must reflect on what she did - and did not do.
Only then can she discover whether she is worthy of finding peace at all. Can you ever truly wash away your past?

and/or

Halfway House by Helen Fitzgerald ( a recent guest author at The Book Nook)

On her first shift at an Edinburgh halfway house for violent offenders, a young woman is taken hostage … and that's just the beginning… The twisty, shocking, darkly funny thriller by award-winning author Helen FitzGerald.   'A new novel from Helen Fitzgerald is always a major event … magnificent' Mark Billingham   ‘Outrageous, hilarious and dark as hell – this is Helen FitzGerald on absolute top form’ Doug Johnstone   ‘[Lou] is irresistible and very funny … The set-up is fascinating, the narrative is both fast-moving and convincing’ Literary Review   _______  They’re the housemates from Hell… When her disastrous Australian love affair ends, Lou O’Dowd heads to Edinburgh for a fresh start, moving in with her cousin, and preparing for the only job she can find … working at a halfway house for very high-risk offenders. Two killers, a celebrity paedophile and a paranoid coke dealer – all out on parole and all sharing their outwardly elegant Edinburgh townhouse with rookie night-worker Lou… And instead of finding some meaning and purpose to her life, she finds herself trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse where she stands to lose everything – including her life.
Slick, darkly funny and nerve-janglingly tense, Halfway House is both a breathtaking thriller and an unapologetic reminder never to corner a desperate woman…  

April book choices were:

The Forcing : The visionary, emotive, breathtaking MUST-READ climate-emergency thriller by Paul E. Hardisty   
Civilisation is collapsing…   Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, in a last-ditch attempt to stave off disaster, a government of youth has taken power in North America, and a policy of institutionalised ageism has been introduced. All those older than the prescribed age are deemed responsible for the current state of the world, and are to be 'relocated', their property and assets confiscated.   David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to 'new accommodation' in the abandoned southern deserts – thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognisable.     As the terrible truth of their situation is revealed, lured by rumours of a tropical sanctuary where they can live in peace, they plan a perilous escape. But the world outside is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. And for those who survive, nothing will ever be the same again…

And/or

The Maid by Nita Prose
It begins like any other day for Molly Gray, silently dusting her way through the luxury rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel. But when she enters suite 401 and discovers an infamous guest dead in his bed, a very messy mystery begins to unfold. And Molly’s at the heart of it – because if anyone can uncover the secrets beneath the surface, the fingerprints amongst the filth – it’s the maid.
*THE NO.1 NEW YORK TIMES & SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER*WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR BEST MYSTERY/THRILLER*WINNER OF THE NED KELLY AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION*A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME PICK ‘An escapist pleasure’ SUNDAY TIMES‘An instantly gripping whodunnit’ STYLIST‘Smart, riveting, and deliciously refreshing ’ LISA JEWELL

March 2024 book choices were

The Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood (New York Times bestseller, Sept 2023)

Is this the best worst day of her life?Once, Grace Adams was poised for great things. Now, she barely attracts a second glance as she strides down the street carrying her daughter's sixteenth birthday cake. But behind the scenes, Grace's life is in freefall.
Her husband is divorcing her. Her daughter has banned her from her birthday party. And Grace has just abandoned her car in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Because Grace Adams has finally had enough. She's sick of being overlooked and underappreciated, and she's particularly tired of being polite. She's about to set off on a journey to rediscover who she is, and confront the secret that has torn her family apart.
What is that secret? You're about to find out . . .

The Firemaker by Peter May

The first of Peter May's China critically acclaimed thrillers featuring Beijing detective Li Yan and American pathologist Margaret Campbell. LI YANA grotesquely burned corpse found in a city park is a troubling mystery for Beijing detective Li Yan. Yan, devoted to his career as a means of restoring the respect his family lost during the Cultural Revolution, needs outside help if he is to break the case.
The unidentified cadaver in turn provides a welcome distraction for forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. Campbell, married to her work and having left America and her broken past behind, throws herself into the investigation, and before long uncovers a bizarre anomaly. An unlikely partnership develops between Li and Campbell as they follow the resulting lead.
A fiery and volatile chemistry ignites: exposing not only their individual demons, but an even greater evil - a conspiracy that threatens their lives, as well as those of millions of others.

February 2024 book choices were

The Silent Daughter by Emma Christie
 This is a complex thriller about the secrets we keep and the damage they do. Chris Morrison is facing his worst nightmare. His wife is in a coma. His daughter is missing. And the only thing more unsettling than these two events . . . is what might connect them. Some secrets can change a family for ever. _____Deceit runs in the family . SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 SHORTLIST⭐ BEST SCOTTISH CRIME DEBUT 2021 MCILVANNEY PRIZE FOR SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR LONGLIST CWA NEW BLOOD DAGGER LONGLIST  

And/Or 

The Bookseller of Inverness (Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2023) 
After Culloden, Iain MacGillivray was left for dead on Drummossie Moor. Wounded, his face brutally slashed, he survived only by pretending to be dead as the Redcoats patrolled the corpses of his Jacobite comrades. Six years later, with the clan chiefs routed and the Highlands subsumed into the British state, Iain lives a quiet life, working as a bookseller in Inverness. One day, after helping several of his regular customers, he notices a stranger lurking in the upper gallery of his shop, poring over his collection. But the man refuses to say what he's searching for and only leaves when Iain closes for the night. The next morning Iain opens up shop and finds the stranger dead, his throat cut, and the murder weapon laid out in front of him - a sword with a white cockade on its hilt, the emblem of the Jacobites. With no sign of the killer, Iain wonders whether the stranger discovered what he was looking for - and whether he paid for it with his life. He soon finds himself embroiled in a web of deceit and a series of old scores to be settled in the ashes of war.

January 2024 book choices were:

The Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell
There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable. At least that's their pitch.The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits.
And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door - and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own. When tragedy strikes in her first week on the job The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real.
Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined

and/or

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi'
The million-copy bestselling series about a small Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time.  It explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a cafe which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.
In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the cafe's time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by Alzheimer's, see their sister one last time, and meet the daughter they never got the chance to know. But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the cafe, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . .

Nov/Dec book choices were:

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride (Author) , Jo Piazza (Author)

Not every story is black and white. Riley and Jen have been best friends since they were children, and they thought their bond was unbreakable. It never mattered to them that Riley is black and Jen is white. And then Jen's husband, a Philadelphia police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed black teenager and everything changes in an instant. This one act could destroy more than just Riley and Jen's friendship. As their community takes sides, so must Jen and Riley, and for the first time in their lives the lifelong friends find themselves on opposing sides. But can anyone win a fight like this? We Are Not Like Them is about friendship and love. It's about prejudice and betrayal. It's about standing up for what you believe in, no matter the cost.

And/Or

The Shadow of the Wind : The Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'Cemetery of Lost Books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945.
Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Julian Carax. But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from the book, a character who turns out to be the devil.
This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind..

October book choices were:

Either Paper Cup by Karen Campbell or The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Paper Cup by Karen Campbell
From Rachel Joyce to Jonas Jonasson to Emma Hooper, novels about older people going on long journeys have almost become a genre: later-life pilgrimage fiction. In Paper Cup, Karen Campbell gives it a new slant; her protagonist who takes an extended walk is a homeless alcoholic. The freezing doorways, dirty skips and uncaring streets of Glasgow are where Kelly sleeps and lives, trying and often failing to stay off the drink. Late one night on a bench in George Square, a drunk bride-to-be celebrating her hen night with a potty on her head and pockets full of cash accidentally leaves her diamond engagement ring behind; Kelly sticks it on her own finger and cannot get it off. A day or so later she flees the city, determined to return the ring to the bride before the wedding in a week’s time. She travels south via a series of pilgrimage sites, and with the help of various characters, to Gatehouse of Fleet in Galloway, the town where she grew up and where her estranged family may still live.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Willams
Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood at her father's feet as he and his team gather words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. One day, she sees a slip of paper containing a forgotten word flutter to the floor unclaimed.
And so Esme begins to collect words for another dictionary in secret: The Dictionary of Lost Words. But to do so she must journey into a world on the cusp of change as the Great War looms and women fight for the vote. Can the power of lost words from the past finally help her make sense of her future?'

September book choices were:

Either 'Sorrow and Bliss' by Meg Mason or 'Project Hail Mary' by Andy Weir.

Sorrow and Bliss

Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick.
A gift, her mother once said, not everybody gets. So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave?Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe - as she has long believed - there is something wrong with her.
Something that broke when a little bomb went off in her brain, at 17, and left her changed in a way that no doctor or therapist has ever been able to explain. Forced to return to her childhood home to live with her dysfunctional, bohemian parents (but without the help of her devoted, foul-mouthed sister Ingrid), Martha has one last chance to find out whether a life is ever too broken to fix - or whether, maybe, by starting over, she will get to write a better ending for herself.

Project Hail Mary
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time.
And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery-and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone. Or does he?An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could imagine it, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian -- while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

August book choices were:

Either 'Penitent' by Mark Leggat or 'Sweet Bean Paste' by Duran Sukegawa.

Penitent' by Mark Leggat
Meet Hector Lawless. As a brilliant Edinburgh lawyer, Hector has a reputation for untangling the cases that no other lawyer can handle. But the obsessive-compulsive behaviour that's made him a master of the law has also left Hector a pariah amongst his peers - a social outcast with crippling anxiety.
The man with the perfectly ordered desk, the pristine notebooks, the strictly regimented working day and rituals that make sense only to him. When Hector is approached by his boss, Lord Campbell, with a highly sensitive case that reaches from one of Edinburgh's most exclusive private schools to 10 Downing Street, he relishes the chance to bring true evil to justice. Hector must call on every one of the skills he has cultivated over a lifetime of being an outsider to survive.Justice will be served. 
The Penitent must accept their penance. As Hector's enemies are about to discover, it really is the quiet ones you have to worry about.

'Sweet Bean Paste' by Duran Sukegawa.
A charming tale of friendship, love and loneliness in contemporary JapanSentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory.
With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste. But everything is about to change. Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past.
Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue's dark secret is revealed,with devastating consequences. Sweet Bean Paste is a moving novel about the burden of the past and the redemptive power of friendship.
Translated into English for the first time, Durian Sukegawa's beautiful prose is capturing hearts all over the world.

July book choices were:

Trespasses
One by one, she undid each event, each decision, each choice. If Davy had remembered to put on a coat.
If Seamie McGeown had not found himself alone on a dark street. If Michael Agnew had not walked through the door of the pub on a quiet night in February in his white shirt. There is nothing special about the day Cushla meets Michael, a married man from Belfast, in the pub owned by her family.
But here, love is never far from violence, and this encounter will change both of their lives forever. As people get up each morning and go to work, school, church or the pub, the daily news rolls in of another car bomb exploded, another man beaten, killed or left for dead. In the class Cushla teaches, the vocabulary of seven-year-old children now includes phrases like 'petrol bomb' and 'rubber bullets'.
And as she is forced to tread lines she never thought she would cross, tensions in the town are escalating, threatening to destroy all she is working to hold together. Tender and shocking, Trespasses is an unforgettable debut of people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times.

The Long Long Afternoon by Inga Vesper
. . It's the summer of 1959, and the well-trimmed lawns of Sunnylakes, California, wilt under the sun.
At some point during the long, long afternoon, Joyce Haney, wife, mother, vanishes from her home, leaving behind two terrified children and a bloodstain on the kitchen floor. While the Haney's neighbours get busy organising search parties, it is Ruby Wright, the family's 'help', who may hold the key to this unsettling mystery. Ruby knows more about the secrets behind Sunnylakes' starched curtains than anyone, and it isn't long before the detective in charge of the case wants her help.
But what might it cost her to get involved? In these long hot summer afternoons, simmering with lies, mistrust and prejudice, it could only take one spark for this whole 'perfect' world to set alight . . .
A beguiling, deeply atmospheric debut novel from the cracked heart of the American Dream, The Long, Long Afternoon is at once a page-turning mystery and an intoxicating vision of the ways in which women everywhere are diminished, silenced and ultimately under-estimated.

The other recommendations were - This Time Tomorrow 'by Emma Straub; 'Mother's Boy' by Patrick Gale; An Honourable Thief' by Douglas Skelton'; Landlines by Raynor Winn; Paper Cup' by Karen Campbell'. All great choices!

June book choices were:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

From the author of Daisy Jones & The Six, in which a legendary film actress reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a mesmerizing journey through the splendour of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means and what it costs to face the truth.

And/Or

The Stromness Dinner

Ed fits kitchens in the small family business in London, and he's wondering if there isn't more to life. So when Marcus, a client in banking, offers him an extra job refurbishing a cottage in Stromness he thinks, why not? Orkney is certainly a welcome change of scene from Bermondsey, and the work's easy enough. Then Marcus' sister Claire arrives, all city power and perfume, and events take an unexpected turn.
'The Stromness Dinner' is an offbeat, entirely readable novel about relationships. Beautifully observed, gently humorous, it is a very human and contemporary story about how we live today, and what happens when two people follow their dreams

May book choices were:

The Invisible life of Addie la Rue by V.B Schwab

For fans of The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, and The Sudden Appearance of Hope. When Addie La Rue makes a pact with the devil, she is convinced she's found a loophole-immortality in exchange for her soul. But the devil takes away her place in the world, cursing her to be forgotten by everyone.
Addie flees her tiny home town in 18th-Century France, beginning a journey that takes her across the world, learning to live a life where no one remembers her and everything she owns is lost and broken. Existing only as a muse for artists throughout history, she learns to fall in love anew every single day. Her only companion on this journey is her dark devil with hypnotic green eyes, who visits her each year on the anniversary of their deal.
Alone in the world, Addie has no choice but to confront him, to understand him, maybe to beat him. Until one day, in a second hand bookshop in Manhattan, Addie meets someone who remembers her. Suddenly thrust back into a real, normal life, Addie realises she can't escape her fate forever. 

or/and

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.
But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Forced to resign, she reluctantly signs on as the host of a cooking show, Supper at Six. But her revolutionary approach to cooking, fuelled by scientific and rational commentary, grabs the attention of a nation.
Soon, a legion of overlooked housewives find themselves daring to change the status quo. One molecule at a time. _

April 23 book choices were -

'The Space Between Us' by Doug Johnstone

When three people suffer strokes after seeing dazzling lights over Edinburgh, then awake completely recovered, they're convinced their ordeal is connected to the alien creature discovered on a nearby beach... an adrenaline-soaked, deeply humane, life-affirming first-contact novel from one of Scotland's most revered authors... **Selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers 2023** 'All the drive, curiosity and wonder of his crime and mystery novels ...
                                                                         and/or

'Wrong Place, Wrong Time,' by Gillian McAllister

_It's late. You're waiting up for your son.
Then you spot him: he's with someone. And - you can't believe what you see - your funny, happy teenage boy stabs this stranger. You don't know who. You don't know why. You only know your son is charged with murder. His future is lost.
That night you fall asleep in despair. But when you wake . .it is yesterday. The day before the murder.
Somewhere in the past lie the answers - a reason for this crime. And your only chance to stop it . . _________'Masterfully plotted and ingenious. One of the best books I've read this year' SUNDAY EXPRESS'A genre-defining masterpiece.

March 23 book choices were -

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne

What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds - and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept. The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words), his wife Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like), and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen.
Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path. Powered by John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion.

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (one of my all-time faves too!)

Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and - possibly - happiness.
But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay. Book of the Year for: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Metro, Spectator, Red Magazine and Good Housekeeping

February 23 book choices were -
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex/
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

The Lamplighters
The Sunday Times bestseller, inspired by mysterious real events. Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper's weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.
What happened to those three men, out on the tower? The heavy sea whispers their names. The tide shifts beneath the swell, drowning ghosts. Can their secrets ever be recovered from the waves?Twenty years later, the women they left behind are still struggling to move on.
Helen, Jenny and Michelle should have been united by the tragedy, but instead it drove them apart. And then a writer approaches them. He wants to give them a chance to tell their side of the story.
But only in confronting their darkest fears can the truth begin to surface…

His Bloody Project
SHORTLISTED for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016. WINNER of the SALTIRE SOCIETY FICTION BOOK of the YEAR 2016. The year is 1869.
A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country's finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.
Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.

December/January book choices were -

Any Day Now 
Abandoned by her mother, teenager, Catherine Day, tries to escape a life of crime by becoming a rock star—haunted by a surprising cold war family secret. It’s 1982 and sixteen-year-old Catherine Day has been abandoned for good by her mother in their Glasgow home. Alone, in trouble, and desperate for money, Catherine is quickly ensnared by local criminals. In an attempt to escape a life of crime, she joins a local rock band. 
She battles hard to succeed in the fickle music world, aided by a mysterious, and ever-present guardian angel – a man who has connections to her missing mother, her unknown father, and who, it transpires, is hiding a secret about her family and the Cold War that could change Catherine’s life forever. 
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine meets Daisy Jones and The Six in this heart-warming, heart-breaking coming-of-age story filled with humour and pathos.

Dashboard Elvis is Dead
Renowned photo-journalist Jude Montgomery arrives in Glasgow in 2014, in the wake of the failed Scottish independence referendum, and it’s clear that she’s searching for someone.
 Is it Anna Mason, who will go on to lead the country as First Minister? Jamie Hewitt, guitarist from eighties one-hit wonders The Hyptones? Or is it Rabbit – Jude’s estranged foster sister, now a world-famous artist?
 Three apparently unconnected people, who share a devastating secret, whose lives were forever changed by one traumatic night in Phoenix, forty years earlier…
 Taking us back to a school shooting in her Texas hometown, and a 1980’s road trip across the American West – to San Francisco and on to New York – Jude’s search ends in Glasgow, and a final, shocking event that only one person can fully explain…

November book choices were -

Christmas is Murder : A chilling short story collection by Val McDermid
Val McDermid is a master of the dark and sinister story, and these powers are in full force in Christmas is Murder, a festive collection of chilling tales. From an irresponsible baron whose body is discovered beneath a silver birch tree, to a classic detective duo solving a historic case as the lights go out across Europe, and an exclusive Tony Hill and Carol Jordan story, the characters McDermid conjures are enigmatic and dangerous.
and/or

Ghosts in the Gloaming : A Tale from Kinloch by Denzil Meyrick
From the author of the bestselling D.C.I. Daley series comes a thrilling new tall tale from Kinloch. It's December 1968. Having cheated Sandy Hoynes out of a rowing race and navigation certificate when they were young, Dreich MacCallum makes an unexpected return to Kinloch. With the Girl Maggie up on the slip awaiting urgent repairs, Hoynes takes to his bed, the memory of it all too much. When first mate Hamish persuades his skipper to get up and put the fishing boat back into the water, there are unexpected consequences that put Hoynes' liberty and reputation at risk.

October book choices were -
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

My name is Hope Arden. I am the girl the world forgets. It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger. No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit - you will never remember who I am. That makes my life tricky. It also makes me dangerous .
The Sudden Appearance of Hope is the tale of a girl no one remembers, yet her story will stay with you for ever.

and

Last Bookshop in London by Madeleine Martin

August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and blackout curtains that she finds on her arrival were not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London. Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war.

Barra Boy - Iain Kelly

This very popular novel by East Kilbride based author Iain Kelly is a top seller in The Book Nook. 
It is 1982. Thirteen-year-old Ewan Fraser is sent to the remote island of Barra, off Scotland's west coast, to stay with his aunt and uncle. Resigned to a monotonous summer of boredom, he is befriended by local girl Laura Robertson; together they explore the golden beaches and rocky coves of the idyllic island.
But a dark secret that connects Laura to the mysterious outcast Mhairi Matheson and her son, Billy, is hidden beneath the tranquil surface... A secret that threatens to tear the small community apart. Forty years later, Ewan returns to confront the truth about the formative summer of his adolescence, and finally learn the truth about Laura and the boy from Barra.

Metronome by Tom Watson 

Metronome is a haunting and original dystopian story, which was also a BBC2 Between the Covers book club pick and got great reviews. ''Compelling and absorbing'' A refreshing change from the norm'. 
For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they must take for survival every eight hours. They've kept busy - Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps - but something is not right. Shipwrecks have begun washing up, and their supply drops have stopped. And on the day they're meant to be collected for parole, the Warden does not come. Instead there's a sheep. But sheep can't swim... As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he's been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they've been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come.Book selections for August reads were -

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 

Independent Nora's life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which raises the ultimate question: with infinite choices, what is the best way to live?

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier 

During a terrifying storm, Air France flight 006 - inexplicably - duplicates. For every passenger, there are now two: a double with the same mind, body and memories. Only one thing sets them apart - while one plane lands in March, the other doesn't arrive until June.
Nothing can explain this unprecedented event. But for each duplicated passenger, an impossible moment of reckoning awaits. If there are two of you, and just one life ... who gets to live it?July book choices selected -

We are carrying forward one of the June book choices, as we had the Book Festival running then and didn’t review it at our festival meeting.

All Adults Here by Emma Straub

After Astrid Strick - a widowed, 68-year-old mother of three living in upstate New York - witnesses an accident, she resolves to live more honestly. Starting with the mistakes she made in raising her family. But are her kids, tangled in their own messy adult lives, really ready to be treated like grown ups?Charming, uplifting and well-observed, All Adults Here is the delightful story about the wonders and woes of modern family life.

or/and

The House of Spines by Michael J Malone

When a young man inherits a vast mansion from an estranged great-uncle, his apparent good fortune sours when unsettling things begin to happen ... A terrifying psychological thriller cum gothic ghost story from the bestselling author of A Suitable Lie. 'A beautifully written tale, original, engrossing and scary.

June meeting - the book club will meet on Thursday June 23rd at 7pm. meeting - 

Michael J Malone and Kenny Boyle

The books selected as June reads are -  any books by our guest authors Michael J Malone and Kenny Boyle, which include

Michael’s latest novel - The Quicksand of Memory

Scarred by their pasts, Jenna and Luke fall in love, brimming with hope for a rosy future. But someone has been watching, with chilling plans for revenge ... An emotive, twisty, disturbing new psychological thriller by the critically acclaimed author of A Suitable Lie and In the Absence of Miracles.

Kenny’s debut novel - The Tick and Tock of the Crocodile Clock

An aspiring writer from the Southside of Glasgow, Wendy is in a rut. She tries to brighten her call-centre job by shoehorning as many long words as possible into conversations with customers. But her manager isn't amused by that and, after a public dressing-down, Wendy walks out. Jobless and depressed, she finds consolation in a surprise friendship with another disgruntled ex-colleague, wild-child painter Cat, who encourages her to live more dangerously. It's just what Wendy needs and it's also brilliant for her creative juices. But a black cloud is about to overshadow this new-found liberation, as well as to put Wendy on the wrong side of the law.

May book choices selected -

‘The Last Thing to Burn’ by Will Dean

Powerful writing' STEVE CAVANAGH' Short, sharp shocker' THE TIMES' an early contender for one of the best books of the year' S MAGAZINE

He is her husband. She is his captive. Her husband calls her Jane.
That is not her name. She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space.
But she is trapped. No one knows how she got to the UK: no one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen.
Her husband records her every movement during the day. If he doesn't like what he sees, she is punished. For a long time, escape seemed impossible.
But now, something has changed. She has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting .

 and/or 

‘Mother Mother’ by Annie Macmanus

One Saturday morning, TJ McConnell wakes up to find his mother, Mary, gone. He doesn't know where - or why - but he's the only one who can help find her. Mary grew up longing for information about the mother she never knew.
Her brother could barely remember her, and their father numbed his pain with drink. Now aged thirty-seven, Mary has lived in the same house her whole life. She's never left Belfast.
TJ, who's about to turn eighteen, is itching to see more of the world. But when his mother disappears, TJ begins to realise what he's been taking for granted. MOTHER MOTHER takes us down the challenging road of Mary's life while following TJ's increasingly desperate search for her, as he begins to discover what has led her to this point.

This is a story about family, grief, addiction and motherhood, and it asks an important question - if you spend your life giving everything to the ones you love, do you risk losing yourself along the way?'A brilliant book...that explores the brutal legacy of addiction and the consequences of a deep grief left to stagnate' Sara Cox

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER, JUNE 2021' Annie Macmanus is writer whose understanding and capturing of human nature comes as easily to her as breathing'

April book choices selected -

Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan - 'An incredible book . . . about men and how important friendship can be to men.' Wild, wise, wonderful . .
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life. In the summer of 1986, James and Tully ignite a friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over, they rush towards a magical weekend of youthful excess in Manchester played out against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded. And there a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, the phone rings. Tully has news.

 and/or 

any of Denzil Meyrick's books - Whisky from Small Glasses for newbies to his DCI Daley series, or next in series, or one of his standalone books - Terms of Restitution recommended.

Whisky from Small Glasses - when the body of a young woman is washed up on an idyllic beach on the west coast of Scotland, D.C.I. Jim Daley is despatched from Glasgow to lead the investigation. Far from home, and his troubled marriage, it seems that Daley's biggest obstacle will be managing the difficult local police chief; but when the prime suspect is gruesomely murdered, the inquiry begins to stall.
As the body count rises, Daley uncovers a network of secrets and corruption in the closeknit community of Kinloch, thrusting him and his loved ones into the centre of a case more deadly than he had ever imagined. The first novel in the D.C.I. Daley series, Whisky from Small Glasses is a truly compelling crime novel, shot through with dark humour and menace.

 Terms of Restitution -  GANGLAND BOSS ZANDER FINN DISAPPEARED AFTER THE BRUTAL MURDER OF HIS SON. He fled to London, seeking salvation by walking away from his money, his career and his legacy. But when his old second-in-command Malky Maloney tracks him down, Finn knows he must return. Both his real family and his crime family face an existential threat from Albanian mobsters hellbent on taking control of the Scottish underworld and the forces of law and order determined to inflict their own retribution. Finn's fight for survival is a rollercoaster ride of brutality, misplaced loyalties and the utterly unexpected. The road to redemption is perilous - and paved with blood.

Book choices selected for the March meeting are -

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill by C.S Robertson 

This is also the crime novel our guest author, Craig Robertson, will be signing at the event on Sunday 20th March, so two birds with one stone so to speak. Do book your places as soon as possible using the booking form on the events page of the Book Nook website.

and/or

Britt-Marie was Here £8.99 by Fredrik Backman 

(A Man called Ove & Anxious People) Here is a funny, poignant and uplifting tale of love, community, and second chances. For as long as anyone can remember, Britt-Marie has been an acquired taste. It's not that she's judgemental, or fussy, or difficult - she just expects things to be done in a certain way.
A cutlery drawer should be arranged in the right order, for example (forks, knives, then spoons). We're not animals, are we? But behind the passive-aggressive, socially awkward, absurdly pedantic busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams and a warmer heart than anyone around her realizes. So when Britt-Marie finds herself unemployed, separated from her husband of 20 years, left to fend for herself in the miserable provincial backwater that is Borg - of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it - and somehow tasked with running the local football team, she is a little unprepared.
But she will learn that life may have more to offer her that she's ever realised, and love might be found in the most unexpected of places.

February’s chosen books are -

'Scabby Queen' by Kirstin Innes - scored average of 7/10 by members

Three days before her fifty-first birthday Clio Campbell - one-hit wonder, political activist, lifelong love and one-night-stand - kills herself in her friend Ruth's spare bedroom.
And, as practical as she is, Ruth doesn't know what to do. As the news spreads around Clio's collaborators and comrades, lovers and enemies, the story of her glamorous, chaotic life spreads with it - from the Scottish Highlands to the Genoa G8 protests, from an anarchist squat in Brixton to Top of the Pops. Sifting through half a century of memories and unanswered questions, everyone who thought they know her is forced to ask: who was Clio Campbell?

and/or

 'Three Women' by Lisa Taddeo - scored average of 8/10 by members

The International No. 1 Bestseller, A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick', Cuts to the heart of who we are' Sunday Times', A book that begs discussion' Vanity Fair

All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn't touch her?All Maggie wanted was to be understood.
How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town?All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women?'

It was great to welcome our lovely BookNookers back to the book club with the first meeting of the year last Thursday.

The January book choices of 'Small Things Like These' by Claire Keegan and 'The Heart's Invisible Furies' by John Boyne were amongst the most enjoyed books we have read. Members scored Small Things 8/10 and Invisible Furies 9/10. I have some more copies in the shop if those pique your interest!

January meeting will be Thursday 27th January 2022 7-9pm and the chosen reads are-

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne (£8.99)

Forced to flee the scandal brewing in her hometown, Catherine Goggin finds herself pregnant and alone, in search of a new life at just sixteen. She knows she has no choice but to believe that the nun she entrusts her child to will find him a better life. Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or so his parents are constantly reminding him. Adopted as a baby, he's never quite felt at home with the family that treats him more as a curious pet than a son. But it is all he has ever known. And so begins one man's desperate search to find his place in the world. Unspooling and unseeing, Cyril is a misguided, heart-breaking, heartbroken fool. Buffeted by the harsh winds of circumstance towards the one thing that might save him from himself, but when opportunity knocks, will he have the courage, finally, take it?

and

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (£10)

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.

As always, let me know asap if you want to order a copy of either/both.

The choices for the December 9th meeting are:

• Still Life by Sarah Winman H/B £16.99

  1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening. Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the wreckage and relive memories of the time she encountered EM Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view. Evelyn's talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses' mind that will shape the trajectory of his life - and of those who love him - for the next four decades. Moving from the Tuscan Hills and piazzas of Florence, to the smog of London's East End, Still Life is a sweeping, joyful novel about beauty, love, family and fate.

   And/or-

  Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal- p/b £8.99

  Every woman has a secret life... When Nikki takes a creative writing job at her local temple, with visions of emancipating the women of the community she left behind as a self-important teenager, she's shocked to discover a group of barely literate women who have no interest in her ideals. Yet to her surprise, the white dupatta of the widow hides more than just their modesty - these are women who have spent their lives in the shadows of fathers, brothers and husbands; being dutiful, raising children and going to temple, but whose inner lives are as rich and fruitful as their untold stories. But as they begin to open up to each other about womanhood, sexuality, and the dark secrets within the community, Nikki realises that the illicit nature of the class may place them all in danger. East meets west and tradition clashes with modernity in a thought-provoking cross-cultural novel that might make you look again at the women in your life

The choices for November are:

• The Human Son by Adrian J Walkee

  or/and

• The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong

***IMPORTANT UPDATE***

I am delighted to announce that The BookNookers Book Club will reconvene in The Vennel (new venue upstairs from Oven) on Thursday September 16th @7pm.

We can now meet as one group, so this date is for both previous groups.

Book Club Reads

• Books selected from previous meetings were -

  • The Five : The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

  • The Guest List by Lucy Foley

  • The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

  • The Night the Angels came by Cathy Glass