Reading Groups Collection
He Said/She Said |
Himself |
History of Wolves |
The House on the Strand |
How to Stop Time |
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared |
I’m Travelling Alone |
In Cold Blood |
Instructions for a Heatwave |
The Island of Missing Trees |
The Island of Sea Women |
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He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly
At
a festival in Cornwall, in the hushed moments after the first eclipse Laura and Kit share, Laura interrupts a man and a woman. She knows she saw something
terrible. But the man denies it. Later, in a panic, Laura tells a little white lie - which changes 4 lives irreparably. When the victim turns up on their
doorstep, the truth seems to vanish ever further into shadow. As gratitude spills into dangerous obsession, Kit and Laura simply have to run. But they can't
hide forever. With another eclipse on the horizon, the past is closing in on them again. Telling Kit the truth will cost Laura her marriage. But keeping the
secret could cost them both their lives. And the person they fear the most knows exactly where they'll be.
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Himself by Jess Kidd
1950. A teenage girl is brutally murdered in a forest.
But, somehow, her baby survives. 1976. A mysterious and charming young man returns to the remote coastal village of Mulderrig, seeking answers about the mother who, it was said, had
abandoned him on the steps of a Dublin orphanage. With the help of its oldest and most eccentric inhabitant, he will force the village to give up its ghosts. Nothing, not even the dead,
can stay buried forever.
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History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
Linda
has an idiosyncratic home life: her parents live in abandoned commune cabins in northern Minnesota and are hanging on to the last vestiges of a faded
counter-culture world. The kids at school call her 'Freak', or 'Commie'. She is an outsider in all things. Her understanding of the world comes from her
observations at school, where her teacher is accused of possessing child pornography, and from watching the seemingly ordinary life of a family she babysits
for. Yet while the accusation against the teacher is perhaps more innocent than it seemed at first, the ordinary family turns out to be more complicated. As
Linda insinuates her way into the family's orbit, she realises they are hiding something. If she tells the truth, she will lose the normal family life she is
beginning to enjoy with them; and if she doesn't, a life is at stake.
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The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier
Dick
Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as guinea pig for a new drug Magnus has discovered in his biochemical research.
On taking the drug, Dick finds himself transported through time to the Cornwall of the 14th century.
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How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Tom
Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but he was born in 1581. Owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries.
From Shakespeare's England to jazz age Paris and voyaging the Pacific, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to
stay alive, Tom now has the perfect cover - working as a history teacher at a London school. Here, he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he'd
never witnessed them first-hand. He can try to tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The only thing Tom mustn't do is fall in love.
'How to Stop
Time' is a wild, bittersweet, time-travelling story about losing and finding yourself; about the certainty of change, and the mistakes humans are doomed to
repeat. And about the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live.
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The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Sitting
quietly in his room in an old people's home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn't want to begin.
His one-hundredth birthday party to be precise. The Mayor will be there. The press will be there. But, as it
turns out, Allan will not… Escaping (in his slippers) through his bedroom window, into the flowerbed, Allan makes
his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase
full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, Allan's earlier life is revealed. A life in which -
remarkably - he played a key role behind the scenes in some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.
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I’m Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork
A
six-year-old girl is found hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which says 'I'm travelling alone'. A special homicide unit in Oslo is
re-opened with veteran police investigator Holger Munch at the helm. He must convince his erstwhile partner, Mia Kruger, an extremely talented but eccentric
investigator, to leave the solitary island to which she has retreated in order to take her own life. When scrutinising the murder files, Mia spots the number
one carved into the dead girl's fingernail. She returns to duty to prevent more little girls falling victim to a terrifying, revenge-driven serial killer.
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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Agent Al Dewey of the Kansas
Bureau of Investigation has a horrific murder to solve - and precious few clues. Capote's reconstruction of the slaughter of an entire family shows a gripping mix of journalistic skills
and imaginative power.
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Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
It's
July 1976 and London is in the grip of a heatwave. It hasn't rained for months, the 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 with different ideas as to where their father may have gone.
None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share.
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The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
1974, on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that
Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic, chilli peppers and
wild herbs. This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours,
the world outside and its immoderate sorrows. In 'The Island of Missing Trees', prizewinning author Elif Shafak brings us a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma,
memory and amnesia, human-induced destruction of nature, and, finally, renewal.
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The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin
working in the sea with their village's all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook's mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a
life of excitement and responsibility - following generations of women haenyeo - but also danger. The haenyeo free dive, holding their breath as they swim to the rocky sea bottom in
pursuit of their quarry. Both will experience tragedy in the water, further deepening their bond. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook's differences are impossible
to ignore.
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Page last updated: 1st November 2023