Take a look at our Book Club Favourites for June, perfect for reading groups! All free to borrow with your library card.
Including gripping thrillers, heart-warming romances, and immersive historical fiction novels – there’s something for every book club.
Want more suggested books? Take a look at our recommendations.
American Woman
Susan Choi
On the run after an act of violence against the American government, twenty-five-year-old Jenny Shimada is drawn into caring for three younger fugitives.
One of them, the kidnapped granddaughter of a San Francisco millionaire, has become a national celebrity for joining her captors’ revolutionary cell.
Yet as Jenny and her charges pursue their destinies from an old farmhouse in upstate New York to California, isolation turns to paranoia and their radical ideals soon begin to fracture.
Everything Will Swallow You
Tom Cox
Have you ever been curious about how people live when nobody is watching? Have you wondered whether there’s more going on than meets the eye?
Eric and Carl live in Dorset in a small white cottage under the shadow of a big cliff. Eric sells old records and antiques. Carl cooks, cleans and crochets. Nearing 70, Eric is a lifelong accumulator of obscure objects whose easygoing, chaotic approach to life masks some of the unaddressed sadness of his past.
The significantly younger Carl is an old soul who has a sophisticated emotional intelligence and likes swimming, mid-century female novelists, fibre arts and Dolly Parton. If you passed them on a walk, you may not pay them much attention. Most likely you would see Carl’s long floppy ears, tail and fur and mistake him for a dog.
The story of Eric and Carl’s friendship spans 21 years: a constant anchor in a changing world.
The Arctic Cruise
Caroline James
Joy never imagined herself on a cruise ship without her beloved husband by her side. Haunted by memories and an empty chair at dinner, she feels lost and alone.
Shy and reluctant to join in the festivities, Joy’s world is turned upside down when a chance encounter under the stars with Henry sparks a friendship that awakens a long-buried part of her soul. And as the ship sails through Norway’s enchanting fjords, Joy begins to rediscover the world, herself, and the possibility of finding love again.
Henry’s life has been full of people but no deep connections, and as a solitary photographer her feels perpetually on the fringe – that is, until he meets Joy. As they spend time together and the winter wonderland around them casts its spell, he starts to wonder if it’s not too late to open his heart to something more.
The Man Who Died Seven Times
Yasuhiko Nishizawa
Hisataro, a young member of the wealthy Fuchigami family, has a mysterious ability. Every now and then, against his will, he falls into a time-loop in which he is obliged to re-live the same day a total of 9 times.
Little does he know how useful this ability will be, until one day, his grandfather mysteriously dies. As he returns to the day of the murder time and again, Hisataro begins to unravel its secrets. With a sizeable inheritance up for grabs, motives abound, and everyone is a suspect.
Can Hisataro solve the mystery of his grandfather’s death before his powers run out?
The Wish
Heather Morris
Jesse is 15. She loves her friends, her little brother and her parents – even when they’re arguing, which feels like constantly these days. But most of all, she loves playing video games. Even from her hospital bed.
Alex is 29. He doesn’t love a lot of things. To be honest, he’s not really sure he knows how to. His desk at work, as VR games designer, is empty, much like his life feels sometimes.
Then Jesse makes a wish. A simple one: a video experience made of her life, something to be there, just in case she isn’t.
One loving teenager. One lonely adult. Which one will get the happy ending?
The Lover
Mary Watson
Rafe seems like your perfect man – intelligent, charming, attractive.
You think you’ve met the one.
You go back to his house one evening and falls asleep in his arms.
When you wake, you reach out for him. But something feels cold beside you…
Rafe is dead – murdered in bed as you lay next to him – and everyone is going to think you did it.
The Café on the Coast
Christie Barlow
Clemmie Rose’s great-great-grandmother’s beloved clementine torte is her ticket to the prestigious Royal Baking Competition. A win could put Puffin Island’s charming Cafe on the Coast on the map, land Clemmie her very own cookbook deal, and secure her a coveted invitation to a royal garden party.
But when she discovers the competition is being hosted aboard the Royal Yacht by none other than her ex, Oliver Lockwood, the stakes – and the souffles – suddenly rise, and Clemmie’s bid for the Golden Whisk trophy is at risk of collapsing like an underbaked sponge.
When a decades-old secret is thrown into the mix, she’ll need more than the perfect recipe to keep her dreams from crumbling.
Too Old For This
Samantha Downing
You’d never guess Lottie Jones had skeletons in her closet She’s lived in town for decades now. She’s getting older. She lives for the simple pleasures of weekly bingo games at church, and gossiping with her friends about their children’s love lives.
But when investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past, and specifically about her connection to numerous unsolved murders, well, Lottie just can’t have that.
But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realises this crime might just be the death of her.
Connie
Charlotte Duckworth
They know she killed them. They’ve just never known why.
Connie Cross was a trusted pharmacy assistant when she was arrested for the gruesome murders of at least seven strangers. Now, she’s serving a whole-life order for the shocking crimes she refuses to explain.
Olivia Lang never forgot Connie, the awkward teenager from a south London estate she first met while working for the police. Twenty years later, Olivia is desperate to understand what made Connie turn into a murderer.
But as she begins to uncover the truth about the UK’s most notorious female serial killer, Olivia risks revealing secrets she’s kept hidden for years.
Farewell to Eden
Sebastian Faulks
Philip Deval, a soldier recently returned from the beaches of Normandy, arrives in Palestine on a peace-keeping mission in the final days of the British Mandate.
The Sea of Galilee glitters in the distance as war-weary troops marvel at the novelty of oranges and sun – a paradise that belies a fierce new conflict about to erupt.
Some years later, Philip begins work teaching at a school in the English countryside and meets the enigmatic music mistress, Frances Darwood. Over long evenings spent listening to records in her music room, they grow close.
But Philip is a changed man, and must confront the secrets and scars of all he has lived through – which threaten, even now, to upend his future.