Reading Groups in Libraries
Reading groups are fun and rewarding and they change the private and personal experience of reading into a shared one.
July New Stock
Check out what’s new in stock this July!
The Chain | Bradley Wiggins
Bradley Wiggins is the greatest British cyclist of his generation. A national hero on both track and road, he won five Olympic gold medals, eight world titles and the Tour de France. But his is a story mired in contradiction, controversy, and confusion.
Sat on a throne after winning gold at London 2012, just ten days after becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France, here was a man with the world at his feet. Sporting hero. People’s champion. Legend. Everyone knew who ‘Wiggo’ was. Everyone, that is, but him. Bradley’s own truth was one of a chaotic and disturbing upbringing characterised by abandonment, violence and abuse. The bike had been his escape but he knew that the second he got out of the saddle he was a shadow-man with no self-belief and even less self-worth.
The Deal | Elle Kennedy
Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice – even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date – and it’s going to be oh so good.
All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realise that pretend isn’t going to cut it.
The Jasmine Throne | Tasha Suri
Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of powerful magic – but is now little more than a decaying ruin.
Priya is a maidservant, one of several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to attend Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, as long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.
But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled.
The Cut | Richard Armitage
Thirty years ago, one of Ben Knott’s schoolfriends was murdered. Another went to prison. The story ended. The village of Barton Mallett tried to move on. Now her killer is back.
As the murderer’s sentence ends, the village is chosen as the unlikely location for a feature film by a Hollywood producer, with Ben’s son Nathan cast in the leading role. As the film takes shape, Ben begins to recognise the storyline – from his own past. As his son becomes immersed in a tale of bullying and retribution, things turn dangerous, and an uncomfortable truth begins to emerge. Ben must choose between the safety of his children and reopening the wounds of the past.
How much is he willing to risk to protect his family – and himself?
Time to Burn | Ellery Lloyd
London, the present day: commercial time travel is a reality. Tempus Tours – owned by controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank – offers the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatised, with one of their number missing. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past – and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Can Phoebe stop the ripple effect before she loses everything – and everyone – she holds dear?
The Haunting of a Brontë | Amelia Blackwell
Pemberley, 1799. Like many a Regency heroine, Georgiana Darcy is pining for the man she loves. The difference is, her lover is in 1995, and she has been left behind in 1799 waiting for the mysterious device that transports her through time to re-activate.
Thorp Green Hall, 1845. But when her Motorola pager finally comes back to life, Georgiana finds herself only forty-six years in the future, at the gloomy Thorp Green Hall, where Branwell and Anne Brontë are the tutor and governess.
Georgiana assumes she will soon come across a murder to investigate, but even before she discovers the cook’s father dead on a chopping block, she finds herself entangled in a web of passion, deception, and danger centred on the eccentric Branwell Brontë. Branwell is engaged in a perilous affair with the mistress of the house and experiences a series of sinister omens and terrifying encounters.
Wild Seed | Octavia E. Butler
It begins when two immortals meet in an African forest.
Doro is an ancient spirit who, for thousands of years, has cultivated a small village of people in search of perfection. He steals from their bodies to sustain his own life. Doro fears no one – until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is like Doro and yet different. She uses her wisdom to help others, healing injuries, birthing tribes and shifting the shapes of her own body. Anyanwu feels no threat – until she meets Doro.
In an epic story of love and hate, Doro and Anyanwu chase each other across continents and centuries – a power struggle that echoes through generations. Together they will change the world.
Deception | Jack Jordan
Emma and Miles are out of options. Their son needs life-saving transplant surgery, but in a world of privatised healthcare and impossible costs, they can’t afford it.
Then comes the offer: a shadowy syndicate known only as The Levels promises them the exact amount of money they need. All they must do is complete a series of tasks. The catch? Each task is a crime.
With every level the stakes rise, the pay-out grows and the line between right and wrong blurs. But Emma and Miles aren’t the only ones playing this deadly game. As the competition intensifies and they struggle under the weight of their choices, they’re faced with the ultimate question: How far would you go to save the one you love?
Who Owns Football? : The Changing Face of Club Ownership | Nick Miller
Leading football writer Nick Miller lifts the lid on modern football club ownership with tales of the good, the bad and the ugly side of the business.
Aside from a ball and 11 players on each team, virtually everything about football has changed since the first games took place in the mid-1800s. Although now less accessible and accountable than ever before, football club owners are now arguably more important than ever, with the ability to drastically change the fortunes of a club at the drop of a hat.
Goodies such as Steve Gibson who saved Middlesbrough from debt and led them to the Premier League have become heroes, but terrible owners are the ones we remember because of the scars they have left behind.
Empire Windrush: Reflections on 75 Years of the Black British Experience | Edited by Onyekachi Wambu
In June 1948 the SS Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, carrying with it the hopes and dreams of hundreds of young men and women from the Caribbean. It was both a point of departure and a historic transformation, a moment which influenced generations of writers and artists and produced much poetry, prose, fiction, journalism and influential essays.
In this collection, journalist and writer Onyekachi Wambu collates some of the best and most significant writing from the 75 years following the arrival of Empire Windrush.
The Correspondent | Virginia Evans
In her letters to family and friends we come to know the life of Sybil Van Antwerp: stubborn, cantankerous, opinionated, always steadfast in her belief in the power of the written word.
But as the clock begins to tick for Sybil, the need for a few post-scripts to the life she’s led becomes apparent. Fixing her difficult relationship with her children. Taking a final chance at romance. Atoning for an old legal case which has come back to haunt her. And finally, reckoning with a devastating loss that she has spent the last 30 years holding close to her chest.
Red Rising | Pierce Brown
Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars, generations of people who spend their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that, one day, people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.
Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. That Mars has been habitable – and inhabited – for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down at Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.
Brain Damage | Freida McFadden
After years of hard work, Dr. Charly McKenna finally has it all. Prosperous career as a dermatologist? Check. Spacious apartment overlooking Central Park? Check. Handsome lawyer husband? Double check. Then one night, a bullet rips through the right side of her skull and she loses everything.
As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realise that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her before he finishes the job he started.
These Wild English: A Family, A Class, A Country on Fire | Nicola Wilding
This is the story of one family finding their way through the chaos and crises of modern Britain. From the working farms of Cumbria to the windswept shores of Kent, Nicola Wilding follows three generations of her family through moments of love, pride, rage and riot as they struggle against dispossession and marginalisation.
Written with tenderness, candour and an eye for beauty amid the mess, this is an unforgettable portrait of a fractured community, class and country searching for meaning and belonging.
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Do you speak English as a second language? Want to practise and learn more English in a supportive group? Then our conversation groups could be for you.
