Reading Groups in Libraries
Reading groups are fun and rewarding and they change the private and personal experience of reading into a shared one.
May New Stock
Take a look at what’s new on our shelves this May!
The Future-Proof Career | Isabel Berwick
Here is an accessible and approachable guide to work and careers from a trusted and authoritative source. ‘The Future-Proof Career’ looks at the new way of working in a post-pandemic world and shows you how to make work work for you, no matter what stage of your career you’re at.
Paradiso 17 | Hannah Lillith Assadi
The intimate, sweeping tale of one man’s restless search for home, as the pendulum of fate swings between loss and life, grief and euphoria, regret and hope.
One Small Step: The Incredible Story of Parkrun | Paul Sinton-Hewitt
Growing up in the brutal care system of South Africa, Paul Sinton-Hewitt had a lonely, difficult childhood. Yet he found solace in running – a simple pleasure that taught him resilience and offered a young boy a sense of self-worth.
With dogged determination, Paul built a stable family life for himself and eventually settled in the UK. But by 2004 he was struggling to hold it all together. In search of connection and purpose, he came up with a simple idea. He would start a weekly time trial run every Saturday morning in his local park. There would be no winners or losers, it would always be free and Paul would be there every week – even on Christmas Day – whether or not anyone else came.
Little did he know that from just thirteen runners on that first Saturday, parkrun would grow into a 10 million strong community across five continents.
Gloria Don’t Speak | Lucy Apps
Gloria has a learning disability. She’s nineteen, and there’s nothing to do except wander the local parks, look for friendship and keep out of trouble – or go round Jack’s. Jack needs Gloria’s company, but he’s unpredictable and angry at the world. After an act of violence, their friendship has to end. Now Gloria’s on her own. But when she hears Jack’s out of prison, her whole world is turned upside-down.
Heart-breaking and beautiful, ‘Gloria Don’t Speak’ is an insightful portrait of a woman dealing with vulnerability, violence – and the desire for connection.
A Guardian and a Thief | Megha Majumdar
In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her two-year-old daughter Mishti, and her elderly father Dadu are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, with all the treasured immigration documents within it, has been stolen.
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.
Flashlight | Susan Choi
One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university.
When Louisa wakes up hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, likely drowned. The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit, and she and her American mother Anne return to the US profoundly changed. This traumatic event reverberates across time and space, as we follow mother and daughter trying to go on with their lives, while the mystery of what really happened to Serk that night slowly unravels.
Audition | Katie Kitamura
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere.
He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him?
Enough Said | Alan Bennett
This is Alan Bennett’s fourth collection of diaries and prose.
Covering the turbulent years 2016 to 2024, the diaries take us through lockdown, Brexit, the reign of Johnson, the rise of Trump and the death of the Queen. In between, we take the train with him back and forth to Yorkshire, celebrate the herons, the newts and the street fairs, and lament the scarcity of curlews, the closure of the last local bank and the deteriorating welfare state.
There is the premiere of Allelujah!, the revived Talking Heads, the publication of two Sunday Times bestsellers and the filming of The Choral. 2024 is the year that Alan turns ninety; he reflects on old age and the importance of luck. He looks back to childhood and recalls an idyllic wartime month as an evacuee.
Tender: 100 Poems for the First 100 Days of Life | Harry Baker
‘Tender’ captures all the tiny, fragile, perfect moments of new life and, with it, new parenthood. Full of sleepless wonder and with his characteristic wit and warmth, Harry Baker offers snapshots into the intense first 100 days with his son as they get to know each other.
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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.
