Wānaka Library Book Club meets each month at the library to chat about all bookish things.
Join us on the last Friday morning of each month at 10am - 11am.
Next meeting: Friday 23 February
Theme: Blind Date with a Book
Reading Suggestions from Friday 26 January
Fiction
Wish you were Here – Jodi Picoult
Madhoney – Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan
In Ascension – Martin MacInnes (Sci-fi)
Light Over Liskeard – Louis De Burnieres
Normal Rules Don’t Apply: Short Stories - Kate Atkinson
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Shehan Karunatilaka
To the Bright Edge of the World – Eowyn Ivey
The girl in the Eagles Talsons – Karin Smirnoff (Millennium series; 7)
Small things Like these – Claire Keegan
Non-Fiction
The Happiest Man on Earth – Eddie Jaku
The Gift: 12 Lessons to save your life – Edith Eiger
Thursday 19 October - 5:30PM - 6:30PM
Friday 20 October - 10:00AM - 11:00AM
Books about Books
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman
The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes
The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
The People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
The Banned Bookshop
Other reading fiction
No Hard Feelings – Genevieve Novak
Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty
The Weather Woman – Sally Gardner
The Making of Her – Bernadette Jiwa
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese
The Bean Tree – Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer – Barbara Kingsolver
Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward
Catcher in the Rye – J.D Salinger
Dictionary of lost words – Pip Williams
Bell in the Lake – Lars Mytting
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme – Lars Mytting
The Winter Orphans – Kristin Beck
Between Sisters – Kristin Hannah
Other reading non-fiction
Our Land in Colour: A history of Aotearoa New Zealand – Brendan Graham
Reading list from 20 & 21 September
The Language of Food – Annabel Abbs (also known as Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen)
What Caesar Did For My Salad – Albert Jack
Apples Never Fall – Liane Moriarty
My French Platter – Annemarie Rawson
Lab Girl: A story of trees, science and love – Hope Jahren
The Man With No Face – Peter May
The Lost King – the Search for Richard III – Philippa Langley
Boy Swallows Universe – Trent Dalton
The Axeman’s Carnival – Catherine Chidgey
The Snow Killer – Ross Greenwood
Diary of a young Naturalist – Dara McAnulty
Bright Star : Beatrice Hill Tinsley, Astronomer – Christine Catley
The Secret Life of the starts : Astrophysics for everyone – Lisa Harvey-Smith
The Emperors Soul – Brandon Sanderson
The Davos Man – Peter S. Goodman
The Avoidable War – Kevin Rudd
Salt to the Sea – Ruta Sepetys
Amazing Grace Adams – Fran Littlewood
The Sweetness of Water – Nathan Harris
Cry the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
How to be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
Not that I’d Kiss a Girl – Lil O’Brien
Reading list from 17 & 18 August.
Modern Retelling of a Classic
Northanger Abbey – Val McDermid
Frankenstein in Bagdad – Ahmed Saadawi
Longbourn – Jo Baker ** Highly Recommended
Fiction
Everything is Beautiful and everything hurts – Josie Shapiro ** highly recommended
A Month of Sundays – Liz Byrski
In the Unlikely Event – Judy Blume
The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim - ** Highly Recommended. Author has an interesting story. She was born Mary Annette Beauchamp, born in Australia married a German aristocrat. A relative of Katherine Mansfield and wrote 22 novels.)
The God of small things – Arundhati Roy
Remote Sympathy – Catherine Chidgey
Once a runner – John L. Parker Jr.
Fantasy Fiction
The Black Magician Trilogy – Trudi Canavan
Non-Fiction
The Secret life of stars: astrophysics for everyone – Lisa Harvey-Smith
There’s a cure for this – Emma Espiner
A life on our planet – David Attenborough
The Mother of all questions : further feminism – Rebecca Solnit
A Tattoo on my Brain – Dr. Daniel Gibbs – (not available through the library)
H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald
Running with Sherman – Christopher McDougall
Small is beautiful – EF Schumacher
Once a runner – John L. Parker Jr.
Reading from Friday 21 & Thursday 28 July
Awaken the Giant within – Anthony Robbins
Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt – Lucinda Riley
A day of Fallen Night – Samantha Shannon
Really good Actually – Monica Heisey
Viking Women : life and lore – Lisa Hannett
Romantic Comedy – Curtis Sittenfeld
Gender Queer (Graphic Novel) – Maia Kobabe
Blankets (Graphic Novel) – Craig Thompson
Best of Friends – Kamila Shamsie
Madly, deeply : the diaries of Alan Rickman – Alan Rickman
Last one at the Party – Bethany Clift
The Secret Chord - Geraldine Brooks
A Month of Sundays - Liz Byrski
The Wolves in the Wall - Neil Gaiman
Madly Deeply - The Alan Rickman Diaries
The Wild Silence - Raynor Winn
A Room with a View - Edward Morgan Forster
A Luminous Republic - Andres Barba (not available at the library)
From the Centre: A Writers Life - Patricia Grace
Reading list from Thursday 15 June & Friday 16 June
Read Around the World
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
- All our Shimmering Skies – Trent Dalton
- A sailor, a chicken, an incredible voyage: the seafaring adventures of Guirec and Monique – Guirec Soudee (non-fiction)
- The Bookseller at the end of the World – Ruth Shaw (non-fiction)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
- Snow – John Banville
- The Other side of Beautiful – Kim Lock
- Daughter of Persia – Sattareh Farman-Farmaian
- Wildboy – Brando Yelavich
- Atlas The Story of Pa Salt – Lucinda Riley
- Book Woman from Troublesome Creek – Kim Michele Richardson
- The Book woman’s daughter – Kim Michele Richardson
- The Durrells of Corfu – Michael Haag
- The Sympathiser – Viet Than Nguyen
- A House without Windows – Nadia Hashimi
- The Paris Architect – Charles Balfour
- The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah
Additional reading
- A Day of Fallen Night – Samantha Shannon
- The Other Bennet Sister – Janice Hadlow
- Perfect – Rachel Joyce
- Longbourn – Jo Baker
- Shrines of Gaiety – Kate Atkinson
- The Vanishing acts of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell
- Short Stories – Alan Bennett
- Stepping Up – Sarah Turner
Reading from last month - May
This is not a Pity Memoir – Abi Morgan
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
Widows of Malabar Hill – Sujata Massey
Laughing at the Dark – Barbara Else
Travelling Restaurant – Barbara Else
The Boy from Gorge River – Chris Long
The Jane Austen Remedy – Ruth Wilson
Blood & Sugar – Laura Shepherd-Robinson
The Fortune Men – Nadifa Mohamed
The Seven Sisters series – Lucinda Riley
Black Skies – Indraason Arnaldur
The Fires – Hagalin Bjornsdottir Sigriaur
The Dark Remains – William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin
Listening to the Wind – Tim Robinson
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
Childhood’s End - Arthur C Clarke
Catcher in the Rye – J D Salinger
The Time Between Stitches – Maria Duenas
Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt – Lucinda Riley
Reading from last month – April
Biographies
What lies Beneath – Elspeth Sandys
Waypoints; My Scottish Journey – Sam Heughan
Bookseller at the End of the World – Ruth Shaw
Self-contained; Scenes from a single life – Emma John
Fiction
Night Crawling – Leila Mottley
The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry
State of Wonder – Ann Patchett
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow – Olivia Hawker
Recommended Reading from Thursday 16 March
Invisible Women; Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for men – Caroline Criado Perez
David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson
All the Broken Places – John Boyne
The Box of Delights – John Masefield
Oblivion – Arnaldur Indrioason
Bookseller at the End of the World – Ruth Shaw
Listening to the Wind – Tim Robinson
Recommended Reading from Thursday 16 / Friday 17 February
New Zealand Authors
The Authors Cut – Owen Marshall
The Doctor’s Wife – Fiona Sussman
The Necessary Angel – C.K Stead
Axeman’s Carnival – Catherine Chidgey
Vanishing Ice – Lynley Hargreaves (non-fiction)
Dogside Story – Patricia Grace
Other Recommendations
The Hunting Party – Lucy Foley
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
Ruth Galloway Mysteries (series) – Elly Griffiths
Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson
Life Sentences – Billy O’Callaghan
Madly, Deeply: the Alan Rickman Diaries – Alan Rickman
Shrines of Gaiety – Kate Atkinson
Recommended Reading from Thursday 19 / Friday 20 January
Fiction
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
All our Shimmering Skies – Trent Dalton
The luminaries – Eleanor Catton
Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
Klara and the Sun – Kazou Ishiguro
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Family Matters – Ellie O’Neill
Non-Fiction
Sapiens: A brief history of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
Touring Edwardian New Zealand – Paul Moon
Recommended reading from Thursday 15 December - Eco Fiction
Around the World in 80 Trees - Jonathan Drori
Around the World in 80 Plants - Jonathan Drori
Sea of Tranquility - Emily Mandel
The Last - Hanna Jameson (available on BorrowBox)
Also enjoyed:
John Dies at the End - David Wong
Paradise Lost - John Milton
The Cuckoos Calling - Robert Galbraith (1st in the Cormoran Strike series)
Recommended reading from Thursday 15 September - Free Range
Wish You Were Here - Jodi Picoult
The Rajneesh Chronicles - Win McCormack
Prelude to Foundation - Isaac Asimov
White Mughals - William Dalrymple
Reservoir Tapes - Jon McGregor
Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
Let me Sing you Gentle Songs - Linda Olsson
Aspiring Settlers - John H Angus
The Parliamentary Novels - Anthony Trollope
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Dr Ruth Galloway series - Elly Griffiths
Recommended reading from Thursday 18 August - Armchair Travel
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell
The Frozen River by James Crowden
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
My Life in France by Julia Child
Also enjoyed this month:
The Left-handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
A Mouthful of Birds: Stories by Samanta Schweblin
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials)
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
The Fifth Season by N.K.Jemisin (Broken Earth Trilogy)
Noughts + Crosses by Malory Blackman
Apples Never Fall by Liane Morarity
Recommended reading from Thursday 21 July - Young Adult Novel
The Shepherds Crown by Terry Pratchett Discworld series
The Northern Lights by Phlip Pullman
The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily XR Pan
The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi
The Skylarks War by Hilary McKay
I am Not Esther by Fleur Beale
Also enjoyed this month:
Death. The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman Graphic Novel
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane
The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter
The Plant Hunter by T.L Mogford
The Underland by Robert MacFarlane
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
Recommended reading from Thursday 23 June - NZ Authors
The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw
The Silver Gaucho: A Novel by Jackie Ballantyne
Everything Changes by Stephanie Johnson
Nostaligia has Ruined my Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle
10pm Question by Kate De Goldi
Also enjoyed this month:
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingwa
A Song for a new Day by Sarah Pinsker
Wayfinding: The art and science of how we find and lose our way by Michael Shaw Bond
Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills
Mhairi McFarlane - Light reading
It wasn't Meant to be like this by Lisa Wilkinson
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Recommended reading from Thursday 19 May - World Fiction
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Taiga Syndrome - Cristina Rivera Gaza
The Girl Who Reads on the Metro - Christine Feret-Fleury
Animalia - Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamin Labatut
The Labyrinth of Solitude - Octavio Paz
Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees - Roger Deakin
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot - Robert MacFarlane
The Killing of Tinkers - Ken Bruen
Also enjoyed this month:
Grief is the Thing With Feathers - Max Porter
Addressed to Greta - Fiona Sussman
How to Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
Empire of the Sun - J G Ballard
Somebody I used to Know - Wendy Mitchell
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
Brokeback Mountain - Annie Proulx
Miss Smilla's feeling for Snow - Peter Hoag
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Recommended reading from Thursday 17 March - Uplit
Addressed to Greta - Fiona Sussman
Shifting Colours - Fiona Sussman
The Last Time we Spoke - Fiona Sussman
The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside - Jessica Ryn
Maggie's Going Nowhere - Rose Hartley
Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan
The Secret Life of Shirley Sullivan - Lisa Ireland
The Prison Book Club - Ann Walmsley
Gabriel's Bay - Catherine Robertson
Seven Sisters series - Lucinda Riley
In Order to Live - Yeonmi Park
Recommended reading from Thursday 24 February - Summer Reading
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone - Diana Gabaldon
Wish you were There - Jodi Picoult
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
After the Tampa - Abbas Nazari
The Light Perpetual - Francis Spufford
The Husbands Secret - Liane Moriarty
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
Before You Knew My Name - Jacqueline Bublitz (NZ Author)
Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
Should we Stay or Should we Go - Lionel Shriver
This One Wild And Precious Life - Sarah Wilson
The Overstory - Richard Powers
The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah
The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah
