The books we discuss range widely in setting and style - see book reviews for brief descriptions of some we have read in earlier years. We look for books set in different places and at different times: discussions in 2025 have been about 'The Island of Missing Trees' by Elif Shefak (the Cyprus emergency), 'Back in the Day' by Melvyn Bragge (autobiography), 'Birnam Wood' by Eleanor Catton (guerrilla gardening in New Zealand), 'Great Circle' by Maggie Shipstead (early feats of aviation), 'The Marriage Portrait' by Maggie O'Farrell (My Last Duchess), 'Exiles' by Jane Harper (Australian crime detection), 'Case Study' by Graeme Macrae Burnet (a wry look back at 60s counterculture), Klara and the Sun by Kazuro Ishiguro (Artificial Intelligence plus?).

So far in 2026 we have discussed The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin (A Tale of Two Planets), The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson (A dysfunctional family), A Gentleman in Moscow ( Thirty years in hotel-arrest), England, England by Julian Barnes (The Isle of Wight becomes a miniature country), The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers (A summer spent making crop circles).