It happens every year. The annual dilemma.
What books am I going to put up for book group? Every single year I dither over this.
My book group has been going for nearly 20 years, we've had some come in and out and there's the odd blow in, but the eight of us have been at this for at least ten years and we've been doing the lolly vote for all of this.
At our book choosing meeting you're given a bag of 25 lollies. Once everybody has championed their two books you get to put lollies on the books you want to read (but you can't vote for your own books).
Books have to fit the book group criteria, these being:
- Must be fiction - no non-fiction, memoir or autobiography
- Should be under 500 pages - we will accept a few more pages but use discretion when choosing. So, Demon Copperhead at 560 pages - yes. A Little Life at nearly 1000 pages - no.
- Should be of either literary or good popular fiction quality. So, Liane Moriarty, yes. Dan Brown, no.
- Must be readily available in book shops, libraries, online. Nothing out of print or hard to get.
- Book choices need to be in two days before the December meeting.
I'm the only one who knows what's on the book list ahead of time. We have the two-day amnesty as it allows for anybody who can't make the meeting to vote. Also, it stops double ups. So far this year we have eight books in - already two double ups.
Anyway, I have to have a think about what I'm going to put in.
Nothing on this list has been chosen yet (though a couple of my long list have been chosen).
So here is what I'm thinking about putting up at the moment.
Chosen Family by Madeline Gray
A coming-of-age story set in Sydney taking the two protagonists through to adulthood.
I loved her first book, Green Dot and I'm looking forward to reading more. Australian content. Published 2025. 357 pages.
Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
The blurb reads, "In 1959, at just fifteen years of age, Mabel Waller became the youngest Australian in history to be convicted of murder. She is known around the world as Mad Mabel. But is she mad? More importantly, is she guilty? In a world first, at the age of 81, Mabel Waller is speaking."
I've heard good things about Sally Hepworth. Australian content. Published 2025. 342 pages.
The Underworld by Sofie Laguna
I love Sofie Laguna. She's amazing. This one is about a girl growing up - a misfit with a glamorous, aloof mother and absent father. She learsn about the underworld in Roman Mythology classes at school. She has friends, but then things go wrong.
Sofie Laguna always breaks your heart. That's why you keep going back. Australian content. Published 2025. 370 pages.
Theory and Practice by Michele de Kretzer
Winner of this year's Miles Franklin award, this is a Melbourne based novel set in the 80s. It's very cool, though rather unsettling. I loved the details in this. Michele de Kretzer can be challenging, but in a good way.
Australian content. Published 2024. 180 pages.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
This is my popular fiction thought. Phoebe is a woman, recently separated, who goes to a flash hotel hell bent on ending her life. But there is a big wedding being held at this fancy-schmancy hotel and when the bride gets wind of this, she's having none of it. It's a book about dysfunctional families, friendship, love and everything in between.
American author. Published 2024. 367 pages.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins-Reid
I'd gone off Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I listened to this, and it was fantastic. The story of two women astronauts. Friends, lovers, trailblazers. This is a page turner. Emotional. Interesting. Engaging. Jenkins-Reid is back to her best.
American author. Published 2025. Published 2025, 352 pages.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
This is a little book that packs a punch. It won the Booker Prize last year. It's about a group of astronauts floating about space. It is incredible. And little. And it keeps coming back to you.
English author. Published 2024. 136 pages.
Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton
I love Trent Dalton. His Boy Swallows Universe was voted the best book of the last 20 years by ABC Radio listeners. How we missed Lola in the Mirror on our reading list last year I will never know. It's amazing. Anyway, this one, according to the blurb, is a dark, gritty, hilarious and unexpected exploration of marriage and ambition, truth-telling, and truth-omitting, self-deception and self-preservation. Hmm.
Australian author. Published 2025. Published 2025. 431 pages.
Great Acts of Love by Heather Rose
Heather Rose is another favourite author of mine. And all of her books are really different. She also won the Stella Prize for The Museum of Modern Love a few years ago. An incredible book.
This one's blurb reads, "Caroline will tell the story of how she came to Tasmania, when it was still Van Diemen's Land, many times. She will cast her inventions into the future. Those who carry them will call it history, but she will call it her life. "
It's a family saga. Got to love a good famly saga.
Australian author. Published 2025. 471 pages.
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
I listened to this as an audiobook and fell in love with it. Here's the blurb from Goodreads.
"Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.
A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love."
It was awesome.
English author. Published 2025. 319 pages.
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I am remiss in that I've not read Ngozi Adichie yet. I missed reading Half a Yellow Sun because I was overseas at the time - one of the few book group books I've missed.
This one also looks at the African diaspora in four separate stories.
Nigerian author. Published 2025. 474 pages.
Any thoughts on what I should choose? There are so many books I could put on this list. So many books, so little time. Too many to choose from.
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