'The Essence of the Thing ' by Madeleine St John

Haunting and hilarious: a novel about the things women do to hold onto love, and about what men do to escape it.

Nicola should never have stepped out to buy that pack of cigarettes because the man she discovers in her living room when she returns is not the adorable, straightforward, devoted Jonathan with whom she has been sharing her life and flat for the past six weeks. That Jonathan would never have simply, unilaterally, decided that...  More details.

'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet' by David Mitchell

David Mitchell is back! You may remember the hoopla the boys at Riverbend made over David Mitchell’s ‘Cloud Atlas’ a few years ago, and I know a number of our local bookclubs have since read it too. Mitchell’s new book is written a little differently to ‘Cloud Atlas’ (there’s only one main story to contend with here) but it is just as beautifully epic and romantic. Set in Japan in 1799 this is the story of a young Dutch man entranced with the exotic...  More details.

'The Breaking of Eggs' by Jim Powell

Feliks Zhukovski is a Pole in Paris, a man out of place and out of his own time - a man who chose politics over people and ideas over love. His life's work is a travel guide to the old Eastern bloc; his personal life a series of failures. Unfortunately for Feliks, it's 1991. Communism has collapsed, East Germany isn't the economic miracle he wants it to be, and at 61, his travel-writing days are numbered. Feliks makes the decision to sell his guide...  More details.

'God is Not One' by Stephen Prothero

Is religion toxic or tonic? Is it a force for good or for evil? The answer is 'all of the above' – which is to say that religion is a force far too powerful to be ignored.

God Is Not One is the essential guide to learning about and understanding religion and its place in our global culture today, written for religious and non-religious people alike, and for people in between.

Stephen Prothero's fresh and controversial argument...  More details.