Fernham book group
The Fernham Book Group has been meeting and drinking a lot of wine since 28 June 2002. Our reading list has never been bound by genre and we don’t always read the latest books. We just go for whatever collectively appeals to us. I’ve especially loved those meetings where a book’s inspired people to share their own personal stories and anecdotes. I adore story in all its forms.
Image: Unsplash / Ed Robertson
2002
Anita Shreve: Strange Fits of Passion
Ian McEwan: Atonement
Peter Carey: The True History of the Kelly Gang
Nora Roberts: The Villa
2003
Sebastian Faulks: On Green Dolphin Street
Paul Vincent: The Death of Me
Sarah Waters: Fingersmith
A.S. Byatt: Possession
Haruki Murakami: Sputnik Sweetheart
2004
Richard Russo: Empire Falls
Beryl Bainbridge: According to Queenie
Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees
David Lodge: Thinks
Anna Sebold: The Lovely Bones
Monica Ali: Brick Lane
Paul Bryers: The Used Women's Book Club
2005
William Boyd: Any Human Heart
Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible
Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Travellers Wife
Lorna Landvik: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas
2006
Karen Joy Fowler: The Jane Austen Book Club
Sue Monk Kidd: The Mermaid Chair
Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
Kazua Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go
Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits
Julian Barnes: Arthur and George
Victoria Hislop: The Island
2007
Jasper Fforde: The Big Over Easy
Sarah Waters: The Night Watch
Tim Pears: In the Place of Fallen Leaves
Tim Pears: Blenheim Orchard
Ahdaf Soueif: The Map of Love
A.M. Homes: This Book Could Save Your Life
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun
2008
Barbara Trapido: Frankie and Stankie
Helen Dunmore: The Seige
Katharine McMahon: The Rose of Sebastopol
Markus Zusak: The Book Thief
Deborah Moggach: These Foolish Things - Very good
2009
Rose Tremain: Music and Silence
Amy Tan: The Bonesetter's Daughter
Ian McEwan: Saturday
Stella Rimington: At Risk
Victoria Hislop: The Return
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Purple Hibiscus
Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture
2010
Sarah Dunant: The Birth of Venus
Stefan Zweig: The Post Office Girl
Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory
Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Tracey Chevalier: Remarkable creatures
Steig Larsson: The Millennium Trilogy
Kathryn Stockett: The Help
Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
2011
Alan Bennett: The Uncommon Reader
David Nicholls: One Day
Jo Nesbo: The Snowman
Hisham Matar: In the Country of Men
Ali Smith: Girl Meets Boy (Canongate Myths)
Maggie O'Farrell: After you’d gone
Helen Dunmore: The Betrayal
Sarah Winman: When God was a Rabbit
2012
Edmund de Waal: The Hare with Amber Eyes
Louisa Young: My Dear I Wanted To Tell You
Anita Shreve: Testimony
Michelle Paver: Dark Matter
C.J. Sansom: Dissolution
Vanessa Diffenbaugh: The Language of Flowers
Jonathan Coe: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
2013
Jonas Jonasson: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
Stephen King: 11.22.63
Jo-Jo Moyes: Me Before You
Rosie Thomas: The Kashmir Shawl
Winifred Watson: Miss Pettigrew lives for a Day
Karen Thompson Walker: The Age of Miracles
Liza Klaussman: Tigers in Red Weather
Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl
Simon Toyne: Sanctus
Adriana Trigiani: The Shoemaker's Wife
William Boyd: Waiting for Sunrise
2014
Ian McEwan: Sweet Tooth
Donna Tartt: The Secret History
Deborah Rodriguez: The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul
Stella Duffy: Theodora
Mary Lawson: Crowe Lake
2015
Jessie Burton: The Miniaturist
Clare Mackintosh: I Let You Go
Rosamund Lupton: Sister
Liane Moraty: The Husband’s Secret
Judy Blume: In The Unlikely Event
2016
Craig Lancaster: 600 Hours of Edward, and Edward Adrift
Frederick Backman: A man called Ove
Jan Philipp Sendker: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Ann Patchett: The Magician’s Assistant
Vaseem Khan: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
Stef Penney: The Tenderness of Wolves
2017
Maggie O’Farrell: Instructions for a Heatwave
Jessie Burton: The Muse
Amor Towles: A Gentleman in Moscow
Joanna Cannon: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
Ian McEwan: Nutshell
2018
M.L. Stedman: The Light between Oceans
Gail Honeyman: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Keith Stuart: The Boy Made Of Blocks
John Marrs: The One
Blake Crouch: Dark Matter
Mike Gayle: The Man I Think I Know
Jean Pendziwol: The Lightkeeper’s Daughter
2019
Stuart Toren: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
John Boyne: The Heart’s Invisible Furies
A.J. Finn: The Woman in the Window
Matt Haig: The Humans
Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge
2020
Jenny Rooney: Red Joan
Elizabeth MacNeal: The Doll Factory (on Zoom)
Delia Owens: Where the Crawdads Sing (on Zoom)
Sally Rooney: Normal people (on Zoom)
Jessie Burton: The Confession (on Zoom)
Fiona Shaw: Tell It To The Bees (on Zoom)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah (on Zoom)
Sally Magnusson: The Sealwoman’s Gift (on Zoom)
2021
Elizabeth Day: The Party (on Zoom)
Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger (outside at the pub - yay!)
Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club (back in person!)
Monique Roffey: The Mermaid of Black Conch
Michel Bussi: Black Water Lilies
Liane Moriarty: Nine Perfect Strangers
Erin Morganstern: The Night Circus (an old favourite!)
2022
William Boyd: Restless (on Zoom again . . . argh!)
Laura Shepherd-Robinson: Daughters of Night
Janet Skeslien Charles: The Paris Library
2023
Bonnie Garmus: Lessons in Chemistry
Taylor Jenkins Reid: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Stacey Halls: Mrs England
Erin Morganstern: The Starless Sea
Kate Atkinson: The Shrines of Gaiety
Alex Michaelides: The Silent Patient
Elif Shafak: The Island of Missing Trees
Sean Lusk: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley
2024
Jessie Burton: The House of Fortune
Beth O’Leary: The Flat Share
Joanna Quinn: The Whalebone Theatre
Louise Kennedy: Trespasses
David Mitchell: Unruly
Gillian McAllister: Wrong Place Wrong Time
Shelley Read: Go As A River
Eleanor Catton: Birnam Wood
Gabrielle Zevin: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Sebastian Faulks: The Seventh Son
Sara Collins: The Confessions of Frannie Langton
Marian Keyes: The Mystery of Mercy Close
2025
Belinda Bauer: Exit
Shari Lapena: Everyone Here is Lying