Category: Female Experience
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Bridget In Maine, 1789 real life midwife Martha Ballard delivered babies and kept daily notes of her work, community and surroundings. As an advocate for women she spoke up on behalf of a local woman at a rape trial. In… Continue Reading “The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon”
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel Set in Soviet-occupied Latvia between 1969 and 1989, Soviet Milk is the story of an unnamed mother and daughter struggling under Soviet rule. The mother, a gifted doctor unwilling to compromise with the regime, falls foul of the state… Continue Reading “Soviet Milk – Nora Ikstena”
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Jodie Published in 1952 and set against the rise of fascism and the Second World War in Italy, All Our Yesterdays explores how history unfolds through ordinary lives rather than extraordinary events. Natalia Ginzburg examines family, love, duty and the… Continue Reading “All Our Yesterdays – Natalia Ginzburg”
Category: Classic literature, Family drama, Female Experience, Feminism, Historical Fiction, Italian fiction, Literary fiction, Political, Realist, Translated, War storyTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026
READ FOR WOMEN’S PRIZE The Mercy Step follows Mercy, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants growing up in Bradford in the 1960s. The seventh daughter in a large family, she spends much of her childhood navigating a crowded home, a deeply religious community and a… Continue Reading “The Mercy Step – Marcia Hutchison”
Category: Child Narrator, Coming of Age, Cultural, Family drama, Female Experience, Historical Fiction, Immigrant story, Jamaican fiction, Literary fiction, UK author, Women's PrizeTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026, Women's Prize
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS All Her Lives is a collection of nine linked stories about women throughout the ages who have battled, persevered and instigated change, and whom are finding their place in society. Did homecoming have to be this, too? Being outside,… Continue Reading “All Her Lives – Ingrid Horrocks”
Category: Climate Fiction, Cultural, Environmental fiction, Female Experience, Feminism, Historical Fiction, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, NZ Book Awards, Political, Queer, Short StoriesTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026, Kiwi Fiction, Ockham NZ Book Awards
READ FOR NZ BOOK AWARDS In the rural reaches of Auckland, the women of the eclectic Gordon family gather for Christmas. Rita, the 50-year-old baby of the family, is planning to tell them she has cancer. Drifting between past and present, she considers the… Continue Reading “Hoods Landing – Laura Vincent”
Category: Contemporary fiction, Domestic Fiction, Family drama, Female Experience, Gothic, Humour, Kiwi lit, Literary fiction, Māori Fiction, NZ Book Awards, QueerTags: Free Range Bookclub 2026, Kiwi Fiction, Ockham NZ Book Awards
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Rachel Sarah is poor, but pretty and French, which gives her standing in Casablanca. Driss is older, quiet and not particularly good looking but he’s rumoured to be the richest guy in the city. Sarah decides she wants a life… Continue Reading “As Rich As The King – Abigail Assor”
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubled, and young. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In Audition, two competing but mirroring narratives… Continue Reading “Audition – Katie Kitamura”
Category: Art, Booker Prize, Domestic Fiction, Experimental fiction, Female Experience, Literary fiction, Metafiction, Philosophical, Postmodern Literature, Psychological, Thriller, Unreliable Narrator, US fiction, Women's PrizeTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR BOOKCLUBChosen by Tessa Prophet Song is set in an alternative Dublin where a tyrannical government is weaving its way into people’s lives, the rebels are rising up and society is slowly collapsing. It focuses on one family who suffer in many ways and… Continue Reading “Prophet Song – Paul Lynch”
Category: Booker Prize, Domestic Fiction, Dystopian, Family drama, Female Experience, Irish, Literary fiction, Philosophical, Political, Psychological, Realist, Speculative Fiction, Thriller, War storyTags: Booker Prize, Free Range Bookclub 2025
READ FOR BOOKERTHON Bristol, 1962, post-war optimism is fading, and a new, modern world forming. Two young couples live next to each other: a doctor and his wife in a beautiful cottage, a farmer and his wife in a rundown, under-heated farmhouse. Both women… Continue Reading “The Land In Winter – Andrew Miller”
Recent Comments