For a night of dysfunctional family stories…

The Healing Party by Micheline Lee

We recently included this fantastic debut from Australian author Micheline Lee in a list of brilliant new novels featuring dysfunctional families, and our reviewer writes that Lee ‘breathes new life’ into these kinds of narratives. A young woman returns home to her estranged family to care for her sick mother. One day her father says he has received a message from God that his wife is to be healed, and they must hold a party to celebrate.

For wining and dining by candlelight…

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

This collection of surreal stories from Helen Oyeyemi is gorgeously packaged (as evidenced here), and would set a dreamy, sensual mood for any book club gathering. Oyeyemi invites the reader into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi’s Day.

For a good, long chat about the craft of writing…

Wood Green by Sean Rabin

Aspiring writer Michael has recently completed his PhD and taken a job as secretary to his literary hero – mysterious, reclusive novelist Lucian Clarke – in a small village on a mountain outside of Hobart. Michael believes he is making a new life for himself, but it soon transpires that Lucian has other plans. Wood Green artfully evokes the claustrophobia of small-town life, and is filled with insights into writing and life as an artist.

For a meeting paired with a visit to Scienceworks…

The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

A doctor, researcher and science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee is best known for his award-winning work, The Emperor of All Maladies, and his latest book looks set to be just as gripping and thoroughly-researched. Spanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the story of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans, that governs our form and function.

For a sobering debate about world politics…

Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Bela Shayevich)

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich was awarded last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for ‘her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time’. Her latest work to be translated into English is Secondhand Time, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia. At 500+ pages, it’s a meaty read and also incredibly significant and respectful to those whose stories appear in its pages.

For book clubs who’ve already read Proust…

Gate of Lilacs by Clive James

If your book club has already read Proust, here is a new challenge: a critical essay on the famed French writer from poet, essayist and all-round culture critic Clive James – in verse! Over a period of 15 years, James taught himself French by almost no other method than reading À la recherche du temps perdu. Then he spent half a century trying to get up to speed with the work in two different languages. Gate of Lilacs is the product of his love and engagement with Proust’s eternal masterpiece.

For a classy, philosophical dinner party…

The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain writes deeply intelligent, expertly-crafted novels that transport readers into another time, and her latest is no exception. Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem distant. He adores his mother but she treats him with bitter severity, disapproving especially of his intense friendship with Anton, the Jewish boy at school.

For a serious conversation about the realities of living and dying…

Dying by Cory Taylor

Cory Taylor is one of Australia’s most remarkable novelists. At the age of sixty, she is dying of melanoma-related brain cancer that is no longer treatable – as she tells us in this powerful memoir, she now weighs less than her neighbour’s retriever. In this clear-eyed account of what dying has taught her, Cory describes the tangle of her feelings, reflects on her memories, and remembers her parents.