Book clubs in Co Durham

Impossible to pick favorite books, but this is one that I return to every few years and get some new richness that I either missed or had not lived long enough to fully appreciate. I love the way Tolstoy lets us into even the most seemingly minor characters’ minds for glimpses of ourselves, no matter how different we might consider ourselves to the personalities or choices represented. Every character is both flawed and beautiful in their way, everyone the main protagonist in their own story.

Dragons, trials, romance, action. Has it all

It's not too long, has a nice story line a bit of spice and some good humour too

This book is such a powerful reflection about how people relate to each other, about the complexities of human interaction and the passage of time. Virginia Woolf is such a descriptive writer, and I found myself having to pause every couple of pages to really appreciate what she'd written.

Absolutely phenomenal Gibson could come up with such ideas in 1984. It’s easy to see how this along with the first cinematic imagining of Blade Runner (adapted from works of Philip K Dick), paved the way for the entire “cyberpunk” genre people know and love today. The book itself is fast paced and visceral. The characters do indeed feel real from the start. A timeless classic; I also highly recommend the audiobook for this on Spotify (narrated by Jason Flemyng).

It's still my favourite recent book. I just love the place with its statues and great halls open to the elements. A real gateway into another dimension

Oh it's so good! I read it in a single sitting, it consumed me. It’s poetic, it’s dark, funny, sad, weird, and relatable! It follows an unnamed lesbian female narrator, just a beautiful book that I’ll return back to again and again. Often songs come into my head when I read, this book felt like Mitski’s ‘Last Words Of a Shooting Star.