Book clubs in Edinburgh

A brilliant book based in western Germany which explores grief, moving forward, and love.

AFTG? I don’t even know where to start.This series has had me in a chokehold for the past decade. Oh before someone says it, is it unrealistic? Yes. Do I absolutely love the hell out of it and continue to indulge myself by rereading it for the 100th time? Also yes. All for the Game by Nora Sakavic follows Neil Josten, a runaway with a dangerous past who ends up joining a college sports team called the Palmetto State Foxes, a group of chaotic, broken players bound together by their shared love for Exy(a made-up, high-speed sport that’s like lacrosse on steroids). But beneath all that, it’s a story tangled with secrets, survival, the Japanese mafia that threaten to unravel everything Neil’s built and an enemies-to-something-much-more dynamic that will wreck you in the best way possible. It’s messy, dark, and often uncomfortable, but it has a beautiful and addictive blend of found family, trauma, loyalty, and violence that somehow turns into something beautiful and unforgettable. The characters are complex, morally grey, and painfully real in the most unexpected ways. Trigger warnings: abuse, trauma, violence, and heavy themes etc. its a whole page of warnings; please please please check before reading! But if you love stories about resilience, trust hard-won through chaos, found family, this one will live rent-free in your head forever. Trust me on this one and give it a shot. (Ps. If you did love it as much as I did, come over to the dark side and reach out to me, because we’ve got loads to unpack:))

I've been re-reading this novel every year since 2005, I always find something new.

From the start it seems like this is just going to be a book about addiction, but it is far far more. The comedy, unreliable narrator (which is only revealed part way through the story), the arc development, pace and motivations for each character are excellent. It's a recent find (though a relatively older book now). Again Rachel is even better.

My current book. So descriptive of life and death in Shakespeare's time.

It takes a while to get you sucked in, but once it happens it's just a great fantasy book. It's quite descriptive and you can't not root for Kvothe, the main character, orphaned at a young age in a traumatic encounter where his whole family and travelling troupe gets killed by some mysterious figures, who then has to do everything in his power to survive - and he is great at it! There is so much going on in this novel that it's hard to summarise. (also it's part of a trilogy) But it contains music, study, mystery, a few dragons, strong friendships and romance, which is a magic blend of elements for me.

A book about spiders vs humans that makes me route for the spiders.