1st September, 2025 - General discussion of summer reading +
So Late in The Day by Claire Keegan (64 pages)
After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude - and the true significance of this particular date is revealed
6th October, 2025
The Women by Kristin Hannah (480 pages)
Raised on California's idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, Frances "Frankie" McGrath has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America.
3rd November, 2025
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (176 pages)
It’s the day before her daughter’s wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines. First thing, she loses her job – or quits, depending who you ask. Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities. The day after the wedding, Gail and Max prepare to go their separate ways again. But all the questions about the future of the young couple have stirred up the past for Gail. Because ‘happy’ takes many forms, and sometimes the younger generation has much to teach the older about secrets, acceptance and taking the rough with the smooth.
1st December, 2025
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin (320 pages)
It’s 1994 in County Donegal, Ireland, and everyone is talking about Colette Crowley – the writer, the bohemian, the woman who left her husband and sons to pursue a relationship with a married man in Dublin. But now Colette is back, and nobody knows why. Brilliantly observed from a sharp new literary talent, The Coast Road is a novel about a closed community and the consequences of daring to move against the tide.
5th January, 2026
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (144 pages)
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. Yet, although separated from the world, they cannot escape its constant pull. The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams.
2nd February, 2026
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (309 pages)
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, Larry, a trade unionist. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling. Soon, she must decide just how far she is willing to go to keep her family safe.
2nd March, 2026
The Hunter by Tana French (409 pages)
It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He's built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he's gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But when Trey's long-absent father reappears, with a scheme to find gold in the townland, everything the three of them have been building is suddenly under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn't want protecting. What she wants is revenge.
13th April, 2025
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee (194 pages)
Abandoning the Cotswolds village that raised him, the young Laurie Lee walks to London. There he makes a living labouring and playing the violin. But, deciding to travel further afield and knowing only the Spanish phrase for 'Will you please give me a glass of water?', he heads for Spain. With just a blanket to sleep under and his trusty violin, he spends a year crossing Spain, from Vigo in the north to the southern coast. Only the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War puts an end to his extraordinary peregrinations . . .
11th May, 2026 May
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (347 pages)
In 1974, two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided Cyprus, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek, and Defne who is Turkish, can meet in secret, hidden beneath the leaves of a fig tree. This tree will witness their hushed happy meetings, and will be there when the war breaks out and the teenagers vanish. Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada has never visited the island where her parents were born. She seeks to untangle years of her family's silence, but the only connection she has to the land of her ancestors is a fig tree growing in the garden of their home . . .
1st June, 2026
Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton (248 pages)
The deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its contemporaneity, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
When and Where?
The Sperrin U3A Book Club meets on the first Monday of the month from September to June apart from Bank Holidays when we meet on the second Monday of the month instead. Meetings start at 2pm and are held in Magherafelt Library, situated in the Bridewell.
Materials and Tips
Whilst some of our members use audio books or e-books, most still like the feel of a book in their hand. Below are some tips for accessing books, e-books and audiobooks.
- It can be worthwhile checking if your local library has a copy of a book or can order it from another library for you.
- Another member of the book club may already have read the book and be willing to lend it to you.
- Amazon often has second hand copies of books that can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of the new version
- World of Books www.wob.com has been recommended by some of our members as a good website for second hand books. It has free UK delivery and usually delivers within a few days. Another suggested website is www.abebooks.co.uk/ and most deliveries are free.
- NI Libraries have two apps, Libby and Borrowbox, which let you download e-books and audiobooks for free if you are a library member. For more details see the NI Libraries website https://www.librariesni.org.uk/