Caversham Writers' Summer Reading

Our members pick their recommendations and favourites

This Week's Meeting

Bookshare Night - Your Summer Reading

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”

― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

At Caversham Writers we usually focus on the “write a lot” part of King’s quote, with meetings in which we gather to write or to give feedback on our writing.

Occasionally, we cover the “read a lot” part by sharing some book recommendations with each other. Members can select their favourite book ever, the one that means the most to them and which has influenced their own writing more than anything else. Or they can simply recommend a book they have recently read and want more people to know about.

So if you’re looking for inspiration for your summer reading list, here’s some recommendations from Caversham Writers members.

My Picks

The Fire In Their Eyes by Stephanie Bretherton

In preparation for next week’s Ask The Author event with Stephanie, I’m reading her latest novel which was published earlier this month. It’s a follow up to her first book, Bone Lines, but can be read standalone.

It’s a dual timeline story, in which we follow geneticist Dr Eloise Kluft in the present and an ageing shaman woman 74,000 years ago. Their stories are connected by themes of survival, identity, and the human journey. Both books explore topics such as migration and climate change and in this one an emerging biological threat is thrown into the mix. I’m enjoying it immensely.

A History of the World in 47 Borders by Jonn Elledge

Subtitled The Stories Behind The Lines on Our Maps, this splendid book looks at how we have attempted to define the boundaries of our civilisation down the ages, from the unification of ancient Egypt through to the final frontier of space. It’s a fascinating and witty exploration of how we understand the world and how borders are established geographically, politically or just arbitrarily.

Claire’s Picks

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

Not by the actor Dame Maggie Smith, as I first thought, this is a memoir by the award-winning poet and it focuses on the end of her marriage and how loss can lead to something new and surprising. Claire loved the structure with its short, memory-focused chapters.

The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton

Claire’s second pick was by an author I’d come across before.

Beth Kempton

is the author of Wabi Sabi, a book that uses a Japanese concept to explore the beauty in imperfection. In The Way of the Fearless Writer, Kempton also uses her considerable knowledge of Japanese culture to inform a book on creative writing.

From the blurb: “Learn how to free your mind so your body can create, transform your relationship with fear, dissolve self-doubt, shift writer's block, access your true voice and bravely share your words with the world.” Sounds great, I’m in.

You can also subscribe to Beth’s newsletter on Substack, called SoulStack. It’s a good read.

Amy’s Pick

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

Amy introduced this book as one of her all time favourites and described it as historical fiction set in prehistoric times, featuring a young Cro-Magnon girl who is adopted by a Neanderthal clan. Set 25,000 years ago, it doesn’t go as far back in time as Stephanie Bretherton does with her Children of Sarah series, but I was struck by how both series involve a young prehistoric woman left alone in a hostile environment after a natural disaster. I must remember to ask Stephanie if she was inspired by Auel at next week’s event!

Gordon’s Pick

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Gordon’s pick is an award-winning novel that was adapted for an Apple TV series a couple of years ago. It explores sexual discrimination in 1960s America through the story of a female scientist, forced out of her academic job, who finds herself presenting a cooking show but uses it to challenge the status quo.

Richard’s Picks

Stoner by John Williams

Richard recommended this simple but powerful novel about a quiet man, praising its understated narrative and character study of a midwestern literary professor. I note the blurb describes it as “possibly the greatest novel you've never read.”

Wheels Within Wheels and Full Tilt by Dervla Murphy

I’m delighted that Richard reminded me of the great and ground-breaking travel writer and “first lady of Irish cycling” Dervla Murphy. She famously journeyed alone from her native Ireland to India on a bicycle in 1963, riding through Yugoslavia, Persia, Afghanistan, and over the Himalayas to Pakistan on the way. Full Tilt is her account of that trip, but Richard recommends reading her autobiography Wheels Within Wheels first, to get a full appreciation of the background and character of the woman who went on to write 26 travel books in total.

Robyn’s Pick

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq

This is an example of something I talk about often with the group, and wrote about in this newsletter a while ago - the importance of hearing stories from outside of our own experience from people whose voices often go unheard. Heart Lamp certainly gives us that, an exploration of Muslim women's lives in Southern India through a collection of short stories translated from the original minority language Kannada.

Ben’s Pick

On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle

This is the first in a series of three books (the third is published later this year) by Danish author Solvej Balle. Ben described it as about a woman trapped in a recurring day and he highlighted in particular its realistic portrayal of living with trauma and its themes of isolation and survival.

Aliya’s Pick

The Book And The Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch

Aliya told us she started reading iris Murdoch as a way of getting to understand her new country and this novel became a particular favourite (along with The Black Prince.) It’s one of Murdoch’s ‘Oxford’ novels and her academic background in philosophy is very apparent in it, covering as it does themes involving Marxism and objective truth.

Louisa’s Pick

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Louisa is a keen traveller and often picks up and recommends books that she’s found give her an insight to the places she visits. This is no exception, a coming-of-age novel set in 1950s Italy that also gives us the story of a city (Naples) and a country undergoing momentous change.

Steph’s Pick

Clean Sweep (The Innkeeper Chronicles) by Ilona Andrews

Steph’s favourite series of books is the sci-fi and urban fantasy series The Innkeeper Chronicles. Steph has especially enjoyed the audio book versions (I’ve linked to the first in the series above) which take the form of a dramatized adaptation with a full cast instead of a single narrator. It takes place in a contemporary Earth setting (a small Texas town) where humans are part of a larger, interstellar community.

Steph mentioned that she’s read (listened to?) these books multiple times, which prompted a discussion about what books we have reread often. For some, there are too many books out there to revisit old ones but others mentioned some prominent classics as old favourites they reread often:

• To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

• Dracula by Bram Stoker

• Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh

The only books I’ve read more than 3 or 4 times are Orwell’s 1984 and Heller’s Catch-22, but one author I go back to more than any other is P.G. Wodehouse. The Master. And a constant comfort in a turbulent world.

How about you? What are your favourites? Do you have that one book you go back and reread often?

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Member News

Louisa Guise

has been busy. She was on the BBC Radio show Upload again this week, reading an excerpt from her book How To Leave A Group Chat. You can hear her from 1:08:10 here: Louisa on Upload.

And on her Substack, this week’s post is all about the lessons she has learnt in the year since the book was first published. Read it here:

Publishing a book - what I learnt

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Next Week's Meeting

Ask the Author! Meet Stephanie Bretherton

Wednesday, July 2, 2025 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM BST

Stephanie Bretherton is the Kindle bestselling author of Bone Lines. Its follow-up in The Children of Sarah series, The Fire In Their Eyes, is newly published this month.

Both novels feature geneticist Dr Eloise Kluft and follow a dual timeline, linking the present to events 74,000 years ago and the remarkable story of prehistoric "Sarah" and her daughter.

Stephanie is also the Managing Director of The Breakthrough Book Collective, the imprint under which Stephanie's The Children of Sarah series is now published following the demise of crowdfunding publisher Unbound.

I'm thrilled to have Stephanie join us in a special online event to talk to the group about her books, her writing process and path to publication.

Praise for Bone Lines:

"A monument to the timelessness of human nature, and a work of art... a masterpiece of pacing. Bretherton ignites her characters with a life, complexity, a personality with which any number of readers will identify and empathise." —Naomi Moore, Editor, New Orbit literary magazine

Praise for The Fire In Their Eyes:

"An engrossing, urgent, polyphonic novel about the connections between the planet’s deep past and our present unstable, unpredictable world, driven by a memorable cast of characters. A joy to read." —Jude Cook, novelist, literary critic and prize judge

This free event will be held online via Zoom. You’ll need to register to attend on Meetup to get the link to join:

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Free To Join, Free To Attend

As you know Caversham Writers is free to join and free to attend and I want it to remain so. That doesn’t mean it is free to run, though. I organise the group meetings on Meetup.com who have seen fit to double the fees paid by group organisers over the last year.

This has led to many groups shutting down or moving platform. I like to think of Caversham Writers as a local group with a global reach and I want us to remain open to voices from all over the world. Meetup provides that global reach so I intend to stay there, but would welcome any contributions toward the costs of running the group.

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