CELEBRATING 25 YEARS IN 2023
LINK TO RECIPES
2023
END-OF -YEAR LUNCH
Friday 15 December at 12 noon
“Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan
Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, 160 Wolseley Rd, Point Piper
Over summer holidays 2023/2024:
“Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life” by Anna Funder
+ any book by George Orwell
Suggestions for 2024:
“Yellowface” by Rebecca F Kuang
“Green Dot” by Madeleine Gray
“Question 7” by Richard Flanagan
“Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London” by Caroline Knowles
“Homecoming” by Kate Morton
“Matrix” by Lauren Groff
“The Good Woman’s Guide to Making Better Choices” by Liz Foster
“Wedding Bush Road” by David Francis
“The Island of Missing Trees” by Elif Shafak
“The Winter Dress” by Lauren Chater
“Mayflies” by Andrew O’Hagan
2023 Books
“Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead 8/10
“Redhead by the Side of the Road” by Anne Tyler 8/10
“All That’s Left Unsaid” by Tracey Lien 8/10
“Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe 8/10
“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks 9/10
“Limberlost” by Robbie Arnott 8.5/10
“The Miniaturist” by Jessie Burton 7.5/10
“The Alice Network” by Kate Quinn 6.5/10
“Old God’s Time” by Sebastian Barry 7.5/10
Books discussed at 2022 Xmas lunch:
Gail: Lessons by Ian McEwen
Marg W: Something of Value by Robert Ruark
Marion: A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman
Margie: The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Sue & Trish: Still Life by Sarah Winman
Vicki: 10 Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
Michele: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen & Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
Sally: China Room by Sunjeev Sahota
Judith: Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz
2022 Books
“The Lost Pianos of Siberia” by Sophy Roberts 6/10
“Elizabeth and Elizabeth” by Sue Williams 7.5/10
“The Labyrinth” by Amanda Lohrey (Winner of the 2021 Miles Franklin) 7.5/10
“Devotion” by Hannah Kent 8.5/10
“Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 8.5/10
“Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam 7.5/10
“The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles” by Katherine Pancol <5/10
“Cold Enough for Snow” by Jessica Au 8/10
“The Watermill” by Arnold Zable 8/10
“Tin Man” by Sarah Winman 8/10
2021 Books
“A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry
“American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins 8.5/10
“Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo 8/10
“All Our Shimmering Skies” by Trent Dalton 6.5/10
“One Hundred Years of Dirt” by Rick Morton 7.5/10
“The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett 8/10
“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro 7/10
“The Grammarians” by Cathleen Schine 7/10
“The Girl with the Louding Voice” by Abi Daré 8.5/10
“A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman 7/10
“The Erratics” by Vicki Laveau-Harvie 7.5/10
2020 Books
“Any Ordinary Day” by Leigh Sales 7.5/10
“The Shark Net” by Robert Drewe 8.5/10
“The Yield” by Tara June Winch 8/10
“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens 8/10
“Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” by Jeanette Winterson 8/10
“Go, Went, Gone” by Jenny Erpenbeck 8.5/10
“The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett 7.5/10
“The Beekeeper of Aleppo” by Christy Lefteri 7.5/10
“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles 9.5/10
“The Rain Heron” by Robbie Arnott 7/10
“Educated” by Tara Westover 8.5/10
2019 Books
“Saga Land” by Richard Fidler & Kari Gíslason 7/10
“Independent People” by Halldor Kiljan Laxness 8/10
“Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge 7/10
“Dark Emu” By Bruce Pascoe 8/10
“Normal People” by Sally Rooney 7/10
“The Lost Man” by Jane Harper 7/10
“Warlight” by Michael Ondaatje 8.5/10
“Milkman” by Anna Burns 10/10 (1 ), 8/10 (1); unfinished by 7
“The Interestings” by Meg Wolitzer 8/10
“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith 8/10
“The Spinning Heart” by Donal Ryan 7/10
2018 Books
“Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy’s Son” by Mark Colvin 7/10
“A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal” by Ben Macintyre 8/10
“Music and Freedom” by Zoë Morrison 7.5/10
“Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders 6/10
“Manhattan Beach” by Jennifer Egan 8/10
“Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado 3/10
“Home Fire” by Kamila Shamsie 9/10
“The Bookshop” by Penelope Fitzgerald 7/10
“Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee 8/10
“The Night Listener” by Armistead Maupin 7.5/10
“Calypso” by David Sedaris 7/10
2017 Books
“A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara 7/10
& “The Last Painting of Sara de Vos” by Dominic Smith 7.5/10
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain 5/10
“Days Without End: A Novel” by Sebastian Barry 8.5/10
“Between a Wolf and a Dog” by Georgia Blain 8.5/10
“The Reader on the 6.27” by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent 8/10
“Mothering Sunday” by Graham Swift 8/10
“Nutshell” by Ian McEwan 7/10
“The Group” by Mary McCarthy 6.5/10
“Ruins” by Rajith Savanadasa 6/10
2016 Books
Any David Malouf book: Johnno (1975), An Imaginary Life (1978), Fly Away Peter (1982), Child’s Play (1982), Harland’s Half Acre (1984), The Great World (1990), Remembering Babylon (1993), The Conversations at Curlow Creek (1996), Every Move You Make (2006), Ransom (2009)
AND
“Frankenstein” (or The Modern Prometheus) by Mary Shelley
“The Guide to Berlin” by Gail Jones
“All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
“My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante
“A Week in December” by Sebastian Faulks
“The Tenderness of Wolves” by Stef Penney
“The Secret Chord” by Geraldine Brooks 7.25/10
“Black Rock White City” by A.S. Patric 7/10
“This House of Grief – The Story of a Murder Trial” by Helen Garner 9/10
2015 Books
“The Luminaries” by Eleanor Catton
“The Harvest” by Jim Crace
“A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki
“All The Birds, Singing” by Evie Wyld
“The Painted Sky” by Alice Campion
“Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan
“The Golden Boys” by Sonya Hartnett
“The Snow Kimono” by Mark Henshaw
“The Green Road” by Anne Enright
2014 Books
“Burial Rites” by Hannah Kent & “The Book Thief” movie
“Justine” (The Alexandria Quartet #1) by Lawrence Durrell
“The Essence of the Thing” by Madeleine St. John and/or “Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John” by Helen Trinca
“”Past the Shallows” by Favel Parrett
“TransAtlantic” by Colum McCann
“Floodline” by Kathryn Heyman
“Before I Go to Sleep” by S. J. Watson
“We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves” by Karen Joy Fowler
“What the Ground Can’t Hold” by Shady Cosgrove
“The Narrow Road to the Deep North” by Richard Flanagan
“Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel” by Helen Oyeyemi
2013 Books
“The House of Fiction” by Susan Swingler + any Elizabeth Jolley book (Central Mischief, The Sugar Mother, Cabin Fever, My Father’s Moon, The Georges Wife)
Books by George Eliot: “Middlemarch”, “Silas Marner”, “The Mill on the Floss” & “Adam Bede”
“Jasper Jones” by Craig Silvey
“John Saturnall’s Feast” by Lawrence Norfolk
“Flight Behaviour” by Barbara Kingsolver
“Crossing to Safety” by Wallace Stegner
“The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai
Book of our choice
“When We Have Wings” by Claire Corbett
“Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag” by Orlando Figes
2012 Books
“All That I Am” by Anna Funder
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Water under Water” by Peter Rix
“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
“Orpheus Lost” by Janet Turner Hospital
“The Tall Man” by Chloe Hooper
“When God Was A Rabbit” by Sarah Winman
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid
“On the Road” by Jack Kerouac
“Foal’s Bread” by Gillian Mears
2011 Books
“Love in a Cold Climate” by Nancy Mitford
“Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen
Any book by Grahame Greene
“My Blood’s Country” by Fiona Capp
“The Clothes on Their Back” by Linda Grant
“Reunion” by Andrea Goldsmith
“The Hare with Amber Eyes” by Edmund de Waal
“Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson
“Home” by Marilynne Robinson
2010 Books
“Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel
“The Boat” by Nam Le
“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
“Ransom” by David Malouf
“Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout
“The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House” by Kate Summerscale
“Mr. Rosenblum’s List” by Natasha Solomons
“This is How” by MJ Hyland
“Brooklyn” by Colm Toibin
2009 Books
“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak
“The Stranger” by Albert Camus
“The Slap” by Christos Tsiolkas
“Engleby” by Sebastian Faulks
“The Adventures of Augie March” by Saul Bellow
“The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry
“The Painted Veil” by Somerset Maugham
“Wanting” by Richard Flanagan
“The Housekeeper + The Professor” by Yoko Ogawa
“The Other Hand” by Chris Cleave
“Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama
2008 Books
“Judy Cassab: An Australian Story” by Brenda Niall
“Mister Pip” by Lloyd Jones
“On Chesil Beach” by Ian McEwan
“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion
“People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks
“A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway
“The Madonnas of Leningrad” by Debra Dean
“Eat Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert
“Breath” by Tim Winton
2007 Books
“A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini
“Sorry” by Gail Jones
“A Mother’s Disgrace” by Robert Dessaix
“The Scandal of the Season” by Sophie Gee
“The Road” by Cormack McCarthy
“The Master” by Colm Toibin
“Carry Me Down” by M.J. (Maria Joan) Hyland
“The Sportswriter” by Richard Ford
“We Need to Talk about Kevin” by Lionel Shriver
“The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins
2006 Books
“New York Trilogy” by Paul Auster
” The Secret River” by Kate Grenville
“City of Falling Angels” by John Berendt
“The People’s Act of Love” by James Meek
” Man and Wife” by Tony Parsons
“Q & A” by Vikas Swarup
Any Edith Wharton novel
“The Sea” by John Banville
“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote
2005 Books
“Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte
“Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
“Three Dog Night” by Peter Goldsworthy
“A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian” by Marina Lewycka
“Conditions of Faith” by Alex Miller
“The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss
“Passion” – Jude Morgan
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” by Jean Dominique Bauby
2004 Books
“The Secret Cure” by Sue Woolfe
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde
“Disgrace” by J. M. Coetzee
“The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown
“Seven Types of Ambiguity” by Elliot Perlman
“The Book of Joe” by Jonathon Tropper
“That Old Ace in the Hole” by Annie Proulx
“The Great Fire” by Shirley Hazzard
“Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“The Immoralist” by Andre Gide
Pre-2004 Books
Atonement – Ian McEwen
Carpet Wars – Christopher Kremmer
Dirt Music – Tim Winton
The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
The Dig Tree – Sarah Murgatroyd
The True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey
Death Delights – Gabrielle Lord
Dead Famous – Ben Elton
Tiger Eye – Inga Glendinning
Bathing in Light – Gaby Naher
No Great Mischief – Alistair McLeod
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells
Serpent Dust – Debra Adelaide
To Kill a Mocking Bird – Harper Lee
The Wings of a Dove – Henry James
Bad Blood – Lorna Sage
Unless – Carole Shields
The Peppered Moth – Margaret Drabble
It’s Not About The Bike – Lance Armstrong
Dingo – The Story of Our Mob – Sally Dingo
God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
Closed for Winter – Georgia Blain
The Orchid Thief – Susan Orleans
Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
Maria’s War – Amy Whiting
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
While You Were Gone – Sue Miller
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
An Equal Music – Vikram Seth
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
The Fog Garden – Marion Halligan
Shanghai Baby – Wei Wei
Life of Pi – Yann Matel
Eucalyptus – Murray Bail
Foreign Correspondant – Geraldine Brooks
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
Blackwater Lightship – Colm Toibin
Tulip Fever – Deborah Moggach
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
The Mistress of Spices – Chitra Divakaruni