ABC TV’s The Book Club has wrapped up its tenth season. Here’s what they read in 2016.
The Book Club (previously First Tuesday Book Club) is ABC TV’s nationally televised book club that gathers together Australian booklovers. Each episode is hosted by Jennifer Byrne, with regular panellists Marieke Hardy and Jason Steger, as well as a revolving panel of special guests.
There were plenty of reading highlights throughout the season. Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night made Marieke Hardy cry: ‘I thought it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in my entire life.’ The whole panel was hooked by Ian McGuire’s bloodthirsty tale The North Water: ‘Ridley Scott’s Alien set on a whaling ship in 1850s’. Jason Steger called Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday, an ‘absolute gem’. And guest panellist Virginia Gay loved Louise Erdrich’s La Rose so much that she kissed the book!
Below is a complete list of all the books featured on The Book Club in 2016.
New releases
- The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
- Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
- An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire
- The Midnight Watch by David Dyer
- La Rose by Louise Erdrich
- Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
- The North Water by Ian McGuire
- The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
- The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera
Favourites
- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
- A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
- Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
- Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
- The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
- Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook
- Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
Special episode: ‘Books That Changed My Life’
- Paula Hawkins recommended Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
- Kate Tempest recommended The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
- Marlon James recommended The X-Men by Chris Claremont
- Vivian Gornick recommended Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Special episode: ‘Books That Divide a Dinner Party’
- Christos Tsiolkas recommended Submission by Michel Houellebecq
- Zoe Norton-Lodge recommended The Road to Ruin by Niki Savva
- Geoff Cousins recommended The Tree of Man by Patrick White
- Amelia Lester recommended Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg
Special episode: ‘Books That Transport You’
- John Birmingham recommended Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb
- Noel Pearson recommended Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Kitty Flanagan recommended The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- C.S. Pacat recommended Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
