This group chooses sets of books that are available free of charge from Cumbria Libraries. There are also useful links to other sites of interest to reading groups on the Cumbria Libraries page.

BOOKS 2025

Jan	Norbury, Katherine	The Fish Ladder
Feb	Burton, Jessie	The Muse
Mar	Arnold, Amy	Slip of a Fish
Apr	Enfield, Elizabeth	Ivy & Abe
May	Carlisle Writers Group	Write on the Edge
Jun	Cannon, Joanna	Trouble with Goats and Sheep
Jul	Berners-Lee, Mike	No Planet B
Aug	BBC	Poetry Please
Sept	Chase, Eve	Black Rabbit Hall
Oct	Kirby, Emma Jane	The Optician of Lampedusa
Nov	Abbs, Annabel	The Language of food
Dec	Attenborough, David	Life on our Planet

BOOKS 2024

January	Pat Barker	Toby's Room
February	Eva Meijer	Bird Cottage
March	Tracy Chevalier	The Lady and the Unicorn
April	Carol Ann Duffie	The World's Wife
May	Stella Gibbons	Cold Comfort Farm
June	Simon Armitage	Simon Armitage
July	Peter Hoeg	Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
August	Sara Winman	Tin Man
September	Anna Hope	Wake
October	Neil Leyshon	The Colour of Milk
November	Katerina Bivald	Readers of Broken Wheel...
December	Libby Page	The Lido

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Members of The Optimistic Readers have enjoyed social events as a result of reading some of the books. Reading Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggagh resulted in a visit to Amsterdam and, as many films have been based on books, this creates an opportunity to go to the cinema or hire a DVD to watch as a group.