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 2027

Jan	Arundhati Roy	The God of Small Things
Feb	Christy Lefteri	The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Mar	Helen Dunmore	Exposure
Apr	Maggie O’Farrell	Instructions for a Heatwave
May	Lucy Mangan	Bookworm
Jun	Willy Russell	Wrong Boy
Jul	Joanna Cannon	Three Things About Elsie
Aug	Pip Williams	Dictionary of Lost Words
Sep	Amor Towles	Gentleman in Moscow
Oct	John Boyne	Hearts Invisible Furies
Nov	Chloe Dalton	Raising Hare
Dec	Gretel Ehrlich	Solace of Open Spaces

BOOKS 2026

Jan	Elizabeth Enfield	Ivy and Abe
Feb	Paul Behrens	The best of times, the worst of times
Mar	Kayte Nunn	The silk house
Apr	Antoine Leiris	You will not have my hate
May	Julie Cohen	Together
Jun	Sarah Dunant	Blood and Beauty
Jul	Arundhati Roy	The ministry of utmost happiness
Aug	Fredrik Backman	A man called Ove
Sept	Adam Kay	This is going to hurt
Oct	Claire Fuller	Our endless numbered days
Nov	Laura Barnett	The versions of us
Dec	Ben Aitken	The marmalade diaries

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.