Hannah's book club

Hi, I’m

Hannah and I’m a biblioholic. My love of reading, and creative writing, is the result of three years spent at Oxford Brookes University where I studied for a degree in publishing. I love a good murder mystery book, but I also regularly read travel, health, action & adventure and science fiction titles.

LOST DOG: A LOVE STORY

Kate Spicer

Lifestyle journalist

Kate Spicer has come to the realisation that she must ditch her causal drink and drug use in order to stop her life going off the rails.

Craving comfort and a remedy for her loneliness, she adopts a rescue lurcher dog called Wolfy. But when Wolfy disappears, Kate is left to scour the streets of London to find him. Over a nine-day search, that tests both her sanity and relationship, Kate comes across the unlikeliest of allies who are prepared to help her, at all times of the day and night.

Brimming with razor-sharp wit, honesty, self-exploration and hope, Spicer’s debut memoir is so much more than a story about a lost dog.

FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE

Casey Cep

Casey Cep’s Furious Hours is the story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird.

Rural preacher Reverend Willie Maxwell was accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of his lawyer, ‘Big Tom’ Radney, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Maxwell's murderer was acquittedthanks to the same attorney who had previously defended him. Curious by the story consuming her home state, Harper Lee makes a journey back to Alabama to witness the Reverend's killer face trial. Despite spending many years investigating the case and writing the book, The Reverend was never published. A fascinating insight into the racial politics of the Deep South and the elusive Lee’s struggle with fame and success.

ZEN: THE ART OF SIMPLE LIVING

Shunmyo Masuno

This beautifully illustrated hardback from renowned Zen Buddhist monk Shunmyo Masuno is the ultimate guide to slowing down, finding true happiness and feeling calm. In clear, practical and easy to follow lessons - one a day for 100 daysMasuno draws on centuries of wisdom to show you how to apply the essence of Zen to everyday modern life. Feel more relaxed and fulfilled, with a renewed sense of peace, by learning how to breath properly in order to eliminate negative emotions, arrange your house to declutter your mind and worry less about what you cannot control.

The Beekeeper Of Aleppo

Christy Lefteri

Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple, happy life in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo - until the unthinkable happens. When war breaks out and ISIS take over the city, they are forced to flee to be with his cousin and business partner in Britain.

The narrative weaves between their arrival in Britain to be processed for asylum and Nuri’s flashbacks of the heartbreaking journey and struggles they’ve faced to get here.

Emotional, haunting and moving, The Beekeeper of Aleppo is based on Lefteri’s first-hand experience of working in a Unicef supported refugee centre in Athens.