The Shameless Book Club

Hellooooo, book clubbers! This month, we read the non-fiction book from bestselling Aussie author Trent Dalton called Love Stories. For about two months, Trent sat on a busy Brisbane street corner, asking more than 150 strangers for their best love stories. What sparked this idea? After the passing of his best mate’s mother and, well, a global pandemic, Trent felt like we all needed to hear some l...

Hiya, book club besties! This month, we read the New York Times Number One Best Seller: The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller. The story’s protagonist is Elle Bishop, a 50-something woman in love with two men - her husband, and her childhood best friend. As the blurb tells us, “so begins a story that unfolds over twenty-four hours and across fifty years.” What is Elle’s big secret - the one th...

Happy Saturday, bookworms! This month, we took on our first non-fiction book, a memoir from the now 28-year-old North Korean defector and activist, Yeonmi Park. Published in 2015, Yeonmi tells the story of the first 22 years of her life - from her first 13 years growing up in North Korea as it was consumed by famine, to fleeing over the border to China where she and her mother fell into the hands...

Hey, book club besties! This month, we read the incredible debut novel by Alka Joshi titled, The Henna Artist. Following protagonist Lakshmi - one of Jaipur’s most in-demand Henna Artists - the novel tells the story of a woman running away from her past in 1950s India in order to forge her own path. But of course, there’s only so far she can run before her ex-husband and a sister she didn’t know e...

Why hello there, book clubbers! This month, we read ‘You and Me on Vacation’ by Emily Henry, and boy oh boy did it deliver on its promise to be a sugary, frothy read. Protagonists Alex and Poppy have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car-share home from college many years ago...

Yaaaayyyyy! It’s book club day! This month, we read the debut novel from Emily Itami called Fault Lines. Fault Lines follows the story of Mizuki, a Japanese housewife with two adorable children and an extremely hardworking husband. She has everything anyone could ever want, so why does the book open with her wanting to throw herself off a high-rise balcony rather than spend another evening folding...

Happy Saturday, friends! This month we read ‘Malibu Rising’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid - the same author of our most popular book club pick yet, Daisy Jones and The Six. Malibu Rising follows four famous siblings as they throw an epic party to celebrate the end of summer in 1983. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever. Today on the show, Mich, Zara, and Annabelle tal...

Hello, book clubbers! This month, we read the debut novel ‘New Animal’ by Australian author Ella Baxter. This book, set initially in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, then later in suburban Tasmania, follows the life of Amelia Aurelia; an embalmer who spends her days in funeral homes, painting the faces of the dead, and nights sleeping with strangers via the dating apps on her phone. More th...

Happy Saturday, book clubbers! This month, we tucked into Swing Time by Zadie Smith, a novel that tells the story of two girls growing up on the wrong side of London. They meet at a community dance class and dream of being dancers, but only one of them has the talent. The blurb told us it was a tale of “friendships that anchor us, define us and change us forever”, but do we feel that line adequate...

Hiya! Happy Saturday! This month, we tucked into the heart-shattering 2016 novel, It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. It Ends With Us tells the story of an unusual love triangle between protagonist Lily, her first high school romance Atlas, and neurosurgeon Ryle. It’s a page-turning bestseller that explores the dynamics of physically abusive relationships, and how the cycle of violence needs to be...

Halloooooo, fellow book clubbers! This month, we are looking at best-selling author Luanne Rice’s pacey thriller, The Shadow Box. This book jumps before and after the day artist Claire Chase was brutally attacked, to explain just what happened to her. Claire survives before going into hiding and has her suspicions on who her attacker likely was - her admired husband and state attorney, Griffin Cha...

G’day, book club friends! This month, we read best-selling author Nick Hornby’s eighth novel, Just Like You. The book follows two protagonists, 22-year-old Joseph and 42-year-old Lucy, who fall in love despite coming from two different worlds. Joseph is a young Black DJ trying to find his place in the world, while Lucy is a white English teacher and mum of two, who has recently separated from her...

Happy Saturday, book club pals! This month, we tore through Daisy Jones & The Six - the sixth novel from bestselling author Taylor Jenkins Reid that looks at the whirlwind rise of a fictional, iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup. Today on the show, Mich, Zara, and Annabelle talk about the love-hate relationship between Daisy...

It's the last book club for 2020, friends! This month, we read Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi - a novel that centres around Gifty, a neuroscientist at Stanford who studies addiction and depression neural circuits through experimenting with mice. This, we come to learn, is no coincidence. Transcendent Kingdom deals with grief, mental illness, and religion, and also takes us back through Gifty’s...

A very happy Saturday to you, book club friends! This month, we’re delving into bestselling author Dolly Alderton’s fiction debut: the warm, funny, tender novel, Ghosts. Ghosts tells the story of food writer Nina Dean who enters her thirties with a successful career under her belt and strong friendships around her. And then, well... then she meets Max - a tall, clever, evasive man who told her on...

HEY THERE, BOOK CLUB FRIENDS! This month, we’re talking all about the critically acclaimed, worldwide bestseller from Swedish columnist and blogger Fredrik Backman - A Man Called Ove. Ove is the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. He’s also deep in the grips of grief a...

Hiiiiya pals! This month, we’re talking all about Jessie Tu’s debut novel, A Lonely Girl Is A Dangerous Thing. It’s a novel about a young Taiwanese-Australian woman named Jena Lin, who - after being recognised as a prodigy throughout childhood - has re-introduced classical violin back into her life as a 20-something Syndey-sider. We see Jena navigate relationships of all kinds in this book, and ho...

HELLOOOOO BOOK CLUB PALS! This month, we’re discussing the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award winner, The Yield, by Tara June Winch. The novel tells the story of a woman who has returned home after the passing of her Poppy, Albert Gondiwindi, and felt like her life had passed her by ever since her sister, Jedda, vanished as a child. August’s perspective is interspersed with that of Albert, via his...

A very happy Saturday to you, Shameless book clubbers! This month, we’re talking all about Casey McQuiston’s debut, multiple award-winning novel, ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’. McQuiston’s book centres on Alex Claremont Diaz, the son of the first Female President of the United States. The story follows Alex and his love-hate relationship with a British Prince called Henry, and how their love affair th...

Shameless book nerds! How are ya!? Us? We are absolutely thrilled to bring you our very first Shameless Book Club chat of many, with a book we so adored. This month, we’re talking all about ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo. As the joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, this book is a love song to Black womanhood in Britain, and follows the lives of twelve disparate characters. Today on...