The 15-Minute Book Club

Erich Maria Remarque's classic novel follows a young German soldier named Paul who is sent to the frontline during WWI in Germany’s fight against France. This is one of the most important novels about WWI, not just because of how incredibly well written it is, but because it was one of the first texts to show the true face of  WWI, away from the romanticisation of war and patriotism. It’s a true a...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel follows a young Nigerian woman named Ifemelu who, at the age of 19, moves to America from Nigeria for her education. As she tries to navigate the complexities of life as a Black African immigrant, she becomes aware of race and her own blackness more soberly than she ever had before in her life.   Instagram: 15minbookclub   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a...

Khaled Hosseini's novel is set in Afghanistan and opens in the early 1970s. The story takes place over a 30 year period and follows two main characters, Mariam and Laila, co-wives to an extremely abusive man named Rasheed. This is a beautifully written novel that reflects the reality of a life lived in the shadow of shame.    Instagram: 15minbookclub   Books mentioned: The Kite Runner by Khaled Ho...

Patrick Grant's book is about the crisis of consumption and quality in fashion. He looks at how we might make ourselves happier by rediscovering the joy of living with fewer, better quality things.    Instagram: 15minbookclub   Community Clothing: https://communityclothing.co.uk/  

Milan Kundera's novel follows a Czech surgeon named Tomas and his wife Tereza between the late 1960s and early 1970s. It takes place mainly in Prague during the Prague Spring of 1968, which was a period of political reform in Czechoslovakia. This is an inherently philosophical novel, the title is a reference to notions of lightness and weight as they relate to human existence. Kundera asserts that...

The story takes place on Manor Farm, where the animals are subjected to harsh, exploitative treatment by the human owner. One day, the animals have had enough, and through a rebellion manage to overthrow the farmer and take control of Manor Farm, which they rename Animal Farm. George Orwell intended this novel as an allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent rise of Stalinism in...

There are a lot of books about the history of humankind, many of which are written from an evolutionary biological perspective, but Yuval Noah Harari is not a scientist, he's a historian. So he’s not coming up with anything new about the history of humankind, he’s simply observing theories that already exist and putting them under the philosophical microscope. His train of thought and the differen...

This is one of Gibran Khalil Gibran's most famous books, it's composed of 26 prose-poetry fables. A prophet named Al Mustafa has been living in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and he’s about to board a ship that’s taking him home, but just as he’s about to leave, a group of people stop him and ask him to give them some final words of wisdom on matters relating to the human condition.    Instagr...

John O’Brien is a sociologist and lecturer at New York University in Abu Dhabi. He spent three and a half years conducting an ethnographic study of a group of Muslim teenagers coming of age in post-9/11 America, and this book is the result of his research. Over the span of three and a half years, he follows 7 boys who were between the ages of 11 and 17 when his research began and he observes how t...

Written by Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These follows Bill Furlong in the days leading up to Christmas in 1985. As he's dropping off a delivery of coal at the local convent, he discovers something that haunts him. The convent is essentially a mother and baby home, one of the many notorious laundries run by the Irish Catholic church for decades.    Instagram: 15minbookclub Conversation with Mar...

A historical realist novel  by Nobel Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz. Set in the 1940s, the novel revolves around various characters who live, trade and beg in a bustling alley in the backstreets of Cairo. Through this microcosm of broader society, Mahfouz reflects the changes that were taking place in Egyptian society at the time.   Instagram: 15minbookclub   Film mentioned: The Alley of Miracles     

Frank McCourt was an Irish-American writer and Teacher. He recounts a childhood of utter destitution and extreme poverty, between the early 1930s until the late 1940s. When they were in New York his family struggled quite a lot as the great depression had just started, but things took a turn for the worse when they moved to Limerick in Ireland.    Instagram: 15minbookclub   Books mentioned: ‘Tis b...

Dr. Denis Mukwege is a gynaecologist from The Democratic Republic of The Congo, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his incredible services to survivors of rape, and his global campaigns to end the use of rape as a weapon of war. In his book, he recounts his experience in treating women with injuries caused by sexual violence. He named the book The Power of Women as a tribute to the thousands...

Jonathan Haidth is a sociologist, and in this book he examines the decline in mental health among adolescents around the world. He observes the link between the rise in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide with the introduction of smart phones in 2010. He offers plenty of evidence and statistics that suggest this rise in mental health issues among people is in large part due to, what he call...

Educated is Tara Westover's memoir. She grew up in a super conservative Mormon family in Idaho in the United States. She details a very unusual upbringing. Her family had a deeply seeded distrust towards the government, they didn’t believe in modern medicine or the public school system. The book is essentially a story of her metamorphosis, how she leaves the bubble she was brought up in and goes o...

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail is Malika Oufkir's first memoir. It is a full account of her unlawful and unjust political incarceration at the age of 19, along with her mother and five siblings, in various squalid desert prisons across Morocco. For over two decades, they suffered from starvation and diseases in isolation as punishment for their father's attempt to overthrow King Hassa...

The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis is a memoir that sheds light on a part of French society that are unseen by those in the political centre; people who have been actively excluded from art, film and literature. By revisiting his childhood, Edouard is also trying to unpack the socioeconomic context that he was brought up in.   Instagram: 15minbookclub   Edouard Louis on The Guardian Books Podcast: h...

Man's Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl is one of the most famous accounts of The Holocaust, it also encompasses a basic exploration of the parameters of Logotherapy. Originally published in German in 1946, Dr. Frankl asks why those who have experienced great suffering don't commit suicide. He tries to answer this question through Nietzsche’s assertion that: “He who has a why to live can...

Revolutionary Road is a classic mid-twentieth century novel by Richard Yates. It's a critique of American suburban life in the 1950s and the lies we tell ourselves, and each other, in maintaining a picturesque family life. It raises questions about the nature of insanity, and what happens when our inner selves start to revolt against our forced conforming to the collective norm.    Instagram: 15mi...

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is a witty and deeply cynical narrative. Our first person narrator, Balram, is under no illusions of righteousness. He understands that he has been born into a broken system, where one needs to be ruthless in order to thrive and prosper. He has awoken from the fallacy of the master and servant dynamic, and takes his destiny into his own hands.    Instagram: 15minbo...

Join my wonderful friend Mary and I in an extended conversation about all the incredible books she’s read over the years. She talks about Irish writers, old and new; reading obsessions, past and present; the miracle of the written word; and so much more! Mary is one of my closest and dearest friends and I am so happy that you get to hear from her. She is an extremely avid reader who relishes in ha...

On Beauty by Zadie Smith is an incredibly well crafted web of complexities. Its various sub plots tackle different conflicts of identity, such as race, gender, politics and socioeconomics. It's a philosophically thought-provoking narrative that is certainly worth the read.   Instagram: 15minbookclub

In A Heart That Works, Rob Delaney recounts the short life of his son Henry, who died at the age of two after going in and out of hospital for a year with a brain tumour. In his narrative style, Delaney has an uncanny ability to balance between humour and heartbreak. He manages to weave in humour while describing the most gut wrenching events. The book is a kind of reflection of life itself; a nev...

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka is a poetic narrative of the immigrant experience, written in first person plural from the perspective of Japanese picture brides in the early 20th century. Follow their journey to America, their false expectations of this new life, and the tragic mass incarceration of their community during WWII in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour. Based on historical events,...

Barbara Demick conducts extended interviews with six North Korean defectors. They describe their lives in North Korea before escaping, recounting the realities of a regime that puts its image at the cost of the lives and dignities of its own citizens.    Instagram: 15minbookclub   Book mentioned: In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park. Yeonmi Park interview with Joe Rogan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...