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Looking for some reading inspiration? Read on for recommended reads from us here at The Reading Agency or from publishers.

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Browse The Reading Agency booklists on bookshop.org to find a range of recommended titles for adults and children. Sales will support our mission and independent bookshops at no extra cost to you.

We know being a part of a book club can be expensive, so if you haven’t already, find your local library to borrow or reserve a book. For digital versions, check with your local library which app they use (e.g. Libby or BorrowBox) so you can borrow audio or eBook versions.

Big Tasty Read

The Big Tasty Read is inspiring people from across the UK to rediscover the joy of books, through food – stirring appetites with a smorgasbord of stories from food writers and novelists. Find out more here.

Meet Me At The Cupcake Café: From the bestselling author of feel-good romance

Jenny Colgan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal Eating

Barbara Kingsolver

Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India

Madhur Jaffrey

Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery

Sally Andrew

Sweet Bean Paste

Durian Sukegawa

A Half Baked Idea: Winner of the Fortnum & Mason’s Debut Food Book Award

Olivia Potts

In The Kitchen: Essays on food and life

Yemisi Aribisala, Joel Golby, Daisy Johnson, Rachel Roddy, Ruby Tandoh, and, Mayukh Sen

Hungry: The Highly Anticipated Memoir from One of the Greatest Food Writers of All Time

Grace Dent

Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives

Kitty Tait, and, Al Tait

Taste: My Life Through Food

Stanley Tucci

Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner

My Life in France: The life story of Julia Child - 'exuberant, affectionate and boundlessly charming' New York Times

Julia Child, and, Olivia Potts

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (The Vera Wong series, Book 1)

Jesse Sutanto

Black Cake: THE TOP 10 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND NEW DISNEY+ SERIES

Charmaine Wilkerson

The Language of Food: The International Bestseller - ""Mouth-watering and sensuous, a real feast for the imagination"" BRIDGET COLLINS

Annabel Abbs

Takeaway: 'A warm incandescent memoir' Annie Lord

Angela Hui

A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy … A Memoir of Sorts

Nigel Slater

Butter

Asako Yuzuki

Tales from the Kitchen

Various

The Briar Club

Kate Quinn

Chocolat

Joanne Harris

Like Water for Chocolate

Laura Esquivel

Booker Prize 2025 shortlist

The 2025 shortlist for the Booker Prize—the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction—has been announced. Find out more here.

Flesh

David Szalay

The Land in Winter: Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Andrew Miller

Flashlight

Susan Choi

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Kiran Desai

Audition

Katie Kitamura

The Rest of Our Lives: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025

Benjamin Markovits

Wolfson History Prize 2025 shortlist

The Wolfson History Prize have announced their 2025 shortlist. Find out more here.

The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV

Helen Castor

Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Hannah Durkin

Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age

Eleanor Barraclough

Multicultural Britain: A People’s History

Kieran Connell

The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective

Sara Lodge

The Gravity of Feathers: Fame, Fortune and the Story of St Kilda

Andrew Fleming

Blue Peter Book Club

The Blue Peter Book Club is back with six amazing titles for children to delve into in 2025-26! Find out more here.

The Train of Dark Wonders

Alex Bell, and, Beatriz Castro

Outside In: Nature Poems

Daniel Thompson, Collins Kids, and, Julia Murray

Pablo and Splash

Sheena Dempsey

The Cosmic Diary of a Future Space Explorer: The Next Step for Humankind

Tim Peake, Steve Cole, and, Max Rambaldi

The Adventures of Rap Kid

MC Grammar, and, Alan Brown

Guardians of the New Moon: Ming and Miaow's Great Race

Eric Huang, and, Phùng Nguyên Quang

Radio 2 Book Club

Check out the latest books on the Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox. For all the latest Book Club content, including interviews with the authors, visit BBC Sounds.

King Sorrow

Joe Hill

The Murder at World's End

Ross Montgomery

The Eleventh Hour

Salman Rushdie

The Shapeshifter's Daughter

Sally Magnusson

The Merge

Grace Walker

The White Octopus Hotel

Alexandra Bell

Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2025 Shortlist

The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation have announced the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing, Best Published Novel award, shortlist for 2025. Find out more here.

Babylonia

Costanza Casati

Sycorax

Nydia Hetherington

Water Moon

Samantha Sotto Yambao

Fundamentally: Shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction

Nussaibah Younis

Redemption: The UNMISSABLE thriller now shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2025!

Jack Jordan

A House for Miss Pauline: 'One of the Caribbean's finest writers' Monique Roffey

Diana McCaulay

The Society of Authors announces the 2025 shortlists for the ADCI Literary Prize, the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize and the Queen’s Knickers Award

‘Incantatory, spell-binding and resonant’ – announcing the 2025 Society of Authors’ Awards shortlists including the ADCI Literary Prize, the Gordon Bowker Volcano Prize and the Queen’s Knickers Award. Find out more here.

There are Rivers in the Sky

Elif Shafak

The Hypocrite: Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2024 and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2025

Jo Hamya

Only Here, Only Now: The funny, moving and original debut from award-winning author Tom Newlands

Tom Newlands

The Pandas Who Promised: From The World of Rachel Bright & Jim Field

Rachel Bright, and, Jim Field

The Darkest Night

Victoria Hawthorne

No. 5 Bubblegum Street

Mikolaj Pa, and, Gosia Herba

Bird is Dead

Tiny Fisscher, and, Herma Starreveld

Little Dinosaurs, Big Feelings

Swapna Haddow, and, Yiting Lee

The Life Impossible

Matt Haig

Gliff

Ali Smith, and, Eliot Sumner

The Boy, the Troll and the Chalk

David Litchfield, and, Anne Booth

Alter Ego

Helen Heckety

My Friends

Hisham Matar

Big Bad Wolf Investigates Fairy Tales

Catherine Cawthorne, and, Sara Ogilvie

Picture Perfect Booklist

Our Picture Perfect Booklist is a collection of books that prove a picture really can be worth a thousand words! This specially curated list showcases highly illustrated books, graphic novels, and powerful visual storytelling that enhances the story being told. You can then add the books from the list you’d like to read more to your TBR pile. If you have read any of the books please leave a review to help other book clubs to know more about the book and see if it’s for them.

Persepolis I & II

Marjane Satrapi

Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength

Sophia Thakur, and, Denzell Dankwah

Oxygen Mask: A Graphic Novel: Carnegie Medal-Winning Author

Jason Reynolds, and, Jason Griffin

Here

Richard McGuire

The Search for Carmella: From the award-winning author of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2024 for ‘The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish’ comes a magical and suspenseful picture book of deep sea exploration, for ages 4, 5, 6, 7

Chloe Savage, and, Chloe Savage

Lunar New Year Love Story

Gene Luen Yang, and, LeUyen Pham

Me and My Hair

Kimberley Kinloch (SAEX), Jessica Gibson (Illustrator), and, Sandra Becker Borrée

Serena and the Little Blue Dog

Rosemary Clunie

Elena: A Hand Made Life

Miriam Gold

Chris Mould's War of the Worlds: Illustrated Edition

H. G. Wells

First Big Book of How: How do polar bears keep warm? How do keys open locks? How do spacesuits work? The ultimate book of answers for kids who need to know HOW!

Sally Symes, Saranne Taylor, and, Kate Slater

Tosh's Island

Linda Sargent, Joe Brady, and, Leo Marcell

SCRAP: The Good, the Bad and the Rusty

Guy Bass, and, Alessia Trunfio

Themed booklists

We’ve collected together some of our previous booklists on a variety of themes and topics. Take a look to find your next read.

The Big Sporting Read

The Reading Agency’s Books of the Year 2024

Spine-tinglers & Nail-biters

Debuts 2024

Summer Reads: Escape with a Book

Reading Well

Reading Well supports you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing using helpful reading. All Reading Well books are recommended by health experts, as well as people with lived experience.

Reading Well for mental health

Reading Well for mental health provides helpful information and support for managing common mental health conditions, or dealing with difficult feelings and experiences. Some books also include personal stories from people who are living with or caring for someone with mental health needs.

Reading Well for families

Parenting in the early years can be a rollercoaster. Whether you’re an expectant parent, a new mum or dad, or caring for little ones, our Reading Well for families booklist can help. These expert-recommended books offer support around mental health, wellbeing and coping with loss through a mix of practical advice, personal stories and poetry.

Reading Well for teens

Reading Well for teens suggests recommended reading and digital resources for teens to help with understanding feelings, managing emotions, boosting confidence and coping with difficult times.

Reading Well for children

Reading Well for children recommends reading to help children deal with worries, feel better and boost their mood.

Reading Well for dementia

Reading Well for dementia recommends helpful reading and digital resources to help you understand more about dementia. There are books for people living with dementia, family, friends and carers. The booklist provides reliable information, advice and support as well as personal stories and age-appropriate books for children.