The Reading Agency has announced the six best-selling authors championing Quick Reads for 2024. They are Kia Abdullah, Malorie Blackman, Matt Cain, Kit de Waal, Jo Nesbo and Karen Swan.
These are published on 11 April, and reflect the very best in contemporary writing. All titles will be available to reserve at each Wokingham Borough Library.
Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
You’re about to receive your A-level results and then a future of university and journalism awaits. But the day they’re due to arrive your old girlfriend turns up unexpectedly – with a baby. Your baby. You agree to look after it, just for an hour or two. Then she doesn’t come back – and your life changes forever.
Without Warning and only sometimes by Kit de Waal
Kit de Waal and her brother and sisters had a hard childhood in the West Midlands. Her Irish mother didn’t feed them, didn’t believe in Christmas or birthdays, and thought the world would end in 1975. Her father saved all his money to return to the Caribbean, where he planned to make a new life without them. At school, their faces just didn’t fit in. This is the story of how Kit and her brother and sisters helped each other escape, and what gave Kit the strength to keep living.
Those People Next Door by Kia Abdullah
Welcome to your dream home. Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family is in desperate need of a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the place to make that happen. Meet your new neighbours. Not long after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in their front garden. She chooses not to confront Tom because she wants to fit in. It’s a small thing, really. No need to make a fuss. So Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window instead. But the next morning she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint. This time she does confront Tom, and the battle lines between the two families are drawn. As things begin to escalate and the stakes become higher, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming. And someone is going to get hurt.
Game On by Matt Cain
Toddington FC defender Tom Horrocks is never happier than when he’s on the football pitch, but when it comesto love, he’s hiding a big secret. Worried about his young daughter and sick father – and with his team finally in the Premier League – he avoids all media. Journalist Cosmo Roberts wants to change the world, so is angry when he’s sent to a quiet northern town to cover a sport he sees as anti-gay. Then something about Tom catches his eye. Cosmo hates football. Tom hates journalists. Perhaps this time they’ve both met their match.
The Last Summer by Karen Swan
All her young life Effie Gillies has lived, wild and free, on the remote Scottish island of St Kilda. But when Lord Sholto visits the island, the attraction between them is instant. For one glorious week she guides the handsome young Lord around the isle, and falls in love for the first time. But a storm hits and her world falls apart. Three months later, all the islanders are moved to a better life on the mainland. And Effie is surprised to be offered a job working for Sholto’s father. But Sholto and Effie come from two different worlds – can love ever win?
The Jealousy Man by Jo Nesbo
Meet a detective on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin; a hired assassin facing his greatest adversary; and two passengers meeting by chance on a plane, spelling romance or something far more sinister. In his first collection of short stories, this master of crime delivers a gripping, edge-of-your seat read that you won’t be able to put down.
For information on how to reserve books and ebooks please visit our library services page online https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/libraries/library-servicesÂ
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