The Riverbend Readers Book Club

For Riverbend Readers Book Club members, please scroll down to find out what your current and next book club books are. You will also find a calendar of dates and the list of books that you've read over the past year. For guests, please feel free to peruse the Riverbend Readers page, and fill out an Expression of Interest form if you would like to join the Riverbend Readers waiting list.

Keep in mind that if you live outside Brisbane and cannot physically attend our book clubs, you can still read the books! Sign up for our Book of the Month program and receive the latest offering from Riverbend Readers. Or, you can join The R Club Online.

BOOKCLUB DATES FOR 2024

Mondays - 6pm and 7:30pm | Tuesdays - 10am, 6pm, and 7:30pm | Wednesdays - 10am, 1pm, 6pm, and 7:30pm | Thursdays - 6pm and 7:30pm | Sundays 2pm

To join, choose the session time that suits you best below and click on Add to Cart to pay and join for 2024! Please note, some session times are sold out and will not appear below.

2024 CALENDAR

Reading for NOVEMBEr

Sunbirds by Mirandi Riwoe

1941, West Java. Love and revolution are in the air. And war is on its way.

Shortly before the Japanese invade, the van Hoorn family throws their famous Sinterklaas party at their tea plantation in West Java. One of their guests, Mattijs, a Dutch pilot, hopes to forge a future in the Dutch East Indies, possibly with the family's daughter Anna, but she is torn between her dreams of Holland and her desire to belong.

Meanwhile the housekeeper, Diah, keenly observes the goings-on around the plantation, wondering how much to tell her freedom-fighter brother.

When the Japanese forces finally arrive on Java's doorstep, they all have to make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.

Reading for February

The Bee Stong by Paul Murray

From the author of Skippy Dies comes a dazzlingly intricate and poignant tragicomedy about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good man at the end of the world.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's car business is going under, but instead of doing anything about it, he's out in the woods preparing for the actual end of the world. Meanwhile his wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attentions of fast-talking local wrongun Big Mike. Their teenage daughter Cass, usually top of her class, seems determined to drink her way through the whole thing. And twelve year old PJ is spending more and more time on video game forums, where he's met a friendly boy named Ethan who never turns his camera on and wants PJ to run away from home.

Digging down through layers of family history, the roots of this crisis stretch deep into the past. Meanwhile in the present, the fault lines keep spreading, ghosts slipping in through the cracks, and every step brings the Barneses closer to a fatal precipice.

When the moment of reckoning finally arrives, all four of them must decide how far they're willing to go to save the family, and whether - if the story's already been written - there's still time to give it a happy ending...