Pan Mac's Hurricane Book Club to resume in January

Pan Macmillan is launching the next season of its Twitter book club with a new partner, Falkirk Community Trust Libraries, during Book Week Scotland.  

The Hurricane Book Club, which is run by Pan Macmillan and supported by Scottish Book Trust, originally launched at the start of 2016. It will now kick off its third season at a special event held at Falkirk Library this Thursday (30th November) with Mary Paulson-Ellis, author of The Other Mrs Walker (Mantle), whose book featured in season one. 

Season three of the book club runs from January to June 2018, with three titles selected by Picador’s senior commissioning editor, Kris Doyle. The chosen titles are American debut Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka, about the mysterious death of a small-town golden girl and the secret lives of three people connected to her; the "darkly funny" Let Go My Hand by Edward Docx, about a dysfunctional family and their final chance to fix things; and memoir Island of Dreams by Dan Boothby, about the search for home.

Each of the three titles will be given a two-month slot culminating in simultaneous Hurricane Book Club meetings at Falkirk Library, Orkney Library and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, plus a live Twitter discussion using the hashtag #HurricaneBookClub so the libraries can interact with one another. The first meeting will be hosted on 22nd February, the second on 26th April and the third on 28th June, each at 6pm.

Pan Macmillan is issuing resource packs including information about the titles selected and advice for readers on setting up their own book club. And, during each two-month period, there will be blogs, posts and insights into these titles, as well as about the publishing industry at large, from the books' authors, editor, librarians, jacket designers, agents and readers.  

Doyle, senior commissioning editor at Picador, commented: “I’m so excited to be curating the next selection of books for the Hurricane Book Club on behalf of Picador. As someone who grew up in the North East of England and spent years of their childhood in libraries, I feel honoured to be able to participate in another thriving regional reading culture. I can't wait to work with all of the brilliant librarians, and am much looking forward to visiting in the new year and meeting all of the readers in the 2018 Hurricane Book Club.”

Vikki Ring, development librarian for adults at Falkirk Community Trust, added: “We are thrilled to be joining Orkney and Glasgow libraries for the third season of the Hurricane book group, and look forward to lots of book banter, discussion and debate.”