Portsmouth Library Service has over 90 book sets that are available for reading groups in the local area to use and enjoy. Our mission is to challenge your comfortable reading choices and our book sets are a mixture of 19th and 20th century classics as well as contemporary novels and narrative non-fiction. Titles are suggested by reading group members and staff, and then the group facilitators decide which books will be best for encouraging debate and discussion. Generally speaking we select mainstream titles in paperback. Quite often they have won, or been shortlisted for an award. We occasionally choose books to tie in with a literary event or author visit.

Tell us what you want!

The Library Service is always looking for suggestions for good reading group titles and likes to involve the groups in the decision process. If you would like to suggest a book you think would make a good reading group selection, please start a thread below

Read our reviews

To take a closer look at our collection, please use the book title links below. Each page has a synopsis and perhaps reviews from the reading groups themselves. If you have read the same books as us, you're very welcome to leave your own review on the relevant page. Join the debate!

Titles A-D A short history of tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka A single man by Christopher Isherwood A town like Alice by Nevil Shute Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Allotted time by Robin Shelton Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman Arrival by Shaun Tan New! Behind the scenes at the museum by Kate Atkinson Birds without wings by Louis de Bernieres Birthdays by Heidi Pitlor Blind side of the heart by Julia Franck Book of fate by Brad Meltzer Brodeck's report by Phillipe Claudel Broken glass by Alain Mabanckou Cellist of Sarajevo, The by Steven Galloway Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons Comrade Jim by Jim Riordan Dancing Backwards by Salley Vickers Dark side of love by Rafik Schami Day by A L Kennedy Deafening by Frances Itani Dissolution by C.J. Sansom Diving bell and the butterfly by Jean Dominique Bauby	Titles E-H Eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert Elegance of hedgehog by Muriel Barbery English harem by Anthony McCarten English passengers by Matthew Kneale Family matters by Rohinton Mistry Far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Fragrant Harbour by John Lanchester Gardens of water by Alan Drew Gig by Simon Armitage Girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown Go-Between, The by L.P.Hartley Grass is singing by Doris Lessing Grease monkey's tale by Paul Burman Guernica by Dave Boling Guernsey literary and potato peel society by Helen Shaffer Hard way by Lee Child Heartland by Anthony Cartwright New! Hearts and minds by Amanda Craig Her fearful symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger Highest tide by Jim Lynch House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier Howling miller by Arto Paasilinna
Titles I-L If nobody speaks of remarkable things by Jon McGregor New! In pale battalions by Robert Goddard Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan Labyrinth by Kate Mosse Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver Let the great world spin by Colum McCann Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle	Titles M-O Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear Maurice by E M Forster Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock Memoirs of a geisha by Arthur Golden Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides Miss Pettigrew lives for a day by Winifred Watson Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons Mud, muck and dead things by Ann Granger My sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult Name of the rose by Umberto Eco Night Watch by Sarah Waters Ninth life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen No lovelier death by Graham Hurley Notes on an exhibition by Patrick Gale Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Titles P-S Persuasion by Jane Austen Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult Red tent by Anita Diamant Remarkable creatures by Tracy Chevalier Rendezvous and other stories by Daphne Du Maurier Requiem for the East by Andrei Makine New! Revenger by Rory Clements Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates Road by Cormac McCarthy Road Home by Rose Tremain New! Room by Emma Donoghue Rough Music by Patrick Gale Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman Sea by John Banville Secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd Secret river by Kate Grenville Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry Shack, The by William P. Young Shadow dance by Angela Carter Sister by Paola Kaufmann Small island by Andrea Levy Small wars by Sadie Jones Son called Gabriel by Damian McNicholl Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky Summer book by Tove Jansson Super-Cannes by JG Ballard Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale	Titles T-Z That loving feeling by Carole Matthews Tent, the bucket and me by Emma Kennedy This time of dying by Reina James Three men in a boat by Jerome K. Jerome Traitor game by B R Collins Traversa by Fran Sandham Unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro Vanishing act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver What I loved by Siri Hustevedt Yacoubian building by Alaa Al Aswany