Secret Book Swap | Currie | No.8 | September 2025

Books We Swapped:

From Here to the Great Unknown – Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
In this haunting memoir, Lisa Marie Presley’s voice echoes through tape recordings as she recounts her life as Elvis’s daughter, her marriages, motherhood, addiction, and deep grief. Her daughter Riley Keough weaves her own reflections and memories into the narrative, creating a layered portrait of legacy, love, and the struggle to be known on her own terms.
Secrets She Left Behind – Diane Chamberlain
When a 15‑year‑old goes missing, her anguished mother makes a startling confession that sends shockwaves through her family and community. Chamberlain unravels a gripping tale of guilt, forgiveness, and the ripples of past mistakes. A domestic suspense that explores how secrets bind us — and how truth can set us free.
Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt
Tova Sullivan works the night shift cleaning the aquarium, hidden behind grief and routine. When an octopus escapes and begins leaving cryptic messages, Tova teams up with a new neighbor to uncover a decades-old disappearance. Van Pelt’s novel blends whimsy, loss, and the uncanny in a tender story about second chances.
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt
Set during the gold rush era, this darkly comic Western follows assassin brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters as they travel across Oregon to kill a man. Along the way, they wrestle with moral complexity, love, and loyalty. DeWitt delivers a brutal, tender, beautifully odd journey.
Past Lying – Val McDermid
Locked down during the pandemic, DCI Karen Pirie investigates a cold-case manuscript linked to disappearances and betrayal. What starts as literary intrigue becomes a lethal hunt through art, memory and obsession. McDermid’s novel fuses police procedural with psychological suspense.
Surrounded by Setbacks – Thomas Erikson
Erikson explores what it means to face life’s curveballs and transform them into growth. Drawing on his signature behavioural insights, he offers frameworks and strategies to navigate failure, uncertainty, and adversity with resilience and clarity. A practical, motivational guide for the times when everything feels off course.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
Eleanor lives a solitary, rigid life. Socially awkward, she hides deep emotional scars. When she develops an unlikely friendship with a coworker and intervenes in a crisis, she begins to confront past trauma and the possibility of healing. A heartwarming and darkly humorous journey toward connection.
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Found abandoned in the marshes of North Carolina, Kya Clark grows up in isolation, learning to survive in nature. When a local man turns up dead, suspicion falls on her. Owens crafts a haunting fusion of coming-of-age, nature portrait, and whodunnit.
Love: Poems to Bolster Every Heart That Ever Beat – Donna Ashworth
A lyrical collection of poems exploring desire, heartbreak, vulnerability and belonging. Ashworth’s evocative lines hold space for the messy, lovely, painful parts of love—sometimes fleeting, often complicated, always real.

Our Guest - Jenny Brown

Jenny Brown is a writer, coach, and primary school teacher with a passion for celebrating the little moments that shape childhood.

Her debut book, Words of Wisdom, was created to help children capture their primary school journey—recording achievements, encouragement, and positive memories they’ll treasure for years to come.

I first met Jenny at a writing group, also held at The Craws Nest Collective in Currie. At that stage Jenny was working on developing Words of Wisdom. She had a very clear idea of the purpose of the book and you could see the passion Jenny had in her to make this a truly special book for the child at the time and as grown ups reflecting back on their school days and the words of support that shaped them.

It was so lovely to see her hard work and insight as both a parent and teacher come to fruition and hold the final book in my hands on the night.

Words of Wisdom (scottish schools version)

Words of wisdom (English schools version)

Banned Book Reading

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou

This month we talked about Banned Books Week UK, which returns this October for the first time since the pandemic. It is being led by Index on Censorship, a London-based organisation that has been defending free expression since 1972. We shared their reminder that:

“We don’t champion books because we always agree with them… We champion them because books must be a space where ideas, even deeply uncomfortable ones, can be explored.”

We discussed how the return of Banned Books Week UK feels appropriate given some of the stories we’ve shared earlier this year and we talked about how whilst the situation here in the UK is different to others we’ve talked about in the US, even small decisions can shape what stories are seen and heard. As Index put it, “curation is never neutral.” Protecting readers from harm without shutting down whole voices is not always simple, but it matters.

We also shared how the situation in the U.S. is far more severe. In Florida, hundreds of titles have been pulled from classrooms and libraries, including Slaughterhouse-Five, Forever…, The Diary of Anne Frank and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

First published in 1969, Caged Bird was Angelou’s first autobiography, placing the experiences of a Black girl growing up in the segregated South at the centre of American literature. It has been praised and challenged in equal measure ever since.

For our reading, we chose a short passage where young Maya recites a poem in church and feels, for the first time, that she belongs. It was a lovely moment to end on and a reminder of why stories like Caged Bird still need to be read, shared, and talked about.