Secret Book Swap | No. 6 - North Berwick October
Books we swapped:
The Library Cat – Alex Howard
From his perch in Edinburgh University’s grand library, a philosophical feline muses on love, loneliness, and the oddities of human behaviour. With poetic flair and playful wit, Library Cat roams the stacks and city streets, offering a whimsical meditation on belonging, curiosity, and the quiet drama of everyday life.My Sister Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
In this darkly witty thriller, Korede is a nurse, devoted sister and reluctant accomplice to Ayoola — her younger sibling, who happens to kill her boyfriends. As romances bloom and bodies pile up, Korede must choose between protecting her sister and protecting herself. Braithwaite’s sharp prose, Nigerian setting and moral tension make it a memorable exploration of sibling loyalty, beauty and blood.The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, a liminal space between life and death, where each book on the shelves represents a different version of the life she could’ve lived. As she explores what might have been, she must decide what she truly wants and why life, messy as it is, can be worth living. Haig blends whimsy, philosophy and emotion in this uplifting read.
Running with Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
This brilliant and disturbing memoir recounts the author’s childhood after his parents’ divorce, his mother’s mental illness and the bizarre blended family he ended up with. Burroughs’ razor‑sharp wit and unflinching honesty turn chaos into compelling narrative, showing how resilience often comes from the weirdest places.Wintering – Katherine May
In this reflective and beautifully written book, May describes her “wintering” — a season in life of withdrawal, cold, and inner contemplation after illness. She draws on Scandinavian winter metaphors to explore rest, recovery, and the value of stillness in a world that equates worth with activity. A gentle, meditative read about depth in darkness.In this affectionate restoration story, an eccentric group gathers to help repair a broken holiday park in County Wexford. Amid misfits, long lunches and Irish charm, Nicholls explores friendship, home and the idea that sometimes “being seen” is all the belonging we need.
Passionate – A. S. Byatt
A pair of young scholars investigate the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time. Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story.Luckiest Girl Alive – Jessica Knoll
Ani FaNelli has it all — a glamorous job in New York, a handsome husband, a picture‑perfect past. But when she’s forced to confront the trauma of her high school years and the lies she told to survive, the world she built starts to crumble. Knoll’s thriller with bite tackles wealth, power and the price of silence with gritty precision.The Instrumentalists – Harriet Constable
In 18th-century Venice, orphaned Anna Maria rises to fame as a violin prodigy under the tutelage of composer Antonio Vivaldi. But as her ambition grows, so does the tension between genius, control, and the cost of freedom. Constable’s debut is a vivid, lyrical story of music, power, and a woman finding her voice.Hope – Niall Harbison
After a life of burnout and addiction, Harbison found purpose not in business, but in rescuing street dogs on the beaches of Thailand. This heartfelt memoir blends raw honesty with warmth and humour, showing how the bond between humans and animals can heal even the most broken. A gently powerful story of redemption, second chances, and tail-wagging joy.The Making of Henry – Howard Jacobson
Henry Nagel, a lonely man of habit, unexpectedly inherits a luxury London flat and is forced to confront the life he’s kept at arm’s length. With razor-sharp wit and tender introspection, Jacobson explores memory, mortality and the strange ways love can still find us late in life. A wry and touching novel about starting over when you least expect it.
Guest, writer, Sarah MacGillivray
Sarah is an award winning actor and writer who loves creating content from spoken word to sketches and everything in between.
She has appeared in Outlander and Shetland, is one of the creative forces behind the sell out Fringe Show She Burns which explored the life of Rabbie Burns through the women in his life, and she is the poet behind Hags... oh and she runs the writing group I attended and helped inspire me to write poetry!
'Hags' is a powerful spoken word piece, which challenges the language and stereotypes society tends to associate with women as they grow older. Featured on BBC Social, Hags was also an inspiration for the creator behind the recent exhibition 'Hag' at Fife Contemporary.
Sarah has a special connection to The Secret Book Swap as she was our very first guest writer at our launch night in Currie last October. We were delighted to welcome her back, this time in North Berwick, where she talked about her writing and shared her poem Hags with us.
Banned Book Reading
Misery, Stephen King
This month we talked about Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls, one of TV’s most famous book lovers. Over seven seasons she’s rarely seen without a book in hand, and fans have tracked every single title she reads or mentions. That list includes more than 400 books, and it’s become a kind of reading challenge for fans around the world.
When we compared Rory’s list to PEN America’s latest Index of School Book Bans, we found that 38 of her books — almost one in ten were impacted by the bans in U.S. schools.
We talked about how this fits into a much wider pattern. Since 2021, U.S. schools have recorded over 22,000 book bans, with nearly 7,000 in the past school year alone. The bans now cover 23 states, and in some districts, even a single parent complaint can see a title removed.
Looking at the lists, many of the banned titles are the same ones that shaped readers like Rory: 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Kite Runner, Beloved, Slaughterhouse-Five, and the author who now tops the list, Stephen King, with more than 200 bans across 87 of his titles.
The one that stood out to me was Misery, (not least because it’s an all time favourite of mine) which became our banned book reading for the night. It’s one of King’s most intense and unsettling novels, the story of Paul Sheldon, a novelist held captive by his “number one fan,” Annie Wilkes.
For our reading, we shared a tense scene where Paul begins to realise the danger he’s in and how completely he depends on Annie for his life and pain relief. It’s disturbing, but also a powerful reminder of how fear and power can twist even acts of care.
Join us at future secret book swaps: