The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother. (Fantastic fiction)

This is a delightful and heart-warming book that would be great to read in a book club. You can find it at Wagga City Library or reserve it here.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations is a classic novel by Charles Dickens and is an RRL Book Club book. You don't have to be a fan of classics to enjoy this story as it follows the delightful Pip as his fortunes rise and fall, Miss Havisham, the jilted bride who nevers sees sunlight nor has changed out of her wedding dress in all the years that have passed, the beautiful but cold Estella, brought up by Miss Havisham to get her revenge on men and the scary and surprising Magwitch.

This book is great to read before or after Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones, which is also an RRL Book Club book.