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Fred. Olsen Book Club

Man standing on deck with book in hand

With ample time and space to relax, many of our guests make the most of the opportunity to get stuck in to a good book during a cruise holiday on board one of Fred. Olsen’s smaller, friendlier ships. This is why to enhance reading enrichment further, we have introduced the Fred. Olsen Book Club on selected sailings, a chance to talk all things ‘bookish’ with like-minded people.

Hosted by the Cruise Directors and their Team, the Book Club provides a welcoming, social space in which you can openly and informally discuss thoughts and views on bestselling lighter reads, crime-thrillers and traditional or contemporary classics. Specific categories and titles to discuss at the Book Club on each cruise are chosen in advance and listed below, allowing you time to purchase the books or download them to your kindle, and read them before you set sail. These books will also be available from your ship’s shop, should you wish to wait until you’re on board to join in the fun.

So, if you love a good book while discovering the world with Fred. Olsen, what better way to indulge your passion than joining your friends and fellow guests at the Book Club?

To enhance your Book Club experience even further, why not enjoy a delicious speciality coffee as you immerse yourself in your book with our Bookmark Bestseller card with 7 hot drinks (teas, coffees, or hot chocolates) for you to enjoy and a bag of milk or mixed truffles priced at just £25?

We look forward to welcoming you!

With ample time and space to relax, many of our guests make the most of the opportunity to get stuck in to a good book during a cruise holiday on board one of Fred. Olsen’s smaller, friendlier ships. This is why to enhance reading enrichment further, we have introduced the Fred. Olsen Book Club on selected sailings, a chance to talk all things ‘bookish’ with like-minded people.

Hosted by the Cruise Directors and their Team, the Book Club provides a welcoming, social space in which you can openly and informally discuss thoughts and views on bestselling lighter reads, crime-thrillers and traditional or contemporary classics.Read more

Specific categories and titles to discuss at the Book Club on each cruise are chosen in advance and listed below, allowing you time to purchase the books or download them to your kindle, and read them before you set sail. These books will also be available from your ship’s shop, should you wish to wait until you’re on board to join in the fun.

So, if you love a good book while discovering the world with Fred. Olsen, what better way to indulge your passion than joining your friends and fellow guests at the Book Club?

To enhance your Book Club experience even further, why not enjoy a delicious speciality coffee as you immerse yourself in your book with our Bookmark Bestseller card with 7 hot drinks (teas, coffees, or hot chocolates) for you to enjoy and a bag of milk or mixed truffles priced at just £25?

We look forward to welcoming you!

Fred. Olsen Book Club
Cruises departing from May 2025

Book Title: The Silent Patient

Author: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Fiction

Alicia Berenson lived a seemingly perfect life until one day six years ago.
When she shot her husband in the head five times.

Since then she hasn't spoken a single word.

It's time to find out why.

Synopsis for The Silent Patient: Alicia Berenson is married to a successful fashion photographer. Everything seems perfect until one evening, when Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.

Silent Patient book front cover

Book Title: The Women

Author: Kristin Hannah

Genre: Fiction

From the worldwide bestselling author of The Four WindsThe Nightingale and Firefly Lane (a Number One series on Netflix),The Women is a story of devastating loss and epic love.

It would be the journey of a lifetime . . .

'Women can be heroes, too'. When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California's idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the young men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed America. Frankie will also discover the true value of female friendship and the heartbreak that love can cause.

The Women book front cover

Book Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures

Author: Shelby Van Pelt

Genre: Fiction

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago keeping busy has helped her cope. One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who sees everything, but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors - until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late...

Remarkably Bright Creatures book front cover
Cruises departing from September 2025

Doug said: “This book was pure escapism for me – a real page turner from start to finish, which I sped through (even though it is a larger novel) as I never wanted to put it down”.

Book Title: Once upon a River

Author: Diane Setterfield

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 500

Some say the river drowned her... Some say it brought her back to life
On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the Thames, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open and in steps an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a child.    Hours later, the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life.   Is it a miracle?   Is it magic?   And who does the little girl belong to?

An exquisitely crafted historical mystery brimming with folklore, suspense and romance, as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Victorian age.

Doug Glenwright, Guest Experience Director, FOCL
Doug Glenwright, Guest Experience Director
Once upon a river - Book Club

Book Title: You are Here

Author: David Nicholls

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 368

Marnie is stuck.  Stuck working alone in her London flat, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that increasingly feels like it's passing her by. Michael is coming undone.  Reeling from his wife's departure, increasingly reclusive, taking himself on long, solitary walks across the moors and fells. When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks and on the precipice of a new friendship.  But can it survive the journey?

A new love story by beloved bestseller David Nicholls, You Are Here is a novel of first encounters, second chances, and finding the way home.

You are Here - Book Club

Book Title: The Woman in Cabin 10

Author: Ruth Ware

Genre: Fiction. Soon to feature as a major Netflix series, starring Keira Knightley

Pages: 368

A PASSENGER IS MISSING...BUT WAS SHE EVER ON BOARD AT ALL?
This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship. A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse. Except things don't go as planned. Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked into that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat.

Exhausted and emotional, Lo has to face the fact that she may have made a mistake - either that, or she is now trapped on a boat with a murderer...

The Woman in Cabin 10 - Book Club

The Book Club will run on cruises with more than four sea days.