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 Entertainment Managers 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.[ReadMoreMob] 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 September - December 2024

Book Title: The Wrong Sister

Author: Claire Douglas

Genre: Literary Fiction

You’ve known her all your life . . .
Or have you?
Tasha and sister Alice look alike, but couldn’t be more different. Tasha’s married with kids, settled near their home town of Bristol. While Alice travels the world with her husband. Yet each trusts the other with her life. So when Tasha wants a break,Alice offers to stay in her home with the kids, so her sister can have a holiday. Tasha knows they’re in safe hands. She couldn’t be more wrong. The call sends Tasha rushing home. Alice is in intensive care. Her husband is dead. The police are hunting for suspects and motives. But Tasha can’t think why anyone would hurt her sister. Then the note arrives, addressed to Tasha: It was supposed to be you . . .

The Wrong Sister book cover

Book Title: The Ghost Ship

Author: Kate Mosse

Genre: Literary Fiction

Piracy. Romance. Revenge. Across the seas of the seventeenth century, two seafarers are forced to fight for their lives. The sequel to The City of TearsThe Ghost Ship is the third novel in the Joubert Family Chronicles from bestselling author Kate Mosse.
The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water – its hull splintered and its sails tattered and burnt. For months the Ghost Ship has hunted pirates to liberate enslaved prisoners. Now it – too – finds itself hunted.
But the ship’s crew hides a secret, and the stakes could not be higher. The bravest among them are not who they seem: if arrested, they will hang for their alleged crimes. Can they survive their journey and escape their fate?
A sweeping and epic love story, The Ghost Ship is a tale of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes, piracy and hidden secrets on the high seas.

The Ghost Ship book cover

Book Title: Book Lovers

Author: Emily Henry

Genre: Literary Fiction

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

Book Lovers front cover
Cruises departing from January 2025

Book Title: An Elephant in my Kitchen

Author: Francoise Malby-Anthony

Genre: Factual

Françoise Malby-Anthony never expected to find herself responsible for a herd of elephants with a troubled past. A chic Parisienne, her life changed forever when she fell in love with South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony. Together they founded a game reserve but after Lawrence’s death, Françoise faced the daunting responsibility of running Thula Thula without him. Poachers attacked their rhinos, their security team wouldn’t take orders from a woman and the authorities were threatening to cull their beloved elephant family. On top of that, the herd’s feisty new matriarch Frankie didn’t like her.
In this heart-warming and moving book, Françoise describes how she fought to protect the herd and to make her dream of building a wildlife rescue centre a reality. She found herself caring for a lost baby elephant who turned up at her house, and offering refuge to traumatized orphaned rhinos, and a hippo called Charlie who was scared of water. As she learned to trust herself, she discovered she’d had Frankie wrong all along . . .
Filled with extraordinary animals and the humans who dedicate their lives to saving them, An Elephant in My Kitchen by Françoise Malby-Anthony is a captivating and gripping read.

Adult elephant with baby elephant walking through the dessert

Book Title: Homecoming

Author: Kate Morton

Genre: Fiction

A breathtaking mystery of love, lies and a cold case come back to life, Homecoming is an immersive, twisting epic from the bestselling Kate Morton, told with her trademark intricacy and beauty.
Adelaide Hills, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, in the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most mystifying murder investigations in the history of Australia.
London, 2018. Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, a phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in hospital.
Seeking comfort in her past, Jess discovers a true crime book at Nora’s house chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. And within its pages she finds a shocking personal connection to this notorious event – a crime that has never truly been solved . . .
An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love and how we protect the lies we tell.

Blue bird on a yellow background

Book Title: Never Lie

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Fiction

Sometimes the truth kills…
Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They think they've found it when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace years ago. But when a violent winter storm traps them at the estate, the house begins to lose its appeal.
Stuck inside and growing restless, Tricia stumbles on a collection of audio transcripts from Dr. Hale's sessions with patients. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to the doctor's mysterious disappearance.
With each tape, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and a web of lies slowly unravels. But by the time Tricia reaches the final cassette, the one that reveals the entire horrifying story, it will be too late…
From Sunday Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes an addictive, unpredictable thriller that will keep you asking the question: what is the truth?

Never lie book cover

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