Croydon Bookworms 📚🐛 (Book Club in-Person)

Beartown by Fredrik Backman (432 pages)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Small-Town Drama, Sports

Summary:
In the small town of Beartown, hockey isn’t just a sport — it’s survival. When the junior ice hockey team carries the hopes of the community, pressure mounts on its young players. But one night changes everything, and the aftermath exposes hidden fractures: loyalty, silence, power, and the cost of protecting the ones we love. Moving, raw, and unflinchingly honest, Beartown is a story about a town that refuses to look away — and the individuals forced to reckon with truth, justice, and hope.
Trigger Warning: This book contains themes of sexual assault, violence, and trauma. Please take care while reading.

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Join Our Book Club Bingo! 🏒📚
For our January pick, we’re diving into a powerful and emotional story that will spark big conversations — with a side of Book Club Bingo, of course!

How It Works:
🎲 Grab Your Bingo Card: We’ll give you a custom card with prompts and themes from the book.
✅ Mark Your Cards: Tick off squares during our discussion.
🎉 Shout “Bingo!”: First to complete 2 rows, columns, or diagonals wins.
🎁 Win a Book: Two lucky winners will go home with a new read!

Expect a night of heartfelt discussion on community, resilience, morality, and what it means to belong. Come ready to share your favourite passages and bold opinions!

📍 The Spread Eagle in Croydon
📅 14th of January 2026 (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM

Are you ready to step onto the ice with Beartown? ❄️🏒

Wool by Hugh Howey (576 pages)
Genre: Science Fiction • Dystopian • Post-Apocalyptic

Summary:
In a future where the world outside is deadly and toxic, humanity survives deep underground in a massive silo. Every rule is meant to protect the people—but also to keep them silent. When one woman dares to ask questions and uncover the truth, the walls of this fragile society begin to crack.

Wool is a haunting, slow-burn dystopia told across five interconnected novellas, each peeling back another layer of the mystery. It’s the story that inspired the hit Apple TV+ series Silo—a gripping blend of secrecy, survival, and human resilience in a world that feels all too possible.

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Join the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Series Squad! 🚀📚
If you’ve ever gotten halfway through a fantasy or sci-fi series and needed a little group support to finish, this is your crew. We’re reading one book a month together—so you can keep pace, stay motivated, and enjoy deep-dive discussions without feeling overwhelmed.

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How It Works:
🪐 Series Focus: We're tackling one sci-fi or fantasy book per month. First up in 2026: Wool by Hugh Howey. If it’s a hit with the group, we’ll move on to the rest of the Silo series.
🙌 No Pressure Zone: Didn’t finish the book? No stress. Come anyway—we’ll chat about the world-building, characters, favorite quotes, and wildest twists.

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📍 Join us at the Spread Eagle in Croydon on the 28th of January 2026 at 7:00 PM
Grab a drink, imagine life underground, and let’s dive into this claustrophobic sci-fi world together—one secret at a time.

Educated by Tara Westover (334 pages)
Genre: Memoir, Nonfiction, Family, Resilience

Summary:
Tara Westover grew up in a strict and isolated survivalist family in rural Idaho, with no formal education until the age of 17. Determined to forge a different path, she taught herself enough to enter university, eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge. Educated is her extraordinary memoir of family, self-invention, and the transformative power of learning. Honest, raw, and inspiring, it explores what we owe to ourselves — and what it costs to break away.
Trigger Warning: This book contains themes of abuse, neglect, and family trauma. Please take care while reading.

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Join Our Book Club Bingo! 📚✨
For our March pick, we’re exploring a moving and thought-provoking true story about resilience, identity, and the pursuit of knowledge — with a side of Book Club Bingo, of course!

How It Works:
🎲 Grab Your Bingo Card: We’ll give you a custom card with prompts and themes from the book.
✅ Mark Your Cards: Tick off squares during our discussion.
🎉 Shout “Bingo!”: First to complete 2 rows, columns, or diagonals wins.
🎁 Win a Book: Two lucky winners will go home with a new read!

Expect a powerful evening diving into themes of family, memory, independence, and the courage it takes to rewrite your own story. Bring your thoughts, your favourite lines, and your biggest questions.

📍 The Spread Eagle in Croydon
📅 11th of March 2026 (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM
Are you ready to discover what it means to be educated? 🎓📖