The 15-Minute Book Club

Week 52: The Giver

Lois Lowry's modern classic in young adult literature is a dystopian novel that takes place in a seemingly utopian society that has eliminated pain, fear, war, and hatred by converting to "Sameness"— which is a plan that erases all emotional depth and memories of the past. It follows the main character, Jonas, he’s a 12-year-old boy who lives in this tightly controlled community. Everyone is assigned roles in the community when they turn twelve, and Jonas is given a unique and prestigious role: he’s to become The Receiver of Memory. 
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Week 51: The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini's critically acclaimed novel follows Amir, a young boy from a wealthy family in Kabul, and his close friendship with Hassan, the son of his father’s servant. Despite their bond, class differences and societal pressures strain their relationship, and a pivotal moment of betrayal by Amir changes both of their lives forever.
 
A Thousand Splendid Suns Review: https://salmaintb.podbean.com/e/week-33-a-thousand-splendid-suns/ 
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Week 50: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon's novel was first published in 2003. It’s a unique story that’s told from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy Christopher Boone, who describes himself as “a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties." The novel begins with Christopher discovering that his neighbour's dog, Wellington, has been mysteriously killed with a garden fork. Christopher sets out to find the person who killed the dog, and what begins as a simple investigation quickly unfolds into a deeper, more complex journey that reveals secrets about his own family and forces him to step far outside his comfort zone. 
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Week 49: The Metamorphosis

First published in German in 1915, it's one of Franz Kafka’s most famous and influential works — a blend of the absurd, existential, and psychological. Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up one day to find that he's turned into a “monstrous vermin”. 
University of Oxford, Conversation of Kafka:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/conversations-on-kafka/id1750531209?i=1000657947433 
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Week 48: The Help

Kathryn Stockett's novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, around the time of The Civil Rights Movement in America. It follows three characters, Skeeter Phelan; a young white aspiring writer who comes back home from college and starts to develop an awareness of racial inequality and the unfair treatment of Black domestic workers, specifically black women who work as maids in white homes. The second character is Aibileen Clark; a black woman who has spent her life raising white children. The third character is Aibileen's best friend, Minny Jackson; a highly skilled cook with a sharp tongue. If you're looking for an entertaining read that's also shrouded in controversy, this is the one for you. 
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Week 47: Under the Skin

Michel Faber's iconic novel is a unique blend of science fiction, horror, and social commentary. It follows a woman named Isserley as she drives around the Scottish Highlands picking up male hitchhikers that she then drugs and takes to a secret farm facility. Over time, it becomes clear that she’s not what she seems—she’s actually an alien working for an extraterrestrial corporation that harvests human meat for consumption on her home planet.      Instagram: 15minbookclub    

Week 46: Facing the Forests

Avraham Yehoshua's short story follows an unnamed Israeli scholar who takes a job as a forest ranger. He’s stationed in a remote fire-watch tower, and his job is to guard the forest and immediately sound the alarm if he sees it catch fire. As the story progresses, he gradually starts to realise that the forest is prone to fires because the land was never meant to sustain it in the first place —it was planted over the ruins of a Palestinian village, effectively covering up its existence.

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Men in the Sun Review: https://salmaintb.podbean.com/e/week-9-men-in-the-sun/ 
 

Week 45: The Little Prince

Antoine De Saint-Exupery's literary classic, published in 1943 and translated into over 500 languages, is about a pilot who crash lands in the Sahara Desert and meets The Little Prince who tells him all about his adventures visiting different planets. Although this is officially classified as a children’s book, it’s widely considered to be a kind of philosophical fable for adult readers as well. 
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Week 44: Minor Detail

Adania Shibli's groundbreaking novel is divided into two parts. The first half is narrated in the third person from the perspective of an Israeli soldier, and is set in the summer of 1949 in the Negev desert. The second half takes place in the present day, and is narrated in the first person from the perspective of a Palestinian woman living in Ramallah. The novel draws a chilling parallel between past and present, showing that the violence of 1949 is not just a “minor detail” of history—it continues to define Palestinian existence even today.
 
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Adania Shibli at the 2024 Hay Festival:
https://www.hayfestival.com/p-21834-hisham-matar-elif-shafak-and-adania-shibli-talk-to-philippe-sands.aspx
https://www.hayfestival.com/p-21761-adania-shibli-talks-to-hisham-matar.aspx 
Book mentioned:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Week 43: The Tyranny of Merit

Michael J. Sandel examines our current political polarisation, which in many ways is the result of our general attitude towards success and failure, especially in a time of rising inequality. The book looks at the fallacy of being self-made, he argues that there is no such thing as a self-made individual. 
 
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Studio B, Unscripted: With Ken Loach and Edouard Louis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J89RTrx1_eM 
Week 19: The End of Eddy:https://salmaintb.podbean.com/e/week-19-the-end-of-eddy/