When it comes to playtime, we all have our favourite indulgences – shopping, dancing, movies, sports…Author Joy Fielding loves to play golf and bridge (when she’s not gazing upon her new grandson, that is). But some mummies (like me) just want to play between the covers…of a good book! I know you’re busy, and I know that when that monthly bookclub meeting comes around, and it’s your turn to suggest the next great read, sometimes it’s a scramble to come up with something delectable. So here are a few options to make your next bookclub an affair to remember.

1. Two brothers - Will and Jeff - and their friend Tom are out one night at their favorite South Beach bar when they decide to make a bet on who can be the first to seduce a mysterious-looking young woman drinking by herself. But Suzy isn't as naive as she seems. And she has an agenda of her own. The Wild Zone by Joy Fielding Read Chapter One 20 Writerly Questions

2. Angels are the new vampires! This historical adventure follows the millennium-old Society of Angelologists as they track a group of rogue angels called Nephilim. The movie rights have been optioned by Columbia Pictures and Will Smith. Read Chapter One Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

3. Every woman who has—or wishes she had—a sister will love this story. In 1937 Shanghai, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree—until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth. To repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. 20 Writerly Questions Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

4. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce didn’t intend to investigate another murder — but then, Rupert Porson didn’t intend to die. In this follow-up to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie , the delightful Flavia puts aside her sister-punishing chemistry lab experiments to investigate the possible murder of a master puppeteer. Check out the Reader’s Guide The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

5. Seven summers ago, on Cape Cod, Marcella Atkinson - a married woman - fell in love with Cecil McClatchey, married father of two. Fuelled by desire and mutual respect, a secret affair blossomed, but when Cecil's wife was murdered, their romance promptly ended. Cecil died soon after, and while his wife's murder has never been solved, he remains a suspect. 20 Writerly Questions The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw

6. The trouble with dying is that you're not around anymore to explain what you meant to the people who love you… When Richie Rossiter, a crooner and piano man still popular with his loyal fans, dies suddenly, his wife Chrissie and her daughters cross paths with Richie's other family for the very first time. Read Chapter One The Other Family by Joanna Trollope

7. When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more… Check out this author video ! Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

8. When her husband doesn’t come home on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch, a woman struggling with obesity who has never learned to be self-sufficient, sets out on a truly remarkable journey of self-discovery that takes her first to the big city and then to another country. Check out this author video ! The Wife’s Tale by Lori Lansens

9. Sarah Summers is enjoying a holiday on a Nigerian beach when a young girl named Little Bee crashes irrevocably into her life. All it takes is a brief and horrifying moment of crisis — a terrifying scene that no reader will forget. Afterwards, Sarah and Little Bee might expect never to see each other again. But Little Bee finds Sarah’s husband’s wallet in the sand, and smuggles herself on board a cargo vessel with his address in mind. Little Bee by Chris Cleave

10. In 1964, a newly married Canadian couple settle into a houseboat on the Nile just below Abu Simbel. They met on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, witnessing the construction of the Seaway as it swallowed towns, homes, and lives. Now, at the edge of another world about to be inundated in the name of progress, much of what they most believe in is tested. Check out the Reader’s Guide The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels