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It can often feel like an impossible challenge, finishing a great book and then being tasked with finding equally-exciting new reading material. The Radio 2 Book Club is here to help. Every other week, Jo Whiley celebrates the best in new fiction, while a local book club based in the UK is tasked with giving their verdict.

In 2019, we’ve had some exceptional book releases; novels that have entranced, thrilled, and broken our hearts.

Here is a selection of Book Club highlights, picking out some of the most talked-about novels of 2019 so far.

What is it about?
Claire Adam’s debut novel deals with the conflict and drama that comes from raising a large family; the difficulty in pleasing everyone, and the increasing guilt that stirs when feeling like you’ve let someone down. Based in rural Trinidad, it follows father Clyde Deyalsingh, his wife Joy, and their two twin sons, Peter and Paul – both of whom differ drastically in terms of character and ambition. What follows is both a poignant portrait of the country it’s based in, and a broad study of parenthood.

What do they say about it?
Adam told Radio 2: “Clyde was my way into the story – it all started with him. I already knew what he'd have to do, and the decisions he'd be faced with. The other characters came later... If people come away saying they feel some emotion, I would be happy with that."

Our local Book Club says... “The book really grabbed me from page one, I really really enjoyed it” (The Bigger Book Club, Birmingham)

You need to read it if you.. Want a fresh perspective on the responsibility of being a parent.

What is it about?
Following the worldwide success of 2017’s debut young adult novel ‘The Hate U Give’, ‘On The Come Up’ sees Angie Thomas telling the story of a teenage, aspiring rapper who wants to do what her father was on the cusp of achieving – he was an acclaimed underground star who passed away just as he was on the brink of mainstream success. Her route to stardom arrives in unpredictable fashion, and she then has to deal with an unforgiving life in the public eye. The book landed Thomas the #1 and #2 spot on the U.S. bestsellers list.

What do they say about it?
Thomas told : “My biggest literary influences are rappers. I want to write the way that rappers rap. You know, they were telling the stories I saw myself in when I was a kid when books didn't. And the reason that so many young people gravitate towards hip-hop is because it keeps it real with them.” []

Our local Book Club says... “A really good read, fast paced and engaging from the start” (Red Door Bistro Book Club, Wigan)

You need to read it if you.. Enjoy fast-paced, witty, authentic, tangible stories; like being transported to the midst of a rap battle.

What is it about?
Rónán Hession’s first work initially seems light on plot and drama, but that’s partly the point. It hones in on the lives of two seemingly ordinary guys in their 30s, whose insignificant daily thoughts and actions soon reveal what’s beautiful and startling about life itself. It makes you peer a little closer to your own day-to-day routine, and view it from a different angle. "It's lonely, but it draws you in intensely," says Kaiser Chiefs' Ricky Wilson, who covered for Jo Whiley on Radio 2's Book Club earlier this year.

What do they say about it?
Hession told Radio 2: "There are no surnames, there are no place names. It's supposed to feel like a world of its own, not too far from here and now. If it was a painting, it would be more of a portrait than a landscape. It's about looking at human nature."

Our local Book Club says... "I thought it was beautiful, sweet and wholesome. I will definitely recommend this to friends" (Chelmondiston Book Club, Chelmondiston)

You need to read it if you.. Love books with beautiful prose and a subtle underlying message.

What is it about?
‘The Flatshare’ is a seriously funny rom-com with a twist. Tiffy and Leon are both escaping traumatic experiences to move into a one-bed London flat – only they’ve never met. They decide to cohabit because they assume they’ll never see each other; Leon does night shifts as a nurse, he’ll have the place to himself in the day while Tiffany works as a publishing editor in central London. But because flatshares are never simple, things soon take an unexpected turn.

What do they say about it?
O’Leary told Radio 2: "I moved out of London, and I was commuting just over an hour for work. I decided to make use of that time, and to write. I've always wanted to be a novelist, for as long as I can remember. I saved up for some noise-cancelling headphones, which was the best purchase I've ever made! The whole book was written that way."

Our local Book Club says... "I would never have picked it up but when I started reading it I really enjoyed it and read it really quickly!" (The Blackheath Library Reading Group, Blackheath)

You need to read it if you.. Crave a feel-good, romantic novel for the late summer.

What is it about?
Marie Claire has dubbed Joanne Ramos’ work the “‘Handmaid’s Tale’ of 2019”. It bases itself in a fertility retreat – where women are given a pampered, monied life, but in exchange they must produce a “perfect” child for a complete stranger. Ramos’ strange dystopia is distinctly different from ‘Handmaid’s Tale’, however. It also navigates class divide and topical moral questions, honing in on the story of Jane, who leaves Queens (and her six-month-old daughter) to sign up as a surrogate. "It raises an awful lot of questions. If you're constantly searching for the next great read, this could be the book for you," says Jo Whiley.

What do they say about it?
Ramos says: "I was hoping there was a way to make some hard questions palatable, so that people would want to tackle them."

Our local Book Club says... "It’s not something from the title that I would’ve picked up but I enjoyed the fact that it moved along at a good pace, there were surprises and it made me think about the topic - I really loved it" (The Chatty Chicks, Kings Hill/ West Malling)

You need to read it if you.. Want to be transfixed by a chilling, close-to-home tale.

What is it about?
A timely exposé of an industry’s dark underbelly, ‘Meat Market’ is also a deeply personal and enlightening tale of one unsuspecting model, Jana. Raised in south London, she’s a reluctant star, catapulted to prominence and exposed to the extreme highs and lows of fashion. It circumnavigates glamour, body confidence, addiction and desperation.

What do they say about it?
Dawson says: "Initially it's a Cinderella story – she achieves incredible fame and fortune. But as soon as she reaches the top of her fame, she realises that not everything that glitters is gold. The fashion industry has teeth. I'd written for a couple of fashion magazines as a journalist, and I got to know various models, photographers and bookers. And I was struck by the horror stories they were telling, and how casually they dropped them into a conversation."

Our local Book Club says... "I really enjoyed it; I don’t usually read young adult books but I really enjoyed it - it was great” (Drink and Read Book Club, Hay-on-Wye)

You need to read it if you.. Require a gripping, personal tale of fame and misfortune.

What is it about?
Set in London, 1850, Elizabeth Macneal’s debut novel details an encounter between two strangers in Hyde Park, when the Great Exhibition is being launched. There’s Iris, who dreams of escaping a cruel, unforgiving job to become an artist. And there’s Silas, a taxidermist who becomes deeply obsessed with Iris after their chance meeting. It won the 2018 Caledonia Book Award, and .

What do they say about it?
Macneal says: "It was really enjoyable for me to write it, and to discover the characters as the plot unfurled. I had such an interest in the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood of painters. They were vivacious and witty, and I became interested in the women involved in the movement. That's where the novel came from."

Our local Book Club says... “It made you want to keep reading on, the amount of detail and research that she’d done felt like you were in the period” (Langley Close Book Club, Buckingham)

You need to read it if you.. Get lost in dark, intense page-turners.

What is it about?
‘Nightingale Point’ is based in an east London estate of the same name, in 1996. It tells the tragic stories of five residents – nurses, aspiring athletes, cocksure kids – with their own trials and torment, who are brought together on one fateful night. It painfully evokes the more recent tragedy of Grenfell, but is based on a 1992 disaster in Bijlmer, Netherlands, when a cargo plane crashed into a tower block.

What do they say about it?
Goldie says: “It started off as a short story, but it kept getting longer and longer... The idea came from something that actually happened. [The book] is about the fallout after [the event]. You see the residents, you find out who is where in the block. You follow them a few days after, and you see how their lives change."

Our local Book Club says... "I enjoyed it because I think it’s got something to say” (Hel’s (Health, Education & Life Science) Book Club, Birmingham City University)

You need to read it if you.. Empathise with heartbreaking, affecting tales.

• Listen to Jo Whiley's Radio 2 show to stay up to date with Book Club additions