

Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa
Service95
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa. Join Dua each month as she takes you into the world of a book she has loved – and talks to the writer who brought it to life. Expect reads that will make you laugh, cry, and even change the way you think. There are no rules when it comes to the books Dua chooses. Here, she shares her favourite reads straight from her bookshelf with you.Throughout each month, we’ll also be opening up the Service95 Book Club archive, so you can listen to even more of the thought-provoking, funny and insightful conversations Dua has had with her favourite authors over the past couple of years.Whether you read a book a week or haven’t finished one in a year, there's something for everyone here.We can't wait for you to join us. Find out more @service95bookclub
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 16, 2025 • 35min
From the Archive – Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead: Olga Tokarczuk On Mysticism, Justice & William Blake
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them.
As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had with authors over the past two years.
This time from the archive, Dua sits down with Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk to discuss her darkly humorous and deeply philosophical novel Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead – Dua's Monthly Read for January 2025. The story follows an eccentric woman in a remote Polish village as she investigates a string of mysterious deaths, raising urgent questions about justice, nature, and the unseen forces that govern our lives.
In this episode, Dua and Olga dive into the ethical dimensions of animal rights, astrology as a form of artistic expression, and the lasting influence of William Blake.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Fitzcarraldo Editions and Penguin Random HouseGet in touch:
📩 Email us – books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 9, 2025 • 6min
Percival Everett Reads from His Booker-Shortlisted Novel, The Trees
This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua is joined by acclaimed American author Percival Everett to discuss his genre-defying, fiercely satirical novel The Trees – selected as Dua’s Monthly Read for September. A Booker Prize finalist, the book investigates the legacy of racial violence in America through a story that is as chilling as it is darkly comic.
In a Service95 exclusive, Percival reads from the novel’s searing Chapter 64 – a passage that echoes with names of those brutally murdered by lynch mobs. Some are remembered. Some are listed only as “unknown male” or “unknown female”. One by one, line by line, Everett delivers a roll call of history’s brutality – transforming a single character’s obsession into a profound act of remembrance.
His reading underscores the novel’s emotional and political power, revealing how The Trees blends mystery, satire, and mourning into a story that cannot be ignored.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
Get in touch:
📩 Email us – books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 2, 2025 • 36min
The Trees: Percival Everett on Satire, Justice & America’s Haunted Past
Dua Lipa chats with Percival Everett, an acclaimed author and professor whose novel 'The Trees' tackles deep issues of racism and lynching through a darkly comedic lens. They discuss the inspiration behind his work, particularly the historical impact of Emmett Till's story. The conversation highlights the power of satire in literature, exploring humorous character names that enhance storytelling. They also reflect on the significance of collective reading and the emotional impact of confronting America’s haunting past through literature.

Aug 25, 2025 • 36min
From the Archive – The Guest: Emma Cline On Outsiders, Delusion & Desire
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them.As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had with authors over the past two years.
In this archive episode, Dua sits down with New York Times-bestselling author Emma Cline to talk about her haunting novel The Guest – a story of a young woman adrift in the Hamptons over one long summer, where tension shimmers below the surface.
Emma and Dua explore the art of writing characters you never fully trust, how social class and privilege shape invisible boundaries, why delusion can be its own kind of survival strategy, and the ambiguous ending that has left readers everywhere debating Alex’s fate.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble
Get in touch:
📩 Email us – books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 19, 2025 • 8min
Helen Garner Reads from Her Gripping Courtroom Drama, This House of Grief
This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua is joined by legendary Australian author Helen Garner to discuss her quietly devastating masterpiece, This House Of Grief. Selected as Dua’s Monthly Read for August, this true crime classic recounts the harrowing case of Robert Farquharson, a father accused of drowning his three young sons by driving them into a dam on Father’s Day.
In a Service95 exclusive, Helen reads the haunting opening pages of the book – a passage that sets the emotional tone for everything that follows. Her voice carries the weight of a story that has never left the Australian psyche, and her reflections throughout the episode explore the moral complexities of guilt, empathy, and writing about real human suffering.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
Get in touch:
📩 Email us – books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 5, 2025 • 53min
This House of Grief: Helen Garner on Empathy, Guilt & Writing Through The Unthinkable
What does it mean to truly bear witness – especially to something that defies comprehension?
This month on the Service95 Book Club, Dua is joined by legendary Australian writer Helen Garner to discuss This House Of Grief – a haunting account of a father on trial for the murder of his three young sons. The book is part true crime, part literary reportage, and wholly unflinching. As Dua says, it has the pace of a thriller, but it also forces us to ask the most uncomfortable questions about love, justice, and the limits of empathy.
Together, Dua and Helen reflect on the power of literature to confront our darkest instincts, and the courage it takes to look – and not look away.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
Get in touch:
📩 Email us – books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 15, 2025 • 47min
From the Archive – Trust: Hernan Diaz On Power, Silence & Who Gets To Tell The Story
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them.
As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had with authors over the past two years.
This time from the archive, Dua sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hernan Diaz to talk about his bold and genre-defying novel Trust – a mind-bending story told through four interlocking narratives.
In this episode, Hernan and Dua explore what it means to search for truth in a world of competing stories, how women have been systematically excluded from the history of money and power, and why silence can sometimes be more revealing than words.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
Get in touch:
📩 Email us – books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – introduced each month by Dua – at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 1, 2025 • 46min
Small Boat: Vincent Delecroix on Asylum, Responsibility & the Limits of Sympathy
This month, we’re tackling one of the most urgent issues of our time, the question of migration across borders. Small Boat is a stunning and provocative novel that is inspired by the real-life tragedy of 27 asylum seekers who drowned in the English Channel in 2021. Rather than tell the story through the perspective of the victims, Small Boat is narrated by the French radio operator who failed to send help. It’s an audacious and uncomfortable choice – and that’s exactly the point.
In this episode, Dua speaks with Vincent about moral responsibility, the challenge of maintaining empathy at a time of great political polarisation, and the dangers of becoming desensitised to human suffering. They talk about his choice to centre the story around an ambivalent protagonist, and how fiction can make us face uncomfortable truths.
The novel doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it holds a mirror up to us, asking what we would do, what we’ve done, and what it means to look away. As Dua says, this book doesn’t let you off the hook – and it’s one everyone should read.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
Get in touch:
📩 Email us - books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter - introduced each month by Dua - at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 10, 2025 • 53min
From the Archive – On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: Ocean Vuong On Beauty, Grief & The Language That Saves Us
Welcome to the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a new podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them.
As well as bringing you a brand-new episode every month, we’ll also be dipping into the archive of fascinating conversations Dua has had with authors over the past two years. First up from the archive, Dua joined by the extraordinary Ocean Vuong, whose novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous left a huge mark on so many readers around the world.
In this episode, Ocean and Dua talk about how care can be radical, how language both connects and distances us, and why sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is just sit with the beauty of a single moment – or, as Ocean so perfectly puts it, live in the whipped cream.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble Get in touch:
📩 Email us - books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter - introduced each month by Dua - at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 10, 2025 • 40min
Widow Basquiat: Jennifer Clement on Love, Art & 1980s New York
Welcome to the very first episode of the Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa, a new podcast dedicated to the books that stay with us – and the brilliant minds behind them.
To launch the series, Dua is joined by Jennifer Clement, whose unique book Widow Basquiat lifts the curtain on the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and his complex relationship with his muse, lover and bohemian spirit Suzanne Malouk. It’s a chaotic love story like no other, as well as a love letter to an almost mythical New York City that no longer exists.
In this episode, Jennifer and Dua talk about how our childhoods shape us, the patterns of behaviour we repeat, and the bars, clubs, galleries and artists that made up the New York creative scene in the 1980s. As Jennifer says, it was a time of explosive freedom and excess, where anything felt possible… until the arrival of AIDS, when everything changed.
Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble Get in touch:
📩 Email us - books@service95.com
📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for updates
📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter - introduced each month by Dua - at www.service95.com
And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices