by Ali Berg
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Breast, Philip Roth
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
The Huntress, Kate Quinn
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Tomorrow When the War Began, John Marsden
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein
All the Ways to be Smart, Davina Bell
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Lost & Found, Brooke Davis
Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
Harry: Life, Loss, and Love, Katie Nicholl
Textbook Romance, Zoë Foster and Hamish Blake
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
The Dark Between Stars, Atticus
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Forrest Gump, Winston Groom
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie
The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie
A Caribbean Mystery, Agatha Christie
They Do It with Mirrors, Agatha Christie
Me Before You, Jojo Moyes
The Bronze Horseman, Paullina Simons
Kiss Kiss, Roald Dahl
Today Will Be Different, Maria Semple
Love Letters of the Great War, Mandy Kirkby
Say Hello, Carly Findlay
The Jade Lily, Kirsty Manning
The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner
The Hate Race, Maxine Beneba Clarke
I am Sasha, Anita Selzer
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green
Emma, Jane Austen
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
1984, George Orwell
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
You Should Have Known, Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Amber Fury, Natalie Haynes
Hopeless, Colleen Hoover
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Hunger, Roxane Gay
The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k, Sarah Knight
Don’t Stop Now, Julie Halpern
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
So Sad Today: Personal Essays, Melissa Broder
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
The Nowhere Child, Christian White
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Dangers of Truffle Hunting, Sunni Overend
Everything, Everything, Nicola Yoon
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han
The Girl with Seven Names, Hyeonseo Lee
More Than Words, Jill Santopolo
The Children Act, Ian McEwan
Victoria & Abdul, Shrabani Basu
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
The Thing About Jane Spring, Sharon Krum
Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty
Call Me Evie, J. P. Pomare
Educated, Tara Westover
The Sunday Girl, Pip Drysdale
In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
You, Caroline Kepnes
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green
1. Bea decides to flee town after ruining her best friend’s wedding to start afresh. Do you think her actions are cowardly or brave?
2. The inscriber of Meeting Oliver Bennett becomes a character in their own right, someone that Bea is drawn to and enamoured by. Have you ever fallen in love with a fictional character or someone you’ve never met?
3. Why is finding the Mystery Writer so important to Bea? Discuss.
4. Eventually Bea realises that her friendship with Cass is flawed. What makes friendship endure?
5. Bea’s character develops immeasurably over the course of the story. How does she change? What are her strengths and weaknesses?
6. While You Were Reading has a delightful array of supporting characters. Discuss the roles of Martha, Ruth, Sunday and Philip.
7. How does her relationship with her larger than life sister Lizzie impact on Bea?
8. Initially Bea seems more comfortable with being an ‘extra’ rather than the ‘leading lady’ in her own life. Have you ever felt this way?
9. Do you think Zach’s actions are unforgivable?
10. Still mourning the life she left behind in Perth, Bea forced herself to be so blindly brave in Melbourne that she toppled head-first into a fantasy based on the pages of Meeting Oliver Bennett. As such, she became consumed by an idealised conception of living and what love should look like. Discuss.
11. While You Were Reading reveals the power of books to draw people together. Does this concept resonate with you?
12. Discuss how the use of social media, in particular Instagram, drives and enriches the story.
When brainstorming ideas for While You Were Reading, we knew we had to include members of the unique, book obsessed, recommendation rich Bookstagram (readers of Instagram) community of which we are a part. Each of Bea’s Instagram pictures is a real photo, taken by the owners of some of our favourite accounts. In order of appearance, these include:
Chapter 4: @Crimeofrhyme
Kim runs the photography account @crimeofrhyme on Instagram. She loves reading, agenda-less rainy days, and working hard when it counts. She owes everything to Jesus. Also, she’s perpetually fueled by some sort of caffeine.
Chapter 6: @lifeandliterature
Tracey is a book lover, tea drinker, coffee addict. Most days she can be found indulging in all three.
Chapter 11: @Babblingbooks
Babbling Books is run by Melbourne local Tamsien West. She shares her love of books, travel and tea with her followers around the world, and writes articles about life, reading, and bookish travel destinations on her blog.
Chapter 29: @Lillytales
Kate Lloyd is a Melbourne-based blogger and a queer, feminist bibliophile. Kate blogs as ‘Lillytales’ on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and on her blog where she posts book reviews, as well as musings on life, food, fashion, travel and more.
Chapter 35: @Readwithkatie
Katie is a self-proclaimed bibliophile, and when she isn’t reading she can be found capturing photos, creating content and perusing new online ventures. Residing in Melbourne she lives with a lifetime collection of books, a pet cat and a dog.
Chapter 38: @Crazybooklady_
Michaela is a Bookstagrammer based in Adelaide, South Australia who will happily talk books to anyone who will stand still long enough. Her perfect bookish situation involves a great read, a large coffee and brunch that preferably includes halloumi.
Chapter 46: @ab_reads
Abbie is a voracious bookworm from the North East of England passionate about reading as widely and as much as possible.
Chapter 48: @sweptawaybybooks
Alyssa is a twenty something lifelong reader who fulfilled her dreams of moving to her favourite literary setting, the U.K. She’ll read anything that interests her
but has a soft spot for a happily ever after.
Chapter 60: @booksontherail
This is Ali and Michelle’s Instagram page and social initiative. Aussie Book Ninjas spreading a love of reading on a train, tram or bus near you. Books are there to be discovered, read and returned for the next unsuspecting commuter to find! A part of the wider @booksonthemove- community.
Chapter 68: @Halfdesertedstreets
Danielle Carey lives in south east Queensland, where she teaches writing and English lit and tries to keep her bookshelves from gaining sentience and taking over her entire house. She blogs at deecarey.com
There are so many more accounts who we love to follow and get book advice and #shelfie envy from. For a full list, head to our Instagram accounts @booksontherail and @aliandmichelle, to see who we follow.
While You Were Reading could never have come to be without the incredible team at Simon & Schuster Australia. Your support, commitment and willingness to take a chance on two book-lovers, have been outstanding. A particularly special thanks to Publisher Bert Ivers, Publishing Director Fiona Henderson, Publicity Director Anna O’Grady, Editor Kylie Mason, Proofreader Vanessa Lanaway, Project Editor Michelle Swainson, Publicist Rachael Versace, and Managing Director Dan Ruffino.
Bert, you are the best editor that ever was and ever will be. Thank you for being so warm and for telling us gently when to kill our darlings. Anna, you started this all! That coffee will forever be in our hearts and so will you. Fiona, your emails are the ones we like opening the most. Thank you for your championing and for being the bearer of such exciting news about international (and film) deals! Kylie, your meticulous editing made our book what it is today, and we often find ourselves saying ‘What would Kylie say?’
There are so many more kind souls who have helped us so generously along the way. To our first reader and wise mentor, Sharon Krum – your early morning and late night phone calls, edits and emails helped us bring Bea’s story to life (and kept us sane).To Henry Kalus, our good-humoured and wise lawyer and confidante, thank you for your enthusiasm and sage advice. To our featured ‘Bookstagrammers’, thank you for your book recommendations, for embracing this project and for sprinkling your creative spark throughout the pages of this novel. To Josh Appelboom and Alicia Kalus, our very own, real life Dinos, thank you for your guidance and for transforming our sad attempts at writing poetry into lyrical gems! And, of course, to our Super Best Friends, for bringing so much joy into our worlds.
A gigantic, train-shaped thank you must also go out to our Book Ninjas. You are the best of the best – we are so lucky to have you out there, on the trains, trams and buses, sharing a love of reading!
And finally, to all the people who read our first book, The Book Ninja, all over the world. To those who discussed it in book clubs, bought it from bookstores, borrowed it from libraries, planted it on train seats and rated it on Goodreads. You have all made our dreams come true and we hope you like While You Were Reading just as much.
Ali’s acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who believed in me – even when I did not!
Starting with the love of my life, Alex. My biggest cheerleader. I don’t know what I would do without your constant updates and alerts telling me when The Book Ninja receives a positive review on Goodreads, is featured in Italian Vogue or has a good photo on Instagram. I need you like Bea needs coffee. Thank you for being you.
To my parents, Cindy and John. Thank you for encouraging me to follow my dreams and be a writer. Thanks for buying more copies of The Book Ninja than you need, and for making sure you could always visibly see it in every bookstore you visited. Mum, thanks also for being my own personal editor and number one cheerleader (equal first with Alex).
To the rest of my wonderful family. My brother Josh, sister Emma, grandparents Harry, Jacqueline, Cilla, Paul and golden retriever, Lulu, thank you for your ongoing love and encouragement.
And finally, to the lady I wrote this book with. Remember that time you had an intruder in your house at 3am and I woke up at the exact same time and texted you because I telepathically sensed that you were in danger? That’s what this whole experience has been like. Thank you for successfully transforming into one person with me. For all the laughs, for absolutely zero fights and for sensing when I need a character development, storyline change or just a cup of tea – even before I know myself. You’re the Cat to my Frankie and I love you.
Michelle’s acknowledgements
To my parents, Susie and Allan, for your support, enthusiasm and PR efforts. Your generosity and love are boundless, and I am so proud to be your daughter.
My sweet Lici, you may be my little sister, but there is nobody I look up to more! You are wise, just, witty, deeply intelligent, and the greatest source of joy and inspiration.
Sarah and Iwan, for your love, encouragement and, most importantly, for creating Oliver, our little muse! It’s quite true, ‘once you meet Oliver Bennett, nothing will ever be the same again’.
To my fiancé Dave, for turning my world into one big romantic comedy! You are endlessly kind, charming, wise, patient and supportive, and I am all the better for loving you.
To Ali, the most talented writer, business partner, social media aficionado and friend a gal could ever hope for! Your wit, creative spark, meticulous plotting and drive never cease to amaze me. You are the most generous, kind, hilarious lady I know, and manage to transform even our darkest writing days into one full of light and laughter (and Pad Thai)! You are such a dream to work and live life with.
Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus have been best friends for life and share a burning passion for books and writing. Together they began Books on the Rail in Melbourne and their network is now Australia-wide. This is their second novel. Their first, The Book Ninja, has been published and enjoyed around the world. Ali is Creative Director and Co-founder of Hedgehog Agency, Melbourne, and Michelle is a primary school teacher.
See www.aliandmichelle.com and
www.booksontherail.com
First published in Australia by Simon and Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited in 2019
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2019
A CBS Company
Copyright © Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus, 2019
The right of Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
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Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-7801-6
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.