This month, for the Service95 Book Club, Dua Lipa speaks with producer, songwriter and DJ Mark Ronson about his memoir Night People: How To Be A DJ in 90s New York City. Part cultural history and part personal reckoning, the book traces Mark’s formative years between London and New York, and how his immersion into NYC nightlife ultimately shaped the 90s DJ scene in the city.

Set in 1990s New York, Night People captures the clubs, characters, and contradictions that shaped Mark’s creative life. He reflects on the idea of “night people,” shaped by his unconventional upbringing and his parents’ nocturnal lifestyle, and how DJing became both an escape and a source of control, validation, and belonging.

Written with candour, the memoir explores ambition, missteps, and the risks involved in pushing musical boundaries — including a defining moment when Mark challenged convention by dropping rock music into a hip-hop crowd.

Ultimately, Night People is a story about devotion to music, craft, and the communities built in dark rooms.

 
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Regular listeners of the Service95 Book Club podcast will know that, alongside our new monthly author interviews, we love returning to some of Dua’s most powerful conversations from the past two and a half years.

This time from the archive, Dua revisits her discussion with Brit Bennett, author of Service95 Book Club’s November Monthly Read for 2023, The Vanishing Half. The novel opens up profound questions about identity, class, and the legacies that echo across generations – including perhaps the most challenging question of all: what even constitutes race?

The Vanishing Half follows the Vignes twins, who grow up in a small Southern Black community obsessed with skin tone. As they come of age, their lives split in radically different directions: one sister returns home to raise her dark-skinned daughter, while the other chooses to pass as white, building a life far removed from her past – even from her own family. As their daughters’ lives eventually intersect, Brit weaves a layered exploration of identity, inheritance, and the cost of reinvention across generations.

In this episode, Dua and Brit talk about the nuances of self-invention, the emotional cost of secrecy, and the ways in which family history can shape – and sometimes distort – who we become. Together, they reflect on the complexities of belonging, the fragility of personal truth, and the choices that define our lives. Don’t miss it.
 
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This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua sits down with Norwegian author Ingvild Rishøi to discuss her moving novel Brightly Shining – Dua’s Monthly Read for December – a story shaped by love, chaos, and the stubborn hope that gets a child through tough times.

In a Service95 exclusive, Ingvild reads a passage that captures the novel’s intimate focus on a family stuck in a familiar loop of crisis and shaky fresh starts. We see a dad trying to pull himself together and two daughters who’ve learned how to handle responsibility, exhaustion, and a cautious kind of optimism. 

It’s a little taste of why Brightly Shining stays with you – not because it looks away from hardship, but because it brings out the fragile hope that keeps shining through it.

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble 
 
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This month, for the Service95 Book Club, Dua Lipa speaks with Norwegian author Ingvild Rishøi about Brightly Shining, a contemporary reimagining of The Little Match Girl. The novel follows two young sisters and their alcoholic father, blending social realism with subtle magic to explore poverty, hope, and the emotional complexities of the holiday season.

Told through the perspective of 10-year-old Ronja, the story highlights the resilience of children navigating instability, the blurred lines between truth and denial within families affected by addiction, and the differing ways siblings cope with responsibility and hope.

By weaving Norway’s most iconic Christmas tale into a modern setting, Rishøi creates a narrative that feels both timeless and urgently relevant – a compassionate portrait of childhood survival and imagination.

Warning: Contains spoilers!

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble 

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And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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Regular listeners of the Service95 Book Club podcast will have spotted that, as well as our new monthly author interviews, we love diving back into some of Dua’s most memorable conversations from the past two years – and this one is too good to miss. 

This time from the archive, Dua sits down with legendary musician, poet and writer Patti Smith to talk about Just Kids – her award-winning memoir and Dua’s Monthly Read from September 2023. A tender portrait of her bond with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids captures the raw electricity of New York in the ’60s and ’70s and the formative years that shaped two extraordinary artists.

In this episode, the two explore how Patti began shaping the story that would become Just Kids and the role of devotion and creative kinship in her early life. Together, they reflect on the risks and revelations of youth, the power of choosing your own path, and the way memory can become its own kind of art.

It’s an emotional, intimate discussion about love, loss, and the enduring legacy of art – and one that will stay with you long after listening.

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble 
 
Get in touch:    

📩 Email us – [email protected]    

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And don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

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In this special episode, we sit down with legendary author Margaret Atwood, whose groundbreaking novel The Handmaid’s Tale is Dua’s Monthly Read for November. 

From what comes first – character, place, or premise – to how she handles challenging emotions in her writing, Margaret answers your questions across her extraordinary catalogue. She reflects on the rhythm and sound of her prose, the moments that shift the course of her stories, and responds to suggestions that she can predict the future. 

Plus, she considers the parallels between Serena Joy and the modern Tradwife movement. 

If you’ve ever wondered about Margaret’s writing process, this conversation is a must-listen. 

Buy The Handmaid’s Tale at ⁠Bookshop.org⁠, ⁠Waterstones⁠, and ⁠Barnes & Noble⁠   

Get in touch:    

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In this special bonus episode of Dua’s Monthly Read for November, we sit down with acclaimed actor Elisabeth Moss, who brings June Osborne – better known as Offred – to life in the Emmy-winning television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. 

Elisabeth opens up about the first time she read Margaret Atwood’s iconic novel, what it was like meeting the author herself, and how both moments shaped her portrayal of one of contemporary fiction’s most iconic heroines. 

She also delves into the evolution of the handmaid’s costumes and how designer Ane Crabtree helped transform Margaret’s vision into one of the most powerful visual symbols of our time, representing resistance, power, and solidarity – both on and off the screen. 

Finally, she shares her thoughts on the enduring cultural impact of the novel and why Margaret’s story continues to resonate so strongly in today’s world. 

Buy The Handmaid’s Tale at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble   

Get in touch:    

📩 Email us – [email protected]    

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📚 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. 

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Dua sits down with literary icon Margaret Atwood to discuss The Handmaid’s Tale – Dua’s Monthly Read for November – alongside Margaret’s new memoir, Book Of Lives. In her deeply personal book, Margaret revisits the people, places, and ideas that have shaped her writing, offering a rare glimpse into the imagination behind her most enduring creations.  

In a Service95 exclusive, Margaret reads a passage from Book Of Lives, which recounts how she arrived at the name Offred – the protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s an illuminating moment from Book Of Lives, revealing how language, history, and power intertwine in Margaret’s world.  

Buy The Handmaid’s Tale at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble   
 
Buy Book Of Lives at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble 

Get in touch:    

📩 Email us – [email protected]    

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📚 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.

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This month, Dua sits down with literary icon Margaret Atwood to discuss her groundbreaking novel The Handmaid’s Tale – a dystopian classic that continues to resonate decades after its 1985 publication. Set in a totalitarian society where women are stripped of their rights and forced into reproductive servitude, the novel explores themes of power, control, and resistance through the eyes of its protagonist, Offred. 

Margaret reflects on how her experiences in Cold War-era East Berlin, the rise of the religious right, her reading of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and her studies of the Salem witch trials all helped shape the world of Gilead. Dua and Margaret also delve into the significance behind Offred’s name and its deeper meaning. 

As the political landscape continues to shift, Margaret resists making definitive predictions about the future. “You can’t know your legacy,” she says, “because you don’t know how the context is going to change.” 

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble  

Get in touch:   

📩 Email us – [email protected]   

📲 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. 

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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 award-winning journalist and author Patrick Radden Keefe to discuss Say Nothing – the gripping true-crime narrative and Dua’s Monthly Read for June 2024. Centred around the disappearance of Jean McConville during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the book explores the murky intersection of politics, violence, and silence. 

Together, Dua and Patrick unpack how the mystery of McConville’s disappearance became the catalyst for the book, the chilling moment he uncovered the identity of her killer – who was already featured in the story – and whether true peace can ever exist without justice.  

Buy the book at Bookshop.org, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble 

 
 
Get in touch: 

📩 Email us – [email protected] 

📲 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. 

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