Today's Read Contributor Pop superstar Dua Lipa, who has steadily expanded her cultural influence beyond music, announced on August 5, 2025, that the latest selection for her Service95 Book Club is Helen Garner’s This House of Grief. Garner’s work, first published in 2014, is a haunting nonfiction account of a high-profile Australian murder trial, chronicling the case of a father accused of driving his three sons into a dam. The book, both meticulous and emotionally charged, is widely regarded as one of Garner’s finest works and continues to resonate as a study of justice, grief, and human frailty.
Lipa revealed the choice through her Service95 platform, which encompasses a newsletter, podcast, and online editorial hub that highlights cultural trends, literature, and global voices. Since its launch, the Service95 Book Club has become a notable space where readers can engage with a broad spectrum of authors, ranging from celebrated literary veterans to contemporary voices who may be lesser known on the global stage. By choosing This House of Grief, Lipa once again demonstrated her commitment to using her platform to amplify powerful narratives that explore the complexities of the human condition.
The Service95 Book Club has established itself as more than a celebrity project. Each month, it provides curated discussion guides, reader reflections, and interactive sessions with authors. These elements create an accessible and meaningful forum for readers worldwide, allowing fans to delve deeper into the selected works. The August pick continues that tradition, offering readers not just the book itself but also tools to unpack its themes of grief, justice, and morality.
Helen Garner, a prominent Australian author and essayist, has long been celebrated for her ability to navigate the emotional terrain of real-life stories with sensitivity and depth. Her nonfiction often examines the messiness of everyday life, relationships, and moral ambiguity, making her a perfect fit for Lipa’s audience, which values introspection alongside cultural discovery. In This House of Grief, Garner follows the unfolding of the trial, balancing sharp courtroom detail with empathetic reflections that invite readers to confront unsettling questions about family, violence, and loss.
This choice underscores Lipa’s continued effort to blend artistry and advocacy in her book club selections. Previous Service95 features have included a wide variety of authors, such as French philosopher Vincent Delecroix and Mexican-American novelist Jennifer Clement. The range highlights Lipa’s vision of a literary community that crosses cultural and linguistic boundaries, while keeping accessibility at its core.
For fans of the pop star, the book club has become a way to connect with Lipa’s personal voice beyond her music. In interviews, she has described her passion for literature as a natural extension of her creativity, one that allows her to spotlight writers who might not otherwise receive broad global attention. In choosing Garner’s work, Lipa bridges generations of readers, pairing a deeply established writer with a digital-first community that thrives on dialogue and shared experience.
The Service95 Book Club’s influence also reflects a broader cultural trend in which artists leverage their platforms to champion literature. Similar initiatives, from Reese Witherspoon’s book club to Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf, have demonstrated the growing appetite for curated reading communities guided by recognizable figures. Lipa’s version distinguishes itself by embracing a more global focus, often spotlighting non-English works in translation and authors whose perspectives reflect diverse social and political contexts.
With This House of Grief, the August selection offers both a gripping narrative and an opportunity for readers to reflect on themes that extend far beyond the courtroom. The book serves as a meditation on the nature of truth, the role of empathy in justice, and the complexities of grief. For Lipa’s audience, the pick is an invitation not only to read but to wrestle with difficult, essential questions about humanity.
As Service95 continues to expand, its book club has become a cornerstone of the platform, uniting fans of music, literature, and culture into one global community. Dua Lipa’s ability to bridge entertainment with serious literary engagement suggests that the Service95 Book Club will remain a significant cultural force, capable of shaping reading habits well beyond its celebrity origins.
