Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa

This month, Dua sits down with acclaimed French novelist Jean-Baptiste Del Amo to discuss his haunting novel The Son Of Man – a tense, unsettling exploration of masculinity, patriarchy, and the cycles of violence passed from father to son. Set largely in an isolated mountain house in rural France, the novel follows a family upended by the sudden return of a father whose past trauma slowly reveals itself in devastating ways.

“This is a dark book, even by my standards,” Dua says. “And yet, there’s also real beauty here.”

During the interview, Jean-Baptiste tells Dua why he wanted The Son of Man “to talk about all the fathers and all the sons,” and how he used the narrative to confront how violence is learned, inherited, and repeated. He also speaks of his commitment to writing characters who are rarely centred in French literature, drawing on his background in social work to tell these kinds of stories.

Together, Dua and Jean-Baptiste delve into how the novel’s claustrophobic structure draws you into the story, the author’s decision to focus on just three central characters, and the way small, visceral details signal the father’s unpredictable energy. 

As their conversation unfolds, they reflect on the emotional complexity of the novel’s title and its relevance in today’s world. Against the backdrop of ongoing global conversations about male violence, The Son Of Man asks urgent questions about trauma, responsibility, and whether it’s possible to break inherited chains of behaviour.

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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Regular listeners of the Service95 Book Club podcast know, as well as our new monthly read author interviews, we love revisiting some of Dua’s most memorable conversations — and this is a firm favourite. 

This time from the archive, we’re diving back into Dua’s conversation with George Saunders about his experimental novel Lincoln In The Bardo, Dua’s Monthly Read for October 2024. Set in the cemetery where President Abraham Lincoln is mourning his young son Willie, it’s a story of intense personal grief, told against a backdrop of the American Civil War.  

Dua and George discuss how he told such an unforgettable story through the eyes of a group of bickering ghosts, and explore the concept of the Bardo, a transitional state between life and death. Together, they read a poignant extract from the book. It’s a glimpse into the mind of one of today’s most compassionate writers — and not one to miss.  

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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Mark Ronson and Dua Lipa come together for a live recording of the Service95 Book Club at New York City’s legendary Hotel Chelsea. 

In this episode, they respond to your questions from the Service95 Book Club community, diving into the allure of reading, curiosity, and the city after dark. What draws us to intense, shadowy novels? If they could bring back one long-lost NYC institution, which would it be? How do they navigate the endless stream of book recommendations when choosing their next read? And what truths does the night reveal that daylight often conceals? 

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 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month on the Service95 Book Club podcast, Dua sits down with producer and DJ Mark Ronson to discuss his memoir Night People – a candid look at the music, obsession, and late-night worlds that shaped him long before success felt secure.

In a Service95 exclusive, Mark reads an excerpt from Night People that revisits a formative early lesson in ambition. The passage recalls a moment when, desperate to get a foot in the door, he sells out his best friend Sean Lennon without his knowing, securing a slot for his band at the New Music Seminar. It’s a story driven by hunger, insecurity, and hard-earned self-awareness.

It’s a revealing snapshot of why Night People stays with you – not because it smooths over mistakes, but because it faces them head on.

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 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

 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. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices