'Cli-Fi' Book Club: Green Libraries Week
27 Oct 2026, 17:30 - 19:00
Choose event information:
Join us for this Green Libraries Week session on what we do best... books! Reading can have physical and mental benefits including stress reduction, strengthening your brain, and expanding your vocabulary. We'll be reading the Climate Fiction Prize 2026 Winner, Hum by Helen Phillips.
To celebrate and take part in Green Libraries Week, we're hosting a Climate Fiction book club, and you're invited! This session encourages you to take some time for reading and join us online for a chat about the book and the impacts of climate change.
Before the session, you should try to read the book so you can join in the discussion, but don’t worry if you haven’t had time to read much, you’re still welcome to come along! Our book of choice is Hum by Helen Phillips, winner of the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize.
‘In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called ‘hums,’ May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance cams.
Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.
Hum is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities.’
There will be some copies available for RCN members at our libraries. You may also be able to find the book at your local library, in charity shops or through various book retailers such as:
This event is online and open to all.
For more information about what to expect when attending an event, take a look at this guide.
If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact us on rcn.library@rcn.org.uk or 0345 337 3368.
Read the full terms and conditions for our events.
For any queries about this event please contact:
RCN Library and Museum
rcn.library@rcn.org.uk
0345 337 3368
Online
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Page last updated - 04/06/2026
