One of the things I love about book group, is meeting new people and finding what makes them tick. Over the past few years I’ve met people from all sorts of backgrounds age groups, jobs and places and it never gets boring. No matter what our interests, we all share a love of books, which makes for an easy atmosphere, for outgoing and shy people alike.
‘The Hand that First Held Mine’ provoked passionate discussions about motherhood, morals, the role of men and the perils of changing a baby in a tiny en-suite. Whilst some members found the writing “well written, but light”, others were in tears at pivotal moments in the dual stories of Lexie in the 1950s and Elina in present day.
One thing we agreed on was that it would make a good film, and someone has already probably bought the rights.
We also chose July’s book – each member (inluding absent ones) sent titles and we picked ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ by Rebecca Skloot.
The rest of the books (which I said I would paste up as a record) were:
The Group – Mary McCarthy
Started Early Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson
How to paint a dead man – Sarah Hall
Blue Eyed Boy – Joanne Harris
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis
The elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbary
The Lieutenant’s Lover – Harry Bingham
Our next book is Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks on Tuesday 7th June, and we’ll be introducing your new new book group leader who will co-host the July group with me.
See you there.
Tees Valley Book Group 