Book Group
This group is currently full.
A Book Group is an excellent way of; widening your reading and author choices, listen to other readers’ ideas, preferences and opinions as well as offer your own opinion, all whilst enjoying a social afternoon. The Group meet monthly (second Wednesday afternoon)at the Group Contact’s home (it saves a hire fee).
We exchange/swap/lend our own books and recommend titles and authors that we think would be of interest to other members. However, for our main reading we use the local library Reading Group Book List. Each group member chooses a book from the list to read during the year. The Reading Group organiser at the library orders the books each month.
We all read the same book, which becomes the subject of discussion the following month. To help guide our reading and understanding we have generic and specific questions. These are provided either by the publisher, ourselves or other book clubs and give focus to our reading. Some publishers include discussion questions at the end of the book which are very useful. However, it is not essential to use the questions as a guide.
Occasionally a member may need to read (or not, if preferred) a book they have previously read; this has proved to be beneficial. Often, when a book is re-read the reader’s perception has changed and may well have a different opinion of the book or author. It may be that the circumstances in which the book was first read, affected the reader. Though frequently if a book has not been enjoyed the first time round it won’t be enjoyed the second time. Again, not enjoying a book has given us hours of discussion and debate.
Books are not in order, they are read when available from Stevenage Public Library each month.
The number in brackets is the average score out of 10 given by the readers.
The highest rated book for 2022/23 was Anthony Doerr - Cloud Cuckoo Land (9)
- Books for 2023/24
- Lynwood Barclay - Take your breath away
- Robert Harris - Act of Oblivion (8)
- Matt Haig - Reasons to stay alive (6)
- Nita Prose - The Maid (current)
- Anthony Doerr - Cloud Cuckoo Land (9)
- Richard Coles - Murder before evensong (current)
- Elizabeth Day - Magpie
- Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
- Sarah Winman - Still Life