We won!

Firstly, we won, we won!  I entered the book group into a competition to win a set of The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke and we won!

I have dropped the books off at Builth Wells Library and have asked Jan to contact the group to pick up a copy and get reviewing.  

Reviews are due by Tuesday 4th June so just before our next meeting but I'll happily take postings here and forward them on or you can post your review to the Groups for Everyone review blog here. The publisher is also quite keen for groups to put up their reviews on Amazon.co.uk as well, so please do add them to the book’s page.

It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew

We deeply regret to announce the death of a long time Builth Wells Reading Group member Jenny Holland.  Jenny was a highly valued member of the group and will be deeply missed.  Our thoughts are with her husband David.

The group will meet again on Wednesday 5^th June at 7pm; there will be no meeting this week.

When the spinning disc toy was created, it was a top secret

*I apologise for today's blog title*

Sadly I had to miss the last Reading Group meeting (blooming wisdom teeth grumble grumble) however I have been reliably informed that it was another lively meeting with a lot of discussion around the book "The Secret Keeper" by Kate Morton.

The general feeling was that it was a bit weak in the middle and could have been a shorter story.  Although I wonder if this was influenced by it being similar to the previous read ("A Time for Silence") in terms of structure; covering three different time scales.  Several members found it too wordy and a bit drawn out. 

If you've read it we would love to hear your thoughts, either post a comment below or in our Facebook group or by tweeting using #builthbooks
Our next read is Jasper Fforde - "The Big Over Easy"...

Image from www.diesel-ebooks.com

Image from www.kobobooks.com

As you can see I have found two covers for this book, would love to hear your thoughts about which cover suits the story best.

Interview with Thorne Moore, author of ‘A Time for Silence’

An interview with Thorne Moore, the groups previous read, on behalf of Honno Press is available here.

Can't make a meeting? Join us online

We understand, the pressures of family/work life, its cold or wet or a really good program is on the telly, whatever the reason getting to our meetings can be difficult.  Being a clever lot we thought 'hey, you know people could read the books and then post comments online' which is kind of what this blog can do but we also thought most of you hang out on Twitter or Facebook so...

You can now join discussions in the Builth Wells Reading Group Facebook Group or by 'tweeting' using #builthbooks...clever huh?

Any comments/discussions will be fed back to the group at the regular meetings in the library, and of course you can come along whenever you like.

Take that weather.

Don't forget to tell your friends :)

A Time for Silence...just not at our meetings!

I have to admit that I went to last nights meeting peeking through my fingers at the rest of the group as I loved this book and was so scared the rest of the group didn't feel the same way...but I was wrong, we all loved it. So much so that Jan has fired off an email to the publishers Honno (an independent co-operative run by women for female writers in Wales) to praise Thorne Moore for her first novel.  We enjoyed the narration style, the writing and description of the setting and had almost all of us Googling for further information!

A short synopsis of the book from the Honno website:

Then – 1933: Gwen is a dutiful wife. But as the years pass, on their desperately poor smallholding, her duty to her husband John will have a terrible price for herself and her children. Something that cannot be spoken of.

Now – When Sarah finds her grandparents' ruined farmhouse, she becomes obsessed with restoring it and turning it back into a home. Adrift after a personal tragedy, she needs something to believe in. She starts digging into her family history and is appalled to learn her grandfather was shot. Can she find justice for John? Is justice what she first thinks?

More about Thorne Moore can be found on her website here.

The only problem we had was at the end, but then you're just going to have to read it to find out what we mean.

Our read for next month is The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Image from Waterstones UK website

The next meeting for the group will be in the usual place (Builth Wells library) at 7pm on Wednesday 3rd April.

Or watch this space to find out ways you can join us online...

Better late than never I suppose

I have to apologise for not writing this post up sooner, a myriad of excuses I'm afraid that aren't all that worthy if i'm being honest.  However better late than never so here is what happened at our last meeting.

We discussed our last read Susan Hill - The Shadows in the Street which received much praise from the group.  Great descriptions of the scenes and the characters meant we were really able to visualise the world and the group felt although some parts could be gruesome (their are a few murders) it wasn't silly.

Don't ask me how, but we then ended up discussing the movie tie-ins to books and whether or not they get the right actor for the character?  We would love to hear your thoughts on this as it ended being quite a long, and in parts heated, discussion.

We also had a discussion on recent news events, mainly the discovery of Richard III, so its not all business :)

The next read is Thorne Moore - A time for silence

Which will be discussed at our next meeting on Wednesday 6th March at Builth Wells Library - see you there!