Once a month I attend a bookgroup in Manchester which I really enjoy. I've been part of it for a good few years now and its a lovely group of people, not overly serious, happy to have a relaxed chat and a laugh (and the odd glass of wine!), not afraid to disagree with each other, and not trying to show off how much they know. We read a wide range of books, everyone gets the opportunity to suggest something, from Sci Fi to Dickens. It gives me an opportunity to discover literature that I would probably never have read otherwise. Bookgroups should probably come on the NHS (although there might be a problem with the wine if they did!)
This months book was The Long Song by Andrea Levy. She was the lady that wrote Small Island which was dramatised by the BBC last year. That book won heaps of awards, and rightly so, I loved it. This book was set in Jamaica and was told from the point of view of a slave that worked an a plantation, around the time of the abolition of the slave trade. I'm a bit simplistic when it comes to books, I don't like clever clever authors, I like a good story, and I really enjoyed this one. Its a place, and a time in history, that I really don't know much about, and despite the potential seriousness of the subject matter it was told in a very personal, often funny, and very engaging way.
Next month's book is 'Half of a Yellow Sun' which I hear is great but quite harrowing, Gulp!
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