The beginning of another year is often the prompt we need to try something new and I'm pleased to say that this month there's been a surge in interest in book clubs.
Our meeting in Woodbridge is only a week away but it's not too late to get a copy of the book and come along to join us. Scroll down for details but please let me know if you are hoping to attend so that I can be sure we have enough chairs!
Book groups are great for broadening our reading, sharing thoughts and opinions, puzzling over characters' behaviours, delighting in plot developments and wondering about authors' motivations and messages. And they're also a good place to meet like-minded people.
Many celebrities, businesses and magazines have developed their own book clubs to strengthen their brand identities and build a community.
Following on from the success of tv's Richard and Judy's Book Club, Oprah Winfrey in the US and 'Between the Covers' on BBC2, there are also book recommendations from singer Florence Welch and actors Reece Witherspoon, Emma Watson and Sarah Michelle-Geller.
The book list from former president of the USA Barack Obama is always very popular and there's also a Reading Room hosted by the Queen Consort.
Author and editor Alexandra Pringle, from Bloomsbury, launched a Silk Road Slippers Book Club with author Nesrine Malik last year, and even clothing company Toast has a book club and author interviews.
For our meeting in a few days' time, we'll be discussing Meg Mason's 'Sorrow and Bliss' which was also selected by Gwyneth Paltrow for her Goop club. I wonder how our opinions on the book will compare?!
And, although these online, virtual book clubs are a great resource for discovering new titles, you can't beat meeting together in person over a cup of coffee and a piece of flapjack, can you?! I hope to see you at the book group soon.
Thank you for reading.