News

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.

Though we've been bombarded with news and views about one particular book in the past week, there are dozens of exciting new titles being released in the coming months and I've been desperately trying to whittle down my 'to be read' pile(s) to make room for them. 

But as I've been pruning my shelves, I've been distracted by books I've enjoyed over the years and titles I've been meaning to read.

Over Christmas I finally got round to a Mary Wesley title given to me as a present months earlier. And the new Lucy Worsley biography of the great Agatha Christie led me to read one of the crime writer's Mary Westmacott novels for the first time.

Both books were delightful for their gentler pace, refined settings and the gentility, respect and civility in behaviour and interactions. There was also a wry humour, not always intended. It felt comforting and uplifting to step out of modern life and into these worlds of a few decades past.

Of course I'm not alone in enjoying this sense of nostalgia and a number of publishers are now reissuing many forgotten classics. 

The British Library Crime Classics series continue to do very well, and the beautiful endpapers of Persephone books means that they are constant favourites. Faber and Penguin produce modern classics, of course. But I was recently drawn to Pushkin Press reissuing the novels of the Golden Age crime writer Josephine Tey with striking covers, and also two titles by the author of the children's stories about 'Madeline', Ludwig Bemelmens.

So many brilliant books to rediscover and which offer some welcome respite from the issues of our modern world! My 'to be read' list has got much, much bigger!

Thank you for reading.

This week seems to have been dominated by book news.

The books which topped the charts over Christmas were revealed - 'Guinness World Records' was the overall winner apparently.

The number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland in 2022 has reached a 10-year high with the sixth consecutive year of growth, according to the Booksellers Association. There are now 1,072 independent bookshops.

Oh, and there were reports of what to expect in a controversial memoir due to be released next week. Nothing from me on that one...

But this weekend is reputedly when new year's resolutions fall by the wayside. Whether you plan to write a book this year (or open a bookshop?!), read more books, keep a book journal, or attend book group for the first time, it's a bit early for us to give up on our booky challenges so I wish you well!  

Thank you for reading.

Another year...full of potential and possibilities. And here in my corner of Suffolk, after a wild and windy night, punctuated by particularly robust fireworks, the day has been calm and bright with occasional blue skies and birds singing.

So how do we feel on this, the first day of 2023?

The newspapers this weekend have been full of articles about all that we've gone through in the past twelve months - and the films, tv and books we might have missed. They've also got predictions and previews of what might be in store. In many ways, that's exciting (though with towering piles of books still to be read, it can be a little overwhelming to be reminded of how many more great titles will soon be released).

Whether we have a tendency to look back or look forward, there's something to be said for stopping, pausing and being thankful for where we are here and now.

I always delight in starting a clean, crisp and empty diary, but I usually fill a page with an unrealistic to-do list for all I want to get done in the year ahead.

So I was amused to read an article by Tim Dowling in the Guardian where he admitted to doing the same and then spending the subsequent months worrying about not achieving them. This year, he says he'll think about "the things I did actually manage to achieve in the past 12 months and exhibit a bit of gratitude for all the bad outcomes that somehow passed me by in 2022."

I hope we'll all be able to enjoy good health, a home and job, and the love and support of family and friends in this coming year, as well as reading some great books, old and new!

Thank you for reading.

Well, this is it! The last newsletter of 2022.

Next Sunday is Christmas Day so I'm hoping that rather than looking out for the evening email, we'll all have a lovely new book to read!

Thank you for all your comments and your encouragement over the past year. I'm so pleased that you're finding the book news and reviews interesting and am looking forward to all that we'll be discovering together next year.

I'll be back with you on New Year's Day so wish you good health over the next couple of weeks, and a very Happy Christmas! 

Thank you for reading.