Our Next Read!

On a very different note from our last book - the next thing we'll be reading is 'Gossip Girl' by Cecily von Ziegesar.

"Welcome to New york City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live and go to school. We're smart, we've inherited classic good looks, and we know how to party. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it..."

Copies are available to pick in the library, and the group will be meeting on Wednesday 1st July, 4.30-5.30. Please let a member of staff know if you'd like to come along!

'Ugly' by Constance Briscoe

At the beginning of June we met to discuss 'Ugly' by Constance Briscoe.

This was a tough and challenging read – the autobiographical story of a young girl growing up in an abusive family. Exams and other commitments kept some people away, but perhaps the difficult subject matter also contributed to a low turn out at the meeting? Interestingly, this book was the most borrowed one from the reading group display, but people seemed less keen to discuss it.

Those who did come felt it was a serious and heavy duty book, although there were some concerns about how the author could remember so much detail of events that happened so long ago.

We decided not to give this one a score, partly as there weren’t enough of us, and partly as it didn’t seem appropriate for this sort of book.

'The Recruit' by Robert Muchamore

The second book we read was suggested by someone from the reading group at Hackney Central Library. There was some doubt at first at Stamford Hill - the cover looked a bit dodgy, and the blurb wasn't very enticing. It was agreed we'd give it a go though, when someone said her brother had read it and had then gone mad over it, and read all the others in the series.

The story of a newly orphaned teen who gets tangled up in a cool secret world of spies and danger, 'The Recruit' doesn't really break new ground in terms of subject matter. What got everyone's attention though was the fantastic (and often gruesome) detail of the writing, the vivid way action scenes leapt off the page, and considering the plot, how realistic it seemed.

Perhaps most striking was how the lead character wasn’t an obvious ‘hero’, but someone who made mistakes and even did some things you’d expect only a ‘baddy’ to do. It was noticeable, too, that there were a number of girls in the story who were active and properly rounded characters, and not just there to make him look good.

Much enthusiasm, then, for ‘The Recruit’, and it got an over all score of … 9.5

'Hero' by Catherine Johnson

In our first proper session we talked about 'Hero' by Catherine Johnson, who we'd met at our launch meeting.

It's the story of Hero, a mixed race girl in 19th century London. Her Dad, a famous boxer, is captured by relatives of his dead wife, who want to send him back to be a slave in Barbados - but they hadn't counted on Hero, who has her father's fighting spirit!

The general consensus was that it was a good read, but the tension flagged in places. It was good to read something set in London, and although some characters seemed less convincing than others, the action kept people's attention. Everyone who started it, finished it.

We all gave the book a score out of ten .... and the over all score was a solid 6.6