Yes Man - Danny Wallace

Date Meeting Held: October 22

Summary: Comedian Danny Wallace decides that after saying no to various different things and generally feeling very depressed, he will start saying YES more often.

The book charts the highs and lows of his yes quest and is generally very funny: he goes on lots of random trips and meets interesting people.

Threaded through this is the ongoing tale of Wallace's love life and his career progression (both of which seem to go from strength to strength on the basis of saying YES).

Generally I liked the book: it is easy to read and entertaining - but my inner cynic found the love story part a bit cloying and the end a bit contrived. I thought Wallace did well at conveying the central message of the book to his readers without becoming too bogged down in it. While reading it I resolve to adopt a more positive attitude towards life and take up more offers.

Venue: T's Flat, Elephant & Castle

We Ate: Crisps and dip, roast chicken, lemon meringue pie, chocolate cake

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Date Meeting Held: September 17

Summary: Describes one day in the life of a prisoner in a Soviet labour camp in the 1950s called Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.

What We Thought: Most people found the book laborious and dull. We enjoyed the initial stages where the author was describing the camp and some of the other characters but after that found it fairly repetitive. Going against the grain again, K loved it and thought it was the best book we've done at book club so far.

Venue: K's House, Victoria

We Ate: Spaghetti with mascarpone sauce; hot chocolate pots (yum)

The Kite Runner Wins Reading Group Book Of The Year

Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, has been voted as the Reading Group Book of the Year for the third straight year. His second book, One Thousand Splendid Suns, came second in the survey organised by Orange and Penguin.

The top 10 favourite reading group books:

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini


2. One Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini


3. Old Filth by Jane Gardam


4. The Island by Victoria Hislop


5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver


6. Small Island by Andrea Levy


7. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky


8. We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver


9. Salmon Fishing In The Yemen by Paul Torday


10. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Time's Arrow - Martin Amis

Date Meeting Held: August 13

Summary: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize Time's Arrow tells the story, backwards, of the life of Nazi war criminal, Doctor Tod T Friendly. He dies and then feels markedly better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home...Escaping from the body of the dying doctor who had worked in Nazi concentration camps, the doctor's consciousness begins living the doctor's life backwards.

What We Thought: Mostly we enjoyed the book although some people thought it was a bit too clever for its own good. K hated it. Recommend it to other readers on the basis that it is short, fairly easy to read and on an interesting topic.

Venue: S's House, North London

We Ate: Celery, cucumber and humus; spaghetti with mussels and rocket; M&S chocolate crispies and weirdy sweets from the far east

Story So Far

We're a little group of avid readers who try and meet once a month to read the same book, cook dinner for one another and chat about it over a glass of wine.

So far we've read the following books:

Jan 09 (E): On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
Feb 26 (T): The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Mar 31 (S): The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penny
May 10 (K): I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
Jun 12 (S): Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Jul 02 (E): The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
Aug 13 (G): Time's Arrow - Martin Amis