The book group meet at 10am at The Riverside coffee shop on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. We are limited to 12. If interested in joining please contact Pauline to go on the waiting list.

The book group began in the first year of our WI being set up. Since then we have read 140 books mainly fiction but with an occasional non fiction or classic thrown in. For more than half of the group books are provided by Herne Bay Library with others reading the book on kindle or similar device.

Members put forward recommended books or authors and then I investigate the number of copies available from the library. For most of us the library provides the books.  I cannot believe that over the last 5+ years the library has provided us with 691 copies of books- thank you Herne Bay library.

Over coffee at our monthly meeting we discuss the latest read and mark it out of 10. Whilst books or authors are chosen by the group unfortunately some suggestions are excluded as the library cannot access enough copies.

Our best books (Those that score over 9)

John Boyne All the Broken Places 9.7

Kate Moss The Burning Chamber 9.6

Ann Widdecombe An Act of Peace 9.6**

Jeffre y Archer Only time Will Tell 9.5

Frederick Backman A man called Ove 9.4

C J Sansom Dissolution 9.4

Ann Widdecombe An Act of Treachery 9.4 **

Gail Honeyman Eleanor Oliphant 9.2

C J Sansom Winter in Madrid 9

Richard Osman The Thursday Morning club 9

Tom Mitchell The Penguin Lesson 9

Christy Lefteri The Bee Keeper of Aleppo 9

(** These 2 books should be read in order with Treachery the irst)

If you had asked me what our favourite genre was I would have said murder mystery but if you look at the above list you will see that it is quite mixed- yes murder/ mystery, but historical and literary/ social fiction. We definitely do not like fantasy or horror.

I have to say that I find the differing views fascinating. A recent book “The Burial Plot” by Elizabeth McNeal scored 4/10 with marks between 2 and 7. One comment all of the group members have said is “that it makes me read books I would not usually choose”.

Our 3 least favourite

Zen Cho “The True Queen”; Charlotte Mendelson -The Exhibitinist” both recommended in WI Life magazine we scored them both 2./10. Classic By Virginia Woolfe The Lighthouse also got the same score.