The Featured Reading Group :
Reading group member Bunmi Oke talks to us about her group's thoughts on Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.
Who’s in the group?
Sarah, Mel, Ellie, Rachael, Tam and Bunmi (usually Lisa and Clair are also present, but couldn’t make it last night).
How did you all get together?
We all originally worked in the International Sales department at Penguin Books. In the last few years, we’ve all left to work at different publishing houses, except for Tam and Sarah. We originally formed the book club as a way of keeping in touch, based around something we all loved - reading. We’re all incredibly well-read but realised that increasingly we were only ever reading books published by the companies we work for. Forming the book club was a way of reading outside our own individual lists, reading books that we may not have thought about reading and also to enjoy what other publishing houses were publishing.
How often do you meet up? Do you have a regular meeting place?
Due to the fact that a lot of us in the group travel abroad for work, trying to get a date which we can all do proves tricky at times! More often than not, we have to get a book club date in the diary a couple of months in advance! We tend to meet every 3-6 months - more regularly in the summer.
Each book club is hosted by a different member of the group. The host will cook dinner for all of us at their house - and everyone will bring a bottle! It is usually after work - or in the summer at the weekend (over a BBQ!). We usually decide on the next book at the end of each book club, or within the next two weeks of the last book club. We all get a copy of the book quite soon after the date is agreed and start reading! As we are all friends anyway, and meet individually outside book club, one of our rules is that we are not allowed to discuss the book at all, with each other, except at book club! This proves tricky when it’s a book people feel passionately about.
We meet, have half an hour or so catching up - and then discuss the book. The first couple we had, we had focused questions - but since found, once we started talking about the book, discussion points arose naturally. We usually discuss the book for about half an hour to an hour. At the end of the discussion, we have a log book (that I look after) where we all rate the book out of 10. What is interesting about this is that, more often than not, people change their original rating following our discussion.
So what did the group think of The Poisonwood Bible?
The Poisonwood Bible is our highest rated book club title to date, scoring 52.5 out of 60. (The second highest was Moon Tiger).
The general feedback was that, it was a really great story and beautifully written and 'the best book club book we have read'. Both Ellie, Tam and Sarah did additional research abut the Congo after reading the book. For Mel (the person who had read it before) - she first read it seven years ago and out of the thousands of books she has since read - this is still one that has stayed with her.
We all thought that it was in incredibly quick read and Ellie actually said, 'I devoured it in two or three days'. Everyone felt it stayed with them - and will stay with them - and described it as a 'very sad but realistic book'.
Whilst loved, the general consensus was that the book was stronger whilst the characters were children and, as adults, the sisters became almost caricatures of the children that they had been. It was felt the strength was the writing about the children. The adult characters were less interesting than the children - and it was the children that were the biggest conversation point.
What are your top three reading group books?
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber and Faber)
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Penguin)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind (Penguin)
Which book does your group think provoked the best reading group discussion?
Rabbit, Run by John Updike (Penguin)
The Declaration by Gemma Malley (Bloomsbury)
