November choice

Our November book was Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is written from the point of view of a woman looking back on her life from being brought up in a strange kind of boarding school to her adult life as a carer for her fellow pupils. The book is entirely her story so we are only given hints about aspects of her world. We found it a sad and disturbing read. I found the most disturbing part the characters inability to change their situation. The older members of the group thought it reminded them of the film Coma. It provoked discussion on some of the issues involved.

October choice

October's book was Want to play by P. J.Tracy. By popular demand we chose a lighter thriller for this month. We felt that this far into the new school year we needed something escapist. And it certainly was. Apparently it is the first of a series and several of us will be begging or borrowing the next titles.
A gripping plot, which kept this reader guessing until near the end, was combined with believable characters and an unobtrusive style. I read it virtually at one sitting because I didn't want to put it down - and because someone else was waiting for my copy.

Because we get our books from the very helpful East Ayrshire Library Service and because we need at least 8 copies of any title, we are somewhat restricted in our choices. In fact we tend to take whatever our local library has sufficient copies of, which makes for an interesting element of randomness. It certainly widens the scope of our reading when we take what we are given, as it were. Next month's book is Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

September choice

We all loved The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr. On the whole it was rated more highly that I would have thought in advance. The blurb didn't look very enticing, but it did prove to be a terrificly entertaining read. I laughed out loud at some bits but it was also quite emotional.

September choice

We are reading Carole Cadwallader's The family tree this month. This title was chosen before the holidays and the membership of the group has changed and some staff have left and been replaced. Interesting to see what the new members think of the book choice.

Summer reading

Having had our first meeting of the term, I can report on the group's choice of summer reading.
The choices range from Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts to Jilly Cooper's Wicked. Wicked is recommended for anyone working in education. Two group memebers who are crime fans worked their way through some Ian Rankin and Christopher Brookmyre. Both were recommended by other group members.
We tend to enjoy reading titles off Richard and Judy's Book Club. Someone read My best friend's girl which she found light and fluffy. Two group members independently turned up at the meeting with Victoria Hislop The Island, which they recommended highly, although they both said it was a demanding read. I recommended the Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte who I have been reading recently.

recent reads

Since Christmas the Doon Reading Group have tackled Eve Green by Susan Fletcher, The secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander and And God created the Au-Pair by Pascale Smets and Benedicte Newland.
Eve Green was mostly enjoyed by the group although they did not find it entirely convincing.
Some group members loved Jin-Shei but several others hated it and were unable to finish it.
And God created the au-pair was a very light frothy quick read which most members enjoyed, mainly for the one-liners. We did wonder about the title as the au-pair doesn't feature much in the book!
After the Easter holidays members brought in books of their own to swop with other members.

Last 3 months

Since Christmas the group has grown and we now have 11members. We have been busy reading a mix of books.
By accident I discovered that other local schools also have staff reading groups so we are going to see if we can't organise some sort of joint event like and author visit or a night out or even a night out to see an author!