Autumn Book Club Swap

Each season I will list ten or more books. You will pick one, read it, review it and send the review to your partner. So yes, flat mail. I’ll pick genres/themes for each season, and try to include a variety. This time will be easy as the theme is MEDIA GRABBERS, so there should be something for everyone. The reason for the large choice list is this: if you get a few chapters in and think “Errrr”, then you can pick another book and have another go. You do need to read the whole book for this swap, but like I said, you have plenty of choices. Remember that the point of this is to read books/genres/authors that you otherwise wouldn’t, even if you have to grit your teeth and bear it. I know I plan on pushing myself! You may pick a book you’ve read before, but that kind of defeats the object, right? But, yes, you can do this.

So, Media Grabbers… That, to me, means books I’ve had thrown in my face by TV, internet, store and magazine ads. Books everyone raves about and I’ve never read. So here’s your book list :

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Last Chance To See by Mark Cawardine and Stephen Fry

Endal by Allen and Sandra Parton

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Your review should be about one side of printer paper. You should include the following points :

• Which book you picked and why.

• What the book is about – you can copy out the synopsis if you want.

• What you initially thought of the book when just starting it.

• What you thought of the book halfway through.

• What you thought of the book when you’d finished it.

• Would you recommend this book? Would you read it again? Would you read more from that author? Or from the same genre? Is it the type of thing you like, or is it totally new for you? Why or why not would you read more like it?

• Why or why didn’t you like it?

• How long did it take you to read it? Why was this? (i.e – because you couldn’t put it down and sat up all night, because you usually read at that pace, because you couldn’t read at your usual pace due to life things, or because you had to make yourself read it…).

You can either answer these questions step by throughout your reading, or do them all at the end, or keep like a journal whilst you’re reading. As long as you’ve covered all the points, it’s all good.

To the best of my knowledge none of the books I have picked have appeared in the thread for which books you’ve discussed previously in the group. Feel free to correct me!

If the book you're reviewing is your second or third attempt at one on the list - say so and say why you gave up on the others!