So, we've been running for 3 years! Our 3rd Christmas meal went really well, with decent grub, an interesting range of books to vote from and santa's secret sack (well, Lorraine's work bag anyway).

Hunting Unicorns provoked some interested arguments on 'what's worth reading for bookgroup' and who would play Rory (Hugh Grant?), Maggie (Julia Roberts?) and Benj (Rhys Ifans) (anyone see Notting Hill 2?!) in the film of the book.

So, 6 of us brought one book choice to vote for:
1. Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman
2. A Widow for One Year John Irving
3. Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce
4. Paradise A.L. Kennedy
5. Housekeeping Marylinne Robinson
6. Sexing the Cherry Jeanette Winterson

And the winner is.... A Widow for One Year.

Claire is picking January's booklist. Hope to see you all on Wednesday 18th January back at the Globe.

On behalf of Claire...

A quote from Tracey Chevalier on books and their quality:

"I’ve found that rating books is very difficult – primarily because the rating for how well-written a book is may be very different from how much I actually liked reading it. Sometimes I know a book is good but I don’t actually love the experience of reading it; sometimes a poorly written book still gives me great pleasure. So, from September 2003 onwards I am giving two ratings – the first is how good a book I think it is – style, structure, plot, etc.; the second is how much I actually enjoyed reading it ".

Bella Pollen Yuck

I am afraid that my copy of the Bella Pollen has already found a new home in a charity shop. Ten pages plus the support given to the book by The Daily Mail was enough for me to pass sentence. I think we need a certain amount of quality control in the Globe Bookgroup. Others will probably not agree so I wont say anything more but I am now reading The Bridge by Ian Banks.