The second reading group meeting took place at Bagworth Road on Tuesday 19^th February, where we met to discuss Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. The book - detailing the life of a US family who go to the ‘Belgian Congo' as missionaries, and witness the country's uprising and overthrowing of European rule – at first seemed as dry as a Ryvita to most of us, who thought we were in for a huge and worthy slog of a read.

Preconceptions were soon cast aside and we all agreed it was a beautifully written book, which exposed shocking behind the scenes wrangling by the US, and also had a great deal of dry, laugh-out-loud humour. The children's' malapropisms were priceless – talks of sermons on ‘ Mount Cyanide', and the description of Christian marriage as being between two people only ‘and it is called monotony' maybe struck a chord!

We were all in agreement that we either enjoyed the book, or certainly were glad to have read it, and we had a lovely evening discussing it.

We confirmed the next two dates and books as follows -

Tuesday 1^st April Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand

Tuesday 6^th May My Sister's Keeper Jodi Picoult

Untouchable is a slim, 150 page read, based around a day in the life of a young man called Bakha, a sweeper and latrine-cleaner who is an untouchable outcaste in India. First published in 1935, a few library copies of Untouchables are available from Helen if you'd like to borrow one.

Our meetings are friendly and fun, so if you enjoy reading please join us – and remember, it's not compulsory to attend all meetings, just pick the ones you like the sound of. If you want to come along, you'd be made very welcome, and there's always a nice cuppa and biscuits to be had!