Warning: Spoilers ahead!
It is said that authors read an average of three hundred books for every book they write. Add to this the author’s life experience, and you get a super-concentrated dose of wisdom and knowledge in a few hundred pages for less than the price of a pizza. In our view, books are definitely the best bargains around and we love shopping around for a good bargain. Having said this, no one has the time to sift through everything that is published to find the real gems, which is where our book club comes in: a group of (really cool) bookworms who do the hard work of sifting through books and recommending the really good ones.
So, following the recent creation of the K&S book club, we thought we’d give you a brief update on how our first two meetings have gone, which books we have in the pipeline, and why we think now is the perfect time to start on that book that you have never quite got around to.
The Book club
By our own reckoning, the meetings have been a great success! We are approximately a dozen in total and have attendance from all across K&S. We discuss everything from the book in question to our book preferences, and our general reading habits (and, of course, how these have all changed since lockdown began). The meetings have offered a great environment to meet new people whom we otherwise may not have been able to engage with, as well as some more familiar faces. We recognise that our “new normal” has had a big impact on our old structured routines and agree that the book club offers a welcome timeframe for reading at least one book a month, encouraging us to make time for something that we all enjoy.
For our first book, we read “10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world” (shortlisted for the Booker prize 2019) by acclaimed writer Elif Shafak, a recommendation from our very own Jonathan Clarke. Elif Shafak recently gave a talk as part of this year’s virtual Hay festival (also recommended by Jonathan), alongside more than a100 other award-winning writers, innovators and policy-makers. After finding our protagonist unceremoniously dumped in a rubbish bin within the first few pages, the book proceeds to vividly detail the most memorable moments from her life, which then begins to ebb away in, you guessed it, 10 minutes 38 seconds.
There is a reason this book was shortlisted for the Booker prize; it is a great book! Like most good books, it was somewhat divisive and we couldn’t agree on our favourite part. But, no matter what we thought of the book, we all enjoyed being able to discuss it with others who are passionate about reading. The fact that certain parts of the book had resonated more strongly with some people than others meant we had a more rounded discussion, and it was nice to be able to share these little personal insights in an informal setting.
But reading also has the great ability to enable you to see the world through someone else’s eyes and, now more than ever, that is very valuable. Despite living in the age of (too much?) social media, our current drastic reduction in the number of physical human interactions can make it easier to forget what others are going through. Reading reminds us that everyone experiences the world differently and, although we may not always be able to directly relate to someone’s circumstances, we can at least empathise and offer an ear or a kind word.
Following our adventures in Istanbul with Elif Shafak, we headed to Lagos via “My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite. This book explores the relationship between a woman and her younger sister, who also happens to be a serial killer. It’s centred around some complicated family dynamics but made us all consider our own sibling relationships and answer that age-old question; would I help my sister swaddle a man in tarpaulin, smuggle him down a lift and into the boot of a car and return to methodically scrub his apartment with bleach? Reassuringly, this time we all agreed that the answer was a resounding no! It did, however, make us consider what small acts we can do at times to show kindness to friends and family.
We all appreciate that reading can offer a great escape. It can be a way to occasionally switch off from the bombardment of pandemic related information we are treated to every day; you can become momentarily absorbed in someone else’s life, you can learn how to make the perfect loaf (evidenced by an increase in sales of yeast by 475% over the same period last year and/or K&S’s Jostle feed…), you could learn a language and the list goes on.
Our personal favourites
Farnaz: Hmmm… it’s a difficult one. For fiction, it is probably Leo the African by Amin Maalouf.
For non-fiction, probably The autobiography of Malcolm X.
And for those parents who are finding lockdown with kids an extra challenge, Jane Nelson’s Positive Discipline is an absolute gem.
Josh: I’m also going to struggle naming a favourite but, fiction-wise, I’ve recently really enjoyed reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. I’ve recommended this to anyone who will listen!
For non-fiction, I really enjoyed the autobiography of Robert Webb (otherwise known as Peep Show’s Jez), How not to be a boy.
Next reads
Our next read has already been decided; “Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders. All our books are decided upon (somewhat) democratically and as they’ve all been recommended by members of the book club, we are almost guaranteed a great read! If you’d like to come along to the next meeting, please get in touch with Farnaz who will happily send you a meeting invite.
Even if you’re not interested in the book club (or reading at all), we hope that you are finding some time to set aside every day for those things which you enjoy.
Thank you,
Farnaz and Josh (Green)