After two
months of Bailey’s Book Prize reading and fierce debate, the July meeting at
Sally’s house was a different affair. Firstly Sal gave us cheese. Not just any
cheeses, but a selection of posh Waitrose cheese and very yummy scrummy deli
bread and biscuits. Even the sugar-addicts amongst us were delighted. Did I
mention the pickles?
Secondly we
choose to read ‘You Had Me at Hello’ by Mhairi McFarlane. Not a book likely to
make it on to the Bailey’s Prize shortlist, but a bit of light relief for the
long and sunny days of June and July. The book was as much of a hit as the
cheese.
There was
agreement amongst us all that we liked the book. That is pretty unusual. It is
not often that all of us like the main characters of a book, often one or two
of the Lit Lovers simply can’t get on with the flawed and complex characters we
get to know through our reading. Not this time, we all liked Rachel and Ben and
most of their friends. It reminded us a bit of Bridget Jones gang of loyal,
honest and funny mates. We all reported laugh out loud moments and had a bit of
the book that made us smile or made us sad. What is not to like? There isn’t a
review on the Reading Groups for All website yet about this book, so we agreed
that we will do one.
While it was
a classic chick-lit novel, it was also intelligent and funny. The additions
included at the end were really clever, and we could all see that Mhairi has a
talent for comedy. We all said we would read some more of her books now. We
would certainly recommend her for a summer beach read or a winter ‘escape the
cold’ read. It wasn’t controversial, and
it wasn’t challenging, but we all liked it.
It was nice
to set off on our summer breaks without feeling a little bit frustrated that
our friends didn’t like a book we loved, or visa-versa. We will all be settling
on our sun-loungers (or bribing the kids with the first Hunger Games film on
DVD) to lose ourselves into Septembers book ‘The Girl With All The Gifts’ by
M.R. Carey. Will there be more agreement? Watch this space…
