Hello everyone, 

Welcome back to Book Club for 2023! A special welcome to our new members who have joined our Google Classroom and new members who were able to come to our first meeting of the year.

As mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, your ideas and feedback regarding plans for book club this year would be greatly appreciated. You can share your thoughts by completing this Google form. 

To stay in touch with what’s happening with Book Club, you can join the Classroom using this code: m4wluc

If you are interested in reviewing books throughout the year, you might like to join the Cerdon Book Reviewers Classroom. The code is k7xbe7c

The Books & Reading blog is the place to go to read about past book club meetings, student and staff book reviews and other book related information. 

If you made it to the meeting last Tuesday, I am sure you would agree that we had an interesting and enjoyable conversation about what everyone has read over the summer holidays or recently. 

The books discussed for our first meeting for 2023 included:

• The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Deepana has recently reviewed this final book in The Inheritance Games series, which she thoroughly enjoyed. It’s a mystery centred story, with a little bit of murder, but mainly involves readers working out the puzzles and brain-teasers embedded in the story. Deepana loves how Barnes writes, the character depth, and the overall amazing feel of this last book. A great read for students in Years 9-10, but other high school students will appreciate it too. Look out for Deepana’s review in a future issue of Good Reading for Young Adults, along with an insight into Books 1 and 2. 
• Lillian read Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer. Lilian found it to be surprisingly good, with good character depth. It was different to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (so it surpassed Lillian’s expectations). Lillian is also reading Throne of Glass by Sophie J. Maas.

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  Katie read Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Katie enjoyed Meyer’s writing style, and found it so engaging that she finished the book in two days! A super fast read with an unexpected ending. Katie is also determined to finish reading the Shadowhunters series but she has been struggling with the writing which she is finding a bit dull, although she does like the series.   

• Mrs Sylaprany read Half a soul by Olivia Atwater, a historical fantasy set in Regency England. It was a slow read but it still had an interesting storyline that made it worthwhile to persevere to the end.   
• Sophia read Babysitters’s Club books. We also discussed other books by Raina Telgemeier including Smile, Sisters and Ghosts.

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  Mrs Ryan loved reading Boy Swallows Universe by Terence Trent Dalton. A gritty, real life, mystery read suitable for older high school students. Mrs Ryan also read On the come up by Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give, and The Cult of Romance by Sarah Ayoub, who is an Australian-Lebanese author.  

• Abbey shared Nevertell by Katharine Orton, and she also recommends The other side of tomorrow by Hayley Lawrence. Abbey is currently reading Girls in boys’ cars by Felicity Castagna.
• Zoe read If we were villains by M.L Rio. It’s a murder mystery/thriller in a dark academia setting.
• Amber is reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier. It’s an historical fiction novel based on the life of Mary Anning, a working class girl who hunts for fossils with her father on the coast of Lyme. As an adult, her discoveries fail to get credit from the scientific community, one dominated by men of the 19th century at the time. The second part of the story is about Mary navigating her way through this.

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  Chevelle is reading a book from the X-files origins series – Agent of Chaos by Kami Garcia (who is also the author of Beautiful Creatures). Agent of Chaos features investigator, Fox Mulder, investigating the disappearance of his sister five years earlier. 

• Anastasia is currently reading Six of crows by Leigh Bardugo, author of the Shadow and Bone series. 
• Mrs Ryan read the non-fiction book Bad Blood: secrets and lies in a silicon valley start-up by John Carreyou. It’s about Elizabeth Holmes who conned the business and scientific community with her biotech company. Sounds like it was a riveting and eye-opening read.
• Ms McNamara read Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor. It’s murder mystery set in an Australian town (a young girl has been murdered). There’s many twists and turns in this story, and when it is revealed who has caused her death it is quite a surprise. If you liked The Dry by Jane Harper then you might like this book too. 

It was terrific to hear what everyone has been reading – what a great range of books. Don’t forget to complete the Google form with your suggestions for Book Club this year. Out next face-to-face meeting will be Tuesday, Week 9. 

Happy reading until then!
Mrs Sylaprany