We have two groups for members who love reading.

Due to popular demand, we launched a new Book Group in April 2023 which meets on the first Tuesday of the month. We meet at The Bear in Hungerford at 2.30pm.

The focus of both groups is simply to share recommendations for books to read and discuss as an enjoyable pastime. Members take turns to nominate books three to six months in advance so that there is plenty of time to acquire a copy ahead of the discussion.

We realised that at the beginning we were all choosing to read books by female authors so in our next choice we consciously chose books by male authors.

We started 2026 with a discussion of Once upon a river by Diane Setterfield. In March we are read The Lost Passenger by Francis Quinn. This month we are reading There are rivers in the sky by Elif Shafik, followed by My grandmother sends her regards and apologies by Fredrik Backman in May

Both groups are full at the moment, but you can join a waiting list (or start another book group!).

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A review of Islands of Abandonment from Lindsey Davies:

"In this fascinating book, the journalist and author Cal Flynn journeys to places, not all of them islands, which have been inhabited and abandoned.  She writes eloquently and in detail about their past and present, often adding informed asides and related stories to illustrate a point. Rubbish dumps, buffer zones, lakes, jungles and wild islands are described with engaging – sometimes almost overwhelming - clarity. The writing is exceptional, lyrically beautiful and using a wide vocabulary which had us reaching for the dictionary more than once.  There is so much to absorb and think about here that most of us found it easiest to read just one or two chapters at a time.

The causes of abandonment vary: wars and their aftermath; natural disasters; man-made disasters; social change; and human frailty.  In each case, Cal looks for and finds hope in new growth which, acknowledging that things can never return exactly as they were, she characterises as ‘redemption, not restoration’.   Cattle, left to their fate on a windswept island when humans left, have become more self confident - more ‘themselves’- and have grown a herd with a social structure and rituals very different from those seen in domesticated cattle.  Vegetation released from cultivation finds its own exuberant path. There are also compelling vignettes of people who have found ways of living amongst devastation: those who never quite left; and those who have wandered in more recently, abandoning society to find their own freedom. And at the end a heartfelt, but less tightly-drawn, call to arms on climate change.

Our verdict: highly recommended. Several of us have already shared with friends and family."

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Here is a list of some of the other books we have enjoyed recently:

Once upon a river Diane Setterfield

Godmersham Park by Jill Hornby

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

There are rivers in the Sky Elif Shafik

My grandmother sends her regrets and apologies Fredrik Backman