To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Sylvia Plath’s modern classic The Bell Jar, we have recruited five reading groups to read, review and blog about the book.
About Reading in the Bath
Reading group member Sarah tells us a little more about their book group:
“Reading in the Bath was started in early 2001. Two group members were work colleagues and started the group with friends and acquaintances. We’ve always been an all female group and most people were in their early 30s when it started. We’ve lost and gained members over the last 12 years and now have nine members. We meet once a month – there is always cake and wine. Since the book club started we have produced over 18 children between us. Now the children are older we tend to finish the books more regularly!
“We are really excited about being involved in The Bell Jar at 50 project as it gives us a chance to re engage with The Bell Jar, a classic book which many of us read as teenagers. It will be interesting to see how different our understanding of it will be now we are all older.”
Top Reads
We asked Reading in the Bath which top three books they would recommend to other reading groups. This is what they told us:
“We had a really enjoyable discussion about our favourite book club reads and went for one recent read, one we read years ago and one non-fiction book. We felt that a really good book club read is a book that you would never choose to read yourself, one that makes your heart sink when someone chooses it and then miraculously turns out to be brilliant. Quite often these books provide a window on to a culture or event in history that we knew nothing about.
“Our first choice is The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad, which was a book set provided by The Reading Agency. I don’t think anyone was really excited about reading this book as we had done several grim books about Afghanistan already but it was beautiful, lyrical and harsh at the same time. It depicted a way of life we knew nothing about and made us reconsider all we thought we knew about the country. We thought it was utterly brilliant.
“Our second choice was Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. We must have read this over 10 years ago but still several people in the group immediately named it as one of their favourites. It is a beautifully constructed novel about love, terrorism and boredom. A very moving read and one that we now intend to revisit.
“Our third choice was Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick. This is a non-fiction book about the little known famine which took place in North Korea in the 1990s. Again it provided an insight into a culture and place we knew nothing about. It was an eye opening book about a hidden tragedy that made us reassess our own privileged lives.
Bonus book: Alone In Berlin by Hans Fallada was our most contentious book. Adored by half the group and barely started by the rest of the group. “Uplifting and moving” said some, “boring and unreadable” said others."
Get involved
Read more about the groups participating in the project and find out how they are getting on.
Are you and your book club reading The Bell Jar this year? If so, we’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or email us.
