Booker Prize 2022: Glasgow book club Weegie BeeGee selected to lead discussion of shortlist
The Booker Prize shortlist has been announced, with six books in the running for the prestigious £50,000 award – Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, The Trees by Percival Everett, Treacle Walker by Alan Garner, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shahan Karunatilaka, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, and Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout.
And one group of Glaswegians were at the announcement party this week in London, after being selected in the first ever Booker Prize Book Club Challenge.
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Hide AdTwo representatives from the Weegie BeeGee book group met the judges and received copies of one of the shortlisted book – Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo – which they will take back to Glasgow to read and discuss what they make of it.
They’ll then share their views online on social media, as well as with the Reading Agency’s community of readers and the Booker Prize website.
Members of the club with the most original and engaging reviews will be invited to attend the Booker Prize winner ceremony in October.
Weegie BeeGee started up in the book group boom of the early 2000s and since then their 18 readers have read 172 books by 165 authors and have eaten 113 cakes.
These baked goods are an integral element of their club, so much so they even managed to deliver individual slices of cakes to each member for their online meetings during the pandemic – with the cakes matched to the books, often by location or theme.
They favour historical fiction, but also often read crime, self-help and even graphic novels, saying they often ‘have quite different opinions’ on the books they read and frequently find their views differ from literary critics.
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Hide AdOther clubs to have been selected to take part in the challenge are based in Devon, Lincolnshire, London, Swansea, and Co Down.
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