Secret Book Swap | No.1 - October 2024

Books We Swapped:

• Women Living Deliciously - Florence Given. A fierce and uplifting celebration of women embracing their power, pleasure, and unapologetic joy. Perfect for anyone ready to live boldly and love themselves fully.

• The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey - A beautifully atmospheric tale of hope and longing, where a mysterious child emerges from the Alaskan wilderness, blurring the lines between reality and magic. Perfect for those who love enchanting, bittersweet stories.

• Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman - A refreshing and thought-provoking look at time, urging us to embrace our limits and focus on what truly matters. Perfect for anyone feeling overwhelmed and seeking a more meaningful, fulfilling life.

• On Our Best Behaviour: The Price Women Pay to Be Good - Elise Loehnen - A powerful and eye-opening exploration of the unspoken rules that shape women’s lives, challenging the pressure to be ‘good’ at the expense of personal joy and freedom. Perfect for those ready to break free from societal expectations.

• The Maiden - Kate Foster - A gripping and haunting historical thriller, inspired by true events, that unravels the fate of a woman accused of murder in 17th-century Edinburgh. Perfect for fans of dark, atmospheric mysteries.

• Love: Poems to Bolster Every Heart That Ever Beat - Donna Ashworth - A tender and uplifting collection of poems that celebrates love in all its forms, offering comfort, hope, and connection. Perfect for anyone needing a gentle reminder of the beauty in everyday moments.

• My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite - A darkly funny and razor-sharp thriller about family loyalty, sisterly bonds, and the complications of covering up murder. Perfect for fans of fast-paced, wickedly entertaining reads.

Guest Author

Sarah MacGillivary, Actress and Author

Sarah joined us on the night to read her amazing poem “Hags”.

Sarah is an actor and writer based in the Central Belt of Scotland, and is all about reimagining history with (usually a comical) twist—turning stories on their heads to explore new possibilities.

Her work plays with fun, layered narratives that ask “what if” about the world around us. For this secret book swap, Sarah shared her poem “Hags,” a piece that challenges stereotypical views on ageing and celebrates the power of transformation. We were so delighted to have Sarah in the room with us for our very first book swap. Thank you Sarah for coming along, sharing your wonderful work with us and joining in with our book swap chat.

Book Themed Parlour Game

100 Years of Books

I printed out images of well known book covers, one from each decade over the past 100 years ie a book from the 1920s, 1930s etc. The group’s task was to put them in order. Here are the book titles and authors - answers at the bottom of this post

• 1984 – George Orwell

• Angels and Demons – Dan Brown

• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – Judy Blume

• Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis

• Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

Banned Book Reading

Note: I had been following events around book “bans” in the US for some time, the week of our first book swap was also the time that the Taliban brought in a ban for women to meet and talk together. Whilst our Book Swap should not be a privilege it was clear that it really is and so we decided to acknowledge that by sharing an extract from a banned or somehow restricted book in our group.

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Last year (2023) a law was brought into Florida which requires school librarians to remove books that contain anything that can be construed as ‘sexual conduct,’ with no consideration of the educational value of the work as a whole.

If ‘a parent or a resident of the county’ objects to a book, the book must be removed within five days and remain unavailable until the objection is resolved. There is no requirement to review a book within a reasonable time frame—or even to return it if it has been found not to violate the statute. If a book is returned to the library, an objector may request a review by a state-appointed special magistrate at the expense of the school district.”

Books that have been affected include The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. This is not the first time this book has been removed/banned/censored in some way. Here is a brief history of other examples I could find:

• Publication in 1947

• 1950s - there were complaints in multiple countries and claims that Anne Frank was not real.

• The book was banned several times by schools in the US, officially being censored in 1982 in Virginia for being “sexually offensive.”

• The following year four members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of the diary because it is “a real downer.”

• The American Library Association has documentation regarding six challenges to The Diary of Anne Frank since it began monitoring formal written complaints to remove or restrict books in 1990. most of the concerns were about sexually explicit material such as mentioning the vagina and the experience of the changes related to puberty.

• In 1998 it was removed for two months from the Baker Middle School in Corpus Christi, Texas after two parents charged that the book was pornographic. The book was returned after students waged a letter-writing campaign to keep it.

• January of 2010 officials for Culpeper County Public Schools in Virginia stopped assigning Anne Frank’s diary after a lone parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes. 

Book Game Answers:

1. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald – 1920s (1925)

2. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie – 1930s (1934)

3. 1984 – George Orwell – 1940s (1949)

4. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis – 1950s (1950)

5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee – 1960s (1960)

6. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – Judy Blume – 1970s (1970)

7. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood – 1980s (1985)

8. Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling – 1990s (1997)

9. Angels and Demons – Dan Brown – 2000s (2000)

10. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn – 2010s (2012)

Join us at future secret book swaps: