Back in December 2015 my close friend Mark decided that we were to start a book group like Michael Zuckerberg did on Facebook, and so we did. I was lucky in that he did all the hard work and was lovely enough to include me!

The aim of our book group is really simple: read! Oh, and flexibility. See here's the thing. Mark and I are both very busy and we understand that others are too. Often we found that in a book club, there was a lot of commitment required and we can't always commit! So we decided that one book a month for people who can participate in that month was ideal. This meant that people have the option to say: "Hey guys, I won't be taking part this month. See you next month!" We like having this option.

We also want to have a different host each month - the host would pick the book for that month and have control of the chat. This is an idea that we are currently testing and so far so good!

One other thing that is important to us at The Vanilla Book Group is variety. We want - and I'm sure many other groups do this too - to read a diverse range of books. And boy let me tell you something, we've been running for two months and we definitely have been diverse in our book choices so far. First months read was 'Wonder' by R J Palacio and this month we are reading 'The Gap of Time' by Jeannette Winterson.

Wonder is a children's book and a beautiful little boy called August who is born with facial abnormality. We see life though his eyes as he begins school for the first time. Later on in the book we see things through other characters eyes and this was really insightful. And I quite enjoyed reading as August gained more confidence in himself and flourished despite all the troubles he faced!

'A Gap in Time' on the other hand is quite a dark and gritty retelling of Shakespeare's 'A Winters Tale'. I haven't finished this book yet so can't comment on the whole thing but from what I've read, I will definitely be finishing it!!

Oh, and one last thing I should mention - initially we needed a name for our book group and so called ourselves The Vanilla Book Group with the intention that we would change it in the future. But I like our name and so I think we will keep it for now. We are on Facebook and can be found here.

So, what do you reckon - fancy joining? Are you in a book group already? How's it going?