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The Kite Runner voted Reading Group Book of the Year
for the third year running
The top 10 favourite reading group books
1 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini Bloomsbury
2 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini Bloomsbury
3 joint
Old Filth Jane Gardam, Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 Chatto & Windus
The Island Victoria Hislop Headline
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver, Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 1999 Faber & Faber
Small Island Andrea Levy, Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2004 Headline
7 Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky Headline
8 joint
We need to talk about Kevin Lionel Shriver, Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 Serpents Tail
Salmon Fishing In The Yemen Paul Torday Orion
The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai, Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2007 PenguinThe Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize
The Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize has just announced a shortlist of six reading groups across the UK. Now in its seventh year, the aim of the prize is to find the best reading groups that illustrate individuality, reflect diversity of reading choices and demonstrate the pleasure of shared reading.
The six shortlisted reading groups are:Bullingdon Prison Reading Group, (Oxfordshire). Founded in 2001, this is one of the longest running prison groups in the country. Its members are male prisoners of all ages, joined by library staff and a volunteer co-ordinator.
Laura's Reading Group, (Edinburgh). This mixed group has been meeting for over two and a half years and hold annual book awards, AGMs, and literary themed social nights.
St Michaels Reading Group, (Doncaster). Originally formed by members of a local church two years ago, the mixed group live in a low income community so they made a policy decision to only read library books to enable everybody to join in.
The Book Groupies, (London). A mixed group of twenty and thirty-somethings who share a love of reading, tapas and red wine, the Book Groupies are now in their fifth year.
The European Reading Group, (Canterbury). This group has been running for nine years and has seven female members, all of different nationalities, most of whom are teachers.
The Rugby High School Reading Group, (Warwickshire). Formed two years ago by Year 10 and 11 students, members wanted an opportunity to discover new books.
The winning group will be announced on 28 August.
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2008 Reading Group Book of the Year
London, 14 August 2008: For the third year in a row, Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, (Bloomsbury) has been voted as the Reading Group Book of the Year. Hosseini’s popularity with reading groups continues as his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, came in second.
Votes were collected via the Penguin and Orange websites and from reading groups entering the 2008 Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize.
Author Khaled Hosseini said, "What a thrill it is for me, and indeed what a great honor, that The Kite Runner has been selected again as the Penguin Orange Broadband Reading Group Book of the Year. The writing of this book was a labor of love for me. I grew quite attached to the characters and came to care for them in a most personal way.
“Sharing this book that means so much to me with readers in the UK has been gratifying to me beyond words. To that end, I am deeply grateful to reading groups across the UK for embracing The Kite Runner and for honoring it yet again with this wonderful award. I thank you for this award and for your ongoing support and encouragement. Tashakor, a thousand times.”
Nearly all of the female writers in the top ten were previously shortlisted for or had won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, illustrating the popularity and relevance of the Award amongst reading groups.
Janine Cook, Fiction Buyer for Waterstone's, commented, "It's no real surprise - The Kite Runner is still an absolute bestseller for us, and probably will be for years to come. This proves that it's not just a great book to read, but also a fantastic one to talk about, and it's that word of mouth approval that keeps it in the charts.
For further information:
www.readersgroupprize.comwww.penguin.co.uk/readerFor further press information
Naomi Li at M&C Saatchi:Tel: 0207 544 3687
Email: naomi.li@mcsaatchi.com
Or Louisa Symington at PenguinTel: 07940 501 731
Email: louisa.symington@penguin.co.uk
Notes to Editors
The Kite Runner
For additional information about The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns including a reading group guide, author biography and photograph & book jackets, go to www.bloomsbury.com/khaledhosseini.
The Kite Runner has now sold over two and a half million copies in the UK alone. A Thousand Splendid Suns has sold over a million copies in the UK since its hardback publication in May 2007 and will be published in paperback on 18th September 2008.
The Kite Runner was adapted into a highly-acclaimed feature film directed by Mark Forster (Monsters Ball, Finding Neverland) with screenplay by David Benioff (Troy) which was released worldwide in December 2007Penguin
*Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company with market leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing. For more information visit www.pearson.com
* Penguin is one of Britain's top brand names. It is ranked as the 10th greatest media brand in the world (The World's Greatest Brands ed: Nicholas Kochan, Interbrand)
*The Penguin brand went online in 1995 and penguin.co.uk was re-launched with a brand new look in October 2000, covering a wide range of books and authors, from Zadie Smith and Steven Pinker to Jamie Oliver and Nick Hornby. Site statistics show consistent growth in visitors to penguin.co.uk, with visitor figures since re-launch up by 90% and page impressions increased by 70%.
*Penguin's Reading Group website www.penguin.co.uk/readers was launched in March 2001 and now has over 6000 subscribers, an increase of 443% on December 2002.
OrangeOrange is a key brand of the France Telecom Group, providing mobile, broadband, fixed, business and entertainment services across Europe. It is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with more than 170 million customers on five continents.
In June, 2006, Orange became the single brand for mobile, broadband and multi-play offers. In addition, Orange Business Services became the new banner for business communications solutions. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries with network reach in 220.
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