The convenor, Deb Hardy, emailed a photo of her group within an hour of receiving the latest newsletter so she has won the book, "The Rest is Noise - Listening to the Twentieth Century" by Alex Ross. Congratulations Deb!

Deb wrote:

"My name is Deb Hardy and I am the convenor of our group which celebrated our 1st anniversary in May 2009. Our most recent meeting was last Thursday and we were filmed for the TV Show The Good Word ...we had so much fun!!

"We are a group of 11 - all of whom except one were friends of mine whom I have met from as long ago as when I was in high school, to my days in advertising to my antenatal classes. We are women aged mid 30s - 50. Most are Mums.

"What we have in common apart from being friends of mine is a love of reading. For escapism mainly but enjoyment and learning. Yet we love and hate different stories and styles of writing and our discussions are incredible. I will never forget when I was first pulling the group together early last year that one of the ladies said to me "I hope we're not going to have to talk for too long about the books"... Well we can't shut her up now!! It is not uncommon for our discussions go on for over an hour. Always over good food and wine at alternate ladies houses.

"This photo was taken last November at one of our members' houses. Her and my birthdays are only a day apart and this photo was taken after cocktail number two!! There is even a book in the photo!!"

(Back L-R) Emma Wilson, Kim Wienk, Trudy Butterworth, Megan Nicol-Reed, Trish Drinkwater, Karyn Dempsey, Clarity Brown, Sarah Maxwell, Michelle Chetty. (Front L-R) Deb Hardy (me) and Deb Hayward (birthday girls)

Janine Pyne, convenor of Auckland 058, explains their group's great way of getting to know members:

We often have "Books and Bling" meetings where each member brings to the meeting something special to them. In this photo the theme was headgear, in previous months our themes have been bracelets, brooches, earrings, and necklaces. We briefly explain the "story" of our piece and most have very interesting provenance and special significance. Some are precious, some are paste, but all have their own special place in our lives. It has proved to be a great way to get to know each member.

Our group is called the Silverados and we're based in Upper Hutt. The group name is very tounge-in-cheek. When we started the group a local 'swingers' group by the same name was in the local paper. So...we stole their name for a laugh. This photo was taken at our annual Christmas brunch last year held at La Bella Italia in Petone.

We're a big group and we have a lot of fun together. We are all mothers but with children ranging in age from toddlers to adults. All the ages and stages are represented. We come from all walks of life but as it turns out most of us are trained teachers but not all teaching.

Here is a recent photo of our group - some were missing that night - but we had a member's three week old baby present - her first book group meeting! We thought that was pretty impressive!

We have been established for three years now. We are a group of local Mummy's who enjoy each other's company, a tipple or two and on occasion we attempt to delve into our literary genius !!! This photo was taken at last year's Xmas function.

We have a weekend meeting once a year in Taupo hence the bathers and the winers!

This photo was taken last week, without knowing that photos would be required for the website! You see, we do it anyway! We always have such fun, not all book related though... We have been going for some time, I believe 16 years!

We had the pleasure of celebrating Pat's 80th birthday at our May meeting.

We hold our first meeting of the year in a restaurant so we can catch up with each other and distribute the first book of the year. Here we are in January 2009.

One of the few occasions when the whole group is together at the one meeting. Most of our members have been in the group for 25 years.

We are very aware that we are the first Dunedin bookclub and I have been a member for over twenty years during which time I have made many good friends. As we head towards retirement (most of our members are in their fifties and sixties) a number of the group left to live in Wanaka and started a book club there. Over the years I have seen many come and go but usually people stay for the long term and it is rare for us to look for new members. Because we have been going so long I believe we get more than our fair share of newer books coming into BDS which is rather good. A night that stands out for me was receiving a poetry tape, each poem had its own background notes and discussion questions - a new path for most of us and a good one. I can thank the BDS scheme for introducing me to what are now some of my favourite authors.