Welcome to our new monthly feature, What’s On Book Club.

You readers love a good book, so we have teamed up with an existing Kent reading group to bring you a book review each month.

We’d love you to read the featured novel too and let us know your thoughts. Don’t hold back!

EX LIBRIS is our featured book club, based in Faversham. Member Rachel Holliday says: “We started in April 2004. We have 10 members and six of us are original members who were at that first meeting. Over the years, we have become close friends.”

The group, with members who happen to be aged between 40 and 80, meets once every four weeks and get their books from the local library. Meetings are held in members’ houses and tend to be “quite lively”, says Rachel.

“If we all like a book, we tend not to talk about it that much and often talk about local issues, places to eat out, theatre and gossip! However, we often have divided opinions and, therefore, have some great discussions.”

Rachel adds: “We are currently on our 141st read. We tend to read modern fiction but have tried classics, poetry, biographies and other non-fiction.”

Last year Ex Libris was one of three book clubs selected to be shadow judges for the Man Booker Prize.

“We received copies of the six shortlisted books, read them all, attended a special event with the authors in Birmingham, and the book we chose was the one the judges choose: Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flannagan,” says Rachel.

THIS MONTH'S READ:

Book: Harvest by Jim Crace (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013)

Ex Libris met at: Beryl’s house, Faversham

Talked about (other than the book): Dentists, vets, King Richard III and King Stephen, the election, rude drivers and double yellow lines.

What the back of the book says: As late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders – two men and a dangerously magnetic woman – arrive on the woodland borders and put up a make-shift camp. That same night, the local manor house is set on fire.

Over the course of seven days, Walter Thirsk sees his hamlet unmade: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, the new arrivals cruelly punished, and his neighbours held captive on suspicion of witchcraft. But something even darker is at the heart of his story, and he will be the only man left to tell it…

What Ex Libris say: What is strange about Harvest is that at no point does it tell you what period it is set in or the geographical location. It is narrated by a character called Walter Thirsk and is based in a very small village where the majority of the people work on the land. It becomes clear that it is set around the 16th century when there was a change from working on the land to the wool industry, but some of our members didn’t like not knowing the where and when from the start, whereas others thought it didn’t matter.

We all felt Harvest had themes that were applicable to life today. Three outsiders come to the village and are treated badly. We thought this could be an allegory for immigrants coming into a new country and the discrimination they may face. It also commented on how poor people are treated and often trapped. The question was: why did the poor workers just accept their fate? Why didn’t they rebel more?

The narrator was caught between wanting to fit in with village life and his uncertainty about who he should align himself with. The story takes place over one week. It is well-crafted and some of the group were intrigued enough to want read more books by Jim Crace.

Verdict: Very well written, unusual and quite poetic in places.

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NEXT MONTH, WHAT'S ON BOOK CLUB WILL REVIEW: The Quarry - the final novel by best-selling author Iain Banks (Abacus, RRP £8.99). Why not read along with us?

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CALLING ALL READERS - GET INVOLVED!

There are many ways for voracious What’s On readers to get involved

- Read along with the books we will feature each month and email us your own thoughts to whatsoneditor@thekmgroup.co.uk - there's still plenty of time to grab yourself a copy of next month's novel, The Quarry by Iain Banks

- Post your comments on the books at our Facebook page, facebook.com/kmwhatson

- Share your opinions on our Twitter profile, twitter.com/kmwhatson

- If you are in a book club or reading group which would also like to get involved in What’s On Book Club as Ex Libris have, then contact us by any of the ways above

- If you wish to join a book club but don’t know of one, then why not start your own? Let us know and we can help you put the shout out to others in your area who might like to join you and you could follow What’s On Book Club’s monthly reading list!

- If you’re currently reading a book you just can’t put down, or you want to shout about your favourite book of all time, then us know the title, author and why you love it so much! We will carry your recommendation in next month’s What’s On Book Club. Email us at whatsoneditor@thekmgroup.co.uk or post on our Facebook or Twitter feeds: facebook.com/kmwhatson and twitter.com/kmwhatson