8. Read a book that contains the letter 'Z' in the title or author's name

[Martha]

Some examples

Z Authors
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Zadie Smith
Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
Malala Yousafzai
Markus Zusak
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Z Titles
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Zoya
Zorba the Greek
Doctor Zhivago

Discussion Prompts

Again...not really a great discussion topic, so tell us what you read and what you thought of it. Bonus if you can think of something else to discuss that features the letter Z. I am a BIG fan of the zoo. Discuss.

[Martha]

For this task I'm using one of our May/June Group Reads - I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai. I quite enjoyed it, but wasn't blown away by it as it is very heavy on the history and politics of Pakistan. See review here

As I'm the first one, I'm nabbing ZOOs because they're awesome! I never went to any as a child, so I've come late to the party - my first one was Central Park Zoo in New York. Excellent sea lion show and a melancholy polar bear. It was also the first place I discovered red pandas - like foxes with a panda face, they're adorable! They've become my favourite animal and if they have them at a zoo I don't need to know anything else!

In Barcelona Zoo I was surprised to turn round and discover peacocks wandering around loose! One wandered in to have a gander at an educational exhibition about gorillas.

We've got some fab ones in the UK - Regents Park Zoo in London is generally gorgeous to wander round, and Whipsnade Zoo in Hertfordshire has elephants!

I was disappointed to miss out on seeing the pandas as Edinburgh Zoo - they thought the female might be pregnant so weren't letting many people go in. They also have a penguin parade, where they literally open the gates and let the penguins wander up this path and back again. When we went, there was huge expectations - crowds lined both sides of the path - and then only one penguin fancied coming out! I think he enjoyed his time in the limelight though :)

As you can tell, this very much awakens my inner child.