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This month we're reading 'The Authenticity Project' by Clare Pooley! The theme of the month is love. This book is about love and friendship through making real connections, and self-love through discovering your authentic self.

"The story of a solitary green notebook that brings together six strangers and leads to unexpected friendship, and even love. Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with each other. But what if they were? And so he writes--in a plain, green journal--the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves--and soon find each other in real life at Monica's café."

Here are some discussion questions...

In ‘The Authenticity Project�, characters leave physical traces of their lives behind. What everyday traces of your life do you leave behind?

“They were all connected, more than ever before, to thousands of people, friends on social media, friends of friends. Yet did they, like her, feel like they had no one they could actually talk to? Not about the latest celebrity eviction from some house, or island, or jungle, but about the important things � the things that keep you awake at night.� Do you think the physical world is necessarily more authentic than the online world?

As characters read the journal, they form different opinions of other characters, sometimes not liking them. Are there characters from ‘The Authenticity Project� you didn’t like? If we don’t like a character, can we still enjoy or learn from their story?

You don't have to stick to the discussion questions though - please share any of your thoughts and comments about the book with us!

Happy reading!
Rhiannon

I'm already forgetting all about Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ now that I have theStorygraph... but! I remembered this morning!

Here is my review of the Authenticity Project:
I never read a book just for the romantic plot. This plot however did speak to me AND fitted IGGPPC very well, as the main characters get to know each other by writing in a notebook.

I read a translated version from my library (that hardly has any English books) and in some places it was translated wrong as there were some words that didn't fit the sentences. The story however did intrigue. I think it was the social experiment that lured me in.

And you know what? It was a good read. It didn't make me cry, it didn't make my heart jump, but it did make me smile. A lot. It was truly a lighthearted read.

And because it was, I was suddenly reading it everywhere. Did I have to wait 5mins on something, I could read an entire chapter, maybe even two! I finished reading within 24 hours and was at the end before I knew it. I even recommended it to my sister that does love books with romances in them.

As for your questions, I didn't like Riley. Like, seriously, what's up with that guy? He just didn't have any personality to me. Somewhere in the book he said to "be more than just a nice guy" and "that he has a dark side too", but what? Why keep it such a mystery? And I also didn't like Alice and Lizzie, even though they did were honest with themselves. I do think the Alice story was a good one to add though. Not for the story itself but for any (new) mom struggling with her feelings. Alice's story should be normalized more so more women can get the help they need.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I read a lot of nonfiction so this was a nice change of pace, but would I recommend this to someone else? Probably not. The writing style wasn’t all that great, it almost felt like a blog post or fan fiction (apparently the author does have a blog and this is her first fiction novel, makes sense). It was an easy beach-type read; nothing super serious, very light and fluffy.

I do want to give some respect towards the challenging of social norms and stereotypes in the book; I loved the deconstruction of the social media craze and the authors delve into addiction was spot on. The strength of this book came from the characters internal struggles but the plot and writing style just didn’t do it for me.

I do think that the physical world is, and will always be, more authentic than the online world. Reading the book made me envious of people having dinners/adventures/quality time with a variety of friends; the pandemic has certainly left a void in those areas! This was a very appropriate pick for this month!

I agree with what has been said about The Authenticity Project being an easy read! I actually really enjoyed it and found it to be an easy one to pick up and read a large chunk of in one go. I enjoyed reading about the characters and I liked the way new characters were introduced throughout the book. I didn't have any characters that I didn't like, more so that I didn't like certain things that they may have done throughout the book. I liked that though and that it really did bring up how no one is perfect and that everyone always has room for growth. I would say I didn't like Lizzie as much but I think that's more so that she didn't have much of a storyline and I didn't feel invested in her character at all. I liked that the characters grew throughout the book and I found myself wanting to know what happened with them all after the book ended.
Did anyone have any characters that they liked best? I was definitely most invested in the storylines of Julian, Monica and Hazard.
I agree with Kacie that the physical world is more authentic than the online world, however I do feel that some people have an easier time being their true selves behind a keyboard but it also can be easy to hide parts of ourselves online. I guess it's really dependent on the person.
This was a really great book for IGGPPC and it makes me want to leave my own Authenticity Project book somewhere in my neighbourhood and see what could happen haha