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Barbara Mead, president of Reading Group Choices, got in touch with us this week  to tell us how much she likes Book Group Buzz.  If you don’t know Reading Group Choices it’s an organization that develops “resources that enhance the reading group experience.” Their Web site  is a great source for recommendations of  discussable books and discussion topics.  For featured titles, you can [...]

There’s no denying the influence Oprah’s Book Club has had on books and reading.  Those book groups that make a point of avoiding Oprah selections can now avoid her latest,  just-announced pick: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle.  In a new Book Club twist, Oprah and Eckhart will be teaching a 10-week [...]

Thoughts come to a guy sitting alone in a restaurant, knowing no one is going to join him for his book club discussion. Why did I have to choose such a thick, difficult book? Why couldn’t I choose something shorter and more fun? Night Train to Lisbon is rich and toothsome and full of thoughts, [...]

Food is a contentious issue in book groups. There are books and chapters of books devoted to enhancing book discussion through food. Dinner parties have, like book groups, become the in thing. But food can really distract from discussion. (Please correct me if I am wrong—I would love to hear stories from groups who have [...]

So you’ve probably been wondering how my 70+ book group turned out? No? Well, let me tell you anyway. Please? Okay, so here’s what happened. First, I shouldn’t have been all up in arms over 70+ RSVPs. Because only 35 people showed up. Which is still about 20 too many for a good book discussion [...]

I am currently reading the teen science fiction book Epic by Conor Kostick and it is filled with Scandinavian names. The characters have names like Injeborg, Svein, and Hleid. I am uncertain how to say these names which would not stop me from using the book for a book discussion but does present a hurdle. [...]

Keir’s not going to believe me when I say I’m lousy at cocktail parties. But I mean it. I suk at them. I don’t ever walk into a gathering of any kind without some kind of game or trick to share in order to avoid embarrassing lapses in conversation. At the Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia [...]

Every group has its comfort zone. The delight of a group after reading a book they truly enjoy is addicting. There’s a temptation to keep choosing those same kinds of books that become easy favorites, the kind you know your book group will thoroughly enjoy. And, of course, that’s basically a good idea. In both [...]

 Two more Web sites that are good book group resources:  ”Dedicated to sharing great books, news and tips with book club girls everywhere” is how the year-old Book Club Girl describes its mission.  Jennifer Hart (who works at HarperCollins) blogs about discussable books and other book-group matters, and also  provides links to reading guides, book club resources, and author sites. At [...]

In my library there is a shelf of books reserved for members of book clubs to check out.  In years past, it has been all adult titles.  Now, nearly half of the books on the shelf are children’s and YA books for parent and PTA led children’s book clubs. I thought I’d tell you what is on the shelf [...]

According to Ted Balcom, the ideal book group has 8 to 15 participants. As part of my Library’s “Jane-uary” celebration of Jane Austen’s life and works we are, of course, conducting a book discussion. The plan was to have all interested participants read any Austen novel of their choice. A local Austen expert would then [...]

Richard Russo is becoming one of my favorite authors. He brings to his writing the kind of compassion and understanding for humanity that I have found in George Eliot, which can be a balm in the thick of the overly cynical, clever books that keep getting churned out to no end. His latest is the [...]

Recently my book group discussed Jim Harrison’s Dalva. I had selected it because Julia Glass had called it one of her favorite books in an interview I read years ago. Her descriptions of the book made it sound compelling. Plus, I had never read Harrison and thought this might be a good place to start. [...]

  I’m still regretting that University Book Store didn’t have a book club meeting in November. Attendance had been low. I lost faith for the first time in five years, and cancelled. Our book that month was Irene Nemirovsky’s Fire in the Blood, and it’s the perfect kind of short, complex, multi-layered book to provide [...]

Here are some links I found today. Read ‘em and Meet: Book Clubs Are Everywhere from The Times-Picayune, January 16, 2008. Book Club Tips for Author Chats from a blog called Books on the Brain. The American Library Association has created a Book Discussion Groups wiki page in response to numerous questions from librarians about starting and [...]

For those of you who don’t know about LibraryThing, it’s a site where you create your very own library catalog, with book information from Amazon, the Library of Congress, and other sources.   But more than that, “everyone catalogs together,” which  sounds like a staff development activity for tech services librarians until you understand LibraryThing’s social side. Every book you add to your [...]

It’s personal. It can’t be helped. Ultimately the monthly selection for any reading group boils down to personal choices. The major factor in choosing will always be the interests of the selector and a particular cluster of readers. I’ve been the selector for University Book Store’s book club for five years. I’m no exception. My [...]

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose is a book lover’s dream! In every chapter Prose breaks down the art of literature by its dazzling components–the sentence, the paragraph, characterization, gesture, dialogue—and creates an understanding and appreciation for the masters of the craft. The authors, stories, and scenes she uses to illustrate her point are [...]

Many groups start by reading Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, but I think To the Lighthouse is another great one to start with. It focuses on the Ramsey family and their summer guests in the Hebrides. Here are some discussion questions I came up with when I could not find any elsewhere: 1. What distinguishes Woolf [...]

We need YOU to tell us what you think. Click the link below and please share your thoughts about book groups with the Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) CODES (don’t ask me what those letters stand for) Readers’ Advisory committee. We will be sharing the survey results at a program to be delivered at ALA in Anaheim. Go on. We [...]