Book store sites can be good sources for book group ideas. They can point you to discussable titles, and also hook you up with reviews, author biographies, discussion guides, and other material.

Barnes and Noble’s book club is a collection of moderated discussion boards where, in addition to featured titles, you can find book clubs for  mystery, epics, literature by women, and other genres and themes.  One of the big advantages of a site like this is the fact that authors are often brought into the discussions, taking part in Q&A sessions regarding specific books. A new feature, Center Stage, provides the opportunity to chat with different authors every month about all of their works. January’s authors are Luanne Rice, Dennis Lehane, Jim Cramer, and Deanna Raybourn.

Down the street (literally, in my town) from Barnes and Noble, Borders does things a little differently. Instead of boards, their book club consists of video programs  in which authors and groups of readers (mostly women) gather in what appears to be a Borders store and take part in a chapter-by-chapter discussions. In the latest program, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about Eat, Pray, Love. Other recent programs feature Susan Minot talking about Evening, Sara Gruen talking about Water for Elephants, and Khaled Hosseini talking about A Thousand Splendid Suns. Your book group should be so lucky.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 2:23 am and is filed under Adult Books, Book Club Tips, Good Books for Book Clubs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.