Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

        NOW YOU SEE HIM by Eli Gottlieb    Nick Framingham has spent his entire life believing he is the shadow of his childhood best friend, Rob Castor.  Obsessed might be the optimum word.  When Rob murders his girlfriend, Kate Pierce, and then disappears, Nick’s entire life disintegrates as he tries to justify the actions of [...]

Here’s a great technique for kicking off a provocative conversation about a book. I’ve used it often enough now that I know it works. I got the idea from Rumi and a sex addict. The two lines out of Rumi that triggered this idea would run something like: Keep looking at the bandaged place. That’s [...]

This year the Seattle Reads program, originally titled “What if Seattle Read the Same Book?” when Nandy Pearl and Chris Higashi started it in 1998, celebrates 10 years. Ten years of community discussions and events around amazing books or author’s works from Russell Banks to Isabel Allende to Marjane Satrapi to Jhumpa Lahiri, to name [...]

  Detective Story by Imre Kertész From his prison cell, we receive the rationalization of an interrogator.  Do not call this a confession because the narrator makes it clear he had little to do with the sad affair that he relates.  Yet, he will receive the ultimate punishment.  Antonio Martens was a police officer in the [...]

Book group leaders who usually focus their discussions on novels may be hesitant about trying a nonfiction title.  At first glance, it may seem as if the preparation process will need to be very different and therefore more difficult.  However, even though you won’t be dealing with a typical plot and cast of characters as [...]

Think that science fiction is for teenage boys and adults who like to wear costumes? That it requires a degree in astrophysics to understand? That the characters are thinner than cardboard cutouts?  Think again. Here are some science fiction choices that should go down well with literary book groups. These are choices with compelling, complex [...]

Ted’s post not too long ago about taking his book group to the museum reminded me that I’m about to embark on another book group adventure. I am fortunate enough to live in a big enough city where everyone working in or with the arts and humanities knows everyone else. The world class Nelson-Atkins Museum [...]

My colleague, David Wright, could not wait to share the news yesterday that the “One Book, One Chicago” pick this year is Raymond Chandler’s classic crime thriller, “The Long Goodbye.”  When I saw this I couldn’t help but think of Neil’s last post on genrephobia.  Now an entire city worth of book groups gets to [...]

A well-made book is a work of art in itself, which has an undeniable effect on the reader reading it. You can’t pretend it doesn’t matter. David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green is a perfect example of doing things wrong. Its physicality was inappropriate – for a book by a master stylist where every single word [...]

If you’ve been in a book group for long, you know what I mean: a title suggested from outside the group’s usual boundaries, especially if that title comes from the ghetto of genres that some view as “lesser” reading, may cause genrephobes in the group to react as if someone replaced the wine and cheese with rotgut and Velveeta. [...]

I’m verklempt. On 12 marrt Boekenweek 2008 began in Amsterdam and I’m not there. This annual book festival celebrates reading in all its glory. Readers are first-class citizens in this world class city. This year the theme celebrates senior citizens. The kick off event was a piano concert in the Amsterdam City Theatre presented by [...]

I want to be surprised by the following news story, but I’m not. I say that because it just seems so obvious, creating a book discussion group for some of a library’s most faithful and widely read patrons, the homeless. This project is the sort of low maintenance, low cost program almost any library can host. [...]

Is your book club in a well-worn rut?  Are you satisfied but not stimulated?  Has your book club become as predictable as the ending to Pride and Prejudice? Well, in the spirit of spring renewal, here are 10 field-tested tips to help revitalize your book club and encourage your members to reengage!  Photo by Gallebee [...]

  It is an honor to be on the same team with one of my mentors, Ted Balcom. Let’s step into the Wayback Machine (for the young:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine). Way back in the early nineties, four Milwaukee-area librarians attended the same Public Library Association event in Chicago.  These were seminars held in the years that the [...]

A friend told me recently about a discussion she led that didn’t go well.  “They hated the book!” she said, referring to her group, which has been meeting at the local library for many years.  “They said it was the worst book I’ve ever asked them to read.  They said they could hardly get through [...]

Chris Bohjalian is the kind of author who tackles timely issues.  He crafts his fiction around topics like midwifery or animal rights or sexual identity and then humanizes and fleshes out the topics with characters and plot.  Another popular author who does this is Jodi Picoult.  I compare these two authors a lot. (Oh, and [...]

Seems kind of unusual, asking a book group to discuss a book without text. But I think it’s possible. Especially with The Arrival by Shaun Tan. This haunting, poignant and compelling picture book tells the classic story of an immigrant coming to a new country. The nameless male protagonist (a husband and father) leave his [...]

The riddle? What’s that thing called – the kettle? The device that’s going to replace books in the future – the rattle? It will come to me. One thing book junkies never talk about is what we FEEL when we read. That’s why people who aren’t book junkies can think an electronic gizmo could induce [...]

Recently I gave a workshop on Book Group Basics–starting, facilitating, choosing titles, that sort of thing. Don’t look at me like that. There are still folks out there who don’t belong to a book club and think it might be nifty to start one. One of the print resources I bring with me is The [...]

I hope this set of messages has convinced a few of you to try a discussion of multiple books at a future group meeting. If you do, you’ll find that the mechanics change when everyone reads a different book. Here are ten hints to make sure your discussion doesn’t trip over too many titles:  1) Don’t Give [...]