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I know I’ve blogged numerous times about Luncheon of the Boating Party and the book discussions I’ve attended for it, but it occurred to me last night how very differently readers will approach a book. This is nothing surprising for any of us who facilitate book groups, but how often do we get to see [...]

Last night I watched the film version of John Burnham Schwartz’s harrowing novel, Reservation Road, which is about a tragic hit-and-run accident and its devastating effects on two families — that of the driver, and also his victim, a young boy.  The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Connelly, each of whom gives [...]

Setting is an important appeal factor to many readers, but wise book group leaders should give it special consideration. A book with a strong sense of place lends itself well to discussion because it offers so many conversational entry points for readers. Even readers who are not good at discussing their reactions to a book often have [...]

As soon as the book was handed to me by a bookseller, I was in love. It had a luscious painting on the cover, and was otherwise gray. I found myself holding a beautifully constructed paperback, with wallpaper from the era of the original printing of the book on endpages. It was just what I was [...]

EarlyWord, the Web site that includes Nora Rawlinson’s Give ‘em what They Want blog, has just added a new feature called EarlyWord Kids. Contributor Lisa Von Drasek, librarian for the Bank Street Colllege of Education in New York, started posting last week about books for children and young adults.  Look for this tag on the site: to identify new [...]

  In five years of hosting a reading group, I’ve never seen anything like it. Slowly I watched the faces around the table last night losing their confidence as we waded deeper and deeper into our discussion of Carmen Laforet’s Spanish classic, Nada. It was like discovering you had read the wrong book. One person [...]

I’m on a mission. I’m not certain what the point of the mission is. But I want to see where the journey takes me. I am going to visit as many of Kansas City’s book clubs as possible and record the experiences here for posterity. I’m hoping to gather some new rejuvenation tools, new titles [...]

Stephen Shore.  Uncommon Places:  the Complete Works.  Aperture, 2004. One of my passions is photography and I took a continuing education course recently that included a stop at the Haggerty Museum of Art on the campus of Marquette University to see a traveling exhibition called Biographical Landscape:  the Photography of Stephen Shore, 1969–1979.I realized as [...]

  Yesterday two different designers showed me their layouts for the postcard announcing the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Book Club. Both postcards were handsome, and both hammered home to me the same message: these particular books and these particular dates were about to be written in stone. Once the postcard goes to press, I’m committed [...]

I’ve been frustrated and irritable all week. Our bookstore’s part-time cashier actually asked if he was annoying me. Sure, he’s a noisy chatterbox and I’m frantically reading in between customers, but it was more than that. I should have known at the beginning of the week my November book, and I didn’t. What book would [...]

I have never planned or coordinated a “One Book, One City” discussion program, although I have participated in such an event as a discussion leader.  Now that these programs have been around for a while, I’m wondering if any research and reporting have been done in regard to the experiences of participants — both leaders and [...]

Tomorrow, I’m giving a talk at the annual Virginia Library Association conference called “The Many Faces of Fantasy.” It’s a talk I’ve given in a previous form to the Connecticut Library Association as well. Fantasy is a complex genre with enough different kinds of books to both please and annoy any individual reader. It’s not, as [...]

Over at the Book Examiner, they’re taking their reading and drinking very seriously. Face it, people will always eat and drink while they read. And what better way to start a conversation at a party or a bar than to start talking about books? Someone’s taking a pull off a pint o’ Guinness? Ask if [...]

  Finn by Jon Clinch.  Random House, 2007. This novel begins with a body floating down the Mississippi River, skinned and bloated, face up in the water until discovered by some boys.  “I’ll bet it is old Finn,” says one of them until another, with superior knowledge of the ways of the world, announces that [...]

Blue Pills: a positive love story is a memoir by Swiss comic artist Frederik Peeters. Frederik tells the story about how he meets the love of his life, Cati, years before at a party. She was vivacious, full of life, and beautiful. But it wasn’t until years later, after she married, had a child, and divorced, that [...]

The Seattle Public Library has just announced its 2009 selection for the Seattle Reads program: My Jim by Nancy Rawles. Some of you might recall that I wrote about My Jim in a previous post. At the time, I was assisting in the selection process, and as soon as I read Rawles’ powerful book, I [...]

Four years ago, when Bush won reelection, I was crushed; I was an emotional zombie for weeks. A friend of mine who was similarly effected decided to start a book group so that progressives could get together and emotionally and intellectually cope with four more years of the Bush administration. The object of the group [...]

Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices tells us that Reading Group Choices 2009: Selections for Lively Books Discussions is ready. This guide, whichis marking its fifteenth anniversary, has over 75 new titles, among them works by Leif Enger, Barbara Kingsolver, Sue Miller, and Ann Patchett. To order, visit Reading Group Choices or call 1-866-643-6883.

  I began reading The Train of Salt and Sugar convinced I would like it, and I was almost right. It has all the ingredients of a thrilling epic movie. Based on a true incident that occurred in 1987, it opens in the midst of the savagely brutal Mozambique civil war, in which no passenger [...]

Has anyone ever walked into a book group meeting expecting to be wildly bored? You didn’t select the reading, it didn’t thrill you, and you’d rather be at home reading something else, except you need to lead tonight’s discussion. That’s how I felt at the start of the evening. Last night I attended one of the [...]