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I happen to love a good coming-of-age novel. A bildungsroman, as the German call it. Coming-of-age novels can also be wonderful for discussion. But I got to thinking why I love them so much. For one, there is nothing so transformational in life as the journey from childhood to adulthood. So much can happen, so [...]

My friends in book groups always ask me for something thought-provoking, contemporary, and discussable. The next time I’m prodded for a suggestion for a group that wants a story that will keep conversation flowing and offer a quick pace, I will be suggesting Anita Shreve’s latest novel, Testimony. Anita Shreve had been a book group [...]

Hands down, the most frustrating aspect of reading groups is the gradual dimming of memory. Specifically, mine! In order to choose a book as the monthly pick, I need to read it at least a month in advance. The moment I sense I’m reading a book I may want to be discussing a couple months [...]

  I’m not looking out the window. I don’t see anything white happening. I’m thinking about book clubs. Yes, book clubs. I’m thinking realistically, how many book clubs can I keep going at the same time?   I’ve been snowed in for three days. The power went out twice this morning. The guy I’m infatuated [...]

It’s not the newest marketing trend out there, but it’s certainly one of the most inexpensive. I have a sense that many other authors and publishers will be taking note of Joshua Henkin’s “so simple why didn’t I think of that” method for promoting his titles. Henkin contacts book groups and readers directly and offers [...]

Piggybacking on Neil’s recent “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” post, and my book group’s recent readings of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Jose Saramago’s Blindness, I have also noticed that post-apocalyptic fiction is all the rage. Our Teen Center Advisors and Teen Librarians recently weighed in on the trend. They [...]

I just found this cool approach to list and resolution making at one of my favorite new blogs, so here are my 9 books I intend to read in 2009 in the categories set up for the “9 for 09″ challenge: Long: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning (It is so pretty on the shelf, [...]

My last posting on upcoming film adaptations and the books upon which they were based covers films with release dates in the last four months of 2009. Chances are that several of these release dates will shift and that other adapted films will be added to the schedule before the upcoming year is finished, but these [...]

  If you want to try a book discussion on a title that will be relevant to today’s political situation, including any juicy scandals that might be occurring in your home town (or state), how about trying a book that was published in 1931:  The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett.  The book’s main protagonist is [...]

Jaded, long-time readers are always looking for the unusual book they haven’t read yet, those literary oddities and narrative rule-breakers that aren’t just cookie cutter imitations of hundreds of other books. One would have to say that Cesar Aira creates those kinds of originals – in this case, short, shocking little tour de forces of [...]

Anyone who runs a teen book group won’t be surprised to hear that teens read differently from the rest of us.  For one thing,  they’re comfortable with different ways to “read”;  and for another,  they expect to participate in what they read. The Young Adult Library Services Association held its first  YA Lit Symposium  in Nashville on November 7-9. The theme [...]

Who says celebrities don’t read!? Here is a link to a list I found on Huffington Post of what celebrities and writers are recommending you run out and buy! Enjoy!

(Some books are ruined if you know the ending. I personally feel you’ll be more likely to have a positive experience with this book if you do know the ending, so I’m going to reveal it. If you don’t believe me, stop here.)   You think it’s detective fiction, but it’s not. Sure, the hero [...]

Recently my book group discussed Colm Toibin’s The Master, a fictionalized view into the life of the esteemed and deeply private writer Henry James. What surprised and in some cases pleased the readers was how deeply introspective Toibin’s portrait of James was. The term “speculative introspection” was bandied about and discussed. A number of questions [...]

My third installment on upcoming film adaptations begins in the summer season of 2009, so you’ve got plenty of time to build these books into your group’s schedule before the release date. These are summer films and many come from light, humorous books, so schedule them for that month after you’ve tackled something tough. This year’s [...]

Ultimately, that’s the most important element for me – sure, I love great characters, I’m addicted to surprises and plot twists, I’m moved by graceful, honest language, but the deciding factor is the quality of perception, what the author sees, the values lurking behind the words, whether the author realizes they’re showing or not. What [...]

This week I met with the Readers’ Advisors of the Puget Sound (RAPS) group for our quarterly meeting. We shared some online Readers’ Advisory tools, and then went around the room to share our favorite reads of 2008. We each had about 2 minutes to share. The books weren’t all published in 2008, but the [...]

The Boston Globe Fiction The Boston Globe Nonfiction Washington Post Book World Top 10 National Public Radio Best Books of 2008 Salon Book Awards 2008

I’ve never broken the golden rule before. If I’m asking people to spend fifteen or twenty dollars for a book, and then asking them to set aside some dozen hours in their busy lives to read the book, I need to know and respect the book from beginning to end. It’s obvious to me that [...]

Sundown, Yellow Moon by Larry Watson.  Random House, 2008.  Perhaps one of the most frustrating types of fiction to read is one which utilizes unreliable first person narration.  What are we to believe as readers as the character dissembles the truth?  As far as that goes, what is the nature of truth?    Is there [...]