Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Eleven readers gathered at The Kansas City Public Library’s Central Library on Sunday, February 8 for the KCPL/Kansas City Star co-sponsored book group to discuss Mark Twain’s classic travelogue, Life on the Mississippi and share comments and perceptions as varied as their reading experiences.

Most of the participants had not read Twain’s memoir of his steamboat adventures. [...]

It was a perfect weekend to be terrified.
Everything was going wrong. One of my front teeth snapped off biting into an egg salad sandwich. The man I love told me I was being tiresome for asking him to return my calls. My cat is pooping just about everywhere except in the cat box. And the [...]

When I was a bookseller, I took delight in seeing the sales increase on the books I handsold or wrote “shelf-talker” reviews for. Somehow, seeing circulation statistics rise on a book in the library doesn’t give me quite the same thrill. There is something about your words, your recommendation, inspiring enough confidence for a customer [...]

This week my book group met to discuss Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. For many it was their first exposure to the Japanese author who has become a cult favorite in America. I entered the room curious, perhaps a little worried, about how my group feel about this novel rife with sexuality, surrealism and mysteries [...]

Which books were really the best of last year? As I wrote in an earlier post, that’s a very subjective question, but to make it a little less so, I compiled a unified list of the best books of the year as named by 70 different review sources and award nomination lists.
The unified list shows [...]

The entire state of Kansas is getting together for their 3rd Annual Kansas Reads celebration. Titles are selected by a team of Kansas librarians with a deep interest in readers’ advisory. They pick the title with the broadest appeal that will best generate and sustain thoughtful discussion and is representative of the Sunflower State.  
In its [...]

The February issue of Locus Magazine lists its recommended books from 2008 at http://www.locusmag.com/2009/2008RecommendedReading.html.  The list of novels is rather extensive and also includes recommended first novels.
Perhaps your book discussion group could find a science fiction or fantasy title to challenge the readers.

 
Today we held our staff reader’s advisory book discussion and the topic was United States regional or Western literature.  Because I was the book discussion leader, I decided to select a writer with a slight connection to Wisconsin (he taught at the University for awhile), Wallace Stegner. 
The book I selected was Angle of Repose, [...]

I’d forgotten how funny she is.
My last glimpse of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, back when I was choosing the opening line-up for the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Book Club, was of the British five-hour television mini-series of the Jeanette Winterson novel – not all five hours, that’s for sure. I barely made [...]

“What does it mean to be an American?”
“What does it mean to be a member of a family?”
These are two questions suggested by the themes explored in Anne Tyler’s most recent novel, Digging to America, which was the basis for a discussion I led last week.  They are questions that I raised to the group [...]