Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

If you could get one author, dead or alive, to write one more book, who would it be?
This intriguing question, asked by an audience member at the ALA panel I moderated in Chicago, got answers of Jane Austen from Charlaine Harris, Charles Bukowski from Charlie Huston, and Gene-Stratton Porter from Marjorie Liu. Since then, I’ve been asking the [...]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s weekly newsletter, GOOP, this week presents some summer reading lists from a few of her friends.
Paltrow’s pals suggest a wide range of books from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo to The Almond Picker by Simonetta Agnello Hornby to The Black Echo by Michael Connelly.
Thank you, GOOP, for this week’s installment. Keep [...]

One thing that does not thrill me is that the crime fiction field, in which I include thrillers, has split.  Thriller writers now have the International Thriller Writers Association and their own conference, Thrillerfest.  If you have your own convention, you have to have your own awards, so now we have the Thriller Awards. 
OK, I [...]

My favorite airport timekiller mags are Real Simple and InStyle. I also justify picking them up when the word ‘books’ appears on the cover, as it did on the June issue of Real Simple. Sara Nelson usually contributes all the book related news, reviews and other tidbits and I will listen to/read anything Sara has [...]

Imagine your reaction if Mr. Rogers had suddenly torn off his sweater and bared his chest, sharing the hard facts of life with the kids who loved him so.  Remember when Dan Ackroyd used to imitate Julia Child, blood spurting all over the set as he/she tried to cook? 
That was my initial reaction when I [...]

I know every book group in the nation has already discussed Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. One of mine got around to it yesterday and we were all surprised by how much we enjoyed it, including the sole male attendee.

Of course, everyone immediately went off the discussion topic script so handily provided by the [...]

The Crime Writers’ Association in England is a smart bunch of folks.  They have taken their annual awards and split them into two groups.  While the October announcements of the winning fiction may lead to great titles for book discussions, the recent announcements of other award winners included their Dagger in the Library award which [...]

At the meeting of the Adult Reading Round Table (ARRT) Quarterly Literary Fiction Book Discussion group held this week, leader Debbie Walsh shared the method she uses with her own book group (at the Geneva Public Library) for choosing books to discuss during the coming year.  Every year, in July, the book group suggests titles that [...]

Richard Russo has done it again. In That Old Cape Magic, Russo once again draws three-dimensional, relatable characters whose hopes and flaws draw you into the story.
While much less ambitious than his previous novel, Bridge of Sighs, both in its cast of characters and time span, his latest also explores some similar themes–family, memory and the [...]

I had the pleasure of staying on in Chicago after the ALA convention for a few days of vacationing. What a vibrant city! It’s a city to make one fall in love with architecture with fantastic older buildings standing proudly among the modern skyscrapers and enough room between the buildings to incorporate lovely green spaces [...]

News this morning of the death of Frank McCourt reminded me of what a popular reading group choice Angela’s Ashes was a few years ago.  McCourt’s book is a classic example of the ”nonfiction that reads like fiction” category of books. If your book group is one of the few that hasn’t taken on Angela’s Ashes, you [...]

If you’re a fan of the late David Foster Wallace check out InfiniteSummer, an online book club devoted to Infinite Jest.  The idea is for “endurance bibliophiles” ( I love this) to read 75 pages a week between June 21 to September 22. Four writers who haven’t read the novel before are posting weekly, and there [...]

One of the most entertaining topics for discussion in book groups is the title. It’s interesting to consider why and how an author arrives at a work’s title. It’s the most important thing an author will ever do for a completed work, and usually the first thing the editor wants to change.
No one knows this [...]

Recently I led a book discussion with a group of library science students at Dominican University.  The teacher of the class, my good friend Joyce Saricks, asked me if I had a favorite question with which to begin a book discussion.  She said that another friend of ours, well-known reading enthusiast Nancy Pearl, always began [...]

As book discussion leaders we are always looking for books that will challenge our readers.  What we do not want is that the topic of the book will lead the group away from a discussion of the book and into a debate on the subject matter. 
The book I would like to suggest as a book [...]

Seattle Reads 2010 has just been announced: Laila Lalami’s Secret Son.
When I had reviewed the book before I could not reveal that I was on the panel reading considerations for next year’s Seattle Reads. But now the announcement is official!
Very exciting! More information soon.
In the meantime, check out Lalami’s site and blog. Oh, and check out [...]

One of my favorite authors is Thomas H. Cook and I look forward to reading each of his novels as they are released because I can never predict what is coming.  In his latest, The Fate of Katherine Carr, he introduces us to George Gates who is a former travel writer wracked with guilt because [...]

For readers attending ALA in Chicago, please join me on Sunday, July 12th for the program “Things that Go Bump in the Stacks: Whole Collection Advisory for Paranormal Fiction.” I’m moderating a panel with Charlaine Harris, Charlie Huston, and Marjorie Liu. The event will be in McCormick Place West, room 190-A from 10:30-12.
Whether you are [...]

Here’s a new twist–several new twists, actually–on the traditional book group, aimed at the  iPod generation.   BBC Audiobooks America has launched an Audiobook Club on Facebook.  Anyone in the U.S. and Canada can become a fan and join in the online moderated discussion each month. The Facebook discussion of the club’s first read (or listen), Peter [...]

If you’re headed to Chicago for the the ALA Annual Conference, be sure to check out the Booklist/Booklist Online program, “ Books and Blogs, Made for Each Other?” scheduled for Saturday, July 11, 1:30-3:00 at McCormick Place W-192c.   Booklist Online Senior Editor Keir Graff will moderate a panel of bloggers, including Book Group Buzz’s own Kaite Mediatore Stover, [...]