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

Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell, was chosen as the book to be explored at the most recent meeting of the Adult Reading Round Table Quarterly Literary Fiction Book Discussion Group.  I didn’t lead the discussion this time, but enjoyed sitting on the other side of the table as a participant. Russell’s novel [...]

I love adding to my shelf of book group resources. My latest addition is The Book Club Bible, a book that offers over 200 titles for book group facilitators to choose from. The subtitle is “The Definitive Guide That Every Book Club Member Needs.” That may be pushing it a tad. The BCB is a [...]

Can you talk about a book in 140 characters? You’ll have to if you join The Book Studio’s Twitter Book Club. Now six months old, the Twitter Book Club meets online once a month to talk about a recent book. Picks for the past few months have been Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, Lorrie Moore’s  A [...]

Last week, I discussed a meeting where odd digressions by readers contributed to success, but going off subject can just as easily derail a meeting. When is a side discussion useful and when is it just an interruption? How can group leaders tell the difference? First, know your group. Groups that use themes often welcome digressions, [...]

It’s safe to say that Oprah’s already gone global, but she’s taking on the webiverse with the upcoming discussion of Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan. On Monday, November 9, a live discussion will be simulcast from Oprah.com, CNN.com, and Facebook. Anderson Cooper will also participate in the conversation with Oprah and Uwem [...]

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie is one of the Great Group Reads selected by the Women’s National Book Association Reading Group Month committee. This is a multigenerational novel with global dimensions–written by a Pakistani author, it traces the intertwined history of two families beginning in Nagasaki in 1945 and ending in Afghanistan post 9/11.  The book was an Orange [...]

My blogging pal, Mary Burkey, over at Audiobooker wants to query the book group masses about methods for keeping up with book group reading. She will trade your witty insights and thoughtful comments for a narrator to be named later. “Audiobooks & Book Clubs: not really reading or perfect partners? Curious minds want to know! I’m collecting [...]

Cost by Roxana Robinson  is one of the titles that has been selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a National Reading Group Month Great Group Read. This novel, set in Maine during one family’s summer sojourn, takes an unflinching look at drug addiction and the toll it takes.  Find conversations starters at Reading Group Choices, and click here [...]

I was nervous as the meeting of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Group at Williamsburg Regional Library started earlier this week. Our theme this month was mad scientists and evil geniuses, but a quick scan of my readers indicated that several hadn’t finished a book and others were not happy with the book they [...]

Today the Readers’ Advisory Section of the Wisconsin Library Association discussed a great book for our purposes: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. This book is such a complex overlaying of issues that to try to explain the plot becomes a challenging enterprise. Let me say that it involves Leopold Gursky, an old man [...]

Here’s a blog concept that voracious readers and book groupers should get behind. Shelf Renewal (http://www.shelfrenewal.com/) is a new project by Chicago-area librarians Rebecca Vnuk and Karen Kleckner. I stole their cheeky tagline for the title of this blog entry. Fighting the stream of publicity for new books that are already getting plenty of attention, [...]

Why offer a short story reading/discussion group?  A number of reasons come to mind There have been great short story collections published recently: Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Boat by Nam Le, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower, Fine Just The Way It Is, by Annie Proulx, All [...]

It didn’t even occur to me that these two books I’m about to mention are very well suited for the month of October. I was only thinking about what a great duo they’d make for a discussion. I just finished Audrey Niffenegger’s sophomore effort, Her Fearful Symmetry and thought what a great pairing it would [...]

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson is one of the titles that has been selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a National Reading Group Month Great Group Read. Having recently lost his wife, 67-year-old Trond Sander leaves Oslo and moves to a part of Norway that is rural, almost primitive, to cultivate solitude.  There, he finds himself [...]

I was talking with my colleague Andrew Smith, who ably leads several book groups at Williamsburg Regional Library. From a librarian’s point of view, we agreed that perhaps the greatest challenge for book groups is chemistry. To draw an analogy, bringing readers together in a group, especially a new group, is kind of like assembling [...]

While I’m Falling by Laura Moriarty is one of the titles that has been selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a National Reading Group Month Great Group Read. In this coming-of-age novel, Veronica’s chaotic junior year in college gets even messier when her recently-divorced mother shows up, needing a place to live. Midwest book groups [...]

Most book groups have compared a book selection to a film adaptation or played the game where you cast roles in the book with actors you think appropriate. I’m always fascinated by the diversity of opinion in the actors who different readers find suited for characters. It’s a quick object lesson in how readers can [...]

It’s not easy to find the “perfect” book for a book discussion group, but Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout may be the gold standard. It’s short, only 270 pages. It’s written in a style that makes it easy to pick up and put down. It has enough characters to keep readers interested and plenty of [...]

My wife just made me aware of a new online book club provided by the editors of Real Simple magazine.  Here’s how the club works:  every month, one of the editors chooses four books they consider to be great for discussion and asks readers to vote on them; the title with the most votes wins.  Once [...]

I haven’t yet come across anyone who hasn’t enjoyed reading Three Cups of Tea (TCOT) or who thinks this book, a nonfiction account of an adventurer’s decision to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan after an ill-fated mountain climbing expedition in which he almost perished, doesn’t  provide surefire discussion material.  A few [...]