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This is part two in an ongoing series about discussion questions. In the first post, I staked out the position that book groups will often succeed best when they write discussion questions for themselves instead of trying to use questions written by others. But which questions, then, are the most likely to result in a [...]

Here are ten ideas for your book group to try as themes for its meeting next month: 1. JUNE BIRTHDAYS If your group is ready for a round of biographies, try subjects with June birthdays. Readers might select books, for instance, about Frank Lloyd Wright, Helen Keller, Andrew Jackson, Martha Washington, Henry VIII, Judy Garland, [...]

One of the joys of using a book with a group is when you discover that the book works on a multiplicity of levels.  I would like to claim that I am aware of this before the discussion but often this disclosure is made while the group is navigating the book. Dead at Daybreak by [...]

Last month, a friend asked me for suggestions for her church’s book discussion group.  They had pretty open guidelines, the one “requirement” being that they read books with a religious theme – very loosely interpreted.  They had already read the standard book discussion fare (ie Red Tent). My suggestion to them was Eat, Pray, Love [...]

I led this year’s book discussion at the Wisconsin Association of Public Librarians on a book that I thoroughly enjoyed:  Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs.  The book is about a character named Tassie Keltjin who gets swept into the life of a restaurant owner named Sarah Brink.  Sarah has embarked on the adventure [...]

Sarah Addison Allen became a book club favorite with her debut novel, Garden Spells. Her follow up title, The Sugar Queen, followed suit and it will be no surprise if her latest, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, becomes equally popular. Allen writes magical stories of ordinary women with peculiar abilities in recognizable situations. Even [...]

I just read two books that otherwise have nothing to do with one another, but after I read them I realized they both explored (in one way or another) a mid-life crisis. Sam Lipsyte’s deliriously funny The Ask is narrated by Milo Burke, a 30-something urban dweller with a wife and 3 ½ year old [...]