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The recent appearance of the “Biblioracle” created a stir on the bookish part of the Internet. John Warner, a contributor for The Morning News (home to the Tournament of Books, an annual favorite of mine), spent a few hours making book suggestions. Given the last five titles you read, he recommended one book, just author [...]

I discovered this astonishing debut by Emily St. John Mandel from none other than Nancy Pearl. Last Night in Montreal begins with a disappearance. Eli keeps circling back on the morning that his girlfriend, Lilia, slipped out to get the newspaper and never came back. But then, Lilia never stays in one place for long—she just [...]

No matter how many books she’s written that your book group loves, Amy Tan probably won’t be able to fit your next discussion into her schedule. What do you do when you can’t get Amy and Edwidge is booked, too? Bring The Secret Miracle by Daniel Alarcon to book group. Mr. Alarcon sent a bazillion [...]

Gary will recognize this artist immediately, but I can’t resist posting my favorite work from biblio-sculpter, Brian Dettmer. Get a little more information about this coroner of books and his “book autopsies” here. Imagine the conversation that would ensue if you could bring one of these works to a book group. Where to begin? With [...]

For 350 pages, I loved the Italian writer Niccolò Ammaniti’s I’ll Steal You Away. The last 50 were a punch to the solar plexus, catching me off guard, but they may make the book that much more memorable. The majority of Ammaniti’s book plays out as if one of those quirky Italian village films–say Fellini’s Amarcord or perhaps [...]

Here are ten themes your group might try for its meeting next month: 1. CANADA DAY July 1st is Canada’s national holiday. Celebrate by reading Canadian authors, books set in Canada, or books about Canadian history. Try Margaret Atwood, Douglas Coupland, Robertson Davies, Brian Moore, Alice Munro, Farley Mowat, Michael Ondaatje, or Carol Shields. 2. [...]

One of the issues with running a crime and mystery book discussion is the level of violence, abusive language and sexual content of the books I select.  While I have a tendency to skew to the more hardboiled and noir type stories, there are plenty of good traditional crime and mystery novels that would work [...]