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The third annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week is coming up, September 13-17.  Why am I noting this here? Because book blogs can be a wonderful way to enhance your book discussions. I often find myself adding titles I never would have considered before to my reading list,  thanks to recommendations from the 25+ book blogs [...]

The Gardening Society of Swallowdalehillcrestville’s book group finds a way to repurpose the past decade’s reading selections.

The staff book group at Williamsburg Regional Library met yesterday to discuss books with the theme of relocation. As usual, the choices were diverse and fascinating. Gail got us started with The Best of Covered Wagon Women. Edited by Kenneth L.  Holmes, this is a selection of the best pioneer women’s narratives–letter and diaries–from a previously [...]

The Chicago Public Library has announced the selection for the next installment of its One Book One Chicago program:  Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. Morrison will come to town for a reading and talk in October. This is One Book One Chicago’s 19th selection.  Some other community reads coming up in the few months: Nashua, NH is reading We Are [...]

Anyone looking for some different nonfiction to stir things up in a reading group should look n further than the Royal Society Prize for Science Books. The shortlist was announced yesterday and these titles were chosen for their relevance to topics of interest in the news, accessibility, and quality of writing. I see this list [...]

Ted wrote a post about how to discuss Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. How to talk about a book or a series so rife with violence and sexual violence in particular. I just finished reading Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and found myself just as engrossed as everyone else this summer. (Every other person [...]

I haven’t been this excited and eager to share some news in a long time. The 2011 Seattle Reads book was just announced: Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I raved about Little Bee a lot last year. I recently dropped in on our open-ended discussion group, Let’s Talk About Books, where two readers talked about [...]

It’s a tough time to be bookish. That’s especially true in library land, where daily we get news of another large system facing major cuts, closed branches, reduced hours, or chopped collection budgets. Now, this isn’t because libraries are unsuccessful: most of the systems I know still put up record numbers. Still, government budgets are in rotten shape [...]

In Amanda Davis’ Wonder When You’ll Miss Me, teenage Faith is haunted by the fat girl she used to be. This alter ego follows her around in her mind,  giving advice and a running commentary.  Faith is also haunted by the memory of a brutal sexual assault and her subsequent suicide attempt.  Unable to cope [...]

I read with interest Misha’s recent post about her discussion experience with Muriel Barbery’s exceptional novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog.   Months ago, Misha wrote about discovering this book, and I thought then about someday using it in a discussion of my own.  Recently I was told by my supervisor that Hedgehog is a title [...]

Mary Burkey over at Audiobooker and other audio book aficionados will be pleased to welcome some new members to the audio book fan base. Along-established Kansas City book group have decided, “listening isn’t cheating” and are strongly encouraging members to explore this format for all reading group selections. Recently the Kansas City group took part [...]

Here’s the longlist for the Man Booker Prize in 2010. This literary prize may get more coverage than any other these days, so you’ll certainly be hearing more about these titles in the coming months. Peter Carey     Parrot and Olivier in America Emma Donoghue     Room Helen Dunmore     The Betrayal Damon Galgut     In a Strange Room [...]

At last month’s meeting of the Adult Reading Round Table, two librarians from the Park Ridge (IL) Public Library shared information about how they included a Skype session as part of a recent book discussion.  The book they’d chosen for discussion was Lottery, by Patricia Wood, and when they announced the selection on the library’s [...]

The SF/Fantasy Book Group gathered last night in Williamsburg for a meeting devoted to Lois McMaster Bujold. We only hold single author meetings once a year, so you know the subjects we choose for these evenings are among our favorites. It’s hard not to like Bujold. She’s won six Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, a [...]

How timely to follow Kaite’s discussion of three new titles with my fall selections for our crime fiction discussion.  Every year I try to find books that fit a theme.  Because we enroll for an entire year (through our Park and Recreation Department), we set a calendar thru next May and here it is: YOUTH [...]

Gary will be pleased to know that I’m finding more of the above for my book groups and this summer I’ve read three that I’ll be suggesting to the local mystery novel discussion groups. All are forthcoming this fall, but it’s never too soon to start looking for titles to add to the list of [...]

My book group discussed Muriel Barbery’s international bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog last week and I can’t get over what a wonderful discussion it was. I wrote about discovering the book some time ago. Between then and now I had spoken with a few people who really didn’t like the book, found the characters [...]

I can’t help it. I chortled when I read this goofy collection of classics and popular novels retold in Tweets and LOLcat language. Although touted as being ‘hatched in a dorm room,’ I’d bet these two freshmen were underage drinking at some lame party with only their iPhones and their snarky senses of humor for [...]

If your books groups are like mine, one of the magic words for book selection is “paperback.” If the book isn’t available in that format yet, it will be deemed too expensive by many group members. Additionally, books that are in paperback have usually been out long enough to clear the hold list at libraries. [...]

I am not much of a nonfiction reader, so it can be difficult for me to choose nonfiction for discussion.  One of my favorite resources for finding new (and new-to-me) nonfiction is Sarah Statz Cords’ blog, Citizen Reader. Statz Cords, known for her nonfiction RA guides, blogs about what she’s personally reading and enjoying (or [...]