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It’s been a long time since I’ve read a novel by Alice Hoffman.  Recently I picked up The Story Sisters, which she published last year, and I read it with great pleasure.  As I plunged into the book, I was quickly reminded what a wonderful storyteller she is.  I can’t say enough about the beauty [...]

The staff book group at Williamsburg Regional Library met last week for a discussion open to any and all nonfiction titles. The number of books we brought along was a clear demonstration that nonfiction reading for pleasure is alive and well. We saw so many interesting books in this meeting that I’ll divide them into [...]

I have been leading book discussions for nigh on thirty years but I have never had the experience of having the author sitting next to me while I was. The Wisconsin Library Association’s Readers Advisory Section selected This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson for this year’s [...]

It may seem cliche, but perhaps your book group would enjoy reading about another book group?  Try Lorna Landvik’s Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. Five housewives in small-town Minnesota meet and form a book club. There’s socially and politically active Slip; Kari, a widowed young; meek Merit; sexy Audrey; and transplanted Southerner Faith.  The story [...]

Here’s the final entry in my year-long series of thematic ideas for book groups: 1. GREAT EXPECTATIONS The Dickens classic celebrates 150 years since its serial publication began in 1860. You won’t regret another visit with Pip, Miss Havisham, Estella, Magwitch and the rest. 2. ANTARCTICA OK, I’m a year early on this one. December [...]

Yesterday my book group discussed Jess Walter’s Citizen Vince, a novel that tells a rollicking story set during the Carter-Reagan election in 1980 whose crowning moment involves voting. I swear that when I scheduled our discussion of this book more than a year ago, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that it was the perfect [...]

I can’t think of any readers who don’t have at least one literary character for whom they wish there were more adventures. From Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter, Jane Austen to Margaret Mitchell, there are characters and authors that just can’t be left alone by some writers, much to the delight, and occasional ire, of [...]

Recently the Literary Death Match folks came to Kansas City for a cage match between local authors, Clancy Martin, Cote Smith, Gina Kaufmann, and David Wayne Reed. The wordtestants faced off in two rounds. In the first round two pairs of writer go up against each other in a judged read-off of short stories evaluated [...]