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The Bonner Springs (KS) City Library has put together a Read, Watch, Discuss series focusing on books and movies with close ties to Kansas in honor of the 150th anniversary of Kansas statehood. The three book/film series includes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Addie Pray by Joe Brown and filmed under [...]

Last month at the Library our staff book discussion category was Biography, Autobiography or Memoir.  I was the discussion leader and I selected the 2010 Nonfiction National Book Award winner, Just Kids by Patti Smith.  This book is really about serendipity but also about manufactured fame.  It is about love and devotion balanced against self-promotion and [...]

What to do with all those book club kits that have fallen out of favor with reading groups and have decreased circulating? Consider making a birdhouse. Or an armchair. Even a book shelf. Like these.

Dear Book Group Buzz fans, as you read this, I’m finishing off a vacation in Orlando. I’ve paid the good folks at Disney and Universal for the right to check my brain at the gate for a few days. You’re probably stuck at home, and for that I’m sorry. I didn’t even get you a [...]

You probably know Nancy Pearl as the role model for the librarian action figure with real shushing action. In reality, she’s a giving person who is more likely to listen to you than shush you. I’ve just finished a leisurely tour through her latest book, Book Lust to Go. It’s the third in her series of Book [...]

The New York Public Library is going to do something historic. Of course. The 42nd Street location will open its doors for an after hours event for 500 lucky participants. A modernized scavenger hunt using smart phones to obtain clues will take bibliophiles all over the library, including the hallowed stacks. You just know that [...]

My compilation of awards and best-books-of-the-year selections is complete. This year’s Megalist includes 175 different sources which suggested 2,279 titles as one of the best books of 2010. Visit my other blogging home at Blogging for a Good Book to download the full spreadsheet. I’ll wrap up my coverage here at Book Group Buzz by [...]

I’m starting to suss out books for next year’s reading groups and I think I’ve found a place for the classic by James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce. This dark yet suspenseful story of a complex mother-daughter relationship will make for interesting conversation. Cain’s penchant for common characters and his unusual focus on food in Mildred [...]