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For book groups with an interest in exploring a particular subject, give some thought to mixing in fiction, memoir, and genre fiction. Ernest Hemingway has long been a favorite of reading groups and the recent anniversary of his death may prompt conversation about his life and his life’s work. It wasn’t enough for Papa to [...]

The Millions has an excellent write-up of 66 of the most interesting titles coming between this July and April 2012. While most book groups prefer to wait for the possibility of paperbacks, these are titles worth putting on your radar and tracking in the upcoming year. Many of the titles have connections to past works [...]

The title of this blog post was inspired by Misha. She used this phrase in one of her posts and I started pondering, “What is serendipity in the stacks and when does it occur? What kind of books have I found on the shelves and felt a ‘Eureka!’ moment?”   “Serendipity in the Stacks” is [...]

This summer, you can battle for time in your reader’s busy vacation schedules, or you can try to find ways to fit into the season. Since summer is the time for road trips and vacation, why not try a meeting devoted to audiobooks? Long stretches in a car or lounging in a chair with a [...]

Whenever book group leaders get together to chat, eventually the same perplexing question arises, “What can be done to get men (or more men) to join our groups?”  After over 30 years of leading book groups, I can state with great conviction that there are no new answers.  Here are the time-honored techniques that seem [...]

The 800s are a great place to look for little known resources for selecting books for reading groups. My most recent discovery is The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time by Daniel S. Burt. Of course, it’s a gargantuan task whittling such a list down to 100 titles. Burt points [...]

Michael Dirda, former editor of the Washington Post’s Book World, has a nice piece in the most recent Bookforum about the shortcomings of the bestseller list. It’s food for thought for book groups. Most groups aren’t reading James Patterson, Tom Clancy, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, or the other name-recognition über-sellers, but book groups do seem [...]

In most of the library-sponsored book clubs I’ve moderated, the attendance fluctuates based on any number of reasons –   time of year, what the title is, etc.  There always seems to be a constant number of regulars, however. I’m wondering, what’s the smallest group, for how long, before you decide to end a book [...]

Just when I thought I’d run into all the best book group picks for the fall, I found five more while I was attending ALA in New Orleans. Here’s a short list of titles that I’ll be suggesting for the Kansas City Public Library book groups. These were the titles that offered the most intriguing [...]

Just as with an exercise routine, it’s a good idea to build a warm-up exercise into the start of each book group meeting. Why you’re not at risk of pulling a muscle while sitting in your chair in the circle, you will get a better conversation if you can 1) get everyone focused on books; [...]