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Our staff readers advisory title this month was the Newbery Medal winning title for 2011, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.  Our staff reads a different genre or style each month but has always faithfully included children’s fiction and young adult titles to make sure the adult readers are reading outside their safety zones and [...]

A Toby Ball that is. Ball is a writer, activist (working for nonprofits such as The Carbon Coalition and the Crimes Against Children Research Center. Born in DC, raised in Syracuse, NY, he now lives in Durham, New Hampshire. Ball is the author of two excellent period thrillers. Scorch City was just released at the [...]

I continue my series of suggestions for groups in search of new ideas that will keep meetings fresh: 30. ALPHABET SOUP Sometimes a thoroughly organized venture like a book group can benefit from a side trip into arbitrariness. Try a random organizing principle for one meeting and see what serendipity brings. For instance, select a [...]

We have our own month! Thanks to the Women’s National Book Association, book clubs have their own month to celebrate great reading, lively discussions, and meet new readers. National Reading Group Month spans the entire month and there are some great events happening nationwide. For a complete list of all the events, great group reads, [...]

The God of Carnage (2006) is a remarkable play by the French playwright Yasmina Reza. After winning many awards in its original French, the English translation by Christopher Hampton won both Britain’s Olivier Award and Broadway’s Tony Award for Best Play. Stars including Ralph Fiennes, Janet McTeer, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini, [...]

If your book group is looking for something new strong on character and language with weighty themes and complex family dynamics, try Martha Southgate’s The Taste of Salt. Narrated at times from the various perspectives of the Henderson family, the book primarily focuses on Josie Henderson, a black marine biologist working at the Woods Hole [...]

My series of methods for reviving a stale book group continues: 27. ROLE MODEL READING Our reading habits are deeply shaped by our parents or other reading role models. An enlightening evening can be spent exploring these influences. Ask each reader to try a book that was a favorite of a reader who influenced his [...]

I stand corrected about groups tackling larger books and even series. There are groups out there taking on series, even of the doorstop variety. For fantasy readers and book groups I wanted to share my recent discovery. Tor.com has two current threads in which both George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books are being [...]

I am trying something completely different this year in my Crime and Mystery Book Discussion at the Greendale Public Library.  This all started when my group got interested in me as an author because there is a sequel to Make Mine a Mystery coming out creatively called Make Mine a Mystery II.  The pressure is [...]

One of my favorite features over at The Reader’s Advisor Online Blog is their collection of new book announcements, and they’re up to it again with their collection of links to book lists for the Fall season. It’s a great site to spend an afternoon and get caught up on all of the major books [...]

The last 15 minutes of every Adult Reading Round Table Steering Committee meeting are reserved for reading recommendations offered by the committee members to each other.  It’s a great way to learn what your colleagues are reading and what their reactions are to these books – and at the same time, pick up some ideas about [...]

The series of posts with ideas for perking up your group continues: 24. THE CHILDREN’S HOUR A fun alternative to heavy adult reading is a meeting devoted to children’s books. I recommend picking books from a particular age range: picture books, early chapter books, or young adult works, for instance. You might also want to [...]

In my personal reading I have found that books from Europe and Central and South America often have a sensibility that is different from American titles.  If you have a book discussion group that enjoys this type of literature and have never tried a crime fiction novel, then James Sallis’ The Killer is Dying might [...]

Can science work as a nonfiction subject for book groups? With the right book choices, the answer is a resounding yes, but it helps if you can find science writers who also capture the human side of science. When the scientists are discussed alongside their work, the results are often full of drama, suspense, and [...]

While BGB isn’t typically the place where epic fantasy series are discussed, since most book groups don’t want to read doorstops (let alone series comprised of five doorstops so far with two more planned), I just had to throw this out there. George R. R. Martin’s fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire aka [...]

I have been having my own Ray Bradbury reading streak of late and was pleased to discover that there has been something of a Bradbury revival out there. For one, Ray Bradbury just turned 91 and writer Alice Hoffman wrote a very nice piece for the LA Times about Bradbury to mark the auspicious birthday [...]

I continue with my series of ideas for bringing excitement and variety back to a book group stuck in a rut: 21. A PLAY’S THE THING I’ve written often in this space about the possibilities of reading plays for book groups. Plays are quick and fun to read aloud. If your group is shy, you [...]

Hopefully, you’re kicking back today and didn’t have to go into work. Since book groups tend to like memoirs, why not glance through some of these occupational memoirs and see what might suit? Explore the underbelly of so-called glamour professions and at the very least, learn to love your own job again. Blood, Bones & [...]

I finally found time for Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Booker-Prize-winning first novel, The White Tiger, and it’s easy to see why the book received so much praise. Books with unreliable narrators make for fascinating group discussions, and Balram Halwai, the titular White Tiger, is one of the most cagy cats you’ll ever encounter. Born into poverty [...]

What the fashion forward discussion leader will be wearing this fall. Talk about well-heeled.