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The Children’s Book Council of Australia recently named the winner in the Picture Book category, Hamlet by Melbourne artist Nicki Greenberg. It’s a graphic novel based on the Shakespeare play. Yet the author is encouraging parents to review her graphic novel before giving it to very young children. It may be a picture book, Greenberg [...]

In Kathleen Tessaro’s fourth novel, The Debutante, artist Cate leaves New York after a disastrous affair to work in her aunt Rachel’s London auction house.  When she is paired with handsome Jack (on the run from his own demons),  sparks fly but their baggage doesn’t seem to be a matched set.  As they work together [...]

Wendy McClure’s memoir of her love and search for the reality behind the fiction of an American classic of childhood is a great idea for a one-time theme for a book group. McClure chronicled her Little House quest in The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of ‘Little House on the Prairie‘. Readers [...]

When something comes along outside of my normal reading range, and I can’t stop thinking about it, that’s a pretty good clue that it would make a good book discussion pick.  Such is the case with Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. It’s pretty much the opposite of what I normally like to read – [...]

A search for “Guernsey” shows no fewer than 15 posts here on Book Group Buzz about Mary Ann Shaffer’s and Annie Burrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What can I say, I’m slow. Here’s sweet sixteen. There were certain words that kept popping up in descriptions of Guernsey that kept me at [...]

Last week my library book group discussed Ann Patchett’s first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars.  The main reason we decided to examine this book is that several members of the group had greatly enjoyed reading and talking about Bel Canto, another of Patchett’s novels.  (Many of you may be familiar with Bel Canto, since [...]

Back in February I mentioned some Twitter feeds I follow for book news and possible selections for book groups. Here’s another small batch of book tweeters who post pithy tweets about book groups, reading, book news, and other items of interest to readers. EarlyWord @earlyword– is the twitter handle for the favorite website of many [...]

I have no doubt that many authors have horror stories similar to Nancy Lauzon‘s experience as a visiting author to a book group. However, I do hope that subsequent book group visits were more pleasant and the conversation more stimulating for both Nancy and any other author who suffered a less-than-stellar discussion. Nancy, author of [...]

Many book groups have discovered the special qualities of Rebecca Skloot’s prize-winning book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It has a riveting story, complex and realistic characters (including the author), and a lively pace in spite of all the science. Not to mention numerous angles that make the book a great fit for most [...]

We were halfway around the table and halfway around the world when I curtailed my first post on this subject last week. Let’s look at other interesting titles that made the trip at this meeting of Williamsburg Regional Library’s staff book group. Barbara from our Outreach division had two books. The first was Michael S. [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about men and reading – Ted’s post asking why so few men join book groups dovetailed with a lively discussion about boys/men and reading at an author interview last month, so it’s been on my mind. To that end, I’m skipping my usual “Women’s Fic Pick” this month and [...]

The staff book group here at Williamsburg Regional Library took on the theme of travel in a meeting today. One thing that I love about thematic discussions is that they allow consideration of books and ideas that wouldn’t work as single book discussion titles. It makes for a much more diverse meeting, as our travel [...]

The Tiger’s Wife is a recently published novel by a young author named Tea Obreht, and it is quite simply one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time.  Obreht has been named to The New Yorker’s list of “20 Under 40″ — the magazine’s choice of the most exceptional young [...]

Last week my book group discussed Mary Karr’s third memoir, Lit. For all but one of us, Lit was our introduction to Karr. It was interesting to note that we were meeting to discuss a memoir for which most of us had not read the ones leading up to it. But we agreed that no [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In preparing for an upcoming book group that will look at the theme of travel, I decided it was time to get acquainted with Bruce Chatwin. I’m glad I did. He’s a fascinating subject. An English writer and adventurer, Chatwin got his start as an art expert at Sotheby’s, but work-related eye problems sent him on [...]