Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

I can’t stop thinking about Olive Kitteridge. Olive, the book written by Elizabeth Strout (for which she was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), and Olive, the woman — a large-boned, blunt-talking retired schoolteacher living in a small Maine town — who dominates the pages of Strout’s engrossing novel.  Olive Kitteridge is the book [...]

With his simple, elegant style, a generous dusting of artful platitudes, and deep exploration of human nature, Leif Enger is a bit of a throwback. His writing evokes two of my favorite authors–John Steinbeck and Wallace Stegner–as well as other novelists from even earlier times. His first book, Peace like a River, was an unusual tale of American adventure that looked closely [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It’s the time of year when I start gathering titles for my book groups to help them select next year’s reading. I am ever so grateful to Time Magazine for making the nonfiction choices a little easier. Recently Time published the All-Time 100 Best Nonfiction Books. I’m sure many of you will find titles that [...]

In the latest print issue of Entertainment Weekly 9/2/11 , you will find a great example of readers’ advisory on the Letters page. It starts with “If You Love The Help…” and two readers of EW made the same suggestion for a readalike, Like One of the Family: Conversations From a Domestic’s Life. EW staff [...]

Along with all the great new fall fiction, book group facilitators can look forward to fascinating nonfiction that will please devotees of “the real story.” Steve Paul, senior writer and arts editor at the Kansas City Star, added his two cents to the crop of autumn reads with a round-up of the most intriguing nonfiction. [...]

With Labor Day right around the corner, I’m feeling a little wistful that summer will soon be over. But with Labor Day right around the corner, I’m also feeling artistic, musical, and literary anticipation. Because the Fall Arts calendar will soon be in full swing. New theatre, new exhibits, new opera and symphonies, and the [...]

I was wandering around the stacks in my library when I found a book that I had read years ago and liked very much, Charity Girl by Michael Lowenthal. It is historical fiction and would be a good choice for book groups interested in little known pieces of American history. Charity Girl is a heartbreaking, [...]

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 [...]