Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

A few days ago, I put forth my miserly opinion that Christmas literature, for the most part, is ho, ho, horrible. I even asked you to convince me otherwise, and in response, fair readers, not one of you was stirring, not even a mouse.
But I know book groups, and you will not yield to my [...]

Christmas goods have replaced the Halloween gear in the stores, and so I suppose the season is officially upon us. I feel compelled to issue a word of warning. You’re going to be very tempted in December to assign holiday theme reading to your book group: a nice little book in the spirit of the season. [...]

I love adding to my shelf of book group resources. My latest addition is The Book Club Bible, a book that offers over 200 titles for book group facilitators to choose from.
The subtitle is “The Definitive Guide That Every Book Club Member Needs.” That may be pushing it a tad. The BCB is a balanced [...]

Can you talk about a book in 140 characters? You’ll have to if you join The Book Studio’s Twitter Book Club. Now six months old, the Twitter Book Club meets online once a month to talk about a recent book. Picks for the past few months have been Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, Lorrie Moore’s  A [...]

Last week, I discussed a meeting where odd digressions by readers contributed to success, but going off subject can just as easily derail a meeting. When is a side discussion useful and when is it just an interruption? How can group leaders tell the difference?
First, know your group. Groups that use themes often welcome digressions, groups [...]

My blogging pal, Mary Burkey, over at Audiobooker wants to query the book group masses about methods for keeping up with book group reading. She will trade your witty insights and thoughtful comments for a narrator to be named later.
“Audiobooks & Book Clubs: not really reading or perfect partners? Curious minds want to know! I’m collecting [...]

I was nervous as the meeting of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Group at Williamsburg Regional Library started earlier this week. Our theme this month was mad scientists and evil geniuses, but a quick scan of my readers indicated that several hadn’t finished a book and others were not happy with the book they [...]

Why offer a short story reading/discussion group?  A number of reasons come to mind
There have been great short story collections published recently: Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Boat by Nam Le, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower, Fine Just The Way It Is, by Annie Proulx, All Aunt [...]

I was talking with my colleague Andrew Smith, who ably leads several book groups at Williamsburg Regional Library. From a librarian’s point of view, we agreed that perhaps the greatest challenge for book groups is chemistry.
To draw an analogy, bringing readers together in a group, especially a new group, is kind of like assembling the [...]

Most book groups have compared a book selection to a film adaptation or played the game where you cast roles in the book with actors you think appropriate. I’m always fascinated by the diversity of opinion in the actors who different readers find suited for characters. It’s a quick object lesson in how readers can [...]

I haven’t yet come across anyone who hasn’t enjoyed reading Three Cups of Tea (TCOT) or who thinks this book, a nonfiction account of an adventurer’s decision to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan after an ill-fated mountain climbing expedition in which he almost perished, doesn’t  provide surefire discussion material.  A few [...]

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist  is one of the titles that has been selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a National Reading Group Month Great Group Read. It’s a dystopian tale about a society in which some people are considered dispensable–in this case, older men and women who are childless. At age 50 for women and age 60 [...]

Life is short and there are a lot of books to read and to discuss. Novels are the most popular reading group choice and there are lots of novels to choose from. In fact, there are approximately 50,000 fiction titles published every year in the United States and about 10,000 of those are new titles. [...]

In the first three posts in this series, I looked at how to research author information, reviews, and publisher and book seller content, then use these resources in your book group. These basics of book research, however, are just the most obvious resources. A creative book grouper can find dozens of other items to enhance [...]

Can book groups find useful material on the websites of publishers and booksellers? It’s the essential modern dilemma: There’s good information to be mined, but to get it, you must run the gauntlet of sales come-ons, pop-up ads, and praise that borders on pandering. Is it worth the effort? The answer is yes, but focus [...]

Quick! What were the last five books that your group read?
Not even close, were you? I’ve been thinking about memories lately, as it seems more and more often, I have to rely on writing things down to save mine. I keep lists of what I’ve read and what I want to read. I use an account [...]

If food is part of your book group meetings, you might want to get yourself a copy of Literary Feast: The Famous Authors Cookbook from the King County Library System Foundation. Around 90 writers (most of them from the Pacific Northwest) have contributed recipes. For a discussion of a book by Elizabeth Berg you could bake her [...]

Remember when tracking down book reviews was challenging? I can remember spending hours in my university library, slogging through references in Book Review Digest, then spooling through microfilms or paging through rebound journals, then struggling to line pages up in a photocopier.
The Internet has made finding book reviews terribly easy. The magic words are simple keywords–the book title, [...]

The electronic book has arrived at one of my book groups. At my SF/fantasy group, one of our regulars has taken to bringing his electronic reader instead of actual books. I’ll admit up front, I have rather extreme views on this subject. Frankly, I think electronic books are an ungainly technology with little upside that large [...]

Did you know that Joyce Carol Oates was born a conjoined twin? The tragedy of little Carol Joyce receives oblique references in most of her sister’s writing to this day. Or that Pat Conroy chose his pen name because he was with Elvis in the week that the King died? (Does “con roi” ring any bells, French speakers?) It’s [...]