Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

True life adventure stories are popular selections for book groups and usually get selected as “guy reader” bait. These adrenaline-rush narrative quests appeal to some male readers for the action and to some women readers for the soul-searching introspection.
Last week I led a book group for Kansas City’s Junior League. They had chosen A Pearl [...]

Over at Points of Reference, Jessica is getting ready to start a mystery book group at her public library in January. She’s going to be using Read ‘em Their Writes as a source and is wondering if there are any other good selections tools out there.
Funny you should ask, Jess. I recently put together a [...]

Even if you haven’t read books by Cory Doctorow, you probably know the name. His blogs, essays, and opinions seem to be everywhere, particularly in regards to digital culture, intellectual property, or technology. Doctorow almost always has an opinion, and whether or not one agrees with him, (like me, you’ll probably find yourself siding with him on [...]

I’ve been browsing my way through Sarah Johnson’s Historical Fiction II: A Guide to the Genre, one of the latest entries in the Genreflecting Advisory series from Libraries Unlimited. These big books are a browser’s paradise and ought to become familiar reference tools for in-the-know book group leaders as they seek out good group selections.
Historical [...]

My wife and I have been reading Shadowlands aloud the last few nights. Many of you know this work from the film featuring Anthony Hopkins and Deborah Winger, but William Nicholson’s play is about events late in the life of C. S. Lewis.
Lewis never liked “Clive Staples.” When he lost a beloved dog as a boy, he declared [...]

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 [...]

I know I’ve been on a kick lately pairing books for discussions. I  like having all the related reading in one place. Also, I want to give readers a choice in titles if the topic is going to be difficult for some to handle.
Possibly no subject is more harrowing than the tragedy at Columbine High [...]

If asked to name authors who more people should be reading, Adam Langer would be one of the first names from my mouth. He’s a Chicago-born author and playwright, now living in New York City, a marvelous choice for book groups.
Books with interesting characters in varied relationships are the easiest for groups to discuss, [...]

Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell, was chosen as the book to be explored at the most recent meeting of the Adult Reading Round Table Quarterly Literary Fiction Book Discussion Group.  I didn’t lead the discussion this time, but enjoyed sitting on the other side of the table as a participant.
Russell’s novel is [...]

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 [...]

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie is one of the Great Group Reads selected by the Women’s National Book Association Reading Group Month committee. This is a multigenerational novel with global dimensions–written by a Pakistani author, it traces the intertwined history of two families beginning in Nagasaki in 1945 and ending in Afghanistan post 9/11.  The book was an Orange [...]

Cost by Roxana Robinson  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. This novel, set in Maine during one family’s summer sojourn, takes an unflinching look at drug addiction and the toll it takes.  Find conversations starters at Reading Group Choices, and click here [...]

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 [...]

It didn’t even occur to me that these two books I’m about to mention are very well suited for the month of October. I was only thinking about what a great duo they’d make for a discussion.
I just finished Audrey Niffenegger’s sophomore effort, Her Fearful Symmetry and thought what a great pairing it would be [...]

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson 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.
Having recently lost his wife, 67-year-old Trond Sander leaves Oslo and moves to a part of Norway that is rural, almost primitive, to cultivate solitude.  There, he finds himself confronting  [...]

While I’m Falling by Laura Moriarty 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. In this coming-of-age novel, Veronica’s chaotic junior year in college gets even messier when her recently-divorced mother shows up, needing a place to live. Midwest book groups [...]

It’s not easy to find the “perfect” book for a book discussion group, but Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout may be the gold standard. It’s short, only 270 pages. It’s written in a style that makes it easy to pick up and put down. It has enough characters to keep readers interested and plenty of [...]

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 [...]