Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

Recently I was asked to guest facilitate at a workplace book group. Now, these book groups are not unusual in and of themselves. There are many coworkers who like to gather over lunch and discuss books. Sometimes they even all discuss the same book.
But the folks in the Social Workers Department of a local hospital [...]

The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey is one of the Great Group Reads selected by the Women’s National Book Association Reading Group Month committee. Abigail, an actress, owns the titular London house and lives upstairs with Sean, a struggling Keats scholar.  Abigail’s best friend from college, Dara, is a therapist who who occupies the garden flat. [...]

Like most book group facilitators, I’m always looking for ways to enhance the discussion. At the last meeting of the Kansas City Public Library’s lunch time biblio-chatters, Downtowners, I barely had to list a finger. That day’s selection was National Book Award Winner, The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. In addition to bringing in [...]

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 [...]

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from book group members and facilitators is, “Can you suggest some good nonfiction for our discussions?” Invariably, this question is followed up with the caveat, “no biographies or memoirs, please.”
This query used to send me into a quandary and I’d need a couple of days to [...]

I’m always looking for another group to partner with for a book discussion. I have found that groups associated with local arts organizations are one of the best and most receptive groups to approach. The arts organization gets to offer a new activity for members and the library gets to promote programs and services to [...]

Book groups take note: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall has won the Booker Prize for 2009.
Due out in the United States on October 13th, this is probably the most accessible novel to win the award in many years. Mantel is an experienced English writer whose work has received many awards and covered many subjects. In her early career, [...]

The Millions website asked a panel of 56 authors and critics to name the best fiction published since the year 2000. The compiled results should be interesting fodder for book groups. How many have you read? How many has your book group discussed?
Here’s their list of the top twenty. The top five were Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, Edward [...]

Just in time for National Reading Group Month is one of the favorite tools of facilitators everywhere, Reading Group Choices 2010.
I know I’ve written about these little gems before and they continue to be one of my preferred go-to resources. Using the heading “Conversation Starters” instead of “discussion questions” implies that there is no specified direction [...]

As I’ve said before in this space, I love the thematic format for book groups. It gives every reader room to choose for themselves and makes each meeting an adventure in discovering new titles. I like how I get to know my groupmates’ personalities by the book choices they make.
Our staff group at Williamsburg Regional [...]

October is National Reading Group Month. This program of the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) was launched in 2007 “to promote reading groups and to celebrate the joy of shared reading.” Once again, Book Group Buzz  is thrilled to be chosen by the WNBA as a National Reading Group Month partner.
Here’s the 2009 list of Great Group Reads [...]

Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz is one of the nine titles selected by the Women’s National Book Association Reading Group Month committee as “Great Group Reads” for 2009.
It’s a powerful memoir, unusually fiction-sounding given the nature of Metz’s story. (Husband dies, she then discovers that he was leading a double [...]

If you’re building discussions around the “Great Group Reads”  selected by the Women’s National Book Association  Reading Group Month committee, here are some resources for The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James. The publisher’s site describes the book as “a powerfully compelling. intensely researched literary feat that blends historical fact and fiction to explore the passionate [...]

Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife was a favorite  book group choice, and her newest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, should be popular as well.  It’s a ghost story involving twins who inherit a London flat which happens to be located next to the historic Highgate Cemetery. Booklist reviewer Donna Seaman praises Niffenegger’s “discerning eye and slyly gothic [...]

When I was young, my favorite book was The Guinness Book of World Records. I looked forward to the new edition every year, but my favorite entries were those that never changed. A look at literature suggests that I’m not the only one whose imagination was captured. We’ve already seen siamese twins Chang and Eng turned into [...]

Being the resident Jane Austen person at Booklist, I’m often asked to take on reviewer duties for the slew of Austen-based books (yes, I even reviewed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). The supply of fiction inspired in one way or another by Austen seems like a bottomless cup of tea.  
So far, no other author has let loose the same impulse to retell and recycle, although Charles [...]

It’s hard to say goodbye to a book group, even for a short time. But this month I was reminded that it’s harder to go out discussing a book that you feel a little too close to.
I knew that September would be my last book group discussion before my maternity leave began, and was disappointed [...]

Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices wants Book Group Buzz readers to know that Reading Group Choices 2010: Selections for Lively Book Discussions, 16th edition, is now available:
Reading Group Choices 2010, the annual publication from the book club resource, Reading Group Choices, has arrived! This wonderful booklet contains 75 books carefully chosen to be of interest [...]

There’s great excitement at my house, as my wife has been cast as Tracy  Lord in a local community theater production of The Philadelphia Story, a play by Philip Barry. For those of you whose only reference is the 1940 film, Tracy Lord is the Katharine Hepburn part (no pressure there, huh, mon cher?) Given that our [...]

Why is Loving Frank by Nancy Horan such a good book for discussion? My book group met to discuss Loving Frank earlier this month and the room was packed. As soon as we got started, as the conversation progressed, as new voices entered the fray, I had a feeling that we had a really good [...]