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“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”   Joseph Heller, Catch-22   Last night we held our monthly crime and mystery fiction discussion and as I have previously mentioned, we are doing a mini-genre study this year with the group.  On this night we tackled thriller and suspense fiction.   As benchmark [...]

Which will make it onto your reading group lists next year? The National Book Award Finalists for 2011 were announced yesterday in Portland, OR and while there are some surprising omissions, there are also some surprising nominations. Click through any of the above links for the full lists of nominations in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and [...]

Back on September 18th I recommended The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and mentioned how it was the first part of September’s crime and mystery book discussion at my library.  As our benchmark author for our Great Thinking Detective subgenre, it worked out quite well in the discussion.  The most oft repeated [...]

Way back on March 21, 2010, I sang the praises of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Because the subject matter is 9/11, I knew as soon as I read it we would be discussing this at the Greendale Public Library around the tenth anniversary of the event . So our Fall [...]

I just finished the book that is bound to be one of the buzziest books this fall–Chad Harbach’s debut, The Art of Fielding. It’s a book with larger than life characters written with such warmth and compassion that you come away imbued with a sense of wonder. I finished the book so satisfied–with the characters, [...]

Our staff readers advisory title this month was the Newbery Medal winning title for 2011, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.  Our staff reads a different genre or style each month but has always faithfully included children’s fiction and young adult titles to make sure the adult readers are reading outside their safety zones and [...]

We have our own month! Thanks to the Women’s National Book Association, book clubs have their own month to celebrate great reading, lively discussions, and meet new readers. National Reading Group Month spans the entire month and there are some great events happening nationwide. For a complete list of all the events, great group reads, [...]

If your book group is looking for something new strong on character and language with weighty themes and complex family dynamics, try Martha Southgate’s The Taste of Salt. Narrated at times from the various perspectives of the Henderson family, the book primarily focuses on Josie Henderson, a black marine biologist working at the Woods Hole [...]

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 [...]

I am trying something completely different this year in my Crime and Mystery Book Discussion at the Greendale Public Library.  This all started when my group got interested in me as an author because there is a sequel to Make Mine a Mystery coming out creatively called Make Mine a Mystery II.  The pressure is [...]

One of my favorite features over at The Reader’s Advisor Online Blog is their collection of new book announcements, and they’re up to it again with their collection of links to book lists for the Fall season. It’s a great site to spend an afternoon and get caught up on all of the major books [...]

In my personal reading I have found that books from Europe and Central and South America often have a sensibility that is different from American titles.  If you have a book discussion group that enjoys this type of literature and have never tried a crime fiction novel, then James Sallis’ The Killer is Dying might [...]

I have been having my own Ray Bradbury reading streak of late and was pleased to discover that there has been something of a Bradbury revival out there. For one, Ray Bradbury just turned 91 and writer Alice Hoffman wrote a very nice piece for the LA Times about Bradbury to mark the auspicious birthday [...]

What the fashion forward discussion leader will be wearing this fall. Talk about well-heeled.  

The virtual book group made the news recently. Nine groups used Skype to have a discussion with Meg Wolitizer earlier this month and you know what was different about it? Not much. Folks were in their living rooms, sipping wine or tea, having snacks, and talking with the author and other readers about the book. [...]

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 [...]

You may have already come across this recent ABA article on bookstore and library partnerships, but it’s worth putting out there again because it really drives the point home – if you are lucky enough to have a bookstore in your community, see how you can work with them to promote your events and serve [...]

I’ve spent the last five days preparing for, riding out, and then trying to pick up after the passage of Hurricane Irene. Here in the Hampton Roads of Virginia, we’re becoming wary of “I” storms. Eight years ago, just as I started at Williamsburg Regional Library, we got walloped by Isabel. For a while, Irene looked like [...]

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. [...]