Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association

I’ve been thinking about memoirs again while reading Rosalind Reisner’s new book, Read On… Life Stories. It’s a superb addition to the Read On… series, providing annotated lists of books selected from the best of memoir and biography, with each list focusing on a particular storyline, character type, setting, writing and language style, or mood. Reisner’s book [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I can’t think of a single person I know who reads and doesn’t also listen intently to a particular form of music. Book group members are always talking about what they listen to while they read, unless they are listening to what they read.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to discuss music in the same way we [...]

In the late 1950s, Edward Abbey spent summers working in Utah’s Arches National Park, performing a variety of park services and sometimes escaping for backcountry hiking and rafting adventures or side work for local ranchers. The result is his 1968 book Desert Solitaire. Over 40 years later, his book is still relevant, poignant, and laced [...]

With the new Meryl Streep-Amy Adams film, Julie & Julia, lighting up the national box office and Julia Child’s classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, back on the bestseller list, I’ve been wondering if book groups won’t take the hint and decide to plan some delicious discussion programs around 1) Julie Powell’s autobiographical [...]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s weekly newsletter, GOOP, this week presents some summer reading lists from a few of her friends.
Paltrow’s pals suggest a wide range of books from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo to The Almond Picker by Simonetta Agnello Hornby to The Black Echo by Michael Connelly.
Thank you, GOOP, for this week’s installment. Keep [...]

I know every book group in the nation has already discussed Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. One of mine got around to it yesterday and we were all surprised by how much we enjoyed it, including the sole male attendee.

Of course, everyone immediately went off the discussion topic script so handily provided by the [...]

I had the pleasure of staying on in Chicago after the ALA convention for a few days of vacationing. What a vibrant city! It’s a city to make one fall in love with architecture with fantastic older buildings standing proudly among the modern skyscrapers and enough room between the buildings to incorporate lovely green spaces [...]

News this morning of the death of Frank McCourt reminded me of what a popular reading group choice Angela’s Ashes was a few years ago.  McCourt’s book is a classic example of the ”nonfiction that reads like fiction” category of books. If your book group is one of the few that hasn’t taken on Angela’s Ashes, you [...]

Summer can be rough for book groups. Vacations deplete group numbers and those who remain steadfast don’t even get the proverbial lousy t-shirt. You should take this, well… sitting down. Why not take the group on its own armchair tour with a round of travel books?
There are some fun choices available now. I highly recommend [...]

Here in the Midwest, there is currently great excitement about the recent opening of the Modern Wing at The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC).  One of the ways the museum is spotlighting this momentous occasion is by inviting its book club members to read My Love Affair with Modern Art, by Katharine Kuh, the woman behind the development [...]