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Novels that use plots “ripped from the headlines” are usually excellent selections for book groups. When the headline gets back into newsprint, it’s even more interesting for readers. A recently published book group favorite, The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro, takes a literary look at a 23-year-old crime and, since it’s fiction, takes the initiative [...]

There are lots of books in my Book Group Toolbox, but this one, Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread 50 Books You Haven’t Touches Since High School, is going to be the source I consult when the group wants to read a classic. Author Kevin Smokler understands why and how classics can become shoved aside [...]

I just visited my cousin, Rebekah, owner of the Kohala Divers business in Kawaihae on the Big Island, and she was generous enough to write for Book Group Buzz about her book group. About a year ago a wonderful woman in Waimea, Hawaii, Gale Bates, proposed the idea of a business themed book club in [...]

Here are some books I’m looking to add to the book group rotation in 2013-2014. All are bowing in April. Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley:  I have a book group that likes to read books about women’s lives and relationships. This story about a mother and her two daughters who escape a religious cult [...]

Wanted to share my latest biblio-web find, The Book Smugglers. This pair of self-professed OCD “book junkies” review science fiction and young adult titles (essentially whatever they like). They post four book reviews a week and trade out reviews of movies, music, television, other cross over items. Once a month they two blog runners will [...]

In light of the historic news we are all waiting to hear from our Supreme Court, it might be a good time to focus some attention on the Lambda Literary Foundation and it’s recently announced list of Awards finalists. The Lambda Literary Awards recognize “the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books of the year [...]

Of late, I have flitted restively from book to book, unable to alight anywhere for long. This happens to me sometimes. If only there were a blog I could consult for book suggestions…hmm…well, never mind.  In the meantime I have my old standby: cookbooks. I need to consult them anyway during the course of each week, so [...]

The end of compilation is within sight now on the best books of 2012. You can download the ABBC spreadsheet with all the results from over 120 different sources at my other blogging home, Williamsburg Regional Library’s Blogging for a Good Book. The final edition will add about 40 more sources and will be available [...]

It has been a month since I posted and I have been so isolated that it feels like I have been floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Wait, no it doesn’t.  Because after reading Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken:A World War II story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption I now know what it [...]

Today I released the second of three editions of the All the Best Books Compilation (ABBC) at my other blogging home, Williamsburg Regional Library’s Blogging for a Good Book. The spreadsheet now includes mentions of over 2200 books, compiled into 12 genre and subject categories, noting all of the books mentioned by 120 different authoritative [...]

In All Gone, a reflection on her mother’s dementia, Alex Witchel attempts to give voice to the complicated feelings we have for our dying parents.  The book has been getting a lot of attention lately, perhaps in part because one in eight older Americans is dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease and their adult children are wrestling with a tangle of conflicted love, [...]

I’m continuing coverage of the best books of 2012, not just as noted in one source, but as mentioned in many authoritative sources, then organized into a spreadsheet on Williamsburg Regional Library’s ABBC: the All-the-Best-Books Compilation. The link will take you to my other blogging home Blogging for a Good Book, where you can download [...]

I’ve released the first edition of my All-the-Best-Books Compilation (ABBC) for 2012. It compiles mentions of books in best-of-the-year lists and awards from 66 different sources into one spreadsheet with 12 different fiction and nonfiction categories, showing how many times each book was mentioned and which sources mentioned each. You can learn more about the [...]

Loaded words, I know. The greatest challenge I hear from book group leaders is getting more male readers to attend. Aside from snatching dudes wandering the DIY section of the stacks and plopping them in the middle of a book chat, facilitators consider the reading selections to entice men to the book group. If historical [...]

I was trying to figure out an appropriate book group for Kate Braestrup’s memoir, Marriage and other Acts of Charity.  You don’t need to be married to read this book, though I do think it might feel more relevant to a person who is, if not married, then contemplating the married state.  Still, her meditations [...]

A meeting themed around best books of the previous year provides a great opportunity for readers to try a title that they want to read but can’t otherwise fit into the pile. It’s also a great discovery session: As discussion proceeds, everyone who attends discovers more titles to add to their own to-read list. Here [...]

I’ll share two posts this week about the books that the librarians at Williamsburg Regional Library selected for a staff book group themed around the best books of 2012. Then I’ll be back early next week with the first installment of my annual All-the-Best-Books Compilation (ABBC), my annual spreadsheet that tabulates the votes from dozens [...]

This is the sort of book non-readers (who are secretly jealous) give to readers. The non-readers may think they’re nudging their reader-friends, but really, we readers are just a teensy bit smug because we get all the in-jokes. Judging a Book by its Lover by Lauren Leto is a snarky fun look at the reading [...]

Before I let the first month of the new year get past me, I want to list the ten books that provided the best book group discussions last year. This is not as easy as it sounds since I facilitate three regular book groups and then work with book groups connected to The KCPL’s special [...]

My reading life began with trips to the library with my father, and one of his favorite subject matters were books about events on the ocean. As I begin to reach the age that he was back then, my own nonfiction reading takes me more often out to sea with books that capture the excitement [...]