Booklist Online: More than 130,000 book reviews for librarians, book groups, and book lovers - from the trusted experts at the American Library Association

If book groups haven’t been asking for Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katharine Boo yet, be prepared. They will. This book is a marvelous piece of narrative nonfiction that will appeal to many readers. It’s journalist Boo’s first book and unlike other journalist nonfiction, Boo adopts an unusual point of view to tell the story [...]

One of my favorite book groups to facilitate is the KCPL/Kansas City Star FYI Book Group. One of this group’s greatest strengths is that no one has ever met before. In fact, that’s almost a requirement for joining. The KCPL/KCStar FYI Book Group comes together every six to eight weeks at different times, days, and [...]

It was the last page for one of Britain’s most prestigious prizes for fiction written by women. Last month, Orange, the British telecommunications company, announced it would no longer fund the Orange Prize for Fiction. A new sponsor has not been announced. Last week debut novelist Madeline Miller, considered a long shot among the six [...]

Get ready for the Queen of the Book Club to retake her throne. Last week Oprah Winfrey announced the comeback of the world’s largest book club, dubbing it Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. Oprah calls it an “interactive online book club for our digital world.” Oprah recognizes all the many new ways readers are sharing and [...]

In crime writer James W. Hall’s new book Hit Lit, he argues that most bestsellers, and in particular twelve mega-sellers that he examines, share some common characteristics. Like many experienced readers, Hall became frustrated with the quality of the books that made the bestseller list. But teaching a course on bestsellers began to change his [...]

I’ve been updating some lists of classic authors at my library, and using the Julian Patrick-edited 501 Great Writers to do it. This is the kind of book that I enjoy bringing to a book group occasionally just to pass around the room. It may lead to ideas for which writers to try next, or [...]

The Millions has an excellent write-up of 66 of the most interesting titles coming between this July and April 2012. While most book groups prefer to wait for the possibility of paperbacks, these are titles worth putting on your radar and tracking in the upcoming year. Many of the titles have connections to past works [...]

This summer, you can battle for time in your reader’s busy vacation schedules, or you can try to find ways to fit into the season. Since summer is the time for road trips and vacation, why not try a meeting devoted to audiobooks? Long stretches in a car or lounging in a chair with a [...]

The 800s are a great place to look for little known resources for selecting books for reading groups. My most recent discovery is The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time by Daniel S. Burt. Of course, it’s a gargantuan task whittling such a list down to 100 titles. Burt points [...]

For Booklist’s Mystery Month, I wanted to remind all the book group leaders out there of some invaluable resources when it’s time to choose a mystery for discussion. First, our own Gary Warren Niebuhr, has written a guide just for this purpose. Read ‘Em Their Writes was published in 2006 and I’ve turned to it [...]

Recently the Downtowners Book Group at The Kansas City Public Library discussed one of my favorite book group titles, Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. This book has a compelling plot, realistic characters, and a solid pace. It would be a good choice for mystery book groups looking for something different. I’ve used this book in discussion [...]

It’s not that I’m fickle, it’s that I run across so many good resources that help me pick out titles for the plethora of reading groups I assist. My latest treasure is the newly published Read This Next by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark. The authors, both previously published novelists (but they didn’t include their [...]

Ellen Baker’s Keeping the House is a story-within-a-story, told with a deft hand and smooth pace.  Baker tells the story of a weathy Wisconsin logging family family from 1896 through the end of World War I, and the parallel story of a woman named Dolly bucking convention in the 1950s. Free-spirited Dolly doesn’t have anything [...]

In Amanda Davis’ Wonder When You’ll Miss Me, teenage Faith is haunted by the fat girl she used to be. This alter ego follows her around in her mind,  giving advice and a running commentary.  Faith is also haunted by the memory of a brutal sexual assault and her subsequent suicide attempt.  Unable to cope [...]

My book group discussed Muriel Barbery’s international bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog last week and I can’t get over what a wonderful discussion it was. I wrote about discovering the book some time ago. Between then and now I had spoken with a few people who really didn’t like the book, found the characters [...]

I just finished an advance copy of a book I think would be just right for some book groups and facilitators.  It’s Read This Next, by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark.  Due out in November, it’s a guide to an eclectic variety of books suitable for discussion – featuring plot summaries and nontraditional (think snarky) [...]

At a recent book discussion, it became very clear that no one present liked the book.  (I did have two no-shows who emailed me to say they enjoyed it… but that didn’t help at discussion time!) I wasn’t too bothered by this, even though the book was my choice.  After all, no one was attacking [...]

In a recent post, Neil reminded us of the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book is a great summer selection for a book group. It’s short, accessible, and most of us have read it at least once. There is also little likelihood that book group members [...]

The Internet is a fickle place, with this month’s regular stop often succumbing to a new favorite. Sites find a sweet spot and then fade away, capture our attention and then wither as we work through their best content or become tired of the format. As a writer on two blogs, I’ve come to appreciate [...]

During a recent visit to the Berwyn (IL) Public Library, I paused to look at the staff’s current display of favorite book discussion titles and picked up a handy-dandy list of the library’s favorite book discussion resources.  In addition to noting Book Group Buzz as a helpful choice, the list encourages prospective book discussion participants to check [...]