Reading Group Guides Blog

Book Clubs in the News

2010-04-16T11:51:00.002-04:00

What do robots, dogs, singers and financial columnists have in common? They all have book clubs and they are all featured in this month’s Book Clubs in the News!

NewScientist.com: The Robots’ Book Club
Who knew computers could read books? Well apparently they can. They can even tell you what the book is about and identify central themes. Sort of. What’s next, robot book clubs?

KitSapSun.com: Reading Dogs?
I know I made an April Fools joke about reading dogs, but this time I’m serious. All across the country, programs are springing up where kids gain confidence in their reading skills by reading aloud to their fuzzy four legged friends.

WashingtonPost.com: Color of Money Book Club
Book clubs are not just for fiction anymore. There seem to be book clubs out there for every kind of book you can think of, from software manuals to law books to your more obvious genre specific clubs. Check out this online book club run by Personal Financial Columnist Michelle Singletary of The Washington Post. Read the best books on managing your money and your life and discuss them online. You can even win a free book!

MySpace.com: Like to Read? And Sing? Have I got the book club for you!
The Bushwick Book Club in Brooklyn is in their own words “Songwriters who will read a book and write songs about/relating to it and play them for an astounded and appreciative audience. And other people who like books and music and nights involving books and music at the same time.” I’m astounded. And wish I lived closer ‘cause I’d totally go.

Is your book club doing something totally different? We want to hear about it! Feel free to comment here on the blog, or email me at dana@bookreporter.com.

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Authors Helping Authors

2010-04-15T13:38:00.006-04:00

In today's guest post, regular contributor Denise Neary shares a really cool author helping author story she came across. I hope I would be willing to go out of my way for someone like Jennifer Weiner does in this story no matter how successful I became. Not everyone would. But of course, that's what makes this story so special.

I love reading Jennifer Weiner’s funny, smart, and insightful blog, A Moment of Jen and was intrigued by this comment on the site in early March:

"If I’ve got one regret about my career, it’s that I’ll never get to be a debut novelist again, never feel the excitement and the terror that goes with it being your first time out of the gate, when you’ve got no audience, no track record, nothing but hope, and a willingness to do whatever you can to get your book into readers’ hands."

Weiner urged her readers to help spike the sale of Sarah Pekkanen’s debut novel, THE OPPOSITE OF ME. And, thanks to the considerable forces that are Weiner and Pekkanen, the book was a bestseller before it was officially published.

How did that happen?

Serendipity, talent, hard-work and generosity all around.

Writers Weiner and Pekkanen share an editor, Greer Hendricks, but don’t know each other. Pekkanen was weepy when Hendricks told her that Weiner liked the advance copy THE OPPOSITE OF ME.

Pekkanen, working hard to promote her new book, created a contest, “Sarah Spike Day” on her website to encourage people to order the book on a certain day. She announced some great prizes (As an aside, when did authors turn into human public relations machines?)

Weiner heard about the contest, and upped the ante. Weiner offered to send a signed copy of one of her books to each person who pre-ordered the book on March 3. At first, Pekkanen wrongly assumed that Weiner was generously offering to give away one copy of each of her seven best-sellers. Wrong. One copy per order. Weiner gave away hundreds of her books---all to help a new writer start off on the right foot, to share her readers with another audience, and to take delight in helping a new writer succeed.

A great book started its life as a best seller. A debut author had the moment of a lifetime. And a generous experienced author had the thrill (and the significant associated postal duties) of helping make that all happen.

It is goodness with a capital G.

-- Denise Neary, Regular Contributor

Library Lovers Unite

2010-04-14T10:47:00.004-04:00

Earlier in the week I gave a shout out to my hometown library and libraries in general in honor of National Library Week. I was trying to keep it light and fun 'cause that's how I roll. But there are serious funding issues libraries are facing right now and if we want to keep the doors open for our children and our children's children, we need to step up. Mary Bonelli from Charlotte, NC wrote telling me about the library situation in her hometown and I thought it was something you should all be aware of. Her letter is today's post:

About a month ago, the Charlotte City Council announced that they were closing 12 of the 24 branches in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library system. The book loving community in Charlotte were completely taken by surprise and shocked at this announcement. They had previously talked about cutting hours and closing on certain days. They needed $2,000,000 in two weeks to keep the libraries open through the end of the fiscal year; June 30th.

The community rallied to do the best the could to raise this money and to voice their sadness, concerns and disappointment about the closings. The community was able to raise approximately $235,000; not enough to save the libraries. But because to the community's outrage, City Council held an emergency meeting and came up with a plan. They went back to their original thinking and have cut 85 of the original 140 jobs, each branch will be closed 2 days a week and will have shorter hours.

This will keep the libraries safe until the next fiscal year begins on July 1st. If the funding is not available in the new fiscal year, they are saying they will only be able to keep the main branch in Uptown Charlotte open and the children's library, ImaginOn, also in Uptown Charlotte.

How sad and scary that this is happening in a city like Charlotte, NC that has enjoyed being such a boom town for the 20 years that I have lived here. We are a fairly wealthy and philanthropic city, but this is a reality for us. With the way the economy has been over the last several years, I have personally seen a huge jump in library usage. I have always used the library to get a large percentage of my reading material to keep my personal budget under control. In a time when others are looking to save money, it is truly sad that this important resource could be gone.

For more details on this story and how you can help, visit the library's website. To donate, click here.

Thanks for bringing the importance of community libraries to our attention on your website and wish us luck in getting some budget money come July!

Sincerely, Mary Bonelli

Jeffrey Stepakoff: FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA

2010-04-13T09:30:00.000-04:00

Today's guest author is Jeffrey Stepakoff whose debut novel FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA is quickly becoming a bestseller. I met Jeffrey last week and liked him right away. We had one of those "small world" moments when you realize you know some of the same people and have probably unknowingly crossed paths in the past. As we talked I could see that Jeffrey was a rare breed. A guy that not only talks but actually listens. And as you'll see in this post, also one that believes in love (and will openly admit it!).

Do you believe in love at first sight? Or to put a finer point on it, do you think you know when you’ve met “the one?” I guess I’ve always been a bit of a romantic. Still, I never really believed in such things – until I met my wife. Or maybe I should say, met her the second time.

One beautiful summer night, when we were in our twenties and just starting our careers, we both went to a party and ended up sitting right next to each other outside on the patio of a restaurant in Atlanta. It was the first time we met. We talked that night, and there was a spark, but in the morning I left for Los Angeles to start a job, and she settled into a job and a life in Georgia.

Eight years later, through a series of entirely unforeseen events, she moved to Los Angeles, to an apartment right around the corner from me. A mutual friend gave her my number, which she held onto for six months. But she finally called me and we talked on the phone one night for over three hours.

We made a date for a few days later and when she opened the door, I remember thinking that I now knew what the word breathless actually meant. We sat together on her sofa for a few minutes and she showed me some photographs of our mutual friends. I just smiled and nodded, my heart pounding, as I realized that never in my life had I ever met a woman who made me feel this way. It was an instinctive involuntary thing, like breathing, only at that moment I was aware of it.

We had dinner at an Asian restaurant in Venice and we were so engulfed in conversation they had to kick us out so they could close the place.

There was a kiss, and not long after we were married.

My wife is convinced that we were meant to be together, that it was inevitable, you know, destiny. I can’t refute that. But I also wonder about why we met, but it then took destiny eight years to bring us together.

In FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA, Lily wonders a lot about “the simple timing of things.” She wonders about how timing played a part in everything from what happened to her brother to when she met Jake.

Do you believe in true love? Do you think timing plays a part in our how things play out in our lives? How did you meet your partner? These are some great questions to consider, along with the others in the FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA Reading Group Discussion Guide.

And when you do start thinking about these things, send me an email. I’d love to know your thoughts!

Here’s to always believing in fireworks!

--Jeffrey Stepakoff, Author ( http://jeffreystepakoff.com/)

Love Thy Library as Thyself

2010-04-12T11:52:00.004-04:00

It's National Library Week! Woo hoo... So, roll out the barrels, grab your party hats and run, don't walk to your nearest library.

This year National Library Week's theme is "Communities thrive @ your library" and we here at ReadingGroupGuides.com love reading and love reading communities so we're happy to take part in the celebration.

I have so many fond memories from my childhood of being in The Springfield Township Library or the library at my elementary school. I remember being kind of in awe of the quiet and the books and feeling so lucky to have a library card. I remember the librarians as being so nice and helpful, and so very, very tall behind that big checkout counter.

And though I certainly go to the library a bit less now than I did then, I want to make sure they continue to thrive. Especially in these tough economic times when our libraries provide free access to books and computers, homework help, assistance with resumes and job searches, accurate financial information, adult education courses, assistance for new Americans, CDs, DVDs and much more.

Be a part of National Library Week by visiting your local library. And hey, take a friend a long, or your kids.

Another way you can participate is to help libraries in the US get the funding they need. There are only two days left to get in touch with your senator and ask them to sign the "Dear Appropriators" letter that will go to the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to support the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (ILTSL) program in the FY2011 budget. Learn more about the budget and get instructions on how to contact your Senator by clicking here!

Discussing THE HELP

2010-04-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

This month, regular contributor Heather Johnson shares her book club's discussion of THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett. Have you read it yet? Let us know what you think!

This month my book club met to discuss Kathryn Stockett’s bestseller, THE HELP. Two members nominated it in our last round of book-choosing (that has never happened before) so we were all expecting it to be really good. This book seems to be everywhere right now! Several of our members were approached in the salon while reading it; people wanted to say either that they loved the book or that they couldn’t wait to read it. These comments from complete strangers definitely added to our high expectations.

Eight members of the club got together over brunch on a lovely, Spring-y Saturday afternoon and we jumped right in to our discussion of the book …

We all agreed that Stockett did a wonderful job with most of her characters, especially Aibileen and Hilly. Some of us felt that Skeeter’s character needed “something more” to make her completely believable, and we all wanted to see more about Celia (who we loved!)

As the conversation continued, we realized that we each had different perceptions of racism based on where we were raised. The women who were raised in Northern states felt that racism today is a far cry from what is described in the book; they view modern racism as an underlying current rather than an in-your-face reality. Those raised in Southern states disagreed. One gal shared that in her Southern hometown the local high school still has separate proms – one run by the school and one run by a parent committee – and that students understand implicitly which one they are to attend, based on their race. This was absolutely shocking to some members while others had heard of this practice. Our discussion then detoured to the current trend of racism toward people of Hispanic and Middle Eastern descent before we pulled the conversation back to the book.

We went on to discuss some of the historical events going on around that time (the murder of Medgar Evers, the murder of the New York Civil Rights workers in Mississippi, and so on) and how we expected more violence to be present in the book. We discussed whether this absence was a strength or a weakness (ie. Did Stockett cop out?), but we didn’t really come to a solid conclusion.

My club rates the books we read on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest). Each member uses her own criteria and usually compares the current book to others we’ve read. This book received an 8 from almost every member – it was definitely a hit with my club.

I didn’t think of this ahead of time, but this would have been a great book to pair up with a non-fiction account of the Civil Rights movement in the South. That would have given an entirely new dimension to the discussion, don’t you think?

-- Heather Johnson, Regular Contributor

Jean Hanff Korelitz: ADMISSION

2010-04-08T09:30:00.000-04:00

Today's guest blogger, author Jean Hanff Korelitz talks about talking. Did you know authors like to do it? Jean assures us they do...so don't be shy about asking an author to come speak at or call into your club!

For the past nine years I’ve run a “Meet the Author” book group in my home as a benefit for a local transitional housing organization in Princeton, NJ. How is it a benefit? Each member of the group makes a donation to the organization. And why are they willing to pay for an activity most people engage in for free? Because “Meet the Author” isn’t just a metaphor for reading our monthly selection; the author of the novel, memoir, non-fiction book or biography is always present for our discussion.

I mention this because people are sometimes surprised by how completely open I am to phoning book groups who are discussing my novels, when the fact is that I really believe in this rare and (generally!) wonderful exchange of ideas between author and reader. I am intensely grateful to the nearly 50 writers who have travelled to my home to speak with twenty strangers, so saying yes to book groups reading ADMISSION or one of my earlier novels is my way of saying thank you and passing the goodwill along. (For the record, we don’t pay the authors who appear at our book group, though I guarantee that every book group member will purchase the book, a courtesy that any group inviting an author should absolutely observe.) I love speaking to readers who have forged their own relationships (sometimes good, sometimes bad) with my characters, and who sometimes see things in them that have escaped me. I love discussing the issues my novels have raised with thoughtful people, and getting their perspectives, and I love – as who would not? – hearing that I’ve touched a reader, or that the shape of the story I’ve made has been appreciated. (I’m a passionate reader – most writers are – and I know that one of the great pleasures in life is telling the author of a book I’ve loved how wonderful the experience of reading that book has been.)

One of the themes that has emerged in my own book group over the years is the fact that novelists – at least the ones who’ve appeared at the Meet the Author book group – usually do not know what will happen in their novels when they begin to write, or even, sometimes, until the writing is well underway. Again and again, authors report that they were unaware of the direction their story would take, or what their characters would do, until those elements of the novel revealed themselves. As the only writer in my book group, it isn’t news to me that we can be fairly clueless when we set out to write a novel. Sure, we may have a glimmer of an idea as we begin, a wisp of a character, a notion of a problem that needs to be solved, but the fact remains that we set out in the dark and the lights come on only gradually. By the time a novel is completed – if we’ve done our job well – our work will feel sure-footed, inevitable and unforced, but that is something we achieve along the way. “Did you know that was going to happen?” My fellow book group members always ask the visiting author. And it’s pure unadulterated fun for me to watch their amazement when the author tells them: “Actually, no.”

There’s a lot to talk over in ADMISSION. What is it like to be one of those gatekeepers at selective universities, sifting through thousands of brilliant, exciting and promising young applicants and making such impossible decisions? What does it feel like to be actively resented by just about everyone you meet? How do you carry a secret without letting it infect you, impede you and destroy your potential for connection with other people? If your book group is reading ADMISSION, please don’t be shy!

Get in touch with me by emailing sgasst@wmeentertainment.com and writing “Forward to Jean Hanff Korelitz” in the subject line. I’ll do my best to phone in and join the conversation.

--Jean Hanff Korelitz, Author

Seattle Writers Band Together to Give Back

2010-04-07T12:08:00.003-04:00

In today's guest post, Seattle writer Jennie Shortridge introduces us to the Seattle7Writers. On their website they describe themselves as "A collective of Pacific Northwest authors creating connections between writers, readers, librarians and booksellers to foster and support a passion for the written word." Now that's something we here at ReadingGroupGuides.com can get behind!

Will Work for Meaningful Contribution to Society
Seattle writers band together to give back

We writers are an odd bunch. We choose lives in which we sit alone all day in front of computers. Not in cubicles, not in rows of other computers, mind you, but completely, entirely alone. All day. Did I mention every day?

Now, this is fine if you’re deep in the “introvert” range of the Meyers-Briggs scale, but for those of us who nose over the line into the “extrovert” category, it can get a little lonely.

Lucky for me, I live in Seattle, a holy grail convergence zone for writers. Sure, the Pacific Northwest is dark and dismal nine months each year, but it’s excellent (either in spite of or because of all that moisture) for quite a few things: coffee, music, natural beauty, bookstores, and many of the authors that fill those shelves.

When I first moved here five years ago, I didn’t know a soul, but that didn’t last long. I met Garth Stein (before the dog book) at an event we were both reading at, and liked him immediately. It’s hard not to—he’s pretty much the most likable guy on the planet. As writers are wont to do when frustrated by writing, we met for coffee. It became a regular thing, and soon other writers were joining us. Before long, there were seven of us.

What is now formally called Seattle7Writers, an awareness and fundraising nonprofit comprised of over 20 published authors, started simply as a coffee klatch, a kvetching, laughing, celebrating bunch of friends who got what each other was going through on a daily basis. We could clink to the good stuff—a good cover, a manuscript turned in—and offer condolences on the not-so-good stuff—a delayed pub date, a request for massive revisions, even sometimes the “orphaning” of a comrade (the state of an author whose agent or editor has left for greener pastures in another company).

The core seven now gather monthly for business, and by business I mean juggling the demands of putting on several fundraisers at a time, collecting and distributing donated books for pocket libraries throughout our community (in shelters and prisons), and the myriad other requests we receive and ideas we generate.

One of our aims is to energize and connect reading communities. We provide book groups with ways to connect with us, offering ourselves up to attend meetings by phone or Skype, or when possible, in person. We put on events at bookstores and libraries where book groups can come and chat with several authors at a time, perhaps get to know authors in the community they weren’t already aware of, and of course, support those local booksellers and libraries. And, yes, we ask for charitable donations at these events, or deduct it from the price of books. This year, our fundraising efforts are supporting a wonderful program in Seattle, Writers in the Schools, a residency program that puts real writers in schools, helping kids write.

It’s exhausting, and it’s amazing. Groups of writers in other cities are now considering organizing as well, the most lovely tribute of all to the work we do.

Lest you think we’re workaholics, the entire group is invited quarterly for social time, that precious couple of hours where we laugh hard at our stumbles and mourn together over titles not chosen, readings ill-attended. If not for the company of these writers, we’d all still write. We’d still publish and tour and do the work we do. We just might not be as happy, or as fulfilled.
____________________________________________
--Jennie Shortridge, author of When She Flew and founding member of Seattle7Writers.org.

Other core members are co-founder Garth Stein, Erica Bauermeister, Kit Bakke, Carol Cassella, Randy Sue Coburn, and Mary Guterson. “Friends of Seattle7” include Jamie Ford, Susan Wiggs, Stephanie Kallos, Erik Larson, Tom Robbins, and many more.

Visit www.seattley7writers.org for more information.

Holly LeCraw: THE SWIMMING POOL

2010-04-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

I took Holly LeCraw's debut novel, The Swimming Pool on my last business trip and found myself glued to it whenever I had a spare moment. Then I finished it and tried to explain what it was about to a co-worker and couldn't. Not easily anyway! So when I got Holly's guest post I was glad to see she struggled to answer that question too. But she does. Read on - and then grab a copy. You won't want to be the only who hasn't read this book.

While I was writing my first novel, The Swimming Pool, I often relied on sympathetic metaphors to keep my spirits up. My favorite was from William Faulkner, who once said that when he was writing a novel, he felt like a one-armed man trying to build a chicken coop in a hurricane.

I think it’s that lingering memory of flying nails, not enough hands, two-by-fours at crazy angles, that makes it so hard for me to answer the question “What’s your book about?” Maybe it doesn’t feel like a whole chicken coop to me just yet. Maybe it never will, because I remember when it was only a big pile of lumber—the lumber being expressions I saw on my characters’ faces (isolated, unhelpfully, from any actual scenes), and crises I knew they had, but didn’t at first know the origin of, and terrible choices that I suspected they were going to make, even though they are not evil people. I also told the story from multiple points of view, and cut back and forth in time, because that’s where the truth of the story seemed to lie—in spirals and interconnecting circles rather than straight lines. (As Faulkner also said, beating me and everyone else to it, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”) So maybe all this helps to explain why it’s taken a long time for me to wipe the bewildered look off my face when asked again, patiently, what my book is about, and think of an answer besides, “Life.”

For the record, though, The Swimming Pool is about a young man, Jed McClatchey, who is mired in grief for his parents, who died seven years previously—his mother in a still-unsolved break-in/murder. Jed falls in love with an older woman, Marcella Atkinson, who he then learns was his late father’s mistress; as one might imagine, complications and revelations ensue.

Two little sentences. One thing leading to another. Now, was that so hard? Well, yes. I hope that anyone reading The Swimming Pool would agree that those sentences begin to describe the story—but only begin. The book is certainly about the powerful, illicit passion that Jed and Marcella feel for each other. But it’s also about the longing Jed feels for his lost mother, and the fury he feels toward his dead father, and the protectiveness he feels for his sister and her young children. It’s about the tenderness Marcella always yearned for from her ex-husband, and the love she thought she had found with Jed’s father, and the fearful yet unshakable devotion she feels for her daughter. And it’s about the ways that all these loves and loyalties collide, like stones thrown in a pond, the ripples unceasing.

While I was working on the book, I was fortunate enough to be in a wonderful writing group. One evening, I presented a section for critique and everyone started arguing–nicely–about Jed, and why he’d acted in a particular way in the scene they’d read. Now, in a group like that, the whole point is to listen to feedback and criticism and decide how—or if—you’re going to revise, based on that feedback. I was taking notes and thinking, gee, this is all really contradictory, Jed must be a real mess–but then, as this conversation swirled around me, I realized that people had different viewpoints not because the scene was poorly written (I hoped) but because Jed had become truly complex. His motivations had ceased to be simple straight lines, because no one’s are. He had become a real character. He, and his fellows, are bundles of motivations that crisscross and intersect and fight against each other, and that spring partly from instinct and personality, partly from experience.

So what’s The Swimming Pool about? It’s about decent people making some dreadful choices, and about why. It’s about how parents will do anything to protect their children—even, sometimes, from the parents themselves. It’s about grief, and how difficult it is to move on, especially if there are mysteries unsolved, and anger unresolved. It’s about the ultimate loss of control: losing a loved one with no warning. It’s about falling in love, and losing love, and then somehow being ready to fall in love again.

It’s a novel. It’s not real life. But, like all novels, that’s what it’s about.

--Holly LeCraw, Author

Sarah Addison Allen: THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON

2010-04-05T10:52:00.004-04:00

In today's guest post, the magical and marvelous author Sarah Addison Allen shares her love of food and book clubs. She even gives us a cake recipe to try. If anyone wants to make it and bring me a slice, I won't object!

I’m a little obsessed with food. That’s probably no surprise to those of you familiar with my books. I loved researching edible flowers for Garden Spells, and Southern and rural candies for The Sugar Queen. But I probably had the most fun with The Girl Who Chased the Moon. The book takes place in a small North Carolina barbecue town (research that took me to dozens of BBQ restaurants across the state) and one of the main characters specializes in Southern cakes (research that required a lot of baking).

Speaking of food -- and I’m always speaking of food -- I’m continually impressed with how book clubs create food-themed events around the books they read. I have a feature on my website that allows clubs to send photos of their themes, and it’s been a mouth-watering joy to see. To help brainstorm ideas, I’ve included recipes on my site that correspond to each book, and I thought I’d share this one from The Girl Who Chased the Moon. It’s a true Southern favorite, also a favorite of magical baker Julia in the book.

Hummingbird Cake
"Food historians generally cite Mrs. L.H. Wiggin's recipe published in the February 1978 issue of Southern Living magazine (p. 206) as the first printed reference to Hummingbird Cake. Mrs. Wiggins did not offer an explanation of the name. Evidence strongly suggests this cake was popular in the south and known by several different (and equally interesting) names." Foodtimeline.org

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups chopped firm ripe banana

Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together. Add eggs and oil to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and pecans. Stir in the bananas last. Spoon the batter into three greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in 350 degree oven, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting with cream cheese frosting.

Part of a book club question for The Girl Who Chased the Moon asks, “What food is your region or state known for?” Send me an e-mail with your favorite local foods. I’d love to talk food with you!

-- Sara Addison Allen, Author

Discussing THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE

2010-04-02T11:04:00.004-04:00

The first Thursday of the month is always good for me. That's book club day. Yesterday was no exception. It was April Fool's day, which I always enjoy AND book club day to boot. Since I am in the process of piloting a public book club for my company at Whole Foods Markets around the country, I actually have to drive quite a way to get to the store where I am the leader. And yesterday traffic was for fools! It took me over an hour to get there and by the time I did I was late and flustered.

I rushed in ready to go and was happy to find the group had waited for me. We were discussing THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley, a book I really enjoyed but could barely remember as I had read it too far in advance! (Has that ever happened to you?). I was rolling the dice a little when I chose the book as I knew it was lighter fare, but thought that maybe the setting and quality of writing would make up for any shortcomings.

As it turned out, the group had mixed feelings. Some really enjoyed it and others just thought it was "cute" and weren't particularly thrilled.

The book is a British cozy mystery with a very precocious 11 year old female protagonist. It's not juvenile, but it is sweet.

Our discussion jumped around a bit in part due to my traffic-frayed nerves, but largely because there wasn't much to talk about. We did hit on whether or not we found Flavia (the main character) to be believable, and we all agreed that we wish there had been more depth and development in the relationship between Flavia and her father.

Bottom line? I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it but maybe not to everyone and maybe not as a book club pick. I will also allow myself more time to get there next time and perhaps come up with an appropriate zen mantra for use when traffic sucks.

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

City of Topeka Announces New Book Club for Dogs!

2010-04-01T13:52:00.002-04:00

We all know how popular book clubs are becoming. Your mom is in one, your daughter and your sister too. Then the men got in on the act. Well now it's time for the dogs.

The people of Topeka decided a city wide book club was a great idea, but they wanted to take it one step further. To the dogs. The idea was that reading a book together once a month would bond the city's dogs and help keep the angry early morning barking to a minimum. They also felt a doggie book club (tentatively called "Yes We Read") would help with the whole idea of re-use. First the human reads the book, and then they lend it to the dog - or sometimes the reverse.

Overall the dogs have been wagging their tails over the plan and are looking forward to getting together to discuss their first pick, The Art of Racing in the Rain later this month.

Using the new Google Translate for Animals App, spokesdog, Fluffy Frank raised some concerns over the lack of opposable thumbs, but the for the most part the community seems satisfied with receiving page turning aid from their humans. For those whose humans are too busy, the Kindle has been the answer.

Selections under consideration for upcoming months are Must Love Dogs, Marley & Me and The Call of the Wild.

For more information on starting a doggie book club in your town email me at dana@bookreporter.com. Or don't.

Happy April 1st!

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

New Stephenie Meyer Book - Announced Yesterday

2010-03-31T10:33:00.004-04:00

I know we are all sophisticated readers of literary masterpieces and could not possibly be interested in the new release of a YA vampire book, so I am only writing this post so you will not be out of the loop and so that you can let your daughters know what's going on.

Or not.

Listen, I love a good story. Whether it's written by William Shakespeare or J.K. Rowling doesn't matter to me. I am not ashamed to admit I enjoyed the whole Harry Potter series and read them each the week they came out. And I'm not ashamed to say that I dig Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series either. (Though I have so much to read these days for work that I haven't finished them all yet).

So whether this info is for you - or someone you love, here's the deal:

The new book is an Eclipse novella based on one of the "new" vampires introduced in Eclipse. It's called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. It comes out officially on June 5th and is available for pre-order most everywhere as of yesterday afternoon.

And here are some cool additional things to know:

The book will be available for FREE online from noon on June 7th until July 5th at http://www.breetanner.com. Stephenie says it's her gift to her fans.

$1 from each book sold goes to the American Red Cross to help in Haiti and Chile.

To read more about it, check out the author's website at http://www.StephenieMeyer.com.

So - I know you don't really care. But just in case you do...

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Love Books? Must Love Authors.

2010-03-30T10:16:00.003-04:00

I'm planning to attend an author book launch party this week for the novel Fireworks over Toccoa by debut author Jeffrey Stepakoff. Then I have another launch on my schedule for Susan Rebecca White's second novel A Soft Place to Land in a couple of weeks. And then there was the event for my good friend author Wendy Wax and her book Magnolia Wednesdays a couple of weeks ago. All this launching got me thinking.

Why aren't authors more like rock stars?

What I mean is we love, love, love their books. We have our favorites that we buy the minute they write something new. We invite these people into our bedrooms and let them see us in our pajamas and we laugh and cry over their work. And yet, sometimes I go to an author event and there are only a handful of people there. And I'm not talking only debut authors or lesser known authors. Some times even the big names have an event that is less than full. It's weird. And it's no fun for them.

So I say - it's our duty as readers to get out there and support our rock stars! I'm sure there a lots of reasons we don't go to these events. Too busy, gotta get the kids to soccer, need to watch Dancing with the Stars, etc. But I'm thinking the main reason we don't go is we don't even know these events are happening. Unfortunately there's not one resource that I know where you can go and subscribe to get updates. But here's a few things that might help.

Get on the email list with BookTour - http://www.booktour.com/
Get on the email list or regularly check in with your favorite publishers - they almost all have a page specific for author events. Here's a few to get you started: HarperCollins, Penguin, Hachette
Or find your favorite authors websites and Facebook pages and fan up! The authors I know go to a lot of trouble to have all this online stuff and would love to have you stop by for a visit and get on their list. Just for giggles, here are the three authors I mentioned above: Jeffrey Stepakoff, Susan Rebecca White and Wendy Wax.
Go to IndieBound and find the independent bookseller nearest to you and then get on their email list.
And of course, check your local big box stores. They have events listings too: Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.

The bottom line is if we want to keep getting great books from our favorite authors and the up and comers, we have to support them. So grab your book club girls, put on your leather pants, get out there, have a free glass of wine in a plastic cup and hold your Bic lighter high. Authors our are rock stars!

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Giving Back is the New Black

2010-03-29T12:31:00.005-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, giving back has become oh so trendy. Not that that's a bad thing. Quite the contrary. Anything that brings a good cause to the public's attention and gets people working for positive change is a good thing. No matter the inspiration. To that end I figured as committed readers you might be inspired by some wonderful organizations that are both giving the gift of literacy and giving back through reading! Check 'em out:

United Through Reading
Our regular contributor Denise Neary brought this group to my attention and they were recently featured on NBC. They make it possible for military personnel serving away from home to read to their kids via videotaped sessions and Skype. It's great for the kids, the parents at home and the military personnel who get to connect with their families.

R.E.A.D - Reading Education Assistance Dogs
I first learned about this group through Better World Books who recently awarded the group a $20,000 Readers' Choice Literacy Grant. The R.E.A.D. program improves kids' reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to a dog. But not just any dog. R.E.A.D. dogs are registered therapy animals who volunteer with their owner/handlers as a team, going to schools, libraries and many other settings as reading companions for children.

Books for Africa
Books For Africa. A simple name for an organization with a simple mission. They collect, sort, ship, and distribute books to children in Africa. Their goal: to end the book famine in Africa. Books For Africa is the world’s largest shipper of donated books to the African continent. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped over 22 million high-quality text and library books to children and adults in 45 African countries. Millions more are needed.

These are just a few of the thousands of amazing organizations out there making literacy their mission. Wanna make it yours? Contact any of these great organizations to see how you can help and look for more organizations to be highlighted here on our blog! You might even find a fun literacy focused group project for your book club!

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Are You a One Book (at at time) Woman?

2010-03-26T10:08:00.006-04:00

Like most of us, guest blogger Jamie Layton is a busy multitasking super woman. In today's post she takes us through the labyrinth of her reading month. Normal or not? You decide.

O.M.G. This has literally been one of those months where I haven’t had any time to read! This week alone brought to my door a Faberge Egg social studies project, a middle school talent show (and attendant dress rehearsal), three high school baseball games (one tour of duty in the concession stand) and to end the week tonight, a membership recognition event (of which I am in charge) at the Club. Oh yea, did I mention book club on Wednesday that I faked my way through? Unfortunately Jean Baker’s Mary Todd Lincoln lost me at hello. The first sixty pages read like the bible with ‘this Todd begat that Parker begat that Evans’ and so on and so forth. I can say that based on the rest of the group’s input, which was pretty mixed but generally positive, I will be trying to tackle it sometime in the future.

But as I look back over the month and wonder what I was reading I realize that the reason I probably can’t remember is because I was generally reading more than one thing at a time. I devoured Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and got lots of ideas for the shop; but at night I was still turning to Fateful Night, the latest offering by Jerry Radford, my favorite self-published author. I’ve also been trying to learn more about the art of the humorous essay so have been juggling Nora Ephron and Erma Bombeck like a man with two prom dates in a sophomoric chick flick who’s got The Nine Rooms of Happiness by Lucy Danziger waiting in the corner. Then there are the magazines- on a recent girl’s weekend I flipped from Vanity Fair to Vogue to Natural Health. And I do mean flipped as in back and forth. Seems this is not the month for me to actually start and finish anything. (Except the Underhill book.)

So here’s my Friday morning question to all you Reading Group Guide blog readers- are you the type of reader who finds it possible to read more than one thing at a time? If so, how often do you find yourself doing this? Do you find that you have to be switching back and forth between genres, say a business casual by day, romance novel at night? Or can you have more than one mystery going at a time? Do you think this is a phenomenon more likely experienced during a season of change (like Spring) or is it more related to our own psyche? Do you think we are normal? Is this healthy reading? Your comments on this topic could make me feel better. Or at the very least, please pass the Ritalin.

-- Jamie Layton, Manager - Duck's Cottage Coffee & Bookshop

Bad Apple: Case in Point

2010-03-25T12:09:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post asking if one bad apple can spoil the bunch and I got a ton of responses. Some were stories of success others of disaster. But each had something we can learn from.

Today's post is a cautionary tale from Troubled in Anytown, US. She writes:

Hi Dana,

One bad apple can ruin it for all. My book club has been in existence for 14 years. We are open to the public and meet at the library. We went for years and years without any problems but then last year we were graced with a new member who we’ll call C.

C was disruptive, a bigot, highly religious and aggressive. She went for months unnoticed by the group because whomever she sat next to was the subject of her rants, yet she never was loud enough for the rest of us to catch on.

One night she sat next to me and called me a Nazi. She also mentioned that Obama was a terrorist and a host of other things. After several of us witnessed her behavior first-hand, the group told her that her behavior would not be tolerated and asked her to leave. This was a mistake because she stalked us for 5 months or so. Eventually, it ended with a near, physical confrontation and the help of the Sheriff's Dept after she showed up at someone's house.

Although she sometimes still lurks in the parking lot, she doesn't make herself known. But sadly, our group fell apart after that experience. Some didn't agree with how she was handled, others felt that we put up with her too long. Some of us tried to start a second group but the dynamics were all wrong.

I think where we went wrong, was not having guidelines on how to handle situations like these. If we had had something to go to, perhaps we could have nipped the issue in the bud but we struggled for so long before anyone acted.

Anyway, such a long comment but your post struck a chord with me. Our group is technically still in existence but all the core members have left and last month, our moderator didn't even show up. So sad.

-- Troubled, Anytown, US.

Alas, I don't know if there is one right solution for a situation like Troubled found herself in, but maybe we, as a community, can pull together some guidelines to help.

As I suggested in the earlier post, perhaps a blanket comment directed at the entire group, such as "We need to make a point of avoiding personal attacks" or "Let's keep politics out of the discussion from here on out" or something along those lines might have been helpful. Perhaps then if C was reminded each time she spoke that she was breaking a rule she might have gotten frustrated and moved on. (Of course in this case C sounds a bit more like a crazy apple than a just plain bad apple, so who knows).

Do you have any suggestions for handling a bad apple? Please feel free to post them here, or email me at dana@bookreporter.com. Your book club compatriots need you!

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Are You a Happy Hater?

2010-03-24T11:40:00.002-04:00

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to interview all kinds of authors; first for a local Atlanta area radio show, and now for the Better World Books Podcast. Several of the authors, including Sarah Addison Allen (who I interviewed yesterday) have said they are committed to writing happy endings and are willing to take whatever criticism comes their way for that.

My question is what the heck is so wrong with being happy?

Mary Kay Andrews is another author who has told me directly that she wants to write fun books that people will enjoy. She’s not looking to uncover the deepest, darkest corners of the human psyche or unmask the evil that lives in the world. In fact, just the opposite. She and Sarah Addison Allen are both actively engaged in giving people something to smile about.

And here’s the thing. Their books sell. Loads of people like to feel good. Imagine that. But somehow we’ve marginalized these books and don’t necessarily give them their literary due. Book clubs don’t choose them and readers feel they have to defend their choices.

I for one have read many books that you might consider “lighter” that had plenty of depth. There were still relationships to discuss and plot points to consider. And the fact that I was able to read the book quickly and didn’t feel like curling up in the fetal position when I got finished was a just a bonus.

So, I’m here to stand up for happy books. And books where our heroine gets her man. And books where the bad guy is caught and world is saved. I say read them proudly. And not just on the beach. Don’t be afraid to recommend them for book club either. Your group might actually appreciate a break from all the gloom and doom.

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Book Club Makeover – Stages and Pages

2010-03-23T11:23:00.004-04:00

Who doesn’t love a good transformation? I mean, in goes a plain little caterpillar out comes a beautiful butterfly. Who doesn’t wish for a fairy godmother to wave a magic wand and transform her from a frazzled cinder sweeper to a beautiful princess? Well book clubs of the world, you are in luck. The Reading Group Guides Book Club Makeover is here.

With a few tips and tricks and some false eyelashes you’ll have the book club you’ve always dreamed of. (Minus the false eyelashes). No more side conversations, no more bad books and all your appetizers will be magically fat free and still delicious. Well maybe not. But you get the idea. Now…(drum roll please), meet Stages and Pages…our first victim. Ahem. I mean recipient.

BEFORE

Sue Mullen of Stages and Pages in Portland, Maine says:

Our club is unique because until this year, we've allowed anyone to join. Our "open enrollment" policy has been a wonderful way to meet new folks. Unfortunately, we grew to 18 members so had to put a hold on new members. We really wanted to be "inclusive" not "exclusive". Generally, about 8 - 12 members attend most meetings. We each take turns hosting. This is our 6th year. Our youngest member is 41 and our oldest is 83. Most of us are 50 - 57.

We meet mostly on the last Thursday evening of the month at 7:00. Our meeting begins with a social until 7:30 at which time we officially begin our discussions. We always have lots of delicious appetizers at our meetings and of course lots of wine.

We read a variety of books. Each year we try to read a classic and a mix of fiction/nonfiction. The person who hosts the meeting chooses the book. We poll members for suggestions and then prior to the next meeting, I send an email with a short review of the suggested books. Some books which generated the best discussions are: THE POWER OF ONE, THE AWAKENING, THE CORRECTIONS, THE LIFE OF PI, EDGAR SAWTELLE, THE GLASS CASTLE, ANY BITTER THING, MONEY A MEMOIR, STOLEN HOURS and most recently, STILL ALICE.

What's best about our group is that we truly enjoy each other and laugh a lot. We also are good listeners and appreciate diverse opinions. Sometimes, we struggle with how to manage the meetings. We tried organizing the comments by going around the circle and letting everyone have a turn but sometimes, it felt as though it wasn't spontaneous enough. It's a challenge to control the side discussions too. We ring a tiny bell which is mostly effective.

We just need some new life injected into our group and some help ensuring that everyone is heard equitably. We're ready for "stage 2" of our group!

AFTER

Now, imagine me as Carson Kressley or Stacy London and here we go.

What is right:

Group Size: The size of the group is great. I love that you were initially an open group and ended up with a diverse group of women from an age perspective. (This is the equivalent of having great curves!). Having 8-12 attend regularly is a good number but consider opening up to new members again if regular attendees drops below 8.

The books you are reading. Looks like a good mix of conversation rich books. So kudos on that. (That’s like having good skin).

What needs fixin’:

The Bell. The bell is like having a mullet or wearing mom jeans. It has to go. I’m not so worried about the side chatters feeling bad about being belled, but the beller must feel like a no-fun-nick and general purpose stick in the mud.

Lots of Indians, Not Enough Chiefs: Now I know that sounds like backwards logic, but work with me here. It is a book CLUB, everyone should pitch in. And not just once every 8-12 months!

The fixes:

Spread the responsibilities, every month. In addition to the monthly host AND book chooser, have 3 people with jobs every month.

The Host: She hosts. That means she cleans her house beforehand, and provides food and drink. (Ostensibly others bring food and drink as well, but she’ll make sure there is at least something there if everyone else’s dog eats their homework).

The Moderator: She leads the talk. She can print and bring discussion questions (from ReadingGroupGuides.com of course) or just lead the group in her own way. If conversations get off track, she brings them back and she wraps it up when it feels done.

The Enforcer: She may do nothing at all. She is like a bouncer at a club. She has the moderator’s back. If side conversations start and she sees the moderator is losing the group, she jumps in and helps get everyone back on track. She takes the place of the bell. But the important thing is that it is someone different every month so no one has to be the bad guy all the time.

Pick six months of books at one time. Plan an extra half hour to an hour at your next meeting and plan out the next six books. Make sure you have internet access at the meeting so you can research the books and read reviews as a group and just decide and make a calendar. This will take some of the monthly pressure off and get everyone more invested in the titles as well as letting them read ahead if they want to.

There – that wasn’t so hard, was it? Your new short hair makes you look sophisticated, and I hope these new tips will give your group some new energy.

If you’d like your book club to look younger and thinner – or if you’d just like an outside eye and some tips on making things better, email me at dana@bookreporter.com. You never know – you could be our next butterfly.

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Community Reads: Saratoga Springs, NY

2010-03-22T11:22:00.005-04:00

Some say the book is going the way of the dinosaur. Not true. While the publishing world is evolving with new delivery methods and struggles over price, you all just keep on reading. You probably started out thinking of reading as something you did alone in your cave, but if you're anything like me you'd finish a book and have a million things to say. So, out of the cave we came and the evolution of the book club began. We gathered around the fire (with our Cabernet), sent the men (except the most highly evolved) off to hunt - or play poker, and we talked about our books. Well now, we evolve again. Cities, towns and communities around the world are starting reading programs designed to get everyone involved. Join ReadingGroupGuides.com as we feature some of these amazing programs.

In today's post Saratoga Reads! board chair Tabitha Orthwein answers some questions about the program and what works best for them.

Saratoga Reads! began as a community outreach project from Skidmore College. The program began as a Skidmore College-Saratoga Collaboration with the start-up resources provided largely by the college. As the program grew, the organization gained independent not-for-profit 501(c)3 status with Skidmore remaining a premier sponsor.

1 - How do you select the book?
Saratoga Reads! is committed to having the community select the book each year. We begin the process by inviting community members to nominate books via a form that we post on our website during a set period or time which has typically been June-August.

As nominations are received the organizations Book Selection Coordinator works with a group of some 30-40 volunteers who serve as readers on the Selection Advisory Group. The readers provide a summary and recommendation for each book to determine a list of books highly recommended by the committee for our community read.

The group then convenes to whittle the list to 6 or fewer books that comprise the Saratoga Reads! ballot. Community members are then invited to cast their vote at a number of locations including our web site, the Saratoga Springs Public Library, Skidmore College, our local Borders and Barnes and Noble stores, Saratoga Springs High School and a few smaller venues. The voting period is typically 3-4 weeks long (this year in October) and we announce the winning title in November. For a bit more info see http://www.saratogareads.org/BookSelection.cfm.

We also select junior companion titles. This is done by a Junior Advisory Group who meets and communicates via email to form a list of companion titles for readers of all ages. The full list is available at http://www.saratogareads.org/juniorbooks.cfm.

2 - What other activities aside from the author coming to talk are part of your program?
In some years we have been fortunate enough to have the author join us for a talk and book signing (Gregory Maguire, Sandra Cisneros, Sara Gruen have joined us. And, Khaled Hosseini via an off-site taped interview) and this is of course a highlight of the year.

However, the success of the year does not depend upon an author event. The breadth and depth of programming provided by Saratoga Reads! and partner organizations is extraordinary. For a thorough look at this year's celebration of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society I invite you to scroll through our online events calendar.

3 - How do you let people know about the overall program and individual activities?
Saratoga Reads! works very hard to let people know about the program and activities. We have a PR Coordinator on the executive board who coordinates all efforts of an action board committee consisting of a Print Promotions Action Chair, Electronic Promotion Action Chair, Media Action Chair and Web Action Chair. We have an active web site. We maintain an email list and send a monthly e-letter and event announcements. We create large scale posters and bookmarks announcing the winning book. We create flyers for events. And, we produce media releases for each part of the process and grouping of events. We distribute relevant information through the school system.

4 - What ideas have worked really well for you?
Cultivating community partner organizations is critical to the success of a community reads program.

5 - What hasn't worked?
It's all trial and error! We have had six successful community reads and each book has it's successes and difficulties. Just go with it!

6 - What advice would you give to someone trying to start a campus or community reading program?
There are many community reading programs out there now. My advice would be to talk to contacts from programs in communities that are similar to yours and take it from there. Set goals, start small, and have fun!

Need more advice on community reads? Stay tuned as we continue to feature some great programs right here on our blog. Have a program in your town? Want to share? Email me at dana@bookreporter.com

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Book Clubs in the News

2010-03-19T09:30:00.000-04:00

This month's Book Clubs News is all about pairings: books and wine, books and flowers, books and TV, books and business. These are a few of my favorite things. Apparently books are the new cheese. They make everything taste better and they go great with a bold Cabernet.

TriCityHerald.com: Winery Ships Book Club Picks With Wine
A brilliant (in my humble opinion) Washington state winery has combined two of my favorite things; books and wine. They have a new wine and book club where members can have their books shipped with their wine. You gotta love it.

PatriotLedger.com: Weymouth Garden Club members pair flowers with favorite books
Book themed flower arrangements draw crowds to the library. The third annual Books in Bloom celebration includes floral interpretations of Jimmy Buffett’s Tales of Margaritaville , The Red Hat Club by Haywood Smith and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares just to name a few.

Voxy.co.nz: Books on TV in New Zealand
The UK has a show called The TV Book Club, and now New Zealand has what can almost be described as a book variety show. It’s called The Good Word and features visits with book clubs, reviews and more. I’m thinking the US needs to get on the band wagon…and I’m available to host. Just sayin’.

MediaBistro.com: Book Club Meets the Business Conference
HarperStudio is bringing authors together for a short conference on business models. Attendees will get a signed copy of each author’s book and the opportunity to discuss ideas with each other and the authors themselves. It’s basically a big ole book club for people in suits.

If you're pairing books with something unique I'd love to hear about it. Email me at dana@bookreporter.com Unless it's weird. Then keep it to yourself.

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Is Reading a Right?

2010-03-18T12:17:00.005-04:00

Guest blogger Denise Neary is fast becoming our "finder of cool and interesting things about books". Today is no exception. Check out Denise's review of the famous independent bookstore Politics and Prose and the cool award they are getting!

Have you ever thought of your reading habit as an expression of your civil liberties?

Tonight, Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade, the founders of Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington DC will receive the Henry Edgerton Civil Liberties Special Recognition Award “for uniquely demonstrating how the freedoms of speech and press contribute to the public good.” The award will be given by the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area.

Politics and Prose is one of the coolest places on earth. It is a bookstore that makes you feel smarter just for knowing about it. It is a gem for many reasons----an amazing selection of books, a smart and helpful staff, and a stunning events list high among them for me. And I know people make fun of coffee shops in bookstores---but I love Modern Times Coffeehouse, and always wonder if the intense people tapping on their keyboards there are actually extras playing the part of “breakthrough novelists.”

It is the rare night when an author isn’t featured at Politics and Prose. And while they get everyone to speak, it is a decidedly unglamorous venue. The speaker usually has a comfortable chair they sit in only for the introduction, an old wooden podium and a lone microphone, and a table for signing after the readings. The audience sits on folding metal chairs (and the audience members, like good grade school children, are required to fold them back up and return them at the end of the program).

Politics, literature, history, humor, sports----if you can read or write about it, you can find it featured at Politics and Prose.

On the Politics and Prose website, Cohen and Meade say, “We are flattered and appreciative of this distinctive recognition of Politics and Prose’s unique contribution to our city’s intellectual life.” Talk about an understatement.

Your local bookstore, helping to protect the values we hold most dear! Now, that is an award to cherish.

--Denise Neary, Contributor

When Irish Writers are Writing...

2010-03-17T16:46:00.005-04:00

Yes - I had to do it. Go Irish themed for St. Patty's Day! But instead of party hats and green beer I thought I'd do a shout out to some great contemporary female Irish writers. Why female you ask?

1 - Because the boys are too buys with the green beer.
and 2 - Because Oprah's list was mostly men and I felt like doing the opposite of what she did.

So, in no particular order, here are some Irish authors to take note of OR revisit if it's been awhile:

Maeve Binchy is the author of numerous best-selling books, including Whitethorn Woods, Nights of Rain and Stars, Quentins, Scarlet Feather, Circle of Friends, and Tara Road, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. I must admit I have never read her, but I did love the movie of Circle of Friends with Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell. Isn't he just dreamy?

Nuala O'Faolain burst upon the literary scene in 1998 with Are You Somebody?, a fiercely candid account of her youth and adulthood as an Irish woman that became a bestseller around the world and launched a new life for its author. Almost There is her later book and begins at that moment when O'Faolain's life began to change and it both tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and, above all, unforeseen renewal, and meditates on that story. It is on one level a tale of good fortune chasing out bad--of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman's experience of "the crucible of middle age"--a time of life that faces in two directions, forging the shape of the years to come, and clarifying and solidifying relationships with, friends and lovers (past and present), family and self.

Marian Keyes is one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time (at least that's what her website says!). Her first book Watermelon was published in 1995 and I believe I read it (and loved it) that same year. Her other titles include: Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married (1996) Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners and The Brightest Star in the Sky.

Cecelia Ahern is most famous for her novel P.S. I Love You which was made into a movie with Hilary Swank. She is currently one of the writers on the ABC Show Samantha Who? which I think is cool and therefore we should all read her. (Is that logic working for you? If not have another green beer and then it will start making sense!)

And here's a few more to round out the list!
Cathy Kelly
Carol Snow
Clare Dowling
Claire Allan
Sheila O’Flanagan
Martina Reilly
Anne Enright

Happy St. Patty's Day - and be sure not Read and Drive!

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Does One Bad Apple Spoil the Bunch?

2010-03-16T11:07:00.004-04:00

In the last several months, since I started managing this lovely blog, I've had lots of great emails from all different kinds of book clubs; some large, some small, some where people are the same age and have similar backgrounds and some where everyone is very different. Then there are some that are open to new members or to the public and some that are not. And this got me thinking...

If you are open to new members or to the public you might get a bad apple or two.

What if you get someone who just doesn't fit?

I used to own an independent bookstore/coffee shop in the Atlanta area and we had several book clubs that were open to the public. I remember once a woman showed up carrying a library book and a cup of Starbucks and I thought...."Really??" I mean I didn't mind if someone didn't buy the book from me - but really? The blatant coffee cup from somewhere else? Mind you I was also giving away free wine and goodies! But I digress. This woman then proceeded to monopolize the conversation, interrupt people and be generally pretty loud and fairly negative. Of course as the store owner I had to remain diplomatic, but that didn't stop me from an eye roll or two shared with some of my regulars.

Luckily in our case, the woman in question must have realized she wasn't a fit because she didn't come back. But what do you do if your someone keeps coming back and keeps being annoying. And even worse, what if she's a friend of your friend?

I saw one solution in action at a local senior center where I was invited to come to lead one of their book club discussions. The organizer warned me in advance about "Betty" who they all seemed to feel was out of control. And in fact Betty was kind of a nutter. Her ideas were a little out of left field and she felt the need to play devil's advocate on every point. The other ladies handled her by literally ignoring what she said and continuing where the conversation had left off before she spoke. It was hilarious. With a capital "H". They weren't rude. They let her speak and then they basically just pooh-poohed her and went on.

It was kind of awesome and more importantly it worked. The other ladies had a lovely time, and really I think Betty was none the wiser.

Another solution for the bad apple (at least for me) is to have that second glass of wine. Things tend to bother me a lot less after that second glass. But that idea surely won't work for everyone.

Obviously another solution would be find some way to diplomatically ask the person to modify their behavior. I think the only way to pull that off is to ask everyone to stop doing something specific without naming names. Make sense? Of course your bad apple may not get the hint but maybe she will. Fingers crossed.

Have you had any experiences with bad book club apples? Have a unique solution? I'd love to hear it! Feel free to comment here - or email me at dana@bookreporter.com!

--Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor

Beware the Ides of March

2010-03-15T10:51:00.004-04:00

In today's guest post Ingrid Jendrzejewski gives us an update on the 38 Plays in 38 Days Project and all the fun derivations people have come up with.

When I put the call out to see if there was anyone interested in reading all of Shakespeare's 38 plays in 38 days, I had no idea what kind of response I'd get. I thought that if I could find even one person who was interested in joining in, I'd consider myself lucky indeed.

The site went live in mid-February. Within less than two weeks, around 50 people had expressed their interest on the website, and even more had signed up to the Facebook group. Ages ranged from pre-teen to retirement age and I heard from people in at least eight different
countries.

I was astounded. After all, even though the project only lasts a little over five weeks, committing to reading a play a day is nothing to sneeze at!

Reading officially started on March 1st. Since then, the website has been getting over 100 unique visitors a day and there are roughly a dozen of us who communicate regularly through the forum, on Facebook or by e-mail. We have amongst our number a professional actress, a
literature major, a fellow on paternity leave, a special-effects designer, a sculptor, a writer and someone with "the most boring daytime job one could imagine". Several of these people blog
regularly about the plays, sharing opinions, thoughts, background, and tales of professional performance experience. In addition, I hear from someone completely new almost every day.

I'm not surprised that there are some quiet readers out there. If I weren't organising this, I may very well be one of them. For me, one of the most difficult parts of this project is balancing the actual reading with all the other things that need to be done. I seriously underestimated the time I'd need to set aside for administrative tasks like dealing with e-mails, updating the website and keeping the forum free from dodgy spammers. I am just about managing to get the plays
read, but I'm behind on writing, eating, sleeping, laundry and I'm sure my friends think I've been swallowed by the earth.

So, is it worth the madness? Absolutely.

Because we're reading the comedies and tragedies in roughly the order in which they were written, even us non-Shakespeare scholars have been able to catch a glimpse of how Shakespeare develops as a writer. Also, reading the plays in such close succession means that each new play is read with the previous plays fresh in mind. Connections between them leap off the page that never would have occurred to me had there been more of a gap between readings. Finally and foremost, I am getting so much out of reading other people's comments and blogs.
Being part of a diverse community of readers keeps the motivation high and I learn so much more had I been reading on my own.

By the end of the Ides of March ? 15 days into this whirlwind tour of Shakespeare's plays ? we'll have read roughly 340,000 words of Shakespeare. Keeping up is challenging, but not impossible. I'm finding that reading Shakespeare is a skill; it gets easier with
practice. After the first few days, one falls into a rhythm of reading. Personally, I've discovered that at the end of a long day, it is infinitely easier to return to a play than it is to start it. I
now make it a policy to read a bit in the morning ? even if it is just a prologue or one short scene.

Since the project started, some people contacted me to let me know that, even though they aren't going to read all 38 plays, they have made up their own Shakespeare challenges. For example, a commuter is listening to recordings of the plays on the way to work, one new
parent is watching each play on DVD, a couple people have committed to reading all the plays they haven't yet read and one young person is going to the theatre to see a Shakespeare play for the very first time.

I'm delighted by these alternative takes on the project and, of course, anyone and everyone who is interested in reading, watching, listening to or talking about Shakespeare is more than welcome to join in fun and conversation over the upcoming weeks.

--Ingrid (www.shicho.net/38)