THE READING GROUP BOOK: The Complete Guide to Starting and Sustaining a Reading Group, With Annotated Lists of 250 Titles for Provocative Discussion by David Laskin and Holly Hughes List Price: $11.95 Pages: 183 Format: Paperback Genre: Nonfiction ISBN: 0452272017 Publisher: Plume

The Reading Group Book is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to start their own reading group. It covers all the bases about reading groups, from their history in this country, to how to begin your own, how to run one, what to feed people, what to read, what to discuss, and finally, even, how and why to end your group's run. Best yet, the book is written in a friendly, conversational style, and isn't afraid to offer advice that might be just a little subversive.

David Laskin and Holly Hughes advise about establishing a book club begins by having the reader answer some basic questions: Why do you want to start a club? What kind of books do you want to read? While answering these questions for themselves, reading group hopefuls will gain insight into the kind of book club they want to have, who they might want as members, and what they hope to get out of the experience. These personal observations should help you develop the kind of reading group to which you want to belong. This book's strength is in helping the book club member get the most out of their book club endeavor.

The Reading Group Book does cover the specifics of meetings (where, how often, what kind of food?) and book choices, and has good advice for different kinds of reading groups: those that are more academic, those that are more social, and those that are somewhere in between. The chapter "Chemistry Lessons" has valuable insight into choosing the right book for your group and how to (and how not to) engage in good discussions. Laskin and Hughes are very aware of the difficulties and pitfalls that groups are prone to, and offer suggestions on ways to avoid them in a special section on "Troubleshooting."

The last chapter of The Reading Group Book is devoted to book lists. But rather than just list titles and authors, Laskin and Hughes take the effort to point out why each of these titles would make it an excellent pick for a reading group. They cover the usual topics of writers from various regions and different genres, but they also look at books that focus on specific topics, such as "The Marriage Knot," and "Unforgettable Individuals" and "Parents and Children," as well as books that are "Sure to Provoke Debate," "Aging," "Poetry," "Non-Fiction," "Travelers," and "Read the Book, See the Movie." In writing from personal experience, Laskin and Hughes have written a very accessible and useful companion for anyone wanting to start a reading group.

   --- Reviewed by Liz Keuffer


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