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For years, I have heard about Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella’s Big Book Club Party and had wanted to experience it to share more about it with our readers. Last weekend, they hosted their 13th annual event. On Saturday, my son Greg and I were invited to Lisa’s 44-acre farm in Pennsylvania to attend the first day of what is a two-day celebration of book groups. One hundred groups attended each day on Saturday and Sunday, bringing somewhere between 500 and 600 people each day to Willow Farm, which is the name of Lisa’s farm. It was everything I hoped it would be --- and more.

Author and television writer Rebecca Serle is best known for her young adult books TRULY MADLY FAMOUSLY and FAMOUS IN LOVE, for which she also writes the screenplay of the television adaptation. This week, Rebecca made her adult book debut with THE DINNER LIST, a wistful, romantic and heartbreaking story based on the popular question, “If you could have dinner with any five people, alive or dead, who would they be?”

Three longtime Bookreporter.com readers shared their commentary about the National Book Festival with us. Many thanks to Denise Neary from Maryland, Nancy Sharko from New Jersey, and Clair Lamb from Virginia for sharing their thoughts with us. They each brought a special perspective to their reporting!  

Alison Law is an unapologetic book pusher and author enabler. Host of the Literary Atlanta podcast, she interviews authors who are residents there, as well as those who have subject matter ties to the area, or who are visiting metro Atlanta on book tour. Alison also has had the privilege of interviewing authors or moderating literary discussions at live events like Writers at the Wrecking Bar, the Beyond Books monthly author series, and, of course, the AJC Decatur Book Festival. Thus we are so pleased to be sharing her commentary on this storied festival, as well as her photos, which you can see here.  

We have had a number of requests for great nonfiction titles for discussion, so we asked our readers to share their recommendations with us --- specifically, nonfiction books they read in the last year that sparked a good discussion. We received a number of wonderful suggestions, all of which you can see in our special blog post.

A friend of Carol Fitzgerald's wants to start a book group for working mothers and is looking for titles that would be perfect for them. She says, “We are a group of working moms of young kids (mostly). We have a love of reading, but not a lot of time to do it (and we’re tired most of the time!). So it needs to be something that isn’t too heavy, but has some depth to it for discussion.” We asked our readers for their feedback, which garnered a HUGE response, and you can see their suggestions in our special blog post. Many thanks to all who took the time to share their recommendations and give Carol's friend the guidance she was looking for!

Last fall, I was lucky enough to do an author talk and signing for the Club RED book club (short for “Read, Eat, Drink”) located just south of Boston. The minute I walked in, the leader of the group, Christine Powers, who exudes the relaxed authority and wicked wit of Tina Fey, gave me a huge bear hug. I knew right off that these were my people.

The 11th Annual Savannah Book Festival took place this year from February 15-18 in Savannah, Georgia. According to their website, the Festival celebrates “nationally recognized and local authors through their contributions to literacy, ideas and imagination. Festival Saturday is a free and open to the public event that features solo author presentations in seven venues around Telfair, Chippewa and Wright Squares in historic downtown Savannah.” In this blog post, four Bookreporter.com readers report on their experiences at this year’s Festival and share their thoughts on the author presentations they attended.  

Lee, one of our readers, wrote to us that “a friend of mine is going into the hospital next week for some testing that may lead to heart surgery. Yesterday, when I saw her at our monthly Book Club meeting, she asked me if I could gather a list of great historical fiction titles, which is her favorite genre.” Our readers weighed in with their own suggestions, all of which you can see in our special blog post. We hope Lee's friend finds at least a few titles here that appeals to her!

Joy, one of our readers, recently asked for a “happy book” suggestion for her book group. As she said, "From the mud in Mississippi, to war-time Europe, trekking through the Amazonian jungle, to President Lincoln mourning his son, these were pretty depressing. I need a happy book to suggest for our book club. Any ideas?” We let our readers know about Joy's question, and they came up with MANY ideas, all of which you can see in our special blog post. Happy Reading!