Book Club Girl

Book Club Girl on Air Welcomes New York Times Bestselling Author Garth Stein!

I am THRILLED to announced that on Wednesday, July 22nd, I'll be joined on air by Garth Stein to discuss his bestselling novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain. I can't wait for this show. Art of Racing in the Rain is a heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope—a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it. This book has touched so many hearts, I think it's going to be a fantastic conversation.

 I know many of you are fans of the book already and hope you'll be able to join us on July 22nd at 7 pm EST. For those who have yet to meet Enzo, I also have 10 copies of the book to give away. The first 10 people to comment that they'd like to participate in the live broadcast on the 22nd (by online chat or by phone) will win!

Set your reminder for the show with Garth Stein and share it with a friend! Be sure to visit Garth Stein's website and check out the reading group guide and interviews with Garth -- you can even submit a photo of your own dog!

And Speaking of Film Adaptations of Book Club Favorites - The Trailer for The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife has been a reading group favorite since it was first published and the book is once again on the New York Times bestseller list, in anticipation of the release of the film adaptation of the novel. Let's hope this movie is better received than the film in my last post. And hey, it opens on my wedding anniversary!

In Case You Missed it, Movie Adaptation of Jodi Picoult's Book Group Favorite My Sister's Keeper Opened Yesterday

I'm feeling a bit remiss that I neglected to post the trailer for My Sister's Keeper, by far the most popular Jodi Picoult novel read by your book clubs, until today. The film opened yesterday, so send the husband and kids to Transformers or Up (though you should also see Up, it's WONDERFUL) and go see My Sister's Keeper with your book club. Then chat it out to see if you think the movie did the book justice. Good lord, this trailer just made me cry:

Week 3 Update of the Game On! Diet Plus Welcome To and My Tips For the 11! Bloggers Starting the Game Next Week!

I'm almost at the end of week 3 of the Game On! Diet challenge! I will admit, before last evening, I was starting to feel a bit weary, the big weight drop from the initial week didn't exactly repeat itself, and I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by the food preparation. But after last night's coaching call with authors Krista and Az, and hearing from one player in particular about how much the Game has changed her life, I have a newfound energy to finish off this week and go strong into the final week! Plus, last night on CBS News, this fantastic piece ran about my husband's Boot Campers who are playing the Game! (cannot believe he didn't get bumped by all the celebrity news...) AND, I lost another pound when I woke up this morning!

And not only that, but the knowledge that next week I'll be joined in the Game by ELEVEN fellow fabulous book bloggers, who will be starting the game just as I'm finishing it (but I'll be back!) is just phenomenal. The players we welcome next week are:

Julie at Booking Mama
Dawn at She Is Too Fond of Books
Jill at Fizzy Thoughts
Jill at Rhapsody in Books
Denise at M. Denise C
Candace at Beth Fish Reads
Jennifer at Find Your Next Book Here
Ti at Book Chatter and Other Stuff
Amy at My Friend Amy
Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelf
Kathy at The Brain Lair

I can't wait to read everyone's posts and tweets and to cheer them on. (Follow the hashtag #gameondiet on Twitter). As these new participants gear up I wanted to offer some tips that have really helped me play the Game.

1) Read the food chapter first and plan out what you think you're going to eat for the first week - this will help a lot. You can see what we ate the first week (more or less) here.
2) From that menu, make a shopping list (there's a suggested one in there too) and get everything this weekend.
3) On Sunday, cook whatever you can from that menu ahead of time -- cook up a some brown rice, grill chicken, chop cucumbers and celery and put them into baggies in the fridge
4) Look at your first week ahead of time in terms of family commitments and your schedule and identify when you will take your meal off and your day off, also try to identify the time each day that you'll exercise
5) Plan that first day's meal times -- when you'll eat breakfast, and then the next 4 meals, spacing them no less than 2 hours and no more than 4 hours apart

On tonight's call Krista and Az each outlined what each of their typical days on the Game look like, so if it's helpful for you, here's Book Club Girl's Typical Day on the Game:

7:30-8       Wake up, weigh myself and drink 1-2 glasses of water right away with my vitamins

8-8:30       Meal 1: Egg whites cooked with onion and spinach, feta, wheat toast w/olive oil + coffee 
hint: chop the onions and separate the eggs the night before to save time

11-11:30    20 Mins of Exercise in my office, doing this routine, or a combo of abs and working 
with exercise bands (if I miss the am time frame, I work out in the aft or evening)

12-12:30    Meal 2: lunch of salad with grilled chicken, broccoli, cucumbers, onions, pepper, 
other veggies, a little dash of balsamic/oil dressing and a piece of fruit (or potato)

4:00          Meal 3: snack of two low-fat cheese sticks, 6 cashews and a banana

7-8:00       Meal 4: Dinner with the family, grilled chicken or fish, veggies, red potato

10-11        Meal 5: Lowfat Ricotta cheese dessert with vanilla, maple syrup and 1/2 c of partially  
thawed frozen fruit (I looove this, very desserty) plus some cashews (I eat these separately as I don't like nuts in my desserts ;))

And of course, I drink a lot of water throughout the day and munch and cucumbers and celery when I'm feeling peckish. I actually keep forgetting and running out of time to eat my 100 calories of anything! (but have bought those 100 calorie cookie packs for those occasions).

New Game On-ers, I'm here for you, send questions my way, can't wait to welcome you!

Listen to Last Night's Show with Marisa de los Santos Now!

Listen to the great show we had last night with Marisa de los Santos, discussing her book Belong to Me, now! Thanks to Marisa for joining us and to everyone who called in!

I'm Accepting the Everything Austen Challenge!

Perhaps it's the new resolve brought on by the Game On! Diet, but I'm ready to sign up for another challenge -- this one set forth by Stephanie of Stephanie's Written Word--The Everything Austen Challenge. This is my first blog challenge, and I think it's fitting that I do one posted by the person who helped me so much in putting together the Book Blogger Panel at BEA. I love Stephanie and I love this challenge! How to participate? Well, check out the introductory post over on Stephanie's Written Word but the basic gist of it is that you commit to watching or reading six Austen themed movies, tv shows or books between July 1st and January 1, 2010. So, to that end, here are the six Austen themed things I'm going to do!

Read Laurie Viera Rigler's Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict (the sequel to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict which I loved, just listen to my interview with Rigler)

Watch Lost in Austen-- I never read the book, but watching the trailer on Stephanie's blog made me realize I've really missed something, can't wait

Re-watch Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow with my daughter - I absolutely love this movie (Jeremy Northam as "My Mr. Knightley!") and have been wanting to share it with my 14 yo ever since we watched Shakespeare in Love together

Read Mansfield Park -- it's the only Austen novel I've not read, or not read in its entirety, though I've read the others multiple times

Read Darcy's Story -- because seriously, we can't get enough of him

Watch The Jane Austen Book Club -- loved the book, missed the movie and have been interested to see how it was adapted

OK, that's it, I'll keep you posted as to my progress, and if I've inspired you, you can sign up to fill yourself full of Austen (and win fabulous prizes!) over at  Stephanie's Written Word!

Tell Me about Authors Who Have Visited Your Book Club and You'll Be Entered to Win a Book Club Girl Bag of Books!

So this month my book group has chosen, quite by chance, a book by a local author. We're considering inviting him to join us for our discussion, but before we do, I wanted to hear from all of you about what works well, and what doesn't, when you invite an author to your book group. I'm used to interviewing authors with on the radio show, but the idea of having someone actually visit our group is obviously much different. Who's had an author visit in person, and if you have, how did you do it? My instinct is to have the group meet first for about 30 minutes and get ourselves somewhat organized and then have him join us after that. Does that make sense to those of you who have hosted an author? There's a bit of added pressure in that I'm the one hosting next month, so I'll also need the house to be really clean. :)

Please send in your stories/comments about having an author visit in person, or on the phone. As incentive, I'll randomly choose one person from all the comments received by midnight Friday, June 26th to win a Book Club Girl totebag of these great hardcover summer reads:

Perfection
by Julie Metz
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
by Katherine Howe
The Lace Makers of Glenmara
by Heather Barbieri
Dismantled
by Jennifer McMahon

Our Book Club Girl on Air Show with Marisa de los Santos is Tuesday Night!

Just a reminder that our show with Marisa de los Santos, where we'll discuss her new novel in paperback Belong to Me, is tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 23rd at 7 pm EST! Set your reminder for the show the link above and return to that same link to listen live on Tuesday night. You can call and ask Marisa questions directly at (347) 945-6149. Remember to turn your computer volume down when you're on the air. You can also participate by sending questions in to the chat room, just be sure to register at Blog Talk Radio ahead of time, so you're ready to go at 7 pm. If you can't participate live, but have questions you'd like to ask, please email them to me at bookclubgirl AT gmail DOT com or post them here. Be sure to check out the reading group guide ahead of time as well. Can't wait to talk to you all tomorrow night!

Twitter LitChat Focuses on Great Book Group Reads, in 140 Characters or Fewer

For those who missed it, today's #litchat conversation on Twitter discussed book groups and what books make for good discussion. Some great points were made and several titles were recommended, from current bestsellers like The Help to older titles like The Sparrow and to historical fiction like Anita Diamant's The Red Tent. The book group I was in at the time had an absolutely wonderful discussion about The Red Tent--though not all of us loved it--and I've found that historical fiction often generates some of the best conversations in my current book group: Pope Joan, The Other Boleyn Girl and Year of Wonders in particular.

Another great idea, proposed by twitterer ErinHere is for clubs to pick two linked books to read over two months like Great Expectations with Mister Pip. In that vein, RebeccaWoodhead recommended reading Jane Eyre along with Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, the latter being the story of Rochester's wife, the so-called "madwoman in the attic." If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, it's a wonderful literary imagining of the story before Jane Eyre that really makes you think about all your assumptions about men, women and passion. Other great literary pairings include A Christmas Carol and Mr. Timothy and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Wicked.

Check out the litchat stream (or search Twitter by "#litchat") to see all that was discussed. If you're not on Twitter, you'll see what wonderful conversations are happening there. And if you're already on Twitter, you may find some smart new book people to follow!

Book Club Girl is Still Getting Her Game On - and Has Lost 6 lbs!

I wanted to give all who are interested an update on my first week (or week and 3 days now) on the Game On! Diet. Well, so far so good, the first week went pretty well. There was a fair amount of food preparation but eating so much fresh food felt really great, as did getting 7 hours of sleep every night. I managed to squeeze in 20 minutes of exercise on six days (I'm in love with this HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) Routine). On some days when I couldn't work out, I made up for it by power walking to the train, or into town or home from the train.

There were moments of temptation, to be sure, but the team aspect really kept me honest. I sat at the Carlyle hotel having tea with an author with scones and CLOTTED CREAM in front of me, but was able to abstain because I kept thinking of my teammate and how I couldn't let her down. By Saturday am I had actually lost 6 lbs! That night was my "meal off" when I could eat whatever I wanted for dinner and I went a tad overboard with mussels, chicken and a lovely brownie for dessert. Then on Sunday, my "day off," we had a big family party after my daughter's christening and between the wine, the cream puffs and the brownies, well, let's just say that when I weighed in on Monday am, I had gained back 3 of those 6 pounds! Yikes. I do love brownies.

But I still lost my goal for the week -- your goal is to lose (a very safe) 1% of your weight each week, so my total score for the week was 766.8 out of a possible 850 points. I did have one penalty for the week, as I snuck in an extra glass of wine (my whole family was here!) so that lost me 25 points. My teammate was even more rocking, scoring 826. So far we're kicking our opponents' butts! We had another really helpful call with the authors on Thursday night that helped us with some questions about the eating and point system.

Monday and Tuesday I was back on track and those 3 pounds that snuck back on over the weekend fell off by the time I weighed myself this morning. And... drumroll, I've lost two and a half inches off my waist! One treat in particular that has been sustaining me is my favorite late night snack/meal #5 for the day, Kevin's Vanilla Strawberry Almost Ice Cream Treat. Some days I've needed to snack on the cucumber slices and others haven't needed them at all.

Many of you have asked me for more information about the book and how the game is played, since it's not on sale until 6/30 and I keep blathering (twittering) on about it, so I wanted to make sure everyone knows that you can read the entire book online right now for free! So check it out and start thinking about who you'd like to play the game with!

Top 10 Paperbacks to Give Dad This Father's Day

Father's Day is this Sunday, June 21st, have you bought Dad (or the husband) a gift yet? If not, there are some great books out there to choose from, and in paperback too so he won't stress about how much you've spent! Here's my list of 10 recommendations, serve one up with breakfast in bed made by the kids (unlike mom, dad won't worry about what a mess the kitchen is so said preparation won't dampen his mood).

Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba...and Then Lost it to the Revolution by T.J. English -- feed his Godfather obsession 
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin -- he'll be amazed by what one man can accomplish
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by John Meecham -- who doesn't love a Pulitzer Prize winner?
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein -- he'll cry but still be reading a book about racing, with a dog too!
The Reagan Diaries edited by Douglas Brinkley -- fill out his library with this essential tome
The Wall Street Guide to Power Travel -- keep him traveling with ease, even in a recession
Born to Explore How to be a Backyard Adventurer by Richard Wiese-- outdoor activities he can do with the kids, or on a guys weekend away
For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Jazz Age Chicago by Simon Baatz -- pair it with Hitchcock's Rope for the perfect Leopold and Loeb combo gift
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris -- make him laugh out loud
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes -- a new examination that sheds much light on what's happening today

Book Club Girl on Air Welcomes Liz Rosenberg, Author of Home Repair

We'll have two Book Club Girl on Air Shows in July, after of course, our next show on June 23rd when we'll be joined by Marisa de los Santos who will be discussing her bestselling novel now in paperback, Belong to Me.

For our first show in July--on Wednesday July 8th at 7 pm EST--I'm thrilled to welcome Liz Rosenberg, author of the new novel, Home Repair. In this poignant, lovely, funny and uplifting novel, Rosenberg tells the story of Eve, whose beloved Ivan died thirteen years ago in an automobile accident. Her charming, boyish Chuck has taken a different exit out of her life: hopping into his car in the middle of a garage sale with no forewarning and departing their formerly happy upstate New York home for points unknown. Now Eve's a boat adrift, subsisting on a heartbreak diet of rue, disappointment, and woe--left alone to care for Ivan's brilliant teenaged son, Marcus, and Chuck's precocious, pragmatic nine-year-old daughter, Noni, while contending with Charlotte, her acerbic mother, who's come north to "help" but hinders instead. But life ultimately must go on, with its highs and lows, its traumas and holidays, and well-meaning, if eccentric, friends. A house and a heart in disrepair are painful burdens for a passionate woman who's still in her prime. And while learning to cope with the large and small tragedies that each passing day brings, Eve might end up discovering that she's gained much more than she's lost. This novel of love, family, and survival is an unforgettable introduction to a lyrical, wise, and wonderfully vibrant new literary voice.

I can't wait to talk to Liz, who prior to this novel, has written books for young readers as well as poetry. The first 10 people to comment on this post that they'd like to participate as well will receive a free copy of Home Repair. Set your reminder for the show on July 8th.

In the meantime, browse inside Home Repair and catch up with Rosenberg when she's on tour this summer to promote her book!

Guest Post on Bonk by Mary Roach from Minneapolis' Books & Bars

This month's guest post from Jeff Kamin of Minneapolis' Books & Bars book club once again includes video. Read on for their discussion of Bonk by Mary Roach. And if you missed it, be sure to check out last month's post on Pride, Prejudice and Zombies.

118 people were in attendance as Books & Bars convered Mary Roach's Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex on 6/9. With twenty people over fire code capacity we had our largest crowd (sneaking in) according to the Bryant-Lake Bowl servers.

In discussing the book, I allowed (encouraged) double entrendres and sexual innuendos but warned you could get a shouted "BONK!" from the audience if you used one in your comments. It was a lot of fun with a seemingly still taboo topic for some people. A majority of the converstaion was devoted to masturbation, perhaps not surprisingly, in our group of mostly singles.

Overall we enjoyed Bonk, though we felt it a little unfocused and slight on some of its topics. It may be hard to believe but we were ready for a more in-depth and serious take on the subject matters of sexuality and science. We usually do only one non-fiction book a year in our club. Non-fiction serves as a jumping off point for discussions, which end up being less about the book/author and more about the topics presented. Not always a bad thing, in fact they're usually heated and informative debates, but after an informal poll we'll continue reading mainly fiction.

Take a few minutes to see the video for the funny payoffs toward the end.

Next month we discuss Atmostpheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff Kamin, moderator/director/writer
www.mustacherobots.wordpress.com
Find Jeff on Facebook
Follow him on Twitter

Bestselling Book Club Favorite Garth Stein's Art of Racing in the Rain is On Sale in Paperback Today!

I know that a great many of you are already fans of The Art of Racing in the Rain and that some of you even got to meet author Garth Stein in the past year as he has criscrossed the country promoting his amazing novel. Well today the novel is finally available in paperback and Garth will once again set out on an extensive tour to promote it! The book has already become a reading group favorite, and now that it's in paperback, I think it will become a book club staple. For those of you who have yet to experience the sheer page-turning joy of reading this book, here's a description in a nutshell: it is a heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope—a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it. Intriguing, no? Browse inside the book here to see for yourself what everyone is talking about.

Check out Garth's brand-new website which is full of great info and fun stuff. You can download Enzoisms to print on t-shirts and pick up tile ads to put on your blog, facebook or wherever to show and spread the Enzo love with the online buzz kit. There are wonderful resources for book groups including reading group questions, videos, an author interview and more. Sign up for the newsletter and follow and friend Garth on Twitter and Facebook here.

In celebration of Enzo's on-sale day, I have ten copies of the paperback to give away. Here's how you can enter to win:
1) Download an Enzo tile ad from the website and put it on your blog or facebook page (send me a link in the comments)
2) Tweet: "The Art of Racing in the Rain by @garthstein is On Sale in Paperback Today!" with a link back to www.garthstein.com
3) Do both things and get two entries into the random drawing!

The drawing will take place from all entries received by midnight Friday the 12th! Stay tuned for more news on Art...including an upcoming Book Club Girl on Air show with Garth!

Book Club Girl is Getting Her Game On!

What, you may ask, does that mean? Well, today is day one of the Game On! Diet challenge that I've embarked upon with some of my coworkers. Now, I couldn't decide whether or not this was something I should post here since it's not technically book club related, but it is book related, and it is about me (the "girl" in Book Club Girl), so hope you'll indulge me. These posts won't take over the blog but this is a big deal for me, and it would seem really odd for me to be posting every day and not mention it occasionally.

The Game On! Diet is the brainchild of Krista Vernoff, head writer and executive producer of tv's Grey's Anatomy and Az Ferguson, winner of the Body-for-Life Challenge. When Krista returned to work after having her baby, she called on Az to help her lose the baby weight. He made her a workout regimen and eating plan that she, well, didn't follow at all. So Az went back to the drawing board. Knowing that Krista had a VERY competitive nature, he decided to present her with a healthy lifestyle plan in the form of a game, that she could play with a team, and that she could play to win. This appealed to her very much. Rather than the focus being on losing weight, the focus is on winning points, a far more tantalizing prospect. So how do you earn points? You can earn a maximum of 100 points a day for doing the following:

1) Eating 5 balanced meals a day, every 2-4 hours -- 6 points per meal
2) Exercising for at least 20 minutes a day -- 20 points
3) Sleeping for a minimum of 7 hours per night -- 15 points
4) Drinking 3 liters of water a day -- 10 points
5) Adopting a healthy new habit that you practice every day -- 10 points
6) Dropping one unhealthy habit -- 10 points
7) Communicating with your team members every day -- 5 points

You earn penalties (points lost!) for:
1) stepping on the scale more than once a day
2) unsanctioned snacking (you can have as much celery and cucumber as you want throughout the day, plus 100 free calories of whatever once a day, no other snacking)
3) Colluding with the opposing team to get them to break a rule
4) Drinking alcohol (see exception below)
5) changing the healthy or unhealthy habit during the course of the game (you have to pick those and stick to them).

It's not about total deprivation as you get:
1) One day off a week, when you don't have to follow any of the rules
2) One meal off a week when you can eat what you want and have one unit of alcohol
3) each day you can have 100 calories of anything as a bonus treat

If you don't lose at least 1% of your weight each week, you lose your alcohol privilege for the duration of the game. The game runs for 4 weeks. Because the book is written by a tv writer, it's funny and extremely approachable, not all diet scary. (no clues as to the fate of George and Izzie on Grey's however ;()

Our points are handed in once a week and tallied with our teammates. The winning team will get to do something to the losing team that we have yet to determine. I am so excited to play this, and having teammates who I'm beholden to will help to keep me honest.

As for my new habits (and they made habits a part of the game because studies have shown that true weight loss happens when there is a lifestyle change, rather than just a diet and exercise change). The unhealthy habit that I'm going to break is being on my blackberry or the computer in the evening hours from the time I get home until the kids are in bed. So from about 6:30-9:30 every night, my husband (who's also playing the game) and I are going to be focused on our family and not distracted by work (it's a tad embarassing that this is something we're not already doing). The healthy habit I'm adopting: three times a day I pump milk at work for my baby. Usually I do this while emailing, talking on the phone, working like a maniac. My healthy habit is going to be that during one of those times I will not be on email or the phone, and will sit at my desk and read, probably starting with short stories, for that 15-minute time period, making it a relaxing and enriching time, rather than a hectic, multitasking time. It's interesting that both of my habits involve turning off technology. I guess there will be a little less tweeting and blogging!

So how am I doing so far? Well, this morning I stepped on the scale and recorded my starting weight. I also measured my waist as even more than losing weight, I want to regain my pre-baby shape. I had a great breakfast of egg whites, spinach, onions and feta cheese with wheat toast and my next meal of the day will be two cheese sticks, 6 almonds, a plum and an apple. For lunch I brought a huge salad with grilled chicken. Check out the picture of all the food I brought to work, it seems like A LOT! You can learn more about the food portion of the game here, and basically, it's all about portions and balancing your protein with your carbs, and including healthy fat in each meal. I plan to do this Twenty & Plenty 20-minute workout in my office around midday. I've already talked with my teammate this am, after she power walked to work so I've earned my communication points for the day!

The days off and meals off make me feel like I really can do this -- I've already planned out a couple of the days off (my daughter's christening next week, the other's graduation the following week). And the meal off gives us even more flexibility if we end up out at a restaurant or just need a break (or, ahem, a drink). To prepare for the food part of the game, I planned out my menus for the week, shopped for it all on Friday at Costco, and made a lot of things yesterday so I don't get tripped up by preparations during the week.

I'll report back in about a week as to my progress. If you're interested in finding out more, you can listen to the great call we had with the authors last Thursday night here. About 30 of my husband's boot campers (he runs an exercise boot camp) are participating in our town, so we all spoke to the authors to get our various questions answered.

That is all, thanks for reading, wish me luck, and game on!

In Celebration of the Tonys - Read a Play for Book Club

In Sunday's New York Times, Dwight Garner wrote about sitting down to read the four plays nominated for best play this year, having seen none of the productions. His story reminded me of the joy I once had reading plays. I was an English major who concentrated in drama, so plays were the thing for me. I wrote my thesis on George Bernard Shaw, and first came to love Alan Ayckbourn (whose brilliant Norman Conquests just won best revival of a play!), Noel Coward, Peter Shaffer, Harold Pinter and others by reading them, not by watching productions of their plays. Reading those plays led me to wonderful worlds and on my first literary pilgrimage (to Ayckbourn's Stephen Joseph theater in Scarborough, England the year after I graduated from college). And just this week, I was heartened to hear from my reluctant reader daughter that she LOVES READING SHAKESPEARE.

So I'm not sure why I've never thought to suggest reading a play at book club, especially since there are so many to choose from, and, well not to put too fine a point on it, but they are quick to read! There would really be no excuse for not finishing. I plan to scour my shelves for some good options. In the meantime, of the four examined by Garner, I think that God of Carnage (winner of Best Play tonight), in its examination of two disfunctional marriages whose fissures are revealed when the couples are brought together by an altercation between their sons, would be a terrific book club choice. I plan to pick it up asap (well, right after I finally get my Norman Conquests tickets-still trying to figure out to explain to my husband why I need to see three plays in one day ;)).

Book Club Favorite Lisa See's Shanghai Girls On Sale Now

I feel remiss not mentioning this earlier, but Lisa See's newest novel, Shanghai Girls is now on sale. Her Snow Flower and the Secret Fan became a book club staple when it was published. She followed that with Peony in Love. Now, in Shanghai Girls, See tells the story of Pearl and May Chin, two well-off women living the life in 1937 Shanghai, who are both abruptly married off to men living in America after their father gambles away their family's wealth. Pearl and May are moved to Los Angeles where they face discrimination and Communist witch hunts, while finding themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules. The sisters are close and there for each other, but like sisters everywhere, they harbor resentments as well as a secret that could change everything. I loved Snow Flower and can't wait to read this one.

Read an excerpt of Shanghai Girls here, catch See on tour near you, and watch a great interview with her about the novel below.

Listen to Deborah Johnson Discuss The Air Between Us Now

Reminder! Our Book Club Girl on Air Show with Deborah Johnson is Today!

Reminder, our show with Deborah Johnson, where we'll discuss her novel The Air Between Us, is today at 2 pm EST. Listen and participate live to the show, held in conjunction with Books-A-Million, here! Call in at 347-934-6149, or type your questions in the chat section. Be sure to register on the site first if you want to use the chat.

Listen to the Book Blogger Panel from BEA Now!

You can listen to the recording of the Book Blogger Panel at BEA now, right here, by clicking play. Enjoy.