Book Club Girl - Book Group Recommendations, Reading Group Guides, Audio Book Club Podcasts

Listen to Tonight's Show with Rebecca Wells Now!

It was so lovely speaking with Rebecca Wells tonight about her newest novel, one that is perfect for that last-minute Mother's Day present (yes, Mother's Day is in just a few days! ;)) The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder. I loved hearing about her inspiration behind the novel, how it was for her to write a novel that didn't feature the Ya-Yas, how she moved from acting to writing and what writers inspire her. She spoke so movingly about last week's tragic oil spill off the coast of Louisiana and the devastation that it will cause for years to come (see her essay for more). She talked also about her struggle with Lyme disease which went undiagnosed for far too long. Visit her website for more information about Lyme and look for the documentary she recommended, Under Our Skin (which looks amazing). And lastly, be sure to check out her husband Tom Schworer's photography, he is an incredible photographer. Listen in to the show now - and thank you to everyone who joined us live with questions!

King Cake Fit for Book Club Queens! Sign Up to Read Rebecca Wells' Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder in Your Book Group and Win King Cake to Enjoy During Your Meeting!

Rebecca Wells' newest New York Times bestselling novel The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is on sale in paperback today, April 13th! To celebrate the publication of this sweet, sexy and funny book set in a magical little river town named La Luna, we're giving away authentic New Orleans' King Cake to the first 25 groups who adopt the book as their group's read between now and October!

Sent directly to your book group from New Orleans' own Randazzo's Camellia Street Bakery, this King Cake is adorned with their famous gooey frosting and topped with purple, yellow and green sprinkles, and includes a unique Randazzo's Mardi Gras theme bag, stuffed with beads, doubloons, the history of Mardi Gras and the king cake, a 2010 commemorative 11x 16 color poster, a beautiful feather mask, and a kings crown! What better way to jazz up your book club night!

Known for her beloved Ya-Ya books, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom, Rebecca Wells has helped women name, claim, and celebrate their shared sisterhood for over a decade. Now Wells debuts an entirely new cast of characters in this shining stand-alone novel about the pull of first love, the power of life, and the human heart's vast capacity for healing. A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today's most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.

Browse inside Calla Lily, check out the reading group guide, and visit Rebecca's website. Become a fan on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. You can also join me and Rebecca for a live book club discussion of the book on Wednesday, May 5th at 7 pm ET!

All you have to do to enter to win King Cake your book group is to leave your name in the comments confirming that your book club will read The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder between now and October 2010. The first 25 clubs to sign up will receive a Randazzo's King Cake to enjoy during their Calla Lily discussion!


No purchase necessary. US and Canada only. Sweepstakes will run until 25 clubs sign up and qualify, or until October 31,2010, whichever comes first. Prize value is approximately $43.00. Total prize value is approximately $1,075. The chances of winning depend on the number of entries. Click here for complete rules.

Book Club Girl on Air Welcomes the Original Ya-Ya, Rebecca Wells!

I am so excited to announce that on Wednesday, May 5th, my guest on Book Club Girl on Air will be the author of the New York Times best sellers Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, Ya-Yas in Bloom and most recently, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder -- Rebecca Wells! I'm just thrilled that Rebecca will be able to join me, to discuss not only the about-to-be-released paperback edition of The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, but also the entire Ya Ya series, which sparked a movement across the country and brought women together in friendship and support to discuss books, life and so much more.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny journey of Calla Lily's life set in Wells's expanding fictional Louisiana landscape. In the small river town of La Luna, Calla bursts into being, a force of nature as luminous as the flower she is named for. Under the loving light of the Moon Lady, the feminine force that will guide and protect her throughout her life, Calla enjoys a blissful childhood—until it is cut short. Her mother, M'Dear, a woman of rapture and love, teaches Calla compassion, and passes on to her the art of healing through the humble womanly art of "fixing hair." At her mother's side, Calla further learns that this same touch of hands on the human body can quiet her own soul. It is also on the banks of the La Luna River that Calla encounters sweet, succulent first love, with a boy named Tuck.

But when Tuck leaves Calla with a broken heart, she transforms hurt into inspiration and heads for the wild and colorful city of New Orleans to study at L'Académie de Beauté de Crescent. In that extravagant big river city, she finds her destiny—and comes to understand fully the power of her "healing hands" to change lives and soothe pain, including her own. When Tuck reappears years later, he presents her with an offer that is colored by the memories of lost love. But who knows how Calla Lily, a "daughter of the Moon Lady," will respond? A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today's most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.

Browse inside The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, check out the reading group guide, and if you're in the Seattle area, look for Rebecca's appearance at Eagle Harbor Books on April 15th.

The first 10 people who comment that they'd like to participate in the show on Wednesday May 5th at 7 pm ET will receive a copy of the paperback to read in preparation for the show. Set your reminder for the show here.

Look for more Rebecca Wells posts in the coming week, including a challenge and a contest for book clubs to win King Cake to their meeting!

Rebecca Wells Returns with The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder On Sale Today!

It's been four years since Rebecca Wells, author of the bestselling book club classic Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, published a new book. Her last book, Ya-Yas in Bloom, looked at the Ya-Yas in their younger days. Now Wells forges all new territory and brings us a new character sure to rival the immortal Vivi Abbot Walker -- Calla Lily Ponder.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny journey of Calla Lily's life set in Wells's expanding fictional Louisiana landscape. In the small river town of La Luna, Calla bursts into being, a force of nature as luminous as the flower she is named for. Under the loving light of the Moon Lady, the feminine force that will guide and protect her throughout her life, Calla enjoys a blissful childhood—until it is cut short. Her mother, M'Dear, a woman of rapture and love, teaches Calla compassion, and passes on to her the art of healing through the humble womanly art of "fixing hair." At her mother's side, Calla further learns that this same touch of hands on the human body can quiet her own soul. It is also on the banks of the La Luna River that Calla encounters sweet, succulent first love, with a boy named Tuck.

But when Tuck leaves Calla with a broken heart, she transforms hurt into inspiration and heads for the wild and colorful city of New Orleans to study at L'Académie de Beauté de Crescent. In that extravagant big river city, she finds her destiny—and comes to understand fully the power of her "healing hands" to change lives and soothe pain, including her own. When Tuck reappears years later, he presents her with an offer that is colored by the memories of lost love. But who knows how Calla Lily, a "daughter of the Moon Lady," will respond?

I just love this video where Rebecca, in talking about the novel, talks about how the events, be they illnesses, loss or something else entirely, that knock us down in life are the very things that make us who we are

A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder gives readers an unforgettable new heroine to treasure and features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells a cherished writer for so many book clubs. Be sure to check out Rebecca Wells' new website, the reading group guide, and this Interview with Rebecca. Friend her on Facebook as well!

To celebrate this brand new Rebecca Wells novel, I have 5 copies to give away. Comment on which Wells novel your book group (or you on your own) read and how it affected you. I'll choose 5 random winners from all comments received by midnight, Friday, July 10th. Tweet this giveaway and you'll get two entries into the drawing (please post a link to your tweet as a separate comment).

Guest Post from The Book Shelf Book Club Night!

I'm thrilled to have this guest post from Karen Dulak. Karen works in education and is a contributing columnist for the Winona Daily News. She shares a home in Minnesota with a husband, a teenage son, a tweenage daughter, a big orange cat, and more books than she will ever be able to read. Karen spoke recently at her local bookstore, The Book Shelf about book clubs. Read on for the history of her first book club and some of the wonderful things they were inspired to do for their community through their love of reading.

It was Paul McCartney and John Lennon who penned the words, “I get by with a little help from my friends”.  This is most certainly the case with my local independent bookstore and its relationship with the coffee house the store shares a space with. It also true when I talk about the first book club I belonged to.

The Book Shelf, located in Winona, Minnesota, is one of those eclectic book stores that sells all the recent best sellers and has their finger on the pulse of all the cool breakout books being published, but also sells locally hand stitched and hand died journals, photo cards by local artists, and tote bags made from recycled jeans. Once, independently located in a storefront by itself, Owner Chris Livingston took the huge leap to join forces with his favorite coffee house, The Blue Heron, to ensure his favorite coffee blend would endure along with his own business.  The merger seems to have worked well. Both businesses were humming along when I was asked to speak at a recent book club appreciation night event.

I started my talk by showing the book that got me hooked. It’s a tiny pink title called Where is the Keeper, a story about zoo animals and their concern over the zookeeper who had gone missing. It’s a book from my early childhood days that I am certain, if you phoned my 75-year old mother and asked her to recite it, she would still know it word for word.

In fact, there’s a website put out by First Books that recently asked the question about books that hooked you. “What Book Got You Hooked?” invited readers everywhere to celebrate the power of unforgettable books from childhood by providing new books to the children who need them the most.  For the last two years, First Book has asked people to share the memory of the books that made them readers, then help get more kids hooked by voting for the state to receive 50,000 new books from First Book. Check out First Book for more information. The state of Kentucky won the 50,000 books this year, but anticipate that they will hold the contest again next year and tell all your friends to participate! Your home state could win!

I linked my first book love to my most current read (I love this one too), and shared a quote from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. If you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for? Put it at the top of your “Must Read” list and savor this book. Here’s the quote…

“That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive—all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.”

With that intro about my love of books, I then began to talk about the first book club I belonged to. We were called The Women in the Hut. We were a book club that after years of being together we suddenly broke up. I was not able to put my finger on the exact reason or reasons why we fell apart. Dynamics changed, people moved on to other clubs, people joined without guidelines of how new members were brought in. Whatever the reason was, what I focused on in my talk at The Book Shelf was what we accomplished together through reading and discussing books.

Women in the Hut were a group of women who loved getting together and having fun. It was as simple as enjoying a candy cigarette and cocktails while we discussed The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, or going to see a late night showing of Bridget Jones’ Diary in our pajamas. We were also a group of women who decided that we could give back to our community through reading.

The first book that inspired us to give back was Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. Our discussion focused on life, and death, and the teachers who inspired us along the way. After that talk, someone in the group suggested we make a donation to our local Hospice program from our book club. We sent $150.00 and a letter explaining who we were and the book we had read that inspired us to reach out to them in appreciation and hoped that they would enjoy lunch on us. We made a donation to our local Humane Society after reading The Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney; a book with the character of Grace, a dog, who is saved after being hit by a car, and we donated money to our local public library after reading The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken, in honor of the librarian in the story.

So Lennon and McCartney were right, that we do get by with a little help from our friends. My book club helped community organizations through our love of reading and hanging out together. Just imagine if every book club in the world gave back in some small way through making donations or volunteering in schools, libraries, and literacy programs. Through the sheer enjoyment of reading, book lovers could change the world!