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

Reminder! Our Book Club Girl on Air Show with Kristina Riggle to Discuss Keepsake is Tonight at 7pm ET!

Just a reminder that tonight we are welcoming beloved novelist Kristina Riggle back to Book Club Girl on Air to discuss her latest novel, Keepsake. Join us as we discuss this novel of two sisters, one a neat freak and the other a hoarder. Check out the reading group guide before the show. During the live show you can send in questions via the chat function (be sure to register on the site beforehand - choose the free option) or you can call in and ask her a question directly by dialing 347-945-6149. Set your reminder for tonight's show at 7 pm ET here and return to that same link to listen live tonight!

Book Club Girl on Air Welcomes Kristina Riggle to Discuss Her New Novel Keepsake on Wednesday, July 25th at 7pm ET!

I'm so excited to welcome Kristina Riggle back to Book Club Girl on Air to discuss her latest novel, Keepsake, on Wednesday, July 25th at 7pm ET!  Keepsake just went on sale this week and is the story of two sisters, one a neat freak and the other a hoarder.

From the critically acclaimed author of Real Life & Liars and Things We Didn't Say comes a timely and provocative novel that asks: What happens when the things we own become more important than the people we love?

Trish isn't perfect. She's divorced and raising two kids—so of course her house isn't pristine. But she's got all the important things right and she's convinced herself that she has it all under control. That is, until the day her youngest son gets hurt and Child Protective Services comes calling. It's at that moment when Trish is forced to consider the one thing she's always hoped wasn't true: that she's living out her mother's life as a compulsive hoarder.

The last person Trish ever wanted to turn to for help is her sister, Mary—meticulous, perfect Mary, whose house is always spotless . . . and who moved away from their mother to live somewhere else, just like Trish's oldest child has. But now, working together to get Trish's disaster of a home into livable shape, two very different sisters are about to uncover more than just piles of junk, as years of secrets, resentments, obsessions, and pain are finally brought into the light.

I have 10 copies of Keepsake to give away to the first 10 people who comment that they can participate in the show on Wednesday, July 25th at 7pm ET. Set your reminder for the show, read the first chapter of the book, and check out the reading group guide. For more with Kristina, visit her website, become a fan on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and find her at an event near you this summer!

Everybody Has a Bucket List - Guest Post from Robin Gold, Author of Once Upon a List

Last week we heard from authors Kristina Riggle and Susan McBride about how Robin Gold's Once Upon a List has inspired them to think about their own bucket lists.  Today Robin Gold shares her own bucket list - read on!

As a child, I had two primary dreams.  First, I desperately wanted to be Annie, which led to a horrific hair cut that left me – with my naturally curly, flaming orange locks – looking like a scary cross between Ronald McDonald and everybody’s favorite singing and dancing orphan who belts the virtue of “Tomorrow.”  (I still can’t pass a “Cost Cutters” without a chill tingling down my spine.)  Second, I yearned to be allowed to eat hotdogs every single day. 

My parents always encouraged me to believe that anything and everything is possible.  No matter what.  Period.  Never once in my life have they suggested that I cannot accomplish something that I set my mind on.  (With the exception of becoming Annie addicted to hotdogs.) 

As a result of my parents’ positive philosophy, I actually grew up believing I could achieve most personal goals.  A helpful factor when it comes to bucket lists!  I successfully rode a 100-mile bike race, taught myself how to sew my own clothes, flew in a fancy-pants private plane, learned sign language and how to play the cello, built a gingerbread house from scratch, moved to New York City and got a pretty decent job in the film industry. 

But as the decades passed, and I became jaded – as adults often do – self-doubt crept in.  I no longer believed that anything is possible.  At a low point, I decided to pursue on a professional level the one thing that had always made me happy: writing.  I figured that if “Operation Author Girl” failed, I could always fall back on competitive hotdog eating.  When I told my parents I was going to write a novel, they smiled and said they knew it would be wonderful.  They didn’t say, “How the heck are you gonna pay your bills?”  Or “I sure hope you like Ramen noodles!” 

I can’t deny it.  Over the years, I’ve wondered if my mom and dad are nuts.  I’ve asked myself, are they sniffing glue?  Why don’t they ever doubt me?  I doubt myself all the time!  When I questioned my parents about their unwavering support, my mom shrugged and replied, “Someday, when you have a child of your own, you’ll understand.” 

Now that I’ve met and married the love of my life and we have a 13-month-old baby, Archie, my bucket list is filled with all sorts of unexpected new ambitions and dreams.  I want to bathe and have enough time to wash my hair and shave my legs.  I want to take Archie to Disney World.  I want us all to ride our bikes together in Europe past fields of sunflowers made famous by the Tour de France (sure, I realize Archie will have to learn how to walk first).  I want to give him a sibling.  I want to stick his first poem on the refrigerator with a magnet.  I want to dress up as the tooth fairy and sneak into Archie’s bedroom the night he loses his first tooth (I may be chubby, but oh, can I rock a tutu!).  I want to attend his college graduation.  I want to see him fall in love and dance at his wedding.  I want to let him eat hotdogs every single day (but I won’t).

Most of all, I want to do everything I can to help Archie believe “the sun will come out tomorrow” and his own dreams can come true.  Because anything and everything is possible.    

Robin Gold is the author of Once Upon a List, now available as an e-book, and The Perfectly True Tales of a Perfect Size 12. She resides near Chicago with her husband, Greg, whom she finally found and who was well worth the wait; their baby, Archie; eleven bicycles; and a bunch of boxes in the basement that will probably never get unpacked. Odds are high that she has a Cheerio stuck somewhere on her body and doesn't know it.

Everybody Has a Bucket List - Guest Post from Kristina Riggle

Today's guest post is introduced by Stephanie, and I thank both her and Kristina Riggle for joining us!

Once Upon a List, the new novel by Robin Gold has inspired everybody here at Avon to reevaluate their “Bucket List”—things we’d like to accomplish before we, you know, kick that proverbial bucket. When younger, mine included things like “get into a good college” (check), “move to New York City” (check), and “marry Prince Harry” (still working on that one).

Now that I’m older, my list has morphed into a series of even more grandiose, seemingly impossible, yet practical goals: “find a rent-controlled apartment in New York City,” “pay off all my student loans,” “take my first trip on an airplane, to any exotic location imaginable” (yes, I’m in my almost-mid-20’s and have still never been on a plane before – sad but true). 

One of the most charming and relatable aspects of Robin Gold’s Once Upon a List is that our heroine, Clara Black, rediscovers her childhood bucket list at a very vulnerable time in her life—her fiancé, the love of her life, has just passed away and she feels shaken, not sure what this version of future holds for her. We follow Clara as she finds her list of old dreams and pursues each of them into a new future. So in celebration of Robin’s heartwarming and life-affirming tale, we have asked Robin, along with two of our favorite authors, Kristina Riggle and Susan McBride to share their very own bucket lists with us this week. Today we hear from Kristina. Enjoy, and feel free to share your bucket lists too!

Kristina Riggle’s Bucket List
My bucket list used to have one thing on it: become a published novelist. Check, as of 2009.

(Really, it’s folly for a bucket list item to be dependent on outside forces. It should have been more like, “write a novel and submit it to publishers.” Moving on…)

I’m glad to be asked now what I’d put on my bucket list, because it gives me an excuse to look up from the frantic onrush of daily tasks and ponder … now what?

There are lots of things I would try once, in the spirit of seizing the day. Take spelunking for example, which is also fun to say. Try it. Spelunking, spelunking, spelunking. Sounds like something Dr. Seuss would have made up, and I love words like that. (See also: blunderbuss, perambulator.)

Now that I think of it, I’m having a little trouble coming up with new bucket list items. I tend to jump into things when an urge strikes. I have – in a small, community theater way – sung and danced on stage, as a chorus girl in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” I also played Miriam once in a local production of “The Women”. No singing or dancing required, but I did smoke a fake cigarette and get in a catfight. (On stage, not in real life. Just to be clear.)

I also embarrassed myself at an audition, and lived to tell the tale. (Sing off key, then slip as I exit the stage, pinwheeling my arms to stay upright? Check.)

Maybe it’s a lack of derring-do. Bungee jump? Run a marathon? Skydive? No, thank you.

There is this one, thing, though.

For many years now, I’ve daydreamed about playing piano. I don’t have grand ambitions to perform Beethoven in concert halls, though I like Beethoven just fine. I’d just like to be able to plink out some Christmas carols and showtunes. I have this fantasy of a cocktail party-turned-singalong, me at the piano, taking requests…

I even have a spot in my living room that’s perfect: a little nook created by a closet in the next room over. It’s almost exactly the right size for an upright piano.

Now, I can’t read bass clef, nor can I make the fingers of each hand operate independently at the same time. The most piano playing I can manage is a few bars of the Muppet theme, one-handed, after I painstakingly locate “C”.

However, there was also a time when I hadn’t ever written a novel …

Kristina Riggle's new novel, Keepsake, goes on sale on June 26th. Robin Gold's Once Upon a List is available now as an ebook, click here for more information and look for Susan McBride's bucket list tomorrow!

 

Plan Your Summer (and Fall!) Reading with the Book Club Girl Sampler!

On sale today - except that it's FREE! - is the first-ever Book Club Girl Sampler - filled with excerpts from current and upcoming summer and fall books that are great for book clubs and summer reading! Download the free Book Club Girl Sampler to your e-reader now and you'll be able to dip into books by the following authors - plus check out some great recipes for book club snacks from bestselling chef Emeril Lagasse and your favorite book club authors!

 The Book Club Sampler features excerpts from:

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank
With My Body by Nikki Gemmell
Keepsake by Kristina Riggle
The Thread by Victoria Hislop
Have Mother, Will Travel by Claire and Mia Fontaine
The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern
Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault
Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santo
Sharp by David Fitzpatrick
The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman
The Mirrored World by Debra Dean
A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead
Lucky Bunny by Jill Dawson

 

 

As well as these recipes from favorite book club authors and Emeril Lagasse, including:

Brunonia Barry's Baby Portabella and Tomato Pasta Sauce
Jessica Anya Blau’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkel’s Olive Tapenade
Katrina Kittle’s Tiramisu
Gregory Maguire’s Bleu Cheese Souffles 
Marjorie Reynolds’ Bleu Cheese Crumble
Sonya Sones’ Butterscotch Brownies 
Amy Stolls’ Cheddar Walnut Crisps
Adriana Trigiani’s Pizzelles
Emeril Lagasse’s Herbed Olives; Black Mission Figs Stuffed with Blue Cheese and Lavender Honey; and Curried Chicken Sandwiches on Pumpernickel

Download it now for your Kindle, Nook or IPad!

 

Book Club Girl's eBook Bonanza! 12 Great eBooks Just $2.99 Each for the Month of May!

For the entire month of May, the following 12 ebooks that are great for book clubs are just $2.99 each - plus you can download a free podcast of the author discussing their book on Book Club Girl on Air to listen to with your group! Click on your favorite e-retailer below to purchase and click the Book Club Girl on Air link below each book to access the author interview. And make sure to share this deal with your book club too! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristina Riggle's The Life You've Imagined E-Book is Just $2.99, Plus You Can Download a Book Club Discussion with the Author for Free!

Throughout the month of October, in honor of National Reading Group Month, we're offering 12 e-books by authors we've interviewed together on Book Club Girl on Air for just $2.99 from every place you buy e-books! Which means that you can get a year's worth of books for your book club for less than $36! For those of you who aren't familiar with the 12 books, I wanted to take the opportunity, over the next few weeks, to feature each of the 12 titles and authors to help you decide which book, or books, are right for your book club!

The Life You've Imagined by Kristina Riggle

Is the life you're living all you imagined?

Have you ever asked yourself, "What if??" Here, four women face the decisions of their lifetimes in this stirring and unforgettable novel of love, loss, friendship, and family.

Anna Geneva, a Chicago attorney coping with the death of a cherished friend, returns to her "speck on the map" hometown of Haven to finally come to terms with her mother, the man she left behind, and the road she did not take.

Cami Drayton, Anna's dearest friend from high school, is coming home too, forced by circumstance to move in with her alcoholic father . . . and to confront a dark family secret.

Maeve, Anna's mother, never left Haven, firmly rooted there by her sadness over her abandonment by the husband she desperately loved and the hope that someday he will return to her.

And Amy Rickart—thin, beautiful, and striving for perfection—faces a future with the perfect man . . . but is haunted by the memory of what she used to be.

Kristina Riggle's The Life You've Imagined takes a provocative look at the choices we make—and the courage we must have to change.

“A richly woven story laced with unforgettable characters….A beautiful book.”—Therese Walsh, author of The Last Will of Moira Leahy

You can listen to our conversation with Kristina about The Life You've Imagined and share it with your book club here, and check out the reading group guide.

 Listen to internet radio with Book Club Girl on Blog Talk Radio

Listen to internet radio with Book Club Girl on Blog Talk Radio

Book Club Girl's E-Book Bonanza! 12 Great Low-Price E-Books for Your Book Club Plus a Free Author Podcast!

In celebration of National Reading Group Month this October, HarperCollins is offering 12 great e-books for your book club for just $2.99 each! Which means you can buy a year's worth of books for your book club for less than $36! Better still - each of these authors has been interviewed on Book Club Girl on Air about their book so there's a built-in conversation with the author to listen to before or during your book club meeting! So go ahead, dive in and check out this book club dozen - and get more bang for your book club buck! Each e-book is availble for purchase at this special low price for the month of October only and can be purchased for your IPad, Kindle or Nook or head over to IndieBound to buy from your favorite local bookseller via Google books!

Confessions of a Book Club Convert - Guest Post by Kristina Riggle, Author of Things We Didn't Say

Today's guest post comes from Kristina Riggle, author of Real Life & Liars, The Life You've Imagined and most recently, Things We Didn't Say. Kristina has graced us with guest posts in the past, on subjects ranging from her family's holiday traditions to her National Reading Group Month gig with fellow author Katrina Kittle. Today Kristina offers us something a little bit different - a book club confession, which I just love.

Confessions of a Book Club Convert

Confession: I never joined a book club until I became an author.

Though I loved the concept of book clubs, I felt my life was already spread too thin to add another date on the calendar. Finishing a book someone else selected by a certain date felt like a homework assignment to me, not to mention eventually I’d have to host the meeting at my house. That would mean cleaning, and vacuuming, and maybe even (gasp) dusting, while I banished the kids and spouse elsewhere. Then I’d have to do the dishes afterward.

I actually love entertaining, but I do so on my own schedule, only when I feel like it, inviting whomever I want.

Then a friend invited me to speak to her own book club. This friend, Melissa, started as a “mom friend” because our kids were friends, and we graduated to “real life” friends, as I call it. I was flattered she suggested Real Life & Liars for her club, though a little nervous they wouldn’t like it.

I shouldn’t have worried. The women were gracious and fun. They certainly didn’t like everything my characters did (no one ever does, that’s the kind of book I write) but they were supportive and interested and asked great questions. We talked for almost two hours.

And they invited me to come again, as a member.

I now call this my “civilian” book club. I love it because we meet for breakfast out at restaurants. (No cleaning the house! No hosting!) I love it because the ladies are funny and smart. I love it because we talk about more than the books. I love it because we draw parallels between the novels and our lives.

I’ve read some books I enjoyed (I Know This Much is True, Wally Lamb) and others I haven’t (the Dragon Tattoo book is not my thing). We had fascinating discussions about The Help by Kathryn Stockett and its implications in modern society. Because of my book club I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird. I missed that particular breakfast, but I’m grateful for being prodded to read this again. As a teen I lived in Scout’s skin thoroughly; now I identify with Atticus. I cried three times reading it, this time around.
 
Am I sometimes racing to finish the book in time? Sure. Do I always love the selection? Nope. But my civilian book club isn’t getting rid of me now. 

By the way, we haven’t read any more of my own books, and that’s fine with me. It’s fun sometimes to be a reader first, writer second. After all, I first fell in love with books by reading them. And talking about them…

Browse inside Kristina Riggle's newest book, Things We Didn't Say; follow and friend her on Twitter and Facebook; and check out her website.

Katrina Kittle and Kristina Riggle Guest Post from National Reading Group Month!

I love both Katrina Kittle, who I've met in person, and Kristina Riggle, who I know only through cyberspace and her novels, and I mostly don't get their names confused. They appeared together this past weekend at the National Reading Group Month event in Detroit and were kind enough to share their experience on that night, and book clubs in general, in this guest post/co-author interview!

This is Kristina Riggle here. Katrina Kittle and I took our oddly  funny, nearly matching names to Baldwin Public Library in suburban Detroit this weekend to talk books and celebrate National Reading Group Month with a chapter of the Women's National Book Association. The ladies took time out of a perfect fall day to talk to us about our books, and it does our little author-hearts good to see how our labors evoke emotional reaction and introspection. For me, I love writing for its own sake but when readers absorb it and respond, that closes the loop and takes the experience to a whole new level of satisfaction.

No author experience does this quite like a book club meeting. I  thought we'd share some of our most memorable reading group moments. Katrina’s books have tackled AIDS, child abuse, eating disorders and divorce, and they must have inspired some fascinating discussions. Take it away, Katrina…

Katrina: I adore book clubs! At book store signings, you're doing the equivalent of a movie trailer, trying to entice people to read the book. At book clubs, you get to talk to people who have already read the book and get to hear how it affected them as readers. So much of the writing life is so solitary that this part, to me, feels like opening a gift!  I usually get more interesting, thoughtful questions from reading groups than I do at bookstore events. I especially love when book club members start debating an issue or outcome in one of the books, disagreeing with each other, and talking about the characters as if they're real...and I get to eavesdrop. Heaven!  With my third novel, The Kindness of Strangers, an act by Courtney late in the book (no spoilers here) usually prompted heated debate over whether this act was a noble sacrifice or just another act of manipulation. They sometimes get miffed at me for refusing to weigh in!

My favorite book clubs are those that include food and wine (and very few don't!) and I really get a kick out of when they try to make the food they serve match some of the food described in the books (I love food and write about it a lot!). The chocolate-raspberrry cake from Kindness, the tiramisu or Hanky Pankies from Blessings...it's such a joy to get to go discuss the book AND eat food I've described.

The histories behind many book clubs fascinate me--how long they've met, how long they've known each other, how the book club friendships carry over into other aspects of their lives, book clubs that do charity work together, book clubs that help each other through crises. And the names! I've met with the Bodacious Book Babes (and believe me, they live up to their names), the Book Ends, the Novel Women,  and You Don’t Have to Read the Book Club among many, many others. My all time favorite book club name is The Beautiful Women Drinking Martinis book club. (How could you not want to go to that?) I’m so grateful to all the book clubs who have chosen my novels. It does my heart good to know there are intelligent, thoughtful book lovers out there in the world, caring about books, discussing new fiction, and keeping my (and other) books alive and thriving.

Kris, your books deal so beautifully with family relationships—siblings, parent-and-child, spouses. You said at our event that readers often ask you about the characters' lives after the book's end. I'd take that as such a compliment! How do you answer those questions, though, and what other questions do you frequently receive and enjoy?

Kristina: I get asked all the time to write sequels. I’m so honored that people want to spend 350 pages with my characters in the first place, then to hear that they would happily spend 350 more pages with these same people ... I’m blown away by that. However, I love creating new characters. It’s quite crowded in my head, I’ll have you know. So by the time the book is out and being read and dissected, I’m already a novel or two ahead and excited about a new crop of people I can’t wait for my readers to meet. I always say “never say never” about a sequel, though. Terry McMillan just released her sequel to WAITING TO EXHALE and it’s been almost 20 years.

As to how I answer the “THEN what happens?” question, I’m afraid I’m a bit maddening because I don’t answer. If there are clues already in the text I’ll lead the readers to these clues, but really, if I haven’t written it out, it’s fair game for the reader to imagine. I think that’s half the fun of book clubs!

Another favorite comment I get is some variation on this: “But you seem so normal!” My characters are, shall we say, troubled. This is what makes for good fiction. Sensible characters who do the right things in the early chapters would make for very short books indeed. At a recent event in fact, a woman declared that I’m awfully normal for writing such “whackadoodle” characters. I took that as a compliment and it was clear she meant it as such.

Perhaps I’m whackadoodle at home, though. You never can tell.

Having read Katrina’s answer, now I want to write more delicious food into my books. Mmmm, tiramisu. Or maybe sushi. I love me some wasabi.

Katrina again: Kris and I are both crazy about talking to reading groups! If your book club is reading one of our novels, please let us know through our websites (listed below) if you'd like to chat with us. If you're not local, we can do conference calls or Skype. Kris is eager for her first Skype session, so somebody get on that! I love Skype, too, and you usually get to meet my cat who insists on butting his face into the camera. I have to warn you, though, he once closed my laptop in the middle of a book club Skype session...but I'm sure it wasn't personal.

Katrina Kittle's The Blessings of the Animals and Kristina Riggle's The Life You've Imagined were both published this fall in paperback. Here are resources for each for your book club:

The Blessings of the Animals
Browse inside Blessings
Katrina Kittle's website
Katrina Kittle on Twitter
Reading Group Guide
Book Club Girl on Air Show

The Life You've Imagined
Browse inside Life
Kristina Riggle's website
Kristina Riggle on Twitter
Reading Group Guide
Book Club Girl On Air Show

To find out more about National Reading Group Month, including an event near you, check out their official website.

October is National Reading Group Month - Celebrate with Events Across the Country!

The Women's National Book Association's annual celebration of reading groups kicks off tomorrow with the start of National Reading Group Month! As in year's past, there is a full slate of events planned at WNBA Chapters across the country. In addition, for the second year in a row, the WNBA, as part of NRGM, has selected 10 new books as Great Group Reads. So if you don't have an event near you, why not pick one of the below books when your book club meets this month as part of this national celebration of shared reading! And look for guest posts here from authors participating in NRGM events throughout the month of October.

Great Group Reads for 2010
Blame by Michelle Huneven
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship by Cathie Beck
Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
Room by Emma Donoghue
Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye
Up from the Blue by Susan Henderson

National Reading Group Month Events

Sat., Oct. 9; breakfast, 9–11 a.m.; book-signing, 11–11:30 a.m.
Nashville – National Reading Group Month Signature Event
Breakfast with Authors, co-sponsored by Nashville Public Library Downtown and Davis-Kidd Nashville, in conjunction with the Southern Festival of Books, NPR Host Nina Cardona moderates a panel with
Tom Franklin, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Sena Jeter Naslund, Adam & Eve
Melanie Benjamin, Alice I Have Been
Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Lee Smith, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger

Mon., Oct. 11; 6:30–9 p.m.
Charlotte
Bibliofest, co-sponsored by Park Road Books
Minrose Gwin, The Queen of Palmyra
Rick Rothacker, Banktown: The Rise and Struggles of Charlotte's Big Banks
Kim Wright, Love in Mid Air
Jay Varner, Nothing Left to Burn

Thurs., Oct. 14; 12–2 p.m.
San Francisco
Literary Luncheon, co-sponsored by Book Passage/Corte Madera
Joyce Maynard, Labor Day and The Good Daughters

Thurs., Oct. 14; 6–9 p.m.
Boston
Hotel 140
Ilie Ruby, The Language of Trees
Judith Nies,The Girl I left Behind
Edith Pearlman, How to Fall: Stories
Suzanne Berne, Missing Lucile: The Story of My Father's Mother
Michelle Hoover, The Quickening
Joseph Monninger, Eternal on the Water

Sat., Oct. 16, 9 a.m.–12 p.m.
Los Angeles
Beverly Hilton–Wilshire with event co-sponsor Book Soup
Marjorie Hart, Summer at Tiffany
Alan Brennert, Honolulu
Tatjana Soli, The Lotus Eaters

Sat., Oct. 16; 1–4 p.m.
Detroit
Baldwin Public Library-Birmingham
Katrina Kittle, The Blessings of the Animals
Kristina Riggle, The Life You’ve Imagined

Tues., Oct. 19; 6:30–9 p.m
New York City
Greenlight Bookstore
Rosalind Reisner, Read On...Life Stories and Jewish American Literature with
Susan Henderson, Up from the Blue
Sheri Holman, The Dress Lodger
Rick Moody, The Four Fingers of Death
Emily St. John Mandel, The Singer's Gun
Jackson Taylor, The Blue Orchard

Mon., Oct. 25; 6:30–8:30 p.m
Washington, D.C.
Busboys & Poets Café
Shireen Dodson, The Mother-Daughter Book Club with
with Joyce Hinnefeld, Stranger Here Below
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Wench

Tuesday Oct. 26; 6:30–9 p.m.
Seattle
Event co-sponsored by Park Place Books
Nancy Pearl, Book Lust, More Book Lust, Book Crush and Book Lust to Go with
Dave Boling, Guernica
Carol Cassella, Healer
Robert Dugoni, Bodily Harm
Jim Lynch, Border Songs
Boyd Morrison, The Ark

Listen to Tonight's Show with Kristina Riggle Discussing The Life You've Imagined Now!

If you missed the live broadcast of tonight's Book Club Girl on Air show with Kristina Riggle, listen in now to hear her discuss The Life You've Imagined. Thank you so much to Kristina for joining us and to everyone who participated in the show. Listen in now!

Reminder, Our Book Club Girl on Air Show with Kristina Riggle is Monday, Sept 13th!

Just a reminder that our Book Club Girl on Air show with Kristina Riggle where we'll discuss her new novel, The Life You've Imagined, is this Monday, September 13th at 7 pm ET! Set your reminder for the show here and be sure to register on the site before 7 on Monday so you can participate in the chat from the beginning of the show. You'll be able to ask questions of Kristina by typing them into the chat session and we'll relay them to her, or you can call in and ask her questions directly by dialing 347-945-6149. Check out the reading group guide before the show too. Can't wait to talk with you all on Monday night!

Book Club Girl on Air Welcomes Kristina Riggle to Discuss The Life You've Imagined

I'm so pleased to announce that on September 13th, we will welcome Kristina Riggle, author of Real Life and Liars, to Book Club Girl on Air to discuss her new novel, The Life You've Imagined, which is just on sale this week.

Is the life you're living all you imagined? Have you ever asked yourself, "What if??" Here, four women face the decisions of their lifetimes in this stirring and unforgettable novel of love, loss, friendship, and family.

Anna Geneva, a Chicago attorney coping with the death of a cherished friend, returns to her "speck on the map" hometown of Haven to finally come to terms with her mother, the man she left behind, and the road she did not take.

Cami Drayton, Anna's dearest friend from high school, is coming home too, forced by circumstance to move in with her alcoholic father . . . and to confront a dark family secret.

Maeve, Anna's mother, never left Haven, firmly rooted there by her sadness over her abandonment by the husband she desperately loved and the hope that someday he will return to her.

And Amy Rickart—thin, beautiful, and striving for perfection—faces a future with the perfect man . . . but is haunted by the memory of what she used to be.

Kristina Riggle's The Life You've Imagined takes a provocative look at the choices we make—and the courage we must have to change.

Browse inside The Life You've Imagined, look for Kristina Riggle on tour near you, check out the reading group guide and set your reminder for the show on Monday, September 13th. I have 10 copies of The Life You've Imagined to give away to the first 10 people who comment that they'd like to participate in the show on Monday, September 13th at 7 pm ET.

Book Club Girl's Holiday Open House: Kristina Riggle on Family Holiday Traditions

As the snow approaches, Kristina Riggle, author of Real Life and Liars and the forthcoming, The Life You've Imagined, has stopped by my Open House to share her Christmas traditions, both old and new. As I've been building my new family, I have also enjoyed folding my family's tradtions in with those of my husband's and the new ones we're creating together. The candlelight service at our church is a new tradition for all of us that is such a wonderful way to start Christmas Eve.

I write novels about families, which is another way of saying I sit around and make stuff up, which is great fun and the fact that I do it for a living is a never-ending source of wonder for me.
 
As a mother of young children, I'm also making up new holiday traditions by borrowing from my family, from my husband's family, and then improvising our own.
 
The tradition I cherish most from my family was the candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church. We would file in for the service and pick up small thin candles with a cardboard ring around the base for catching wax. At the end of the service, the choir members would light their candles, then walk down the outside aisles, lighting the end candles. Then you tipped your wick into your neighbor's flame, and so on, the overhead lights gradually dimming. All the while, the congregation would be signing "Silent Night," a cappella. No matter the beauty of any individual voice: together, our song was so beautiful it hurt. By the last verses, only our candles would be lighting us.
 
My kids being little, and bedtimes being what they are, we haven't been to a Christmas Eve service in a while. This year, though, we're going to try. My new church is contemporary, and big, so I doubt there will be candles. In any case, I do look forward to reminding my children that the presents aren't the only reason to look forward to Christmas.
 
From my husband's family we've borrowed the tradition of each person watching each other person open a gift, so every present is admired, discussed and exclaimed over before moving on. This means Christmas morning present unwrapping might approach midday by the end, but so what? It only happens once a year and takes so long to prepare and organize. I'm always about savoring the fun – I'm the kind of person who eats her favorite flavor of Skittles last – so this tradition suits me fine.
 
In my husband's family, each family member also takes a turn playing "Santa", complete with hat, handing out presents from the tree. There's even a list somewhere, so every year we know whose turn it is. It felt like a milestone indeed when I first wore that hat, after marrying into the family. This year at our house, my son – who, in first grade, is learning to read – has gotten dibs on the Santa job. Maybe it's time to start our own list. After all, we even have a hat.
 
My favorite tradition is something new with our generation. When we had our first child, we were living in different cities than each set of parents. This meant, essentially, three Christmases – my side, his side, our own home where Santa would visit. By the time actual Christmas rolled up, we were exhausted from sleeping in other beds and white-knuckle driving on snowy Michigan roads. Plus, we'd already gorged ourselves on two traditional holiday meals with all the trimmings.
 
Myself, I'm no Betty Crocker on the best of days. And if you think about it, if kids could choose a favorite meal, would they pick roast turkey? Glazed ham and mashed potatoes? Nah, they'd go for macaroni and cheese or pizza.
 
The first year of the triple Christmas with a kid in tow, our son had just turned one and was mostly still eating puree or soft food cut into teensy weensy bits. I don't remember what he ate, but my husband and I had fajitas and beer for Christmas dinner. Lately we've done make-your-own mini pizzas, which has been a hit with the kids.
 
It's a perfect ending to the hectic holiday: no linen tablecloth, no pressure to rise to some Martha Stewart standard of perfection (in my kitchen, that would only end in tears, let's be honest). On a day when we might stay in our pajamas 'til noon -- and throw out any rules about what constitutes too much Wii time -- mini pizzas or fajitas are a much better fit than a shiny ham.
 
Happy holidays. Enjoy those Christmas fajitas, everyone.