Book Club Girl

What Book Got You Hooked? Vote Now at First Reads and Help Send Books to Underprivileged Youth!

First Book, the charity dedicated to providing new books to low-income children throughout the country, is running a contest to award 50,000 books to one state in the U.S. Enter by simply telling them what book got you hooked on the love of reading as a child and then indicate which state you'd like to receive the books. You can enter here, and check out the forward to a friend feature on the site as well, and share it with your entire book group! Check out the site to see what books got Emma Thompson, Stephen Colbert, Scarlett Johanssen and Ira Glass (among other celebrities) hooked! Voting ends September 15th. Vote now, vote often.

Reminder! Our Book Club Chat with Debra Dean is this Thursday 8/21 at 7 pm EST!

Just a reminder that this Thursday, August 21st at 7pm EST we are talking with Debra Dean about her novel The Madonnas of Leningrad on my online radio show, Book Club Girl on Air. I hope that you've all been enjoying the book, I've already heard from some of you who are looking forward to the talk. Check out the great review that Darlene has already posted on her blog Peeking Between the Pages!

The night of the show, you can listen live on your computer here at 7 pm EST. (You can also listen at that same link after the show). You can call in to the show to ask ask a question at this number: (347) 945-6149. As people call in, I'll identify them by the last four digits of their phone number. If I say your phone number, remember to turn down the volume on your computer when you ask your question. If you can't call in, but have questions for Debra, please put them in the comments to this post (before midday Thursday), or you can send in questions while you're listening to the show via the Chat function on the show's page. But if you plan to do this, I recommend you register on the site beforehand. Make sure you enter your questions via "Chat" and not "Comments" so that I'll see them during the live show.

If you're not sure what to ask, but want to participate, learn more about Debra Dean here, and check out the reading group guide, as well as the P.S. section in the back of the book. I hope to hear from some of you on Thursday night!

The Kite Runner Wins the 2008 Penguin/Orange Broadband Reader's Group Prize!

For the third year in a row, Khaled Hosseini's novel of growing up in Iran and emigrating to America has won the Penguin/Orange Broadband Reader's Prize as the most popular reading group pick in the UK! And following The Kite Runner at #1, is Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns! Rounding out the top ten most "favourite" UK reading group books are:
#3 -- 4 books are tied for third place:
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
The Island by Victoria Hislop
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Small Island by Andrea Levy
#7 Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
#8 -- 3 books are tied for eighth place
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

To view last year's winning books (Hosseini is not the only repeat), go here. And look for news of the best reading group of the year to be announced on 8/28, view the finalists here.

Nicholas Sparks' Nights in Rodanthe Comes to the Big Screen Next Month -- Watch the Trailer and Enter the Giveaway!

I have to say, I've seen this trailer a few times and each time I get choked up. And c'mon, who doesn't want to see Richard Gere and Diane Lane in love? Check out the trailer for Nights in Rodanthe, based on Nicholas Sparks' betselling book, which is opening nationwide on September 26th. Tell me what you think and you could win one of ten copies of the book that I have to give away! Win one and read it in your book group, here's the reading group guide. Visit the official movie website here.

Wife in the North Hits the States -- and I've Got Some to Give Away!

Wife in the North, Judith O'Reilly's funny and acutely observed memoir of being uprooted from the London she loves to live in the country among sheep shearers and a lot of mud, and which sprouted out of her blog of the same name, is already a bestseller in the UK. Today it's available in the US and while I could describe the book in more detail here, I think the below video pretty much sums it up, quite hilariously as well. Watch it. Then read an excerpt and check out the reading group guide.

I also have ten copies to give away! But it comes with a challenge: what's your "Wife in the North" story? While you may not have been asked to pull a full-on Green Acres like O'Reilly was, many of us have made changes in our lives since and because of marriage. Tell us about a change you've made and how it changed you -- be it funny or serious.

The House at Sugar Beach is Starbucks New Book Pick

The House at Sugar Beach, a memoir of growing up in Liberia and emigrating to the US, by New York Times diplomatic correspondent Helene Cooper, is the next Starbucks book pick. The book will go on sale at all Starbucks locations (and everywhere else) on 9/3. In a statement, Cooper said, "I remember going into my local Starbucks on K Street in Washington for my morning coffee on my way to work, and seeing [earlier Starbucks pick] Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone on the counter. I was thrilled for him as a fellow West African--and so envious myself at the same time! I'm not ashamed to say that I stood in line daydreaming that one day it would be me." You can read an excerpt from The House at Sugar Beach here, and see what other writers have to say about the memoir here. Cooper will be touring through October, here is her tour schedule. Starbucks most recent pick, Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain, is still topping bestseller lists and is quickly becoming adopted by reading groups.

In Praise of Book Clubs, Vol. 19

Check out the latest in the great series from Books on the Brain. This week we hear from a YA librarian, now stay-at-home mom who started up a book club in her town. She's got some great insights into how her reaction to books has changed since becoming a mother -- something I really identify with -- as well as books that haven't gone over so well in her group. The post is here, and it's from the creator of the great blog The Last Book I Read.

Diane Rehm's New Reader's Review Title is Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms

Tune in to Diane Rehm on August 20th for a discussion of Ernest Hemingway's classic A Farewell to Arms. Read an excerpt, listen to a clip, and check out the reading group guide beforehand.

ADVANCE For Nurses Launches an Online Book Club!

Calling all nurses (and I'd say, other healthcare professionals)! ADVANCE, the national publication for nurses is launching an online book club. Books will be announced two months in advance (with the exception of the initial book) and chosen based on suggestions sent in by their readers. To start the online discussion, ADVANCE will interview the author or the nurse who recommended the book and post a podcast (scroll down at the link) of the interview that can be listened to in its entirety or in 5 minute segments. Readers are then invited to chat about the book on their blog. The first selection is Julia Garrison's heartfelt and hilarious memoir of her recovery from a stroke she suffered at the age of 37 entitled Don't Leave Me This Way, which you can browse inside here. Check out the podcast and the blog discussion going on now.

The September selection is Reaching Past the Wire: A Nurse at Abu Ghraib and November's is A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death and Hospice.

A Different Kind of Book Club

Thanks to Jenne for pointing out this article about the wonderful ways a book club in Long Island and another developed by Ohio State University are helping adults with intellectual abilities keep their minds sharp and develop social networks. Very inspiring.

Penguin/Orange Reader's Prize - Book Group Finalists are Named!

Some of you may remember me reporting on the Penguin/Orange Broadband Reader's Prize last year. Each year one book group in the UK is chosen that best illustrates individuality, diversity in their reading group choices and demonstrates the pleasure of shared reading. Six finalist groups have been named from across the UK and you can read about each group and their practices here. I think my favorite so far is the European Reading Group, whose diverse members are Swiss, Greek, Turkish, Slovakian, Romanian and British. The winning group will spend a day at the Penguin UK offices and have a book club lunch with an author, plus walk away with a goody bag of books. Stay tuned to hear about the winning club, plus the UK's 2008 reading group book of the year. Last year's winning book was the Kite Runner--read about the runners up in my post from last year.

In Memoriam Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918-2008

It would have been hard to miss today's coverage of the death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident who opened a door on the world of the Soviet Communist regime with his groundbreaking Gulag Archipelago. While many of us read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in school, if you, or your book group, are curious about the Gulag, a great place to start is with Solzhenitsyn's own authorized abridgement, which also includes an introduction by Anne Applebaum, who wrote about how the Gulag changed the world on Slate today. For those who want the whole story, the Gulag is available in three unabridged editions as well.

A Haunting Lace Reader Video

I know there have been a lot of Lace Reader posts of late, but I have to share this haunting video with all of you, especially given your enthusiastic response to the interview with Brunonia Barry. Now that many of you have received the ARE, I know you'll enjoy this. The book went on sale this week. Look for Brunonia on tour and make sure you enter the contest to win a trip to Salem, MA!

In Praise of Book Clubs

Well I must admit I'm embarassed to have just found this great series of posts, considering this is the 18th one, and many of them are by regular BCG readers! Read what many bloggers have to say about what makes their book clubs special here!

Ann Patchett's Run is On Sale in Paperback Today!

Run, the acclaimed and bestselling new book by Ann Patchett, whose Bel Canto and Magician's Assistant have been top reading group choices for years is now in paperback! In Run, Patchett tells the story of the Doyle family, headed by Bernard Doyle, a former mayor of Boston. He has been raising their adopted sons Teddy and Tip Doyle on his own since the death of wife years earlier and hoping that they too will enter a life of politics, a dream that neither of the boys shares. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard cares about is his ability to keep his children—all his children—safe. You can browse inside Run here and be sure to check out the P.S. section exclusive to the paperback, in which Patchett talks about writing the book while the presidential election was gearing up and how that effected her thinking of setting and time.

Book Club Resources for Run:
Ann's Book Tour
Interview with Ann
Reading Group Guide
Visit Ann's Website

Read an Early Excerpt of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

When not hearing buzz about The Lace Reader, the other book everyone is talking about (and I am about to get my hands on) is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. This epistolary novel tells the story of a group of people who begin to call themselves "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" because they need an excuse for breaking the curfew set by the Germans occupying their island during WWII. Juliet Ashton is living in England as the war ends when she receives a letter from a member of the society who has found her address in one of her old books that has made its way to Guernsey. As their correspondence progresses, Juliet is drawn into an eccentric world of charming and funny people, from pig farmers to phrenologists, who are all lovers of literature.

I love epistolary novels, and whenever I hear about Guernsey I think of another novel of letters that I devoured, Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road. This one sounds wonderful and I can't wait to read it. It goes on sale next Tuesday, July 29th, and you can read an early excerpt here. Here is the reading group guide and here is what others (including book club favorite Elizabeth Gilbert) are saying about it.

Listen to the Book Club Chat with Victoria Lustbader Now!

Here's tonight's discussion with Victoria Lustbader about Stone Creek. It was a really wonderful conversation, thanks so much to everyone who called in and sent in questions for Victoria! Click on the widget below to listen.

Reminder! Our Book Club Chat with Victoria Lustbader, author of Stone Creek is this Wednesday, July 23rd at 7 PM EST

Those of you who signed on to participate will have already received an email reminder about our book club conversation this Wednesday night with Victoria, but the call is open to anyone who has read Stone Creek or is interested in discussing this compelling novel!

Set your reminder for the show here and return to that same link to listen to the show live on Wed at 7 pm EST. You can call in to the show to ask ask a question at this number: (347) 835-6149. As people call in, I'll identify them by the last four digits of your phone number. If I say your phone number, remember to turn down the volume on your computer when you ask your question. If you can't call in, but have questions for Victoria, please put them in the comments to this post, or you can send in questions while you're listening to the show via the Chat function on the show's page. But if you plan to do this, I recommend you register on the site beforehand. Make sure you enter your questions via "Chat" and not "Comments" so that I'll see them during the live show.

If you're not sure what to ask, but want to participate, check out the reading group guide to the book as well as a Q&A with Victoria from the back of the book, for inspiration. Hope to hear from some of you on Wednesday night!

New Brideshead Revisited More Closely Reflects Waugh's Classic Book

While I, along with millions of others, feel a strong affinity for the Brideshead Revisited that first introduced many of us to Evelyn Waugh's classic work (not to mention to Jeremy Irons) 27 (yikes) years ago, I was heartened to read in today's New York Times that the new adaptation opening next weekend more closely follows the book. I read the book years after watching the original miniseries and remember being surprised by the differences. This new one looks like it's going to be quite good, plus it stars Emma Thompson, which always means an enjoyable night at the movies. Here's the trailer, let me know what you think!

My Book Group Met the Other Night to Discuss Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth

As many of you know, from your fabulous response to my hosting stress-out, I hosted my book group this week. Thank you all for the food and drink suggestions you sent in, they inspired me to serve the following: a large punch bowl of lemonade (Country Time, but tricked out with lemon slices and spearmint leaves so it looked like I'd been slaving all day squeezing lemons); Prosecco, naan bread with hummus; olives and cheese sticks, cheese and crackers; a fruit salad of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries; ginger cookies and lemon cake. I believe everyone was pleased with the nosh.

We had a great discussion of Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, which all of us really liked and the fact that it was stories didn't slow us down as I had feared.(For more on how to discuss short stories, read this thoughtful piece from short story author Christopher Meeks over on the blog SheisTooFondofBooks). We remarked on how Lahiri's stories and depictions of human interaction reflect such universal feelings and relationships. While she's writing specifically about Indians and their immigration experience, when it comes down to each story, all of us found so much to identify with. We have some members who are not native to the US and it's always so interesting to hear their reaction to stories like Lahiri's about people who move to America and keep so much of their cultural identity and traditions intact.

We voted for our next selection and I offered up 6 choices rather than our usual 5. We had to go through a few rounds of voting to finally narrow it down to our winner. The contestants were (and forgive me, I know they're all from one particular house, but work was crazy this week and my husband was out of town and it was all I could do to remember to have books on hand):
Marisa de los Santos' Belong to Me
Delaune Michel's The Safety of Secrets
Debra Dean's The Madonnas of Leningrad
Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Dalia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz
Masha Hamilton's The Camel Bookmobile

The winner was The Septembers of Shiraz and I'm so excited to read Sofer's debut novel set in Iran after the revolution. You may recall that there's an online discussion of Shiraz going on right now at EverydayIWritetheBook so we'll be sure to check out those comments as well before we meet in August.

Here are resources for The Septembers of Shiraz:
The PS section in which Sofer talks about writing Shiraz
Browse inside the book
Reading Group Guide

Hey All You Lace Reader Fans -- You Could Win a Trip to Salem, MA!!

For those of you who signed on enthusiastically to my Lace Reader giveaway, I wanted to let you know of the contest launched today which you can enter to win a trip for two to Salem, Massachusetts, scene of Brunonia Barry's captivating novel. The prize includes two nights stay at the Hawthorne Hotel, a Salem Trolley tour of the town, passes to the Peabody Essex Museum, the Salem Witch Museum and the Witch House, two signed books and more! And for those of you who weren't able to get an advance copy of the book last week, you can read an exclusive sneak peek of The Lace Reader, which goes on sale on 7/29, online right now! Click here to read the sneak peek and click here to enter the contest!

We've Been Immortalized on the Big Screen, Now there's a Play!

If you live in Western Massachusetts, or happen to be vacationing near there this week, you may want to check out The Book Club Play, at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA which is reviewed in today's Variety. I think if you're in a book club, there is probably much to entertain you. But be quick about it, the play runs through this Saturday only, click here for ticket information (sorry I only just saw this today!)

Laurie Viera Rigler Recommends Keeping the House -- and Your Book Club Could Win Cookies to Enjoy With It!

Those of you who listened to my book club show with Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, may remember that when she was asked which authors and books she enjoyed, she mentioned Ellen Baker's Keeping the House. Says Rigler "I loved Keeping the House. It's a beautiful, moving novel that is tremendously relevant for our times. It's a multi-generational story that spans two World Wars and post-WWII, and it's about family secrets and what war does to us. I found myself completely engaged in the lives of the various characters." That recommendation is good enough for me and Keeping the House is out in paperback today.

And as if that weren't enough enticement, Baker is currently offering book clubs who adopt Keeping the House in August, September or October the chance to win two dozen Lacy Raisin Wafers to be shipped to your house in time for your meeting! Cookie details here. Baker is also available to call in to reading groups, time permitting, and you can make that request when you enter the cookie contest.

Read the first chapter of Keeping the House here, find discussion questions here and learn more about Baker's inspiration for the story here.

Happy Bastille Day Book Clubs -- Vive it Up with a Discount on French Wine!

Celebrate Bastille Day with your book club this week, or month -- grab some bottles of French wine (from now until 7/18, wine.com is offering 1 cent shipping on orders of more than $99 for their wines from France!) and choose a book with a French theme to discuss next month.Thanks to my francophile friends for helping me compile the below list of suggested titles.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
We'll Always Have Paris by John Baxter
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Liberty: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France by Lucy Moore
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

On the Road with Book Clubs

The (possibly) last installment of Robert Gray's look at book clubs from Shelf Awareness takes him across the country, highlighting unique book clubs by theme, what innovative stores are doing to bring people together in blook clubs and great book club names from "Bibliobabes" to "The Quick and the Read." Which leads me to wonder, does your book club have a name?

Wendy Lee's Happy Family is a Moving Exploration of Love and Loss

I first met Lily and her mother in late winter, about three months after I had arrived in America. So begin's Wendy Lee's moving debut novel Happy Family, about Hua, a young Chinese immigrant who is hired as a nanny to an adopted 2-year-old Chinese girl named Lily. Hua becomes deeply attached to the new family she works for, and ever closer to Lily, who reminds her of her own childhood, even as she feels foreign in an environment so different from her homeland. But when she starts noticing cracks in the facade of Lily's parent's marriage, Hua worries about what will happen to Lily and to the family she's come to love. Happy Family is an entrancing exploration of love and loss, the familiar and the foreign, and the ties that bind strangers together. Read an excerpt here, what reviewers are saying here, read an interview with Lee, and here is the reading group guide.

BCG Readers -- I'm Hosting My Book Club Next Week and Need Your Help

Help me readers! I'm hosting my book club next week and am fresh out of ideas of what to serve. We normally serve a few savory and few sweet things at our meetings, so it's not like I need to plan a huge dinner, but I'm just bored by what I've offered in the past. Last year I served pound cake, fresh blueberries and strawberries and freshly whipped cream, along with cheese and crackers and grapes, and of course, wine. What's your favorite dish to serve? I welcome any and all ideas!

Book Club Tips for Summer

There are some great ideas in this post from BookGroupBuzz on how to change things up in your book group this summer -- from re-reading a childhood favorite to picking a film adaptation to changing your location -- oceanside anyone?

Debut Novelist Available to Call In to Book Clubs!

Meri Weiss' debut novel Closer to Fine is just out and looks like  it a wonderful one for book club discussions. Four years after the death of her brother, and her own depression and suicide attempt, Alex is trying to get her life together when she meets a man who might be the missing key to her happiness, or not. Simon Van Booy, author of The Secret Lives of People in Love (is that not one of the best book titles ever?)says that Closer to Fine has "characters so beautifully crafted and realistic, you'll spend the rest of your life looking for them on the streets of Manhattan. This brilliant first novel is a comic masterpiece which bravely deals with the stark emptiness of tragedy and the ultimate redemption through friendship and the power of trust."

Weiss is available to call in to book groups and there's a reading guide in the back of the book. You can read the first chapter here and visit Weiss' website to contact her to speak to your book group. She also has a great blog and is making some appearances in the tri-state area. Check it out!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone has a great day filled with fireworks, barbecues and relaxation. We'll be hitting our main park to see the old time-y circus that comes to town each year and of course going to the fireworks at night. (Though this is my son's first real cognizant year, so fireworks might start to get scary. We'll see.) The circus is pretty great -- filled with death defying acts (without a net), funny clowns, and some very talented dogs -- so in honor of Big Tops everywhere, I wanted to remind readers of Katherine Dunn's wonderful novel from several years ago, Geek Love. For those who haven't read it, I recommend it highly. Dunn tells the story of a family of freaks, geeks and other aberrancies of the human conditon, who travel together as a circus. Geek Love was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Chicago Tribune called it "“unrelentingly bizarre . . . perverse but riveting. . . . Will keep you turning the pages.” There is also much to discuss so it makes a great book club selection. Here's the reading group guide.

Have You Heard about The Lace Reader?

If not, you soon will. The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry, was a self-published reading group sensation when it came out about a year ago and later this month it comes out in hardcover. Barry was at ALA this past weekend and got to speak to Virginia Stanley on Blog Talk Radio about her novel which is set in Salem, MA and tells the story of a family of women who can read the future in a pattern of lace. Told from the perspective of self-proclaimed unreliable narrator Towner Whitney, the novel begins with her return home to Salem and the disappearance of two women. Events are set into motion which will reveal the truth about the death of Towner's twin sister years earlier. Listen to Barry talk about her captivating novel below.

The first ten people to comment on the interview will receive a gorgeous advance reader's edition of The Lace Reader, which is not on sale until 7/29. And be sure to check out The Lace Reader website, which has more background information on lace reading, the novel and Barry's blog.

Since the response has been so great, the giveaway is still on, comment away!

Diane Rehm's New Reader's Review Book is Anne of Green Gables

Diane Rehm's new reader's review title is L.M. Montgomery's children's classic about a young girl who is sent to live with a lonely middle aged brother and sister on Prince Edward Island, Anne of Green Gables. I will now confess that while I am a lover of children's literature, I have not read Anne. I think this is because my sister was really into the books, and while that certainly didn't dissuade me from falling in love with Betsy, Tacy and co, my need to be different somehow kept me from reading Anne. We even visited the Green Gables House on Prince Edward Island on a family vacation. What can I say, I was a stubborn child. So perhaps now is the time. The discussion will take place on Diane Rehm's show on July 23rd (the day of my next show!).

Announcing My Next Blog Talk Radio Show with Victoria Lustbader, author of Stone Creek