Book Groups - Book Clubs

What is your book group reading next??

We'd like to hear what you are reading throughout the coming year. We would be delighted to open discussion on authors or particular books too. The Library has a great selection of BOOK GROUP in a BAG, with hundreds of titles. There are also wonderful  Reading Group  or Book Club Guides (with questions, or if you like this author, read these).

Don't forget to meet the author too = the Library has a number of author visits scheduled for 2011. Watch this space! There are quite a few regional visits of authors as well. Share if you plan to attend.

A favourite spot to locate new book titles, subject or ideas or award winning authors is htttp://www.vintagebooks.com/read

One of my book groups has a Poetry Pot Luck in December - an annual event now. In January we are reading  Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese


Books discussed or suggested or on want to read lists: (Feel free to recommend or not any on this list!)

Diego and Frida by LeClezio

Half Baked Ponies by Jeanette Walls (memoir)

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It by Ken Aulett (NF)

The Piano Teacher by Janice K. Lee (F)

The House on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (F)

Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Schain, recently recommended
House Keeping by Marilyn Robinson ( a recent Writer's Almanac)
Gilead by Marilyn Robinson

Making Democracy Work: A Judge's View by Stephen Breyer (just out in Sept!)

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Man(NF) by Laney Salisbury, Ally Sujo,

When the Crocodile Ate the Sun ()NF) by Peter Godwin,

Five Quarters of the Orange (F) by Joanne Harris

Remembering Smell for Fun (NF) by Bonnie Blodgett

Sea of Poppies (F) by Amitov Ghosh

The Little Stranger (F) by Sarah Waters

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Outcasts United by Warren St. John (NF)

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James (recently featured on MPR)

Book Group in a Bag

Just to let you know that the Library has some wonderful books for book groups - the selection of titles by author is listed below. There are generally 10 books in a book bag (although more may be available if you have a larger book group). The Friends' sorting volunteers try to keep extra copies of these books as they are donated. This is a great way to read a classic and enjoy a discussion. Try a new piece of non-fiction and be taken away! Experience another culture or another time. Set a date to meet your friends and enjoy the reading experience!

Alexie, Sherman. The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian Flight
Almond, Steve. Candyfreak
Angelou, Maya. I know why the caged bird sings
Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice
Bancroft, Ann and Liv Arnesen. No horizon is so far
Barbery, Muriel. Elegance of the hedgehog
Barrows, Annie. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Berg, Elizabeth. We are all welcome here
Bingham, Clara. Class action
Blackmore, R.D. Lorna Doone
Blum, Jenna. Those who save us
Bohjalian, Chris. Before you know kindness
Boyle, T. Coraghessan. The tortilla curtain
Brockmeier, Kevin. The brief history of the dead
Brooks, Geraldine. Year of wonders
Brown, Dan. Angels and demons
The Da Vinci code
Buck, Pearl S. The good earth
Carr, Caleb. The alienist
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s adventures in Wonderland; Through the looking-glass
Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!
Chevalier, Tracy. Falling angels
Child, Julia. My life in France
Clark, Walter. The ox-bow incident
Clinton, Catherine. Mrs. Lincoln: a life
Courtenay, Bryce. The power of one
Crane, Stephen. The red badge of courage
Cross, Donna W. Pope Joan
Diamant, Anita. The red tent
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas carol
Dubus, Andre III. The house of sand and fog
Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi
Edwards, Kim. The memory keeper’s daughter
Eliot, George. Silas Marner
Elliott, Elissa. Eve
Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex
Farmer, Nancy. House of the scoprion
Franklin, Ariana. City of shadows
Franzen, Jonathan. The corrections
Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain
Gladwell, Malcolm. The tipping point
Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a geisha
Grisham, John. The innocent man
Grogan, John. Marley and me
Gruen, Sara. Water for elephants
Haddon, Mark. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Hansberry, Lorraine. A raisin in the sun
Hemingway, Ernest. For whom the bell tolls
Holman, Sheri. The dress lodger
Horan, Nancy. Loving Frank
Hosseini, Khaled. The kite runner and A thousand splendid suns
Hugo, Victor. The hunchback of Notre Dame
Kanon, Jospeh. The good German
Kidd, Sue Monk. The secret life of bees
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains beyond mountains
King, Thomas. Green grass, running water
Kingsolver, Barbara. The bean trees
Kinsella, W.P. Shoeless Joe
Kozol, Jonathan. Letters to a young teacher
Krakauer, Jon. Into the wild
Lahiri, Jhumpa. The namesake
Landvik, Lorna. Angry housewives eating bon-bons
Larson, Erik. The devil in the White City
Larsson, Stieg. The girl with the dragon tattoo
Le Carre, John. The constant gardener
Lee, Harper. To kill a mockingbird
Levin, Ira. Stepford wives
Levine, James. The blue notebook
Loewen, James. Lies my teacher told me
Logue, Mary. Blood country
Lord, Bette. Spring moon
Lowry, Lois. The giver
Martel, Yann. The life of Pi
Mayes, Frances. Under the Tuscan sun
McBride, James. The color of water
McCourt, Frank. Angela's ashes
McEwan, Ian. Atonement
McGhee, Alison. Shadow baby
McLaughlin, Emma. The nanny diaries
Moriarty, Laura. The center of everything
Morgan, Robert. Gap Creek
Mortensen, Greg. Three cups of tea
Myers, Walter Dean. Riot
Obama, Barack. Dreams from my father
Paretsky, Sara. Bleeding Kansas
Parks, Gordon. The learning tree
Petterson, Per. Out stealing horses
Picoult, Jodi. Plain truth
Power, Susan. The grass dancer
Quindlen, Anna. Blessings
Razor, Peter J. While the locust slept
Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead
Rölvaag, O.E. Giants in the earth
Rostand, Edmund. Cyrano de Bergerac
Russell, Mary Doria. The Sparrow
Sachar, Louis. Holes
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis
Schmidt, Monique Maria. Last moon dancing
Sebold, Alice. The lovely bones
See, Lisa. Shanghai girls
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet
Shen, Fan. Gang of one: memoirs of a Red Guard
Steinbeck, John. The grapes of wrath
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s cabin
Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge
Taylor, Kathrine Kressmann. Address unknown
Thackeray, William. Vanity fair
Tracy, P.J. Monkeewrench
Wilder, Thornton. Our town: a play in three acts
Wroblewski, David. The story of Edgar Sawtelle
Yang, Kao Kalia. The latehomecomer
Young, William P. The shack
Zaslow, Jeffrey. The girls from Ames
Zusak, Markus. The book thief

Book Clubs

Bluestocking Monarda in my garden

Please send in your comments about your bookclub (s) of what you are reading now. One of my book clubs (the BBC - for Bluestocking Book Club, or Bas Bleu Club, or Brunch Book Club, depending on origin) met yesterday (at Jaspers so someone else does the cooking and cleaning, but it is a delightful atmosphere with good food), and as always we discussed books. Not just any books, but books that you finish reading and simply MUST share with someone. Especially someone you know likes that author or that genre.
I loved seeing a Friends' face when I laid my copy of The Whisperer by John Connolly on her place setting. She was in need of the next good read, and travelling soon. She was also the person who introduced me to Harlan Coban, in the Friends' Bookstore, as we exchanged if you like him, read this! We passed around multiple copies of the Ariana Franklin Mistress of the Art of Death series. There was much discussion about the new Alexander McCall Smith series, while some were also catching up on his previous novels and series. New poetry suggestions, one of our friends is on the COVER of a new book, as her husband did a stunning photograph. It is rather mysterious but very beautiful. Now I need to buy that book too!
I am into reading nonfiction at the moment, with historical writing in New England my next work topic. As I was trying to sleep last night I was thinking I really needed something lighter to read, to ease the sleep process!
So = any and all book recommendations will be appreciated. I will be in the Bookstore today to have a look at new titles/acquisitions and will describe some of the best for you later!
Continue that Summer Reading and remember the Friends Reading Contest, creating alist of what you are reading - free books!