"So... What Should We Read Next?"

Today RGG.com contributor Jamie Layton offers a solution for the book club question "What should we read next?" and shares some news about The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz.


Picking books can be the biggest bane of a book club. Not to beat a dead horse, but there really is no other instance where the phrase "So many books, so little time" rings truer. A lot of each meeting's precious time can be spent trying to figure out "what should we read next?" Here’s where your local Independent bookstore can be of valuable help. In our book group, I decided early on to take charge and for several reasons. As a bookseller there are many resources available to me that the average reader doesn't have access to.

Publishers' catalogs, advance reading copies, industry publications, weekly updates and hot-sheets from my reps, web sites and more. For instance, I know what's coming out in paperback at least six months in advance and therefore can hold off suggesting a pricey hardback my group will like until it shows up in a more affordable trade version just one season later. A bookseller might also suggest genres often ignored by book clubs. The first time our group read a short story collection I was amazed by how many members said they hardly ever read short stories, and I was thrilled when they found they enjoyed them immensely.

Booksellers will also have great recommendations in the non-fiction world --- awesome books that end up failing to get your club's attention simply because these shelves are so overwhelming. In addition, through our publishing world contacts, booksellers are also aware of unique opportunities --- like authors who are willing to join a book group's discussion via telephone for a memorable meeting! I can't urge you strongly enough to go to your local Indie bookstore, find the book buyer and say, "My book club could really use your input in our monthly selection process. Would you be willing to help us?" I am sure you will hear a resounding "I'd love to!"...and you can tell them I recommended them!

In Jamie's Book Club, my new bi-monthly subscription service, I'm pleased to say I have more than 20 founding members from California to Virginia! This month they received my debut selection --- The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz. Taking inspiration from actual events, Schwartz tells the story of Haruko, a well-bred, upper class Japanese girl who becomes the first non-aristocrat to wed into the Japanese Imperial family. The obstacles and heartbreaks she faces are daunting; the life she dreamed of...a fairy tale that never comes true. Schwartz had unparalleled access to intimates of the current Empress which makes this book not only the closest one to the truth, but the only one currently available on the subject of Japan's modern-day Imperial family. The Commoner is a peek behind the Chrysanthemum throne at the pomp and circumstances endured by the world's oldest hereditary monarchy.

This is a great book club read --- a blend of contemporary and historical fiction with a wide ranging appeal and tons of discussion potential. In order to further enhance my members' experience, I've begun a blog to support their reading by providing an outlet for comment and discussion. And for all my other readers, I will be posting regularly with other bookish and Outer Banks related commentary. I'm very excited to announce that today over at http://www.duckscottage.blogspot.com/ we feature a special guest blogger who is none other than John Burnham Schwartz! John will be sharing with us his inspiration and research behind this interesting novel and answering questions previously posted by readers. Thanks very much to Ginny Mortorff at Random House, Jennifer Marshall at Vintage and Mr. Schwartz for their support of this endeavor, their help with ensuring the success of Jamie's Book Club and, as always, for getting behind us Indies. So now that you've read my post here, jump over to http://www.duckscottage.blogspot.com/ and see what's happening there!

---Jamie Layton

Field Trips for Book Clubs

Does your reading group need a change of scenery? Jayne Pupek offers some terrific suggestions for a wide array of book club field trips --- including some ideas on where to go when talking about her Southern-set debut novel, Tomato Girl. Jayne is also the author of a book of poems, Forms of Intercession, and lives near Richmond, Virginia. Click here to watch a video about Tomato Girl.


Book clubs, like all groups, can fall into a rut. The same routines that provide structure and organization to meetings can also lead to complacency, boredom and lower attendance. What better way to prevent or alleviate a case of book club doldrums than to plan a field trip for the group? An outing can not only jumpstart new conversations, but can also strengthen bonds between members and spark renewed interest in the group.

One of the simplest and most affordable field trips is to head to the local movie theater to see the film adaptation of a book the club has read or is currently reading. Revolutionary Road, The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are current releases based on either a novel or short story. Forthcoming adaptations include The Lovely Bones and The Road. As an alternative, the group might hold a movie night by staying in and watching a DVD. This option allows the group to consider art house and independent films that might not be shown widely on the big screen, as well as older classics and recent movies the group may have missed. (I'm always surprised at how few people have seen Iris, a film based on the life of British novelist Iris Murdoch. Kate Winslet plays the young Iris; Judi Dench plays the mature version.)

A restaurant, too, can be a fun and satisfying field trip, especially if the cuisine ties in with the theme or setting of the book. Consider meeting at a Chinese restaurant if your club is reading a book by Amy Tan, or try an Irish pub for discussions about works by Samuel Beckett or Maeve Binchy. What about a trip to the chocolatier to sample truffles while reading the novel Chocolat? A vineyard with alfresco dining is a lovely spot to discuss any book. Try a coffee shop for a discussion of the latest cozy mystery or a bar and grill to talk over a relevant thriller.

Sometimes a simple change of scenery boosts enthusiasm. Why not plan a picnic at the lake or spend the afternoon at the beach, a museum or a botanical garden? Consider, too, outings and events that relate to the main character of the book your club is reading. Is the heroine a music teacher? Then consider a recital or concert. Does the hero perform in a circus or rehabilitate horses? If so, a trip to the circus or stables might be the perfect activity. If your club is reading any of the wonderful fiction or nonfiction works about dogs, hold your next meeting at the dog park and invite members to bring their canine companions along.

Most avid readers also love to shop for books. A fun activity for any club is to make the rounds at specialty book shops, including second hand book shops and those catering to a specific category such as all mysteries, children's books or women's books. Don't overlook library sales and book sales hosted by colleges and universities.

Finally, get to know your local book community and keep informed of events held at bookstores, libraries and universities. I had the great privilege of hearing a lecture by Toni Morrison a few years ago, an experience I would have missed had I not seen the announcement from the university hosting the event. Sign up for newsletters and announcements so that you can be aware of writers visiting your area. Most of these events are free and open to the public. Your local chamber of commerce or state office on tourism may also be able to provide you with information on museums or festivals that may be of interest to book clubs.

I'd like to also share some suggestions for trips book clubs might take if they select my novel, Tomato Girl, for their group read. Tomato Girl is narrated by eleven-year-old Ellie Sanders, whose father comes under the thrall of a pretty teenage vegetable peddler, leaving Ellie to cope with her mother's deteriorating mental health. The story takes place in a fictional rural Virginia town in the late 1960s, which would make a trip to a county fair or a farmer's market an ideal event to accompany the book. As an alternative, to honor Clara, the African American clairvoyant who cares for Ellie, the group might choose to attend a psychic fair or arrange to have tarot card readings, events frequently held at New Age book stores. Another alternative might be to visit a lapidary shop and purchase a favorite crystal or gemstone as a symbol for Clara's "magic." A meal at a restaurant that serves Southern cuisine is another great option; everyone should eat grits and fried tomatoes at least once.

With a little imagination and planning, you may find your book club members looking forward to their next field trip with the same enthusiasm they show for the next great book.

---Jayne Pupek

Join Us on Facebook

We recently added a fan page for ReadingGroupGuides.com on Facebook. You can become fans of the site on Facebook by searching ReadingGroupGuides.com or by clicking here. On this page we will be adding our daily blogs and putting out questions for discussion.

We would love you to share pictures of your groups and comments on the books that we suggest. While we have a very vibrant message board on ReadingGroupGuides.com, we know that many of you like to share your thoughts and stay in touch via Facebook.

I look forward to seeing you as fans of ReadingGroupGuides.com on Facebook.

Bleeding on the Page

In today's guest blog post, Jamie Ford talks about race and identity, and how he drew on his own experiences and those of his family for his debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Alternating between the 1940s and the 1980s, it's a poignant story about Japanese interment in Seattle during World War II --- seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old Chinese boy, Henry Lee, who is searching for his first love forty years after they met during that tumultuous time.

Click here to watch an interview with Jamie discussing Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. And click here for a video of the author narrating a tour of the Seattle neighborhood where Japanese lives were disrupted at the start of World War II.


When the census takers knock on my door every ten years and ask the race question, I always draw a blank. It's not like the male or female query, which is an either/or proposition --- even if you had to guess you'd get it right half the time.

Race, on the other hand, just confounds me. It's because I'm half...something. I'm half Chinese and I'm half Caucasian. (My mom was German/English --- which I lovingly regard as "Betty Crocker White.") Put the two halves together and I'm not really a whole anything. At least not on the census forms, which want a clear definition: White or Black or Asian or Hispanic or Martian, etc. Being a little of both, I suppose half of the time I've marked white, and half the time I've marked Asian. Like Barack Obama going by "Barry," for some of us it isn't so easy to sort out who we really are. If they had a box that said "mutt," I'd be all over it. Until then, I'm sure some census computer is arcing hot sparks and grinding its gears trying to figure out when and where I was able to undergo a race change.

Having one foot firmly planted on either side of a cultural divide is a peculiar thing. As a child, when it came to race, the person I related to most was Mr. Spock (the pointy-eared alien from Star Trek, not Benjamin Spock, who wrote that famous book on parenting). Spock was a half-breed, as Dr. McCoy was so fond of pointing out --- yet he wanted to be more. I didn't have green blood running through my veins, but I knew what that longing felt like.

Growing up among my Chinese relatives, I was a bit of an oddball. I didn't speak Cantonese like everyone else. I hadn't attended Chinese school. And when I tried to fit in I got it wrong, half the time.

Around my white relatives, I was equally regarded as different. My dad ran a Chinese restaurant and taught martial arts. I went to Chinatown and ate chicken feet and snacked on dried cuttle-fish. I knew how to serve tea, and chopsticks were more necessity than novelty.

In both settings, I found myself longing for acceptance.

Upon reflection, that emotional conflict is probably where my character Henry Lee comes from: a child immersed in a culture he can't always connect to. From his Chinese parents that desperately want him to be more "American" to his all-white school that sees him, at best, as a Chinese outsider. Or at worst, think he's Japanese --- a precarious distinction in the weeks after the bombings of Pearl Harbor.

With fictional characters, writers tend to prick their fingers and bleed on the page. If that's so, then the character of Henry is more of a heart transplant. When writing Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I wove in my own life experiences and re-imagined my father's. And his father's as well. It helped me realize that half isn't always half-bad.

And as fate would have it, we're approaching another census year. When that earnest young pollster knocks on my door, I'll still be looking for that 50/50 box to check. But I won't be quite so disappointed if I don't find it. I know who I am.

If you'd like me to call in to your book club to discuss Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, the census, the color of Vulcan blood or just about anything else --- I'd love to hear from you.

--- Jamie Ford

Joshua Henkin's Book Club Adventures: The Latest Chapter, December 2008 Part II

On Friday Joshua Henkin shared stories about some of his book club visits to discuss his novel Matrimony, including a very unusual question and how he answered it. A chronicle of his adventures in December continues here...


A Popular Book Group Process Question: How Do You Write --- By Computer or By Hand, How Often, What Time of Day, etc.?

Writers are often asked this question, and a lot of them get annoyed by it. Maybe I'm just a less easily annoyed kind of guy, but it seems to me a reasonable question. I think some writers dislike the question because they think lying behind it is the idea that all you need to be a good novelist is the right kind of pen. And I do think people can make too much of process. My writing students, for instance, sometimes use process as a way to procrastinate. If only I had the right computer, the right desk, the right environment in which to write, I'd get my work done. It's certainly the case that some situations are more conducive to writing than others (when I have my two daughters, ages 5 and 3, sitting on my lap and asking me, as they often do, to click on the YouTube video of the panda sneezing or the otters holding hands, that's a sign that I'm not going to get much writing done), but I'm a big believer that writers need to make do with what's given to them. You have to learn to write in a variety of places and under a wide set of circumstances. The writer who waits for the perfect environment and for the right amount of inspiration isn't going to write (I don't believe in inspiration, in any case. I think there's writing that's inspired and writing that's uninspired, but you can't always tell how you'll write from how you feel when you sit down to write. Sometimes when I'm feeling least inspired I write my best work, and sometimes when I'm feeling most inspired I write my worst work. Feeling too inspired can lead you to fall in love with the sound of your own voice.)

All that said, I do think how one writes can influence what one writes. Case in point. I've always written by computer, then printed my material out, then made changes, then printed out again, then made more changes, then printed out, and on and on and on (I'm a pretty bad environmentalist when it comes to writing --- I always print my work out because things look different on the page; the screen is a lot more forgiving). But early on in the writing of Matrimony, my computer broke down and it was in the shop for a few weeks, so I was forced to write by hand. And I found the experience surprisingly liberating. I'm a compulsive when it comes to writing; I can spend hours changing a word here, a word there, switching punctuation marks back and forth. I think you need to be a compulsive writer; you have to get everything exactly right. But a writer can be too compulsive too early.

The way I see it, writing the first draft of a novel is an act of ceding control. You're writing in a dream state; you don't know where the book is going, and that's a good thing. It takes a couple of years to know not whether it's going to be a good novel or a bad novel but whether it's going to be a novel at all. If you revise too soon, you interfere with that dream state. You spend months perfecting a chapter that, as beautiful as it is, doesn't belong in the book. There's a time for revision, and there's a time for not looking back. It's like building a house. You shouldn't be fiddling with the ornamentation on the doorpost before you've laid the foundation.

On the other hand, I'm instinctively, temperamentally an ornamentation-fiddler. Which is why I found writing by hand liberating. When the text appears on the screen it looks neat, so I feel compelled to make it neat in a deeper way. But I have terrible handwriting (I went to Jewish day school growing up, where we spent half the day reading and writing in Hebrew, and more than once people have looked at my handwriting and thought I was writing Hebrew, when it was just illegible English.), and so there's no illusion that what I'm doing is beautiful. And this lack of superficial beauty allows me to make an end-run around my revision problem. It allows me to plow forward without looking back and to save the all-important revision (ultimately, revision is what's most crucial; it's what separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls) for later. And it changes my sentences too --- makes them a little wilder and more surprising. So when my computer came back from the shop, I continued to write by hand. And that's how I ended up writing most of Matrimony --- the initial draft I wrote by hand, and then I typed the mess onto the computer and the hard work began.

Follow-up to one of November's "Most Unusual Book Group Questions"
The facilitator of a book group I visited in November wanted to know why it says at the back of novels what font the book was printed in. Here's the answer, care of (and with thanks to) Andy Hughes, the director of art and book production at Knopf:

"The note on the type colophon was instituted pretty much from the get go by Alfred Knopf, mostly in admiration of the Arts & Crafts movement in the UK the century before, when William Morris et al, in worshipful deference to the art of fine book making practiced in the Renaissance, adopted including a description (and celebration) of font design and all other forms of typographic excellence in their books."

O.K., folks, that's all for this month. A good January (and beginning of February) of book grouping to you all. By the way, groups who were registered with RGG.com by January 16th were eligible to win copies of Matrimony and an author chat with me. If you entered, who knows: you just might make it into next month's roundup.

---Joshua Henkin

Previous RGG.com Posts by Joshua Henkin:
Book Club Adventures: The Latest Chapter, December 2008 Part I
Book Club Adventures, November 2008 Part I
Book Club Adventures, November 2008 Part II
Shouting Matches and More

Joshua Henkin's Book Club Adventures: The Latest Chapter, December 2008

Each month novelist and creative writing professor Joshua Henkin shares behind-the-scenes stories about his visits with book clubs --- in person, over the phone and online --- to discuss his novel Matrimony. Check back on Monday for more of Josh's December book club adventures. And groups who were registered with RGG.com by January 16th were eligible to win copies of Matrimony. To be eligible for future offers, you can register your group here.


A little belatedly (too much book group eggnog, apparently), here is the December roundup of my book group visits to discuss my novel Matrimony. As was true last year, December was a slower month than usual (I think the holidays prompt some book groups to take a break), but there still was a lot of great discussion and general book group intrigue. (And January is proving to be a packed month --- this past week, I spoke to three groups in one day, and I did my first book group video chat, on Skype --- so check back for next month's report as well.) In any case, without further ado:

December's Statistics
1) Brooklyn Book Group: 10 Participants; Estimated Average Age: 30; Number of Women: 10; Number of Men: 0. Number of author's former graduate students in attendance: 1; Distance traveled: 5 blocks.
2) New York City Book Group: 15 Participants; 1 Facilitator. Estimated Average Age: 40. Number of Women: 16; Number of Men: 0; Distance traveled: 19.43 miles (26 subway stops).
3) Online Book Group: 3 Participants; Number of Women: 3; Number of Men: 0. Estimated Average Age: Couldn't tell. Number of States Represented in Book Group: 3; Number of Time Zones Represented: 2. Number of author's fingers that needed serious massaging after he was done typing: 10. Distance Traveled: 8 inches (author needed to pull chair up to desk).
4) Margate, NJ, Book Group: 6 Participants; Number of Women: 6; Number of Men: 0. Estimated Average Age: Couldn't tell. Number of hours before actual meeting that author and book group first made contact: 4; Number of reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer who were members of book group: 1; Number of articles about author's book group adventures that appeared the following week in the Philadelphia Inquirer: 1; Distance Traveled: 12 feet roundtrip, from desk to phone and back again.

December's Most Unusual Question: How did you know that I fold my underwear like that?
OK, OK, let me explain. There's a scene in Matrimony, about three-quarters of the way through the book, when for reasons I won't specify (no spoilers), Mia makes a visit to the gynecologist. It's an anxiety-producing visit, and as she's waiting for the doctor to come into the office where she's sitting naked except for her patient's gown, she folds up her underwear and hides it beneath her clothes because she doesn't want the doctor to see it. She feels vaguely silly doing this, since the doctor is going to see her naked and will be conducting an internal exam. But she does it nonetheless.

I didn't think much of it at the time --- it's a single line, and it's certainly not important to the plot of the book --- so I've been surprised by the number of people who have talked about this moment at book group meetings. And though December was the first time someone actually asked me how I knew she folded her underwear (Believe me, I didn't: I'd just met her half an hour earlier!), it's a moment that's sparked a lot of discussion. The gist of the question is this: How do you know that women do that (By the way, I don't assume that all women do that. Some women, for all I know, may toss their underwear in the doctor's lap. Fiction, in any case, is committed to the belief that no two characters are exactly alike.) and, more broadly, how is it possible for a man to write from a woman's point of view and, with any luck, get it right? This is asked of me because for large sections of Matrimony I write in Mia's point of view and because --- for some people, at least --- Mia is one of the characters they're most drawn to. People want to know did I do research (visit the gynecologist?) and, if I didn't, did I grow up around women?

Well, sure, I grew up around women. They make up half the population, after all. But people assume that I must have had sisters, when, in fact, I come from a family of three sons. But I have a mother, I have female friends, I had girlfriends, I now have a wife, I'm the father of two daughters, and my dog's a girl, too. But I'd like to think even without daughters (they weren't born until Matrimony was almost finished), and certainly without a female dog, I'd have been able to write this book. I'm certainly flattered to learn that readers find Mia compelling, but I'm never sure what to say when I'm asked how I put myself in the mind of a woman. In terms of the gynecologist scene itself, the only times I've ever been to the gynecologist were when my wife was pregnant, and I wrote that scene before my wife got pregnant. Fiction writing is incredibly hard, and perhaps the hardest thing about it is getting your characters right --- making them sound, look, and feel authentic --- but I don't think it's any different if you're writing about a woman than if you're writing about a man.

Even if Matrimony were autobiographical (it's not: see November book group roundup), there would be at most one character who was me; the rest of the characters I would have to invent. And I see fiction writing as being principally about invention --- about getting outside your own experience. A gregarious person has to write from a shy person's point of view; a young person has to write from an old person's point of view; a poor person has to write from a rich person's point of view. It's hard to do that, certainly, but no harder (or easier) than a man writing from a woman's point of view or a woman writing from a man's point of view. To me, fiction writing (and fiction reading, too) is about the imagination. It's also about curiosity. In fact, I would argue that perhaps the most important trait a novelist should possess (as important as --- perhaps more important than --- a flair for language) is limitless curiosity.

Check back on Monday for more of my December book club adventures...

---Joshua Henkin


Previous RGG.com Posts by Joshua Henkin:
Book Club Adventures, November 2008
Book Club Adventures, November 2008 Part II
Shouting Matches and More

Today Show Talks with Greg Mortenson

One of the most talked about books on the ReadingGroupGuides.com blog of late has been Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time. This morning the Today Show talked with Mortenson --- who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize --- about his memoir and his mission. If your group is planning to read Three Cups of Tea, or even if you have already, you might want to check out the interview for some insight into the author and the book.

Mortenson shared some intriguing anecdotes such as the personal circumstances that inspired him to climb K2, the second-highest mountain in the world --- and how that experience in turn led him to found the Central Asia Institute, an organization that builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. To date, the Institute has built 78 schools and runs four dozen others. Other interesting facts: Many schools have adopted Three Cups of Tea for their course curriculums, and the book is required reading for some Pentagon employees.

For the interview, Mortenson was joined by his 12-year-old daughter, Amira, who shared her perspective on what kids in America can learn from their counterparts in other regions of the world. She contributed an Afterword to Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition. There is also a children's picture book, Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth.

Meet the Scripteasers and Other Book Clubs

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at other book clubs? Every month on ReadingGroupGuides.com we feature interviews with book clubs and learn things like what makes a group flourish for decades, how new groups come together, what books have provided the most memorable discussions and much, much more.

Here we introduce four of these groups, and you can click through to read their interviews.

Everything and a Book Club Too
Selene Miller is the chairperson for Everything and a Book Club Too in West Chicago, Illinois, whose members range in age from 17 to 74. Selene describes how her group selects titles and shares stories of some of their best discussions, trips and events (one of which drew 175 people). She also explains why Michael Cunningham's The Hours has been brought up at every meeting the past six years.

Glamour Girls Lit Society
A member of Glamour Girls Lit Society in Huntington, West Virginia, Becky Morgan talks about the inspiration that led this group of women to form a book club a little over a year ago. She also reminisces about a memorable discussion she and her fellow members had with a local author and divulges their "first rule of book club."

Reflections
Kimberly Bland is the founder and facilitator of Reflections in Columbiana, Ohio. She talks about the impact that moving the group's meeting place has had on their discussions and explains how selecting and discussing new titles allows members to gain insight into one another's thoughts and emotions.

The Scripteasers
The Scripteasers of Saratoga, California, have been meeting since the 1980s. Member Mary-Lynne Bernald discusses the group's varied reading list as well as its prerequisites for choosing titles. She also talks about their annual girls' getaway and the one time a year when they include their significant others in a book club gathering.

Share Your Book Club Story!
If you'd like to tell us all about your book club, click here to answer our interview questions.

Tune in to Good Morning America Tomorrow

Tomorrow on ABC's Good Morning America, ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor and book club facilitator Esther Bushell is scheduled to appear in a segment titled "Advice to President Obama" (slated to air between 7 and 8 a.m.). Tune in to hear what words of wisdom Esther has for the new commander-in-chief.

Book Clubs in the News

Occasionally we highlight news articles featuring book clubs across the country. Travel from Texas to Oregon in this month's round-up, which includes a profile of a book club with a very long history and one in which members thrive on their differences. You'll also find plenty of reading suggestions.


Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What We're Reading/Book Clubs in Georgia
Part of the inspiration for a newly-formed Georgia book club was to "set a good example for their children to continue their love for reading." One of their goals? To support local authors.

The Bulletin: Shumia Book Club Has Been Meeting Since 1908
Members of an Oregon reading group talk about the astounding longevity of their club --- and some of the traditions started by their predecessors a century ago that they still carry on.

The Chronicle-Telegram: Ritter Book Clubs Surprise, Engage Readers
The Ritter Public Library in Vermilion, Ohio, hosts two very different book clubs.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: Book Club of the Month
Differences in religious beliefs, political views and professions enhance the reading group experience for the members of a Texas book club. Along with talking about their group, they share some of their favorite reading suggestions.

The Gazette: Venture Out of Reading Comfort Zone
Columnist Anita Miller talks about how joining a book club got her out of her "mystery comfort zone."

The Wall Street Journal: Book Club Questions
Book Lover columnist Cynthia Crossen answers two questions for reading group members about first novels and "happily ever after" endings.

New Year, New Lists

What titles were ReadingGroupGuides.com book club members talking about in 2008? Now posted on the site are the most-requested discussion guides for 2008 in three categories --- New Favorites, Ongoing Favorites and Enduring Favorites.

Among the New Favorites are The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. All three authors have blogged for us, offering interesting insights into their novels and sharing stories about their meetings with book clubs.

Also in the New Favorites category is Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace....One School at a Time. We've heard from many book clubs, including one mentioned in our holiday feature, who were inspired to take action after reading Mortenson's memoir and donate to the Central Asia Institute, an organization he founded to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, the story of two friends in 19th-century China, is proving to be a steady favorite with book clubs, and it's one of the discussion guides listed in the Ongoing Favorites category. Click here to read Lisa's RGG.com blog post, "A Thank You to Book Clubs."




To view the 2008 lists:
New Favorites
Ongoing Favorites
Enduring Favorites

Reading Aloud: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

It is fitting that I am writing this blog as I watch the Golden Globe Awards since the idea for it came from a movie. Over the holidays we went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I just loved. There was something about the story that grabbed me right from the opening. It was clever, and I thought the execution was quite wonderful. There are stories that just strike a chord with me, and this was one of them.

I knew from our Books Into Movies feature on Bookreporter.com that it was loosely based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Thus the next day we went to Island Books on the Outer Banks to pick up a copy of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories so we could do our own exploration of the story. While we had seen a book with just this story in it we decided that we wanted to get the version noted above that had a number of Fitzgerald's stories in it. (Whenever I read something by Fitzgerald I am reminded of the letter I got at Teenreads.com a few years ago asking me if my husband was F. Scott Fitzgerald, a note that stayed up on my bulletin board for a long time since it always made me laugh.)

Instead of us each reading the story to ourselves, Cory, my younger son, ended up reading it aloud at the dinner table over the course of two evenings. (In a funny aside, the first night he did not eat dinner confessing to having eaten so many snacks all day that he had no appetite.) He's turning 14 in a few weeks so it's been a long time since there has been any reading aloud going on at our house. Thus this was a nice change of pace. He read with great animation and clearly was into sharing the story with us like this. While I am not a fan of audiobooks and always see myself as more of a visual learner than an auditory one, I enjoyed this experience.

It made me think that it might be nice at book club events for an animated reader to take on reading a page or so from the selected book, or even from the next month's upcoming title. There is an art to reading aloud, and it's not well done by everyone. I know since there are some authors who have not charmed me by their readings at store and book fair events. But there also have been some wonderful moments when an author has taken me someplace special reading their own words when they were a gifted read-aloud reader.

One more note. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button screenplay was written by the same man who wrote Forrest Gump, Eric Roth. On the car ride home Cory gave us a number of parallels between the two movies (Forrest Gump is one of his favorite films), which was quite fun. If you see the movie and know Gump see how many similiarities you note.

Good reading...good viewing....

Alexander McCall Smith's Serial Novel

Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana-set mystery The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is one of the guides on the RGG.com list of "Ongoing Favorites" for 2008. We'll be unveiling that list along with two others next week.

McCall Smith undertook an ambitious venture last fall: he's writing a serial novel for the Daily Telegraph website with a new chapter appearing each weekday and concluding in February. The story takes place in a fictional apartment building in London and details the lives of the people who live there. McCall Smith's UK publisher reported that the author has said "the experience makes him feel like a 'man on a tight rope.'" Fans have likened him to 19th-century scribe Charles Dickens, whose novels were serialized in newspapers and journals.

Each chapter of Corduroy Mansions can be read online or listened to as a podcast. There are profiles of the various characters on the site (including vegetarian dog Freddie de la Hay), and there is also a Corduroy Mansions Facebook page. Now what would Dickens make of that?

Tatiana de Rosnay: The Story Behind SARAH'S KEY

Today's guest blogger, Tatiana de Rosnay, shares insights into her novel Sarah's Key, which intertwines the story of a 10-year-old Jewish girl in Paris in 1942 with that of an American journalist sixty years later. Tatiana, who is of French, English and Russian descent and lives in Paris, talks about how she came to write the novel...and why it changed it her life.


One of most wonderful things I've learned through Sarah's Key and the feedback I've been getting from readers all over the world --- and particularly American book clubs --- is that as a writer, you can really reach out and touch people in every sense of the word and that they want to thank you for it. I love it when my readers email me or tell me "they couldn't put my book down" and had to stay up all night to read it! I also love it when my readers recommend my books to their friends and family.

I hope you will enjoy following my heroine Julia Jarmond, an American journalist based in Paris, married to a Frenchman. Commissioned to research the great "Vel d'Hiv" round-up of Jewish families that took place in occupied Paris during the war, Julia stumbles upon a family secret. But in her ardent quest for truth, she opens Pandora's Box. As a mother, as a wife and as a woman, nothing will be the same for Julia again. Sarah's Key is a story of loss, family secrets and silence that spanned sixty years. France's darkest days and the scars still left today are keenly examined in a tale of two families linked by silence and sorrow. Sarah's Key is the story of a woman and a man who were never meant to meet.

I wrote Sarah's Key in a way I had never written any other book before. I guess you can say I wrote it with my guts. This was the first time in my life I was writing a book about something that actually happened so I was very careful with dates and places. Some of the passages were very hard to write because I knew this is how it had really happened. This is what happened to those children, to those families.

After I'd written about 20 pages, I gave them to my husband, Nicolas, to read, as he is my first reader. I noticed he was taking a long time reading them, and I wondered why. Then he said to me when he had finished, "This is good, very powerful, you must go on." And then he asked, "Why did you write it in English?" (He is French and not bilingual like me.) I hadn't even noticed I had written it in my mother tongue. It was a surprise! But I knew why. Being half French, half English, I felt I had to retreat into my English side to write about this dark part of French history. So I went on writing Sarah's Key in English, although my previous published books were all in French. Also, having an American heroine, Julia, made it impossible for me to envisage her speaking in French. Many of my readers think I'm Julia Jarmond. No, I'm not. I am French, she is American, her husband is not mine, thank God! And her marriage is not mine either! But I guess Julia and I share the same horror, the same emotion, concerning the fate of the Vel d'Hiv children.

Writing this book has changed my life. I learned the truth about a certain part of my country's history. I learned it late and I learned it hard, and I still feel a scar when I think about those children. I am French, and this happened in my country, sixty-six years ago, in my city, just ten minutes from where I live.

When I recently toured the USA last November for Sarah's Key with the Jewish Book Council, I realized how much my book was being read and discussed for book clubs. I was, of course, thrilled. As an Anglo-French writer based in France, I must admit that in my country book clubs aren't so big, alas.

If you want to contact me about Sarah's Key, and if you would like me to call in to your book club and answer a few questions, please contact me on my brand new website at the book club page: http://www.tatianaderosnay.com/.

I'd be very happy to hear from you and your book club!

All best from France,

Tatiana de Rosnay

Book Club Festivities...and Trying Something New

The members of ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Heather Johnson's book club ended 2008 with a gift exchange that involved "stealing." And for their first meeting of 2009, they're planning to try something new...


My book club had our annual Christmas party a few weeks ago. In addition to serving lots of fun holiday food, we also did book reports and a book swap. Book reports are our version of a "free read" month. Each gal can read any book she likes, provided that she gives a brief report of it at the meeting. Most of us read Christmas titles but a few chose other topics.

After the reports we did a wrapped book swap, the kind where you get to steal if someone has a better book than you. It was lots of fun! Here are a few of the books that got the most attention (for one reason or another):

Most Unique Title:
The Official Guide to Christmas in the South (Or, If You Can't Fry It, Spray Paint It Gold) by David C. Barnette --- read by a gal who is missing her Southern home

Strangest Pick for Christmastime:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley --- the gal who picked this one is revisiting her high school reading assignments

Best Wrapping Job:
The Lost Diary of Don Juan by Douglas Carlton Abrams --- wrapped up in a lingerie box filled with leopard print tissue paper

Most Popular (aka, The Book Stolen the Most Times):
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz --- no one had read this yet but everyone wants to --- I think four different people had their hands on this book!

I hope you all enjoyed your book club holiday festivities as much as we did. Up next for us is Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies: Stories. This is our first experience with short stories, and I can't wait to see how the meeting goes.

---Heather Johnson