Win a Copy of E.L. Doctorow's HOMER & LANGLEY

Do you want to show off your bookshelves? Random House has created a Facebook group --- "I have more books than Facebook friends" --- to coincide with the publication of Ragtime author E.L. Doctorow's new novel, Homer & Langley, which is on sale tomorrow, September 1st. Readers who join the group and post pictures of their book collections (aka "literary clutter") will be eligible to win a signed first edition of Homer & Langley and copies of Doctorow's previous books. The contest begins tomorrow and runs through September 30th.

Homer & Langley is the story of New York's fabled Collyer brothers, two recluses who hoarded items in their mansion and attempted to shut out modern civilization.

Family Bonding Over Books

To encourage her daughter, then in fifth grade, to read more, Denise Neary began a mother/daughter book club. In today's post, she shares what has kept the Washington, D.C.-area group going strong for five years...and counting.


Having trouble getting your child reading? Consider starting a book club.

In 2004, when my daughter Meg was in fifth grade, she and I started a daughter/mother book club. My goal was simple --- Meg didn't read for pleasure, and I wanted her to know that experience. She did love gabbing with her friends, so I thought I would use her interest in talking to create an interest in reading.

If I had to testify in court about the idea, I would have said it was my original thought to have a daughter/mother group --- so imagine my surprise in learning that there was a wonderful book on the subject (The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Shireen Dodson) and some great websites created by other clubs that had apparently had this epiphany without my assistance.

Using all of those great resources to develop a plan, Meg and I invited others to participate. Our deal going in --- the girls would pick the books to read, the girls would lead the discussions, and the discussion leaders would go round-robin. And, as seems to be true for all great book clubs, we would have good snacks.

On May 30, 2004, we held our first meeting. Meg led a discussion of Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. And we fell fairly easily into a pattern --- Sunday afternoon meetings, from 3-5, about ten times a year.

Those fifth graders are now eleventh graders; we have moved from some lovely books geared toward young readers to sophisticated adult themes. The young women in the group are always comfortable --- the Moms are much more likely to be uncomfortable with some of the discussion topics.

It is a gift to be able to talk about complicated social issues among women through the buffer of a book. It takes my breath away to see my daughter and her friends as the smart and engaged young women they are --- and for them to see their Moms, at least on the occasional Sunday, as more than chauffeurs and laundresses.

An example illustrates the point --- we recently read Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. It struck me, after our lovely and highbrow discussion of the book, that a group of teenagers and their Moms had discussed, calmly and rationally, core issues of sexuality and consequences, and what it means to be a responsible adult. Not a bad Sunday afternoon's effort.

Picking a favorite discussion is like picking a favorite child. I love them all. We have had some repeat authors --- Edward Bloor (Tangerine and Taken), Cornelia Funke (Inkheart and Thieflord), Neil Gaiman (Good Omens and Neverland), Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper and Nineteen Minutes) and Janet Tashjian (The Gospel According to Larry and Vote for Larry) ---but the girls also love introducing the group to someone new. A discussion of one book often brings back the characters from another. (Doesn't that make you think of Jonas in The Giver? That reminds me of the sisters in The Secret Life of Bees.)

Thanks to the group, not only am I on the cutting edge on discussions about vampires and werewolves, I have thought about what it must feel like to be, among other roles in life: a governess; a hostage; an adult minimum wage employee; a Mom making tough choices for a family; a murderer; a murdered rape victim; a princess; a scared teen. I've traveled to Forks, through portals, to scary otherworlds, and to delightful alternative spheres. All the women in the group, the young and the not quite so young, have taken these trips together --- and we couldn't have had better companions.

And in the watch what you wish for category, I now have to surgically remove books from Meg's hands.

I can't wait to see what's next for this awesome group.

---Denise Neary

Book Clubs in the News

From Ft. Worth to Finland, book clubs are a mainstay in the news, including a Boston group that has far-reaching effects and an Ontario club that let a four-legged friend choose a reading selection. Also in this month's round-up are profiles of two authors and book club favorites --- Jeannette Walls and Kris Radish, who is appearing tonight at Border Books in Sacramento, California.


The Buffalo News: Glass Castle a Window on a Troubled Childhood
The Buffalo News talks with Jeannette Walls about her memoir The Glass Castle, which the paper selected as its August Book Club read.

CBS News: A Tale With a Storybook Ending
An unlikely friendship between two Boston men leads to a book club that has far-reaching effects --- it has inspired people in other states and countries.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: The 13-Member Book Club Read, Period Only Has One Kind of Discussion --- Lively
This Texas reading group has lively and fun discussions, but they take their book club responsibilties seriously. Along with some other interesting traditions, members had better make sure they read the book: they’re fined if they don’t.

Helsinki Times: A Reading Club with a Relaxing Spirit
Having trouble finding an English-speaking book club in the Finnish capital, two bibliophiles formed one of their own. There are no rules, but members do agree that one thing is a must: an open mind.

Oakville Beaver: When It Comes to Book Club Selections Just Let the Dog Decide
Back together after a long hiatus, an Ontario book club had an interesting method for selecting what to read. They called on a canine to decide.

The Sacramento Bee: Kris Radish's Writing Honors Families, Role of Women
"Kris Radish's novels are steeped with her wry sense of humor, but she's quite serious when it comes to women's issues and her gender's happiness in general," says The Sacramento Bee. Radish, whose latest novel is The Shortest Distance Between Two Women, is appearing at Borders Books tonight, Thursday August 27th, in Sacramento, CA, at 6 p.m. To read her RGG.com guest blog post, click here.

Presidential Reading

The news media is abuzz about the books Barack Obama plans to read while on vacation in Martha's Vineyard:

• Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
• John Adams by David McCullough
• Lush Life by Richard Price
• Plainsong by Kent Haruf
• The Way Home by George Pelecanos

RGG.com founder Carol Fitzgerald commented on the presidential picks in USA Today yesterday, calling Obama's list "a mixed bag of high-end beach reading." Click here to read the article.

Have you or your book club read any of these books? Tell us about it in the comments section.

Planning Ahead: Baltimore Book Festival, September 25-27

For Baltimore-area bibliophiles, the city's annual fall book festival is a three-day extravaganza of author signings, book discussions and informative panels. Included in this year's line-up is "The Book Club Toolkit: Tools and Tips for Starting and Improving Your Book Club," moderated by RGG.com contributor Heather Johnson.

The Baltimore Book Festival will take place from September 25-27, 2009. The Book Club Toolkit event is on Saturday, September 26th, at 12:00 p.m. The panelists are library consultant Natalie Weikart; Trish Collins of TLC Book Tours; and book club members Ladetra Robinson, Cheryl Hazel and Nancy Berla. They'll be sharing ideas to help you enhance your book club --- selecting books, livening up discussions, dealing with problem members, and much more. Heather says, "Bring your questions --- we've got answers!"

To read an interview with Heather about the panel as well as about her book club, Storie delle Sorelle, click here. (One of our favorite parts of the interview: the five books that led to some of the group's best meetings.)

For more information about the panel, visit Heather's blog, Age 30+ ... A Lifetime of Books. You can read her first post about it here, and in the coming weeks she'll be introducing each of the Book Club Toolkit panelists.

Planning Ahead: National Reading Group Month

Mark your calendars! The third annual National Reading Group Month is taking place in October. Sponsored by the Women's National Book Association (WNBA), events will take place across the country in association with the organization's 10 chapters --- including one in Charlotte, North Carolina, where a chapter was launched earlier this year.

The National Reading Group Month signature event is being held at the Nashville Public Library Downtown on Saturday, October 10th, as part of the Southern Festival of Books. Featured authors at the breakfast and book signing are Marie Brenner (Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found), Holly Goddard Jones (Girl Trouble: Stories), Perri Klass (The Mercy Rule), Inman Majors (The Millionaires) and Kathryn Stockett (The Help).

Some of the authors participating in the festivities have been RGG.com guest bloggers:

Los Angeles
Dori Carter, We are Rich

Nashville
Marie Brenner, Apples and Oranges

New York City
C. M. Mayo, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
Julie Metz, Perfection

San Francisco
Meg Waite Clayton, The Wednesday Sisters
Christopher Gortner, The Last Queen

Seattle
Jamie Ford, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Nancy Pearl, Book Lust
Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

Click here for details and a full schedule of events.

Heather Gudenkauf: Nature and Novels

The latest Bookreporter.com Bets On... pick is a debut novel: Heather Gudenkauf's The Weight of Silence. After the disappearance of two young girls, one of whom is selectively mute, family secrets surface. I read this book in one day, drawn in by the Prologue and riveted until the last page. Other readers have been captivated by The Weight of Silence, too. It's a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. Today, Heather shares the back story behind the novel, including how hiking played a role.


The idea for The Weight of Silence, the story of two young girls who disappear and the desperate hunt to find them, came about one day as I was hiking in a nature preserve near my home. It was an exceptionally warm day early in spring and as I was trudging up a craggy path, the only sounds were my labored breathing and the rustling of wet leaves and grass beneath my feet. I was by myself and wondered what I would do if I fell and got hurt or if I somehow managed to get myself lost. Then I thought about how terrifying it would be for a young child to be lost in those woods.

Soon after that trek through the forest I went out and bought a beautiful journal and began to write the story in longhand. Interestingly, I began the story in what became the middle of the novel, the point when Antonia first described Calli emerging from the woods. I then rewrote that scene three more times --- in the perspectives of Martin Gregory, Deputy Sheriff Louis and Calli. I knew that the story was going to chronicle the disappearance of the two children and would take place over an approximately twenty four hour period, so it was important to keep the plot moving forward. To do this, I had each of the main characters, through their thoughts, words, and actions, carry a piece of the story to the next character in a sort of feverish relay race.

As I wrote The Weight of Silence, I found myself visiting the nature preserve more and more often. I paid more attention to the plants, flowers and wildlife I encountered along the way, listened more closely to the sounds around me, attempted to see the landscape around me as a child might and tried to incorporate these into the story. A place that once was simply a beautiful, relaxing spot to go hiking became quite eerie to me. I became much more diligent and aware of my surroundings, I rarely went hiking by myself anymore, took my dog along. Just as the woods changed for Calli --- they had changed for me.

As a mother of young children and an elementary teacher, I knew I would need to make the best use of my time and gave myself a year to write the book. I began writing the day after school was out for the summer and finished the first draft just before school started that fall. I set the manuscript aside for a few months and dusted it off over winter break and sent off the first fifty pages to a literary agency that represented authors that I admired. A few weeks into the new year came a request for the remainder of the manuscript and after much collaboration and revision the novel was ready to send off to publishers. Eventually my story found its way to Mira Books and, thankfully, found its home there.

The Weight of Silence, though a story of a parent's worst nightmare, is also a story of hope, forgiveness and second chances. I hope that readers will enjoy reading The Weight of Silence as much as I enjoyed writing it.

---Heather Gudenkauf

Esther Bushell's Reading Suggestions

Book club facilitator and RGG.com contributor Esther Bushell has been busy turning the pages, and she offers her thoughts on some of the books she has read this summer. She also shares some terrific news: the launch of her website, LiteraryMatters.net.


I haven't posted a blog in ages, and every excuse is valid! First of all, let's understand that this is a non- summer. We've had rain twice: once for 30 days and then again for 20 days. The good thing is that I've holed up and read nearly all summer -- and interestingly, mostly advance reading copies. The other wonderful thing that happened to me is the launching of my website. Go to LiteraryMatters.net to see what I've been doing.

I started off summer reading on a high note with my friend Mahbod Seraji's debut novel, Rooftops of Tehran. Last October at Book Group Expo in San Jose, Carol Fitzgerald and I spent some time with Mahbod, and we were won over not just by his book but also by his sincerity. You can read my post about Mahbod and the book here, but what we didn't know then is that it was selected by Villanova University for its One Book Villanova Program. This is an honor and recognition well-deserved, and I remember being struck by its importance for students.

I loved Sarah Dunant's latest, Sacred Hearts. I think that we're all fans of her thoroughly researched and so well written historical fiction.

I'm a huge of fan of Nicholson Baker, so if you love his books, you'll love The Anthologist (on sale September 8), a quiet little treasure about a poet who has committed to writing an introduction for an anthology of poetry.

One of my favorite books is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and I've discussed it with nearly every book group I moderate. His new novel, The Angel's Game, is garnering good reviews.

Put in your order now for E.L. Doctorow's newest, Homer & Langley (on sale September 1). Doctorow takes very real people, the Collyer brothers, and creates yet another masterpiece of myth as history/history as myth. I read this new book in just one sitting.

My summer favorite, appropriately enough , is Love and Summer (on sale September 17) by William Trevor. I read this twice because the eloquence of his writing is staggering and distracting, and then I went back to see what it was all about. Whenever you ask an author who she/he reads, Trevor is always included in the list. The Story of Lucy Gault is significant; read that one, too.

The day that the long list for the Man Booker Prize was announced, I coincidentally began --- and finished --- Sarah Hall's How to Paint a Dead Man. This book deserves to be included on the list. Few writers today handle characterization the way that Hall does.

Last night I finished Spooner by Pete Dexter. Despite the fact that it's a doorstop, I couldn't put it down. I know that Dexter is often too noir for some people, but I developed a relationship with his characters and became very involved in their lives. Watch for it next month; it won't disappoint.

I'd love to hear from you as these books are published and you read them. Let me know what you've loved and would like to discuss with your book group.

---Esther Bushell

Kris Radish: Slice of Life

Krish Radish takes us behind the scenes of a writer's life --- and into her mind --- in today's guest blog post. Her latest novel, The Shortest Distance Between Two Women, takes the emotional measure of mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. Is Emma Lauryn Gilford on the verge of a breakdown...or a breakthrough?

Kris' other books include Searching for Paradise in Parker P.A., The Sunday List of Dreams and Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral.


Lots of authors say writing a book is like giving birth to a real live baby. This must be why I always feel as if I am about to have a series of labor pains. The birth of The Shortest Distance Between Two Women, my sixth novel and eighth book, finally gets me close to those goofy people on television who have a mess of kids and are now getting divorced.

My labor pains come to me in swells. When I talk about my work --- which is really an embarrassing word when you love what you do --- I'm talking about my non-stoppable, wild, emotionally charged and often hilarious mind. I am writing inside of there all of the time. I carry around little pieces of paper and there's a tablet next to the bed and one in my gym bag and about six in the car. Because my ideas come to me all of the time I have to be ready at a moment's notice to throw a tarp over them and haul them off so I can put them into the computer. It's true what they say about forgetting things when you get older...and those other years before this --- well, I have no excuse for them.

Once I create a character and figure out what in the hell is wrong and right with her they become very real to me. I have so many of them sleeping in the closet and under the desk now, I may have to put up a tent soon. But that's the way I make my writing real, too. One of the greatest compliments I get is when readers tell me they feel as if they know my characters or the characters are like someone they know. Whew! What a relief. I sometimes joke that I am writing true fiction, but the big secret is it's really what I am doing.

And before you ask, the answer is kinda-sorta. My characters are based on people I may have seen at the airport or talked with for most of my life or watched from a distance, and they are also totally not those people because I roll them around inside of my head before they come out speaking entire sentences.

When someone reads one of my novels I hope that they are entertained and that I touch some emotional chords that make them laugh, cry, feel, think and have a really good time. So go pour yourself a glass of wine, crank open my novel and prepare for what I hope you will think is a wonderful jolt of life.

---Kris Radish

Joshua Henkin On Air

ReadingGroupGuides.com contributor Joshua Henkin, who regularly meets with book clubs to discuss his novel Matrimony, was interviewed on NPR's Word of Mouth about his "literary road show."

Tune in to hear what Josh thinks of being invited into readers' living rooms, how book club gatherings differ from readings and book signings, how he responds when he's asked for marital advice and why he thinks "no two book clubs are alike." He also reveals the impressive number of book clubs he has spoken with to date: about 175.

Click here to read about Josh's latest book club adventures.

The Time Traveler's Wife

The discussion guide for The Time Traveler's Wife consistently makes the ReadingGroupGuides.com list of Ongoing Favorites. No doubt inspired by anticipation of the movie version, it was the #1 requested guide in that category for July. For book clubs planning to see the film, the wait is over --- it opens in theaters today.

The Time Traveler's Wife , Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel, is the story of Clare, an art student, and Henry, a librarian, and the effects of time travel on their relationship. Click here to see Niffenegger talking about the book. Her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, is on sale next month.

On Bookreporter.com several years ago we asked, "What book do you think best depicts the romance between a married couple?" The Time Traveler's Wife was a popular choice, with one reader commenting, "I pray to be blessed with a love so boundless by time, age, affliction and death. The love that Henry and Clare shared in this tale was beautiful and yet not without conflict and occasional sorrows as true love is. I will not soon forget their story."

Library Resources for Book Clubs

At the BookExpo America trade show a couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel with four fabulous book club facilitators --- one of whom was Marsha Toy Engstrom, the Book Club Cheerleader™.

As today's guest blogger, Marsha offers suggestions on how book clubs can utilize the wealth of resources at their local libraries.


Turn Local Library Loot into Book Club Booty!

"All the riches in the world couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library." ---Malcolm Forbes

Recently, I needed to get my hands on My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme. A new book club invited me to meet with them and that was their current selection. Of course, my first thought was "...not exactly a book I would've selected" --- since I neither cook, nor am I a Francophile. My next thought was, "Do I really want to spend $30 on a book I probably won't even like? (Well, I wound up loving the book, but that's another blog for another day.) So instead of hopping in my car and driving to the nearest bookstore, I jumped online to my local public library's website and found the book there. It was available in both hardback and audio CD, so I reserved them both and they came from a neighboring branch within a couple of days. By the end of the week, I had already listened to someone (with a fabulous command of both English and French) read the entire book to me and was combing through the hardback version, sticky-noting favorite passages and jotting down questions. The process was a convenient, no-cost solution to my dilemma. (Of course, now that I've found that I love the book, I must purchase it for my personal collection.)

This incident got me thinking about my local public library and all the treasures I've been finding there lately. As a new library board member, I'm moving up a fairly steep learning curve regarding what assets modern libraries now offer --- and the changes go far beyond chucking the quaint card catalogue! Here is my Top 10 list of how you can turn local library loot into book club booty. Check out (pun intended) how many of these riches are new to you!

10. Interlibrary Book Loans: As my experience above demonstrates, your library doesn't need to house a book on its own shelves in order to loan it to you. They can leverage the resources of all the other local libraries and take care of getting it to your home library in a matter of days.

9. Audio Books: Heard a good book lately? I found that since I began "reading" audio books a few years back, I am reading twice as many books each month --- and I don't know about you, but I have a To-Be-Read stack that overwhelms its assigned shelf, pours into my office, and flows into my upstairs hallway! Borrow an audio book and see if you like to "read" while driving, cleaning your office or folding laundry. I bet you'll be hooked, too!

8. Music CDs: Borrow some music that follows the theme of your book. For my Julia Child/France book club meeting, I brought Putamayo Presents: French Café and Paris Combo Motifs --- both courtesy of my local public library. The French music --- along with the yummy croissants --- provided a lovely ambiance for the reading group discussion. Just like Paris, but without the cigarette smoke!

7. DVD Movies: Planning a movie night to view the DVD version of a favorite book club read? Drive past those long lines at the video store and pull up to your local library. With a quick perusal of my local stacks, I discovered The Painted Veil, The Reader, and Seabiscuit. And if your club hasn't read the books they were adapted from, then you have some new suggestions for your next book selection.

6. Library Reading Groups: Most libraries hold at least one discussion group regularly, and larger ones conduct several discussions for different types of readers, including Sci-Fi, Mystery, Chick Lit, Romance, Classics, etc. Just as with private books clubs, there are probably as many discussion groups as there are book genres. So if you love Romance and your current book club has outlawed bodice ripping, then perhaps you can supplement your reading group experience at the library.

5. Book Club Discussion Kits: Many libraries have turnkey kits for loan to private book clubs. They usually include up to 15 copies of the book, perhaps an audio copy, a list of discussion questions and sometimes games and other activities. Hint: It's telling to peruse the list of available titles, since a professional librarian thinks these books have high discussion value.

4. Public Bulletin Board: Looking for new members for your group? Think about posting a notice at the library. Or you may find information on new book clubs if you're looking to join one. It's also a great place to see what else in going on at the library, which leads us to...

3. Author and Other Speaker Events: Have you thought about inviting an author to your book club but just haven't figured out how to make that happen? How about you and your reading group attending an author event at your public library? It's a great way to meet up-and-coming authors, ask the author those burning plot questions and purchase a personally signed copy of the book in the bargain! Also, many libraries --- especially those lucky enough to be near a college or university --- bring in other speakers who are authorities on a particular topic. For example, if the local French professor is talking about the summer she spent in France, this could also be a great outing for the Julia Child book group.

2. Worldwide Web Access: Is your kid hogging the home computer with that pesky homework? Take advantage of free computer access at the library to look up book reviews, recommendations, and book club tips on great sites like --- ahem --- BookClubCheerleader.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com to name just a couple!

1. Expert Advice: Although an obvious asset to most bibliophiles, it is so important that I had to list it as #1. Your local librarians are a wealth of information when it comes to recommending books for your group's selection. They know which books are more discussable than others, from classics to the latest mid-list sleeper. While you're getting reacquainted with your local library, be sure to get to know the staff as well!

Tell us what treasures you've discovered at your local public library. We'd like to hear how it has enriched your book club life!

2, 4, 6, 8, Who do we appreciate? Libraries!

---Marsha Toy Engstrom
The Book Club Cheerleader™
http://www.bookclubcheerleader.com/

Hannah Tinti: Wishful Thinking

Today's guest blogger, novelist Hannah Tinti, reveals the mysterious object she brings to the book clubs she visits to talk about The Good Thief and how this item relates to the story.

In The Good Thief, twelve-year-old Ren, abandoned as an infant, has been trying his entire life to solve the mystery of why he is missing his left hand. When a young man appears at the orphanage claiming to be Ren's long-lost brother, he embarks on a life of hardscrabble adventure and a search for answers about his past.

Click here to read a Q&A with Hannah Tinti.


Whenever I visit a book club to talk about my novel, The Good Thief, I bring a wishing stone. A wishing stone is a rock, usually found near water, with an unbroken white line circling it completely. It is good for one wish to come true. When I was a child I would collect them. Later, I was reintroduced to them at an important time in my life. At the beginning of The Good Thief, Ren, a young orphan living in New England, comes into possession of one. He makes a wish, and this wish reverberates throughout the rest of the book, as do the stones themselves.

The Good Thief has brought many wonderful things into my life --- writing, travel and new friends. To pay back some of this good luck, I bring a wishing stone to every book club I visit from my own collection (I've been gathering them for years, from all over the world) and give it away to one of the readers in the group. What I like about this tradition is that it takes something from the fictional world I've created in The Good Thief and makes it tangible and real. The readers pass the wishing stone from person to person, and as each of them examines the thin white line, it's as if they have become Ren for a moment, and can understand all of his hopes and dreams.

In The Good Thief, Ren wishes for a family. This wish eventually comes true, but not how the boy expected. Instead of a loving mother and father Ren is picked up by a con man named Benjamin Nab, who takes Ren on an adventure across New England, thieving and scamming people out of their money. Eventually they arrive in the town of North Umbrage, and it is here where Ren begins to discover the truth about his heritage, and to cobble together a group of misfit characters, creating a family of his own. In the end, Ren takes all that he has learned along the way to tell a story, and that story saves his life.

While writing The Good Thief, I was inspired by classic tales that made me fall in love with literature when I was a little girl --- books like Great Expectations, Treasure Island and Jane Eyre. I tried to capture a similar spirit of old-fashioned storytelling, where a hero with a true heart could win out in the end. Book clubs have told me this is one of the reasons they enjoyed The Good Thief --- it reminded them of why they became readers, too. Just as I passed my wishing stones on to them, they have been passing The Good Thief on to their friends and families. A few have sent me letters, or even mailed me wishing stones in return. I have these stones lined up on my desk, and they remind me every day that the best part of writing a book is also the best part of reading one --- sharing it with another person.

---Hannah Tinti

Freshmen Summer Reading 2009

Here's a look at what freshmen entering college this fall have been asked to read by their respective schools. Lots of nonfiction and memoirs, some fiction and even a few graphic novels. How many of these books has your group read? And which ones are you inspired to read?

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - Texas Tech University
The Ape and the Sushi Master by Frans de Waal - San Diego State University
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - Fayetteville State University
Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child by Elva Trevino Hart - Utah State University
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner - Brown University
Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian - The College of New Jersey
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken - Salve Regina University
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell - Lehigh University
Bliss by Eric Weiner - University of California, Davis
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz - Brandeis University; Duke University; Tulane University; Western Michigan University
Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson - Western Michigan University
Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen - Framingham State College
Choosing Civility by P.M. Forni - Frank Phillips College
The Chosen by Chaim Potok - John Brown University
The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley, Jr., and Tanner Colby - Edgewood College
Cion by Zakes Mda - Ohio University
The Civility Solution by P.M. Forni - Southern Utah University
Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky - Keene State College Color of the Sea by John Hanamura - San Jose State University
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride - Southern Vermont College; University of Kentucky
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - Parkland College; SUNY Oswego
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer - University of Montana, Missoula
Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough - Philadelphia University
Deep Economy by Bill McKibben - University of Texas, Arlington
The Devil in White City by Erik Larson - Goucher College
The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea - University of Florida
The DNA Age: A series of New York Times Articles by Amy Harmon - James Madison University
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson - Sweet Briar College
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama - Albion College; Augustana College; Ithaca College
Drown by Junot Díaz - Hunter College
Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything by Daniel Goleman - Virginia Tech
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman - Agnes Scott Collge
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs - Barry University
The End of the Spear by Steve Saint - Grace College
Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario - Florida Southern College; Gustavus Adolphus College; Northern Arizona University; University of South Carolina, Aiken
Ethics for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama - UC Santa Barbara
Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson - Manhattan College
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – UCLA; Xavier University of Cincinnati, Ohio
Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elzabeth Kolbert - Linfield College; St. Mary's College of Maryland
Fountain and Tomb: Hakayat Haretna by Naguib Mahfouz and Soad Sobhy - University of Richmond
The Front by Patricia Cornwell - John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - Eastern Kentucky University; University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Cornell University
The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones - Smith College
Growing Up by Russell Baker - Winthrop Univsersity
A Home on the Field by Paul Cuadros - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman - George Washington University; Northwestern University
How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi - Johnson State College
How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill - Middle Tennessee State University
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan - University of Texas; University of Wisconsin, Madison
In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong by Amin Maalouf - Quinnipiac University
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn - Pennsylvania State University, Berks
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini - Murray State University
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert - Roanoke College
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - Florida State University; Ramapo College of New Jersey; Thomas College; Valparaiso University; Indiana State University (Terre Haute)
Lay that Trumpet in our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy - Michigan Tech
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon - Earlham College
Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper - Saint Augustine College
Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny by Hill Harper - Saint Augustine College
Life is So Good by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman - U.S. Coast Guard Academy
Listening is an Act of Love by Dave Isay - Butler University; Endicott College; Salem State College; Seton Hall University; St. Bonaventure University; UNC Charlotte; University of Toledo Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - Hawaii Pacific University
A Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah - Adams State College; Florida Community College, Jacksonville; University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown; Ball State University; University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Make the Impossible Possible: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary by Bill Strickland - Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Maus I by Art Spiegelman - Virginia Commonweath University
Maus II by Art Spiegelman - University of Wisconsin, Parkside
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka, Ritchie Robertson, and Joyce Crick - St. Michael's College
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder - Dartmouth College; University of Alabama, Birmingham
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese - Stanford University
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich - Bryant University; Colorado College; Lincoln University; Ohio Wesleyan University; State Fair Community College; Texas Lutheran University; Western Illinois University
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan - Belmont University; Marymount Manhattan College; Merced College; Siena College; UC Berkeley; University of California, Berkeley; Washington State University; Western Washington University
Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarez - University of Illinois
One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash - Wofford College
Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul by Kenneth R. Miller - University of Cincinnati; Fort Lemoyne College
The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer - Seattle University
An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina - Berry College
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - Indiana University Southeast
Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi - University of the Sciences, Philadelphia
Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't by Stephen Prothero - Oakland University
Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji - Villanova University
Run by Ann Patchett - University of Akron
Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard - Coastal Carolina University
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - Midlands Technical College
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry - Georgetown University
Serena by Ron Rash - St. Andrews Presbyterian College; Erskine College
Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup - Rosemont College
The Soloist by Steve Lopez - California State University (Northridge, Chico, Long Beach); Chapman University; Gwynedd-Mercy College; Johnson County Community College; Los Angeles City College; Michigan State University; Montana State University; Moorpark College; UT Tyler
Soul of a Citizen by Paul Loeb - Kennesaw State University
Sounds of the River by Da Chen - Okahoma City University; Stony Brook University
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon - Clemson University
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman - Mount Holyoke College
Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen - Purdue University
Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner - Kalamazoo College
The Translator by Daoud Hari - Mars Hill College
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell - Madaille College
The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman - University of Louisiana, Monroe
The World without US by Alan Weisman - Green Mountain College; Roger Williams University; University of California, Merced
There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz - Indiana University, South Bend
This I Believe edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman - Bowling Green State University; Eastern Illinois University
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - University of Missouri, West Texas A&M University
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin - Appalachian State University
Arcadia University; Case Western Reserve University; Chaffey College; Cumberland University; Duquesne University; East Caroliona University; Florida Gulf Coast University; Graceland University; Grand View College; Holy Cross; Idaho State University; Illinois Wesleyan University; North Carolina State University; Ohio State University; Principia College; University of Bridgeport; University of Delaware; University of Northern Colorado; Viterbo University; Whitworth University
True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society by Farhad Manjoo - American University
What is the What by Dave Eggers - University of Maryland
What Learning Leaves by Taylor Mali - Miami University (OH)
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka - Sacramento State University; Washington University in St Louis; Niagara University
Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks - Coker College
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink - Texas State University San Marcos, University of Northern Florida
Whose Water is It? The Unquenchable Thirst of a Water-Hungry World by Douglas Jehl and Bernadette McDonald - Indiana University Southeast
Wit by Margaret Edson - Baylor University

JULIE & JULIA Spices Up the Big Screen

Opening today in theaters is the movie version of Julie Powell's Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. Are you planning to see it with your book club? Tell us all about it in the comments section.

Here are some Julie & Julia resources:
Book discussion guide
Bookreporter.com review
RGG.com contributor Shannon McKenna Schmidt's post about reading Julie & Julia with her book club

Tune in Today to Hear Frances de Pontes Peebles

This afternoon at 2:00 p.m. our bibliophile friend Jennifer Hart, aka Book Club Girl, will be interviewing Frances de Pontes Peebles about her novel The Seamstress, which is set in 1930s Brazil and unfolds the story of two sisters whose lives take divergent paths.

Click here to tune into the radio show.

To read Frances' RGG.com guest blog post, "Recreating Historic Brazil," click here.

Debut Novelists

In the ReadingGroupGuides.com 2009 Book Club Survey, respondents indicated they'd like to hear from debut scribes. Here is a round-up of 10 of the first-time novelists who have been guest bloggers at RGG.com.


Julie Buxbaum: Cheating on Your Book Club
Julie Buxbaum, author of The Opposite of Love, shares why she "cheats" on her book clubs...and why others might want to consider doing it, too. Her debut novel is the story of a Manhattan attorney whose life unravels after she ends her happy relationship just as her boyfriend is on the verge of proposing.

Sean Dixon: The Book Club in Fiction & Reality
Sean Dixon's The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal features a women's book club in Montreal. Sean tells us what happened when he decided to give a friend's real-life reading group an early look at the novel.

Jamie Ford: Bleeding on the Page
Jamie Ford drew on his own experiences and those of his family for his 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.

Lynne Griffin: Writing Life Without Summer
A family life expert, parenting columnist and the author of a nonfiction book on parenting, Lynne Griffin shares why she chose to write a fictional story, Life Without Summer, rather than a self-help book on grief.

Gerald Kolpan: Writing Etta
Gerald Kolpan's novel Etta imagines the life of Etta Place, who dodged the law with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He talks about how he brought to life this intriguing and elusive historical figure.

Catherine O'Flynn: Reading Groups I Have Known
Catherine O'Flynn's What Was Lost is the story of a young girl's disappearance in Birmingham, England, and how the unsolved mystery still reverberates two decades later. Catherine offers up a list of the 10 things she has learned from speaking with book clubs.

Jill Pitkeathley: Jane Austen's Enduring Allure
British writer Jill Pitkeathley reveals how she finally got her book club to read and discuss Jane Austen's works. Jill is the author of the debut novel Cassandra & Jane, which explores Austen's relationship with her sister.

Susan Rebecca White: The Stuff of Novels
Atlanta resident Susan Rebecca White used her native city as the setting of Bound South, a multi-generation tale told by three women whose lives intertwine. Click here for Susan's Strawberry Pie recipe.

D. L. Wilson: An Author's First Experience with a Reading Group
D. L. Wilson recalls his first-ever visit with a book club to discuss his debut novel, the religious thriller Unholy Grail. Click here to read RGG.com contributor Heather Johnson's recap of her group's meeting with Wilson.

Patricia Wood: Getting the Book Club Ball Rolling
Patricia Wood took a friend and fellow author's advice after the publication of her first novel, Lottery, and began talking with reading groups about the book. She shares several things she has learned along the way.

Carolyn Wall: Creating Characters

Carolyn Wall's debut novel, Sweeping Up Glass, is the story of Olivia Harker Cross, who becomes embroiled in a community conflict in Pope County, Kentucky, at the same time she's coming to terms with her own bitter family history. Today's guest blogger, Carolyn talks about the characters she brought to life on the page, what motivates them...and why she really enjoyed creating the villains in the story.


Sweeping Up Glass is the story of Olivia Harker's struggles with her mentally ill mother, her adored father and the segregated black community that helped raise her. As the author, none of these things are new to me. Olivia Harker Cross was an easy character to write --- she came from my heart. A few early readers commented that she was simply encountering too many hardships and devastations, but the story takes place during the depression years, so I took that to be an oxymoron. In many ways, we are a planet crowded with wounded people, and there are few readers around who don't know what heartache is.

I wanted to write a protagonist who was strong --- stubborn yet resigned, and all the while hopeful. One who would grow to be fiercely loyal in her love and unrelenting in her hate.

This is a story of the things mothers pass down to their daughters, and fathers to their sons. Olivia's mother, Ida, lives in a tarpaper shack "out back on the property." Ida has been abusive towards Olivia all her life, and she's the one person Olivia can't forgive. Though Pap carted Ida off to the insane asylum after Olivia was born, Ida returns ten years later, still unbending and unloving, and drives a wedge between Olivia and her father. After the greatest tragedy that could befall a little girl, Ida takes the upper hand, and Olivia takes to the honkytonk. Thus enters Olivia's daughter Pauline. But Olivia had no one to teach her mothering skills. Pauline, at fifteen, births her own son and, knowing nothing about being a mother, leaves the baby with Olivia. This grandson --- this sour-smelling baby in a filthy blanket --- is a chance to start over, an opportunity to love. Olivia names him Will'm.

A couple of years ago, I met a friend for coffee, and during the conversation, I remarked, "I want to write a book about unrequited love. No, make that love that seems unrequited." My coffee buddy snorted and said, "Well, there's something new." Of course those words drove me, and in a matter of days, I had dreamed awake the shy, loyal, musical Wing Harris. He was a lovely and long-lasting fantasy. All women should have one. For years, Olivia harbored a secret love for this trumpeter and owner of the Kentuckian Hotel. Once school sweethearts, they were torn apart by the silly things that happen when lovers are too young.

Each character, I hope, is defined by his actions, his voice and his thoughts. I especially loved playing around in my villains' heads. To date, no one has asked me about the construction of the evil Phelps brothers. They were three distinct personalities, sired by a really nasty upbringing. When I look back at them, now, I see how much pain they must have been in. During the writing of the book, however, they made deliciously angry villains. I felt sorry for the youngest, Booger, who tried his best, even though hampered by disabilities. I knew his brothers, as children, would protect him. Then Alton and James Arnold, with nothing and no one to redeem them, simply became better at inflicting cruelty.

I'm delighted that this book has been praised for its characters, their complexities and relationships. I loved exploring the era --- its insane asylums, with their "modern" treatments of ice baths, shaved heads and electro-shock.

Mostly, through Olivia, I wanted to remind readers that, in the end, nothing may be what it seems.

---Carolyn Wall

Frances de Pontes Peebles: Recreating Historic Brazil

Today's guest blogger, Frances de Pontes Peebles, goes behind the scenes of a writer's life and talks about some of the challenges of crafting a historical novel. The Seamstress, her debut novel, is the story of two sisters who follow separate paths in 1930s Brazil. Emília dos Santos marries the son of a wealthy and politically powerful doctor, while Luzia becomes involved with a band of infamous outlaws.


Fiction is fabrication. Most readers pick up novels with the understanding that we will be invited into what the writer John Gardener called a "vivid and continuous dream." Good novels provide an escape from our daily reality, and a glimpse into imaginary lives. But when writing a novel about historical events, how much fact should be included in the fiction? I struggled with this question when writing my first novel, The Seamstress.

The book is set in Brazil in the 1930s, which was a decade of extreme transition both in Brazil and throughout the world. From 1928 to 1940, Brazil experienced a series of transformative events: a revolution, a new president, a terrible drought in its northeast region, the beginnings of women's suffrage, a world-wide economic depression, the rumblings of a second World War and, to top it off, outlaws called cangaceiros causing trouble in the northeast countryside. Bandit gangs existed for centuries in rural Brazil, but in the early 20th century, cangaceiros truly dominated the northeast. These cangaceiros stood apart from history's long list of organized outlaw groups in one vital way: they accepted women into their ranks.

This practice might seem interesting to those of us living in 2009, but in 1930s Brazil, it was another story. In 1934 --- two years after literate women got the right to vote in Brazil --- an average of 500 families per year in Rio de Janeiro alone were forcing their daughters to undergo "purity exams." The medical exams served several purposes: to prove to a suitor that his future wife was a virgin, to dispel rumors about a girl's reputation or to pressure overly passionate boyfriends into marriage. In this social climate, the idea that a young girl would leave her family (either voluntarily or by force) to join a gang of male outlaws was not just interesting, it was scandalous.

Any child in northeast Brazil grows up hearing stories about cangaceiros. When I was little, my uncle gave me a cangaceiro rag doll, complete with leather holster and cloth gun. By the mid-1940s, nearly all cangaceiros had been killed or captured, and a centuries-old element of Brazilian life was extinct. But in the 1960s, cangaceiros were resurrected as popular folk heroes, becoming the subjects of biographies, films and popular ballads. Today, their images appear on t-shirts and mugs, and tourists can buy clay figurines of cangaceiros at airports.

Eventually, I wanted to know more about female cangaceiras, but information was hard to find. Only one woman --- the famous bandit-bride named Maria Bonita (Mary the Beautiful) --- was studied, although sparsely. When I began writing The Seamstress, I'd wanted to base the book on real cangaceiros, and be extremely faithful to their lives. I moved back to Brazil, searched through libraries and newspaper archives and created elaborate timelines. But it seemed that the more I searched, the less I found.

Even historians admitted that some of the most famous stories told about cangaceiros could not be verified. There were many facts, but just as many myths. Each time I sat down to write, I felt claustrophobic. I was bound by facts I did not know to be true, and by dates, times and personalities I had no interest in re-creating. Other characters --- ones of my own creation --- crept into my imagination, and I shooed them away. Thankfully, they were persistent. One day, I stopped resisting. I invited these fictional cangaceiros and seamstresses and politicians into my story. They were real to me, and that was what mattered. So, in order to write The Seamstress, I gave up being faithful to facts, and began writing fiction.

---Frances de Pontes Peebles