Book Clubs in the News

In this month's round up of Book Clubs in the News checkout a festival celebrating Zora Neale Hurston, a book focused community center, a new online reading group and details on an unauthorized Oprah biography.

QuillandQuire.com: New Literary Community Center in Toronto
Local Toronto book club facilitator Marilyn Herbert opens a community center focused on books, book clubs and other literary programming.

PRLog.org: Random House joins with Webjam to Create Online Reading Group
Random House is hoping to tap into the social networking craze by creating an online reading group for its Vintage imprint and allowing readers to interact with other readers from around the world.

Winter Park/Maitland Observer: Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival Attracts Readers
Zora Neal Hurston has made the Florida town of Eatonville a popular destination for readers with its annual festival honoring her life and work. The festival is held in January and attracts some 250,000 visitors.

NY Daily News: New Unauthorized Oprah Biography Due Out This April
The queen of talk TV and book clubs alike is about to be exposed by bestselling author Kitty Kelly. Kitty says she’ll be even handed but odds are this book won’t be selected for Oprah’s book club.

What do you think? Will online book groups ever be as popular as the meet in person kind? What about the book on Oprah? Interested enough to buy it? Let me know! Comment here or email me at dana@bookreporter.com!

-- Dana Barrett, Contributing Editor