Best Tidbits

Watch the Academy Awards for honors going to the movie based on that popular book club favorite, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Viola Davis received the Golden Globe award for Best Actress for her part in this great film!.

Many readers love books that have a real "sense of place." Why not read authors who write stories that take place in your city or state? A good one for Kansas readers would be The Virgin of Small Plains: A Novel, by Nancy Pickard or Too Near The Edge, by Lynn Osterkamp which is a book that takes place in Boulder CO. There are many, many more choices for every area in the US or world!

Books taking place during World War I and afterward are very popular right now. Two authors are especially popular with readers: Jacqueline Winspear with her Maisie Dobbs series, and Charles Todd with two series. Todd's series feature former soldier now with Scotland Yard, Ian Rutledge, and Bess Crawford, a nurse serving in the trenches. If you like history, especially books about that time period, read all three series.

Take advantage of the knowledge of bookstore and library staff to find what titles are the newest "hand sellers". They can clue you in on what's hot and really popular with book groups. By word of mouth, these books fly off the shelves. (Think The Help, by Kathryn Stockett!)

I just checked out Sarah's Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay from my local library. I have heard nothing but good things about this book from book club members and friends and it way everything they said and more!

The 2011 Kansas Reads choice for this year is What Kansas Means to Me: Twentieth-Century Writers on the Sunflower State. This compilation of 17 authors is edited by another noted Kansas author, Thomas Fox Averill. Illustrations are included. A good read!

After visiting the Tiffany collection at the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL, I have become fascinated with those windows and lamps. Now after reading the book, Clara and Mr. Tiffany: A Novel, I see how much work went into each piece and Clara's involvement with their creation. Also great background about women's rights in the 1910's. A good book club read!

According to reports, romance novels sell more than any other genre. It's said people read them mostly for escape from their everyday lives. Have you read a good romance lately???

I just read of a wonderful idea for a book club. It is MASTERPIECE book & film club where members gather to read the literature and critic the film. As a Masterpiece Theater viewer, I would love to join a group such as this!

Did you know the grandson of the Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, wrote a book using journals and other records kept by his grandfather as he worked with King George VI to help him with his speech problem? It is titled, The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy. Sounds like a good read!

I kept seeing references to Jane Gardam's book, Old Filth, and have finally decided to read it. I am now halfway through the book and cannot imagine why I haven't read it before! It is a good, good read.

Another great movie is coming on August 12, 2011! It is based on that popular book club favorite, The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

In honor of Elvis' 75th birthday on January 8th, I started rereading my copy of the The Elvis Encyclopedia. It will take me all month to finish it as the book is pretty inclusive and a real "chest crusher"!

From Reading Group Choices Newsletter: Neat idea at The Page 69 Test. Hundreds of authors describe how page 69 of their book addresses the character and themes of the whole book. Interesting concept!

I can hardly wait for the movie made from Sara Gruen's novel, Water for Elephants , when it opens on April 22nd! It stars Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson and will be a real blockbuster, I'm sure! (For those who don't know, this book was on the New York Times Best Sellers list for a long, long time and is still a very popular read for book clubs.) There are articles in People and Entertainment Weekly about this upcoming film, too!

Religious Seasons - Many book clubs are organized in churches and other communities of faith. Your group can select a reading that would make a good spiritual connection to a particular religious season or observance. For example, Christians can choose a special book for the Christmas season, Jews can choose special books relating to Hanukkah, and African Americans, Kwanzaa.

Here's another take on the Top 100 Books of 2009. This list is from The Kansas City Star. Check it out!

Remember all our veterans on Veteran's Day, November 11th, by reading a book on the Native Americans who served in our armed forces. Warriors in Uniform: The Legacy of American Indian Heroism, by Herman J. Viola would be a great read! A good fiction read is Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour, the story of a Native American Air Force pilot who is shot down over Russia and uses his native skills to escape. I have suggested this book to many readers and they really enjoyed it!

November is National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month and National Family Caregivers Month. Read this interesting article about understanding Alzheimer's Disease through Agatha Christie's novels on the blog, Confessions of An Idiosyncratic Mind.

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15-October 15. Why not have your group read A Glass of Water by award winning author, Jimmy Santiago Baca? You can read and discuss this book about the Mexican immigrant experience in America at any time!

Take a look at this book club for students on the BBC internet site. Have any younger members of the family or middle school check it out as some books being reviewed include: D.N.Angel Volume 13 by Yukiru Sugisaki and Wisdom of Dead Men by Oisin McGann.

October is also National Reading Group Month as well as Hispanic Heritage Month. For good reads for your group, check out the NRGM Featured Books!

Check out Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in your community and read a good book from this Hispanic Authors and Stories booklist.!

World Alzheimer's Day is September 21 when chapters of the Alzheimer's Association around the world concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias. Why not have your book club read books with AD as a theme? These two titles, one fiction and one non fiction, both deal with it: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel , by Debra Dean and The Family on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Love and Courage, by Elizabeth Cohen work very well together. They could be read and discussed at the same meeting or one after the other.

September 11.....what a terrible tragedy for our nation! Let us remember those involved by reading one of the many books written about that day either with your book club or on your own. Here are a few good reads: Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11, by Damon DiMarco and What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, in Words, Pictures, and Video, by Dan Rather. Another choice might be a new graphic memoir, reviewed in the NYT Book Review, American Widow, by Alissa Torres. There are also fiction works relating to this event such as A Disorder Peculiar to the Country: A Novel, by Ken Kalfus.

If you like to read literary fiction as opposed to other genre such as mystery, science fiction, romance you might enjoy this forum Literary Fiction Community, on Amazon.com. You can pick up suggestions for other authors to read, too!

The Award Winners booklist has been updated with new winners. Go to Booklists to locate that interesting list as well as many others.

After you've chosen the book your group will read and discuss, compile a list of "related reads" for your members which will broaden their understanding and/or interest in the theme. For example, if you read The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs, you can list other books with knitting as a main theme. Titles can be novels, biographies, or even non fiction reads that will appeal to your members.

Check out this article, Vampires Reconsidered, written by David Carr in the latest editon of RA News Newsletter, for a great overview of the appeal of the vampire phenomenon.

The movie adapted from My Sister's Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult, opened in theaters on June 26! Many viewers/readers are not happy that the ending of the movie differs from that of the book. Too bad it was changed!

Infinite Summer - More than 3,000 people have joined the virtual reading of Infinite Jest, the 1,000 page novel by David Foster Wallace, this summer. This book group was advertised and set up through the social networking Web site Facebook. The project started June 21 and ends Sept. 22. Check out Infinite Summer for guides and more!

I've gathered a few of my favorite web site links in one spot for all to see. They range from sites where you can locate discussion questions for your favorite titles, to a site to list titles you've read, to a book forum and more. All very interesting sites, I think! You can locate this list under Favorite Links on the left side of each page of the web site.

Satellite radio offers two options for Book Radio: The best of books...Feel the drama. Live the suspense. Hear the story unfold. Tune in to SIRIUS XM Book Radio where you can still listen to audio books and drama. Sirius 117 or XM 163

A message from a faithful reader and Jimmy Buffet fan: Welcome to the Margaritaville Book Club! Here you can peruse a selection of Jimmy's favorite books, join a discussion about the topics and themes of the books, and purchase them direct from Amazon.com. To begin, choose a book below: Longitude, by Dava Sobel, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, and On the Makaloa Mat, by Jack London.

Check out the Historical Fiction booklist if those books are of interest to you. Lose yourself in history and learn some new facts, too!

Summer reading programs for children are being advertised at your local library and bookstores. Encourage your children to read now and they'll grow up to become book club members! A reader sent me this link to Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program. Take a look!

Alice Munro is the winner of the third Man Booker International Prize. She is a Canadian author known for her works of short stories. Her latest collection, Too Much Happiness, will be published in October 2009.

If someone in your book club is planning a big trip, why not make the next selection revolve around the place that will be visited: Historical or modern, fiction or non-fiction, the book will get everyone excited about the upcoming trip. The book will make the trip that much richer for the traveler. And for those who can't go on the trip, reading all about it is often the next best thing.

When traveling, check if your destination has a paperback exchange. Many resort hotels or cruise ships have books for you to borrow while traveling rather than packing a stack of books for reading. Bring paperback books on your travel for lighter weight and so you can leave them behind for other readers. By the way, have you heard of BookCrossing.com? Just register for free on their web site and then leave the books you've read wherever you go!

To go along with the wonderful documentary about Alzheimer's Disease on HBO this week, why not have your book club read books with AD as a theme? These two titles, one fiction and one non fiction, both deal with it: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel , by Debra Dean and Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return, by Mary Ellen Geist work very well together. They could be read and discussed at the same meeting or one after the other.

Do you keep a reading list of books you've read? If not, why not start today! You can keep a list divided by year and month of the authors and titles you've read, but no annotations are needed unless you want them to help you recall the plot. You can even give the books your own ratings. It's a great way to keep track of what you have read.

May is Older American's Month. Why not have your book club read one of the many good books with elderly characters? Water for Elephants: A Novel, by Sara Gruen is a great read. For a little humor try Lunch at the Piccadilly , by Clyde Edgerton. You can't go wrong with these choices!

Another great idea from a faithful reader in Texas.... As we approach summertime, start looking for the kids' summer reading programs for free gifts from establishments like AMC Theaters, Barnes & Noble, and your local libraries. These are great incentives to keep the kids reading after school is out for the summer.

A faithful reader from Texas sent me this link to Bookswim.com, a service somewhat like Netflix where you order books instead of films. Textbooks are also included! Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

Have you ever wondered why you enjoy reading some books more than others? Well, it's all about the appeal characteristics in every book as defined by Joyce Saricks, Reader's Advisory guru. Click on Fiction Appeal in the left column to read more about these characteristics.

Have you heard about Playaways, the newest format of audio all in one small unit? You no longer need to download to hear a book on tape - just press the ON button! Many books are now available in this format including that book club favorite, Water for Elephants: Library Edition. They're convenient and cool, too! Some libraries own them as well as Amazon.com and bookstores.

Earth Day is April 22. Celebrate that day by reading and discussing one of Rachel Carson's books on the environment, especially her best known work, Silent Spring.

Sandra Cisneros is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her book, The House on Mango Street, with a new edition. This classic work is the story of life experienced by Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old girl growing up in Chicago. This year that city has chosen Cisneros' work for their citywide read. For more good reading go to Hispanic Authors and Stories booklist.

Religious Seasons - Many book clubs are organized in churches and other communities of faith. Your group can select a reading that would make a good spiritual connection to a particular religious season or observance. For example, Christians can choose a special book for the Easter season, Jews can choose special books relating to Passover etc.

April is also National Poetry Month! In response to a work of poetry being read at the inauguration of our new President, why not have your book group read a poetry collection for your next meeting? There are many, many wonderful collections available and would be a great change for your group!

April is Autism Awareness Month. If your group wants to read and discuss a good book dealing with this health crisis, try The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. It was chosen by the United We Read project a few years ago in Kansas City and proved to be a very popular read with book groups.

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul. - Joyce Carol Oates

A favorite book club is one where everyone reads a different book then meets to discuss them. Members could take turns writing down the list, perhaps adding a brief annotation, and sharing it with the others. Think of all the great reads you'll find! (The group at my local library is very popular!)

Did you know that many libraries now have Book Club kits they check out for book clubs to use? These kits make it much easier for your members as they don't have to locate a copy of the title on their own. If you're in charge of choosing the next selection, just bring a kit to your meeting and pass out the books!

Check this link to Las Comadres & Friends for news of an exciting book club featuring Latino authors. Included are booklists for 2008 & 2009. The March selection is Notorious, by Michelle Martinez.

You might think about forming a book club such as The Catholic Book Club to read books about your faith. This particular club has been in existence since 1928 and this month members are reading The Wisdom of His Compassion: Meditations on the Words and Actions of Jesus, by Joseph F. Girzone, author of the popular Joshua series.

I found a new site for refreshments and all things British if your group is reading books from the Tea & Crumpets booklist and you want to add a fun touch! Check out The Brit Shoppe. It's a great site!

There are many ways to form a book club. Start with just family members or neighbors. You could also form a group from your church or work. Or you could be really adventurous and put an ad in the newspaper looking for interested members to read a certain book. Book clubs can be a great way to meet new people. But someone has to take the first step and get it organized!

Black History Month can be celebrated by reading works by many of the noted African American authors. Toni Morrison's new book, A Mercy, or Edward P. Jones' The Known World are just two suggestions your group might enjoy reading during February.

February is American Heart Month! Your book group might want to read a fiction story dealing with heart disease such as While My Sister Sleeps, by Barbara Delinsky. And wear red on Friday, February 6 on National Wear Red Day!

A faithful reader from Missouri sent me an article about new "faith clubs" being formed across the country by women of different faiths. These clubs are a place where they feel comfortable discussing their faiths with others and include Christians, Muslims, and Jews. The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding, by Ranya Idliby has inspired many groups as well as Bruce Feiler�s Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths (P.S.).

Lots going on in February! We will be celebrating Black History Month, Valentine�s Day, President�s Day, Wear Red Day Feb. 6 and American Heart Month among others. Reading suggestions for your book group will be offered in days to come!

Click on the new feature on this web site: My Blog + More and check out My Blog + More List. BuzzGirl is a publisher insider and gives tips on good upcoming books for 2009.

In a recent article in the New York Times, Mr. Dana Gioia "attributes the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the Big Read, Oprah Winfreys book club, the huge popularity of book series like Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyers Twilight, as well as the individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders to create a buzz around literature that is getting people to read more in whatever medium."

Your book club might consider celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr Day by reading an autobiography or biography of this esteemed man. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. is a good choice as the famous I Have a Dream speech is included.

Thanks to a faithful reader from Missouri for this comment. "I saw on the NBC Nightly News that the Los Angeles, CA public library system experienced their busiest year ever in 2008. The librarian interviewed said they credit a significant part of that activity due to readers that no longer wish to purchase books but are now remembering that public libraries actually loan the books that you can return when you're finished!" So don't forget your local library is a great place to get books for your group if members don't want to spend their money buying them.

A new idea for your book club is to serve wine to go along with the book you're reading, that is, if your group drinks wine! Choose one of the hot new Spanish wines when reading a book set in Spain. You get the idea!

If you are thinking of joining an established book club, be sure to check out the type of book club, what they read, their ground rules, gender, and all those other things that matter to you or you could find yourself in a group not to your liking and you'll be disappointed!

Reading Group Choices gives a list of reasons to give books for gifts. This should help you with your shopping for the holidays!

It's December 1st and Christmas is a-comin'. A great read for your book group this month would be that favorite classic, A Christmas Carol , by Charles Dickens. Watch it on television, or get tickets to the play if it's being presented in your area, too!

One last celebration for November - It's Native American Heritage Month as well! Celebrate by reading The Plague of Doves: A Novel , by Louise Erdrich or any of the good books by other Native American authors.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!! In between eating your traditional turkey dinner and enjoying family and friends, take time to relax and read a book!!

Since women of all ages are reading the wildly popular Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) series by Stephenie Meyers, perhaps your book club will read and discuss it, too! You can find discussion questions on the Internet by entering "Twilight discussion questions". Have fun!!

After your group chooses the book you're going to read, search the Internet for discussion questions, if they are not in the book. One site to try is my favorite, ReadingGroupGuides.com, as they have lists of over a thousand titles, including a little author information, brief reviews of the book plus suggestions for reading by genre. Also included are questions for Non Fiction titles which are usually not provided by the publisher.

ReadingGroupGuides.com features an excerpt about book clubs from author Camilla Morton's book, How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl's Guide to Everything. As the title suggests, there are a lot more fun topics included in this book, too!

Speaking of a good book ..... I just read The Gifted Gabald�n Sisters , by Lorraine M. Lopez. It's the fascinating story of four sisters, each named after movie stars: Bette Davis, Loretta Young, Rita Hayworth, and Sophia Loren. And their quest to find an answer to a puzzling mystery in their lives. Has lots of wonderful multicultural flavor!

Read any good books lately? When you get together with a group, whether it be family, friends, or work partners, don't forget to talk about the books you are reading. It's a great way to pick up suggestions for your own future reading!

November is designated as another very important awareness month; it's both National Alzheimer's Disease Month (NADAM) and National Family Caregiver Month. Why not have your book club read books with AD as a theme? These two titles, one fiction and one non fiction, both deal with it: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel , by Debra Dean and Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return , by Mary Ellen Geist work very well together. They could be read and discussed at the same meeting or one after the other.

One of my very favorite books is Fair and Tender Ladies (Ballantine Reader's Circle) , by Lee Smith. It takes place in Appalachia and was my first "epistolary fiction" read. I'm reading another one that is on the New York Times Best Seller List and is also a great read - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. These are two totally different books told through letters. Your book group would enjoy reading either one or both of these titles!

A "faithful Liberty, MO reader" wonders if there are any books on Al Smith, the first Catholic to run for President on a major party ticket. Yes, there are two good books that were published fifty-seven years after Smith's death within a year of each other, Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior by Christopher M. Finan and Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith , by Robert A. Slayton.

Thanks to a "faithful reader from Texas" for sending this link to some good reading suggestions: Fall For a Good Book: The Seasons Best Reads. Have you read any of them yet?

The National Book Award finalists were announced on October 15th in Chicago. The winners will be announced on November 19, 2008. Stay tuned for another of the major award winners!

Don't forget about Large Print books. If you have low vision or when your eyes are tired after a long day at work, this is the way to go. One problem - some books in that format are so large that when you read in bed they're called "chest crushers" for good reason! (I just finished reading the Large Print edition of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, by Amanda Foreman and it qualifies!!)

Do you enjoy reading award winners?? I just finished The Road Home: A Novel, by Rose Tremain, the winner of the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. It was a great read! For more about this Award plus others, check out the Award Winners booklist.

Michael Ondaatje is another very famous Canadian author. Has your group read The English Patient and seen the movie?

Speaking of Books Into Film....."The Duchess", based on the biography , Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire (Modern Library Paperbacks), and starring Keira Knightley, is now showing in theatres across the country. I just picked up my copy of the book and will read it first!

Since October is National Reading Group Month sponsored by the Woman's National Book Association Inc. be sure to check out one of their features on this website; Great Group Reads. You'll find a great title for your group to read and discuss!

Hispanic Heritage Month continues until October 15th. Choose another good read from this booklist of Hispanic Authors & Stories such as award winner, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz.

There are lots of ways to celebrate bookwise in October: one is National Reading Group Month: Celebrating the Joy of Shared Reading sponsored by the Woman's National Book Association Inc. Get your book club together and read and discuss a good book!

Looking for a change of pace and a chance to support young readers? Contact your local high school English Department to see if there is an interest in a community book club located at the high school. Students could get extra credit at school for reading the book and you will get "extra credit" for helping our young people gain confidence in reading and discussing good literature.

Why not have your book club read a book from the Jewish Authors & Fiction booklist this time of year? This list includes Jewish authors and their stories about people and events in the Jewish community from historical to contemporary times.

Sign up at your local bookstore for their card and you'll receive lots of good information, via e-mail if you'd like, and discounts on your purchases. You can't go wrong!

Another book to read during Hispanic Heritage Month is one that is very popular with book groups: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

In Barcelona, a boys widowed father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, to choose a book. Daniel selects a novel by Julian Carax and begins a quest to find his other works only to find someone is destroying every copy of the other books written by this author.

In keeping with the Hispanic Heritage Month theme, why not begin your reading with a classic? A great choice would be Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya. This classic novel and winner of the Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award is a coming of age story of a young boy in New Mexico in the 1940s who tries to bring together the beliefs of his parents two very different families, as well as Native American religion, with Roman Catholicism.

Hispanic Heritage Month begins today September 15th and continues until October 15th. Have your book club, or read on your own, one of the many great books written by Hispanic authors. This booklist will give you lots of good ideas.

A reader suggests book groups might want to read a book about hurricanes since that season is upon us! You might try Lost in Katrina, by Mikel Schaefer or one about the Galveston, Texas hurricane of September 8, 1900, Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, by Erik Larson. Both very timely reads!

One of my favorite websites iref="http://www.trashionista.com/a>. You can find reviews and other information on all types of female fiction from chick lit, beach reads, bestsellers, new releases and old favorites. It's included on my list of Favorite Links. Take a look!

Following suggestions by readers, two booklists have been updated: Hispanic Authors and Stories and NonFiction Stories. Take a look. You just might find a "good read."

Did you know...... Jean Plaidy, Philippa Carr, Victoria Holt plus more are pseudonyms of Eleanor Hibbert? She was a very prolific author!! (If you enjoy reading historical novels, check the Historical Fiction booklist for some other good suggestions.)

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a new movie! Ann Brashares' books were written for young adults but women everywhere have fallen in love with them. Book clubs are discussing the books as they are so much fun!

Heading off to the beach and need a good book to read while relaxing in the sun? I just suggested Lauren Weisberger's Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel to my granddaughter who is traveling to to Florida for a little R & R and needs some Beach Reads. It's on the New York Times Best Sellers List, too.

If you love to visit foreign lands but find you're not able to go anywhere this year, read about it instead! The Traveler's Tales booklist has lots of good suggestions for good reads taking place in foreign countries so you can travel that way!

Your group can select a book based on the release of a motion picture film. Read the book in your book club, then go see the film. FYI - Harlan Coben's book titled, Tell No One, has just been released on film. It's a great suspense story if your group likes that genre.

I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage. Charles de Secondat

This time of year, Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic, would be a good book to read and discuss with your group. You can even watch the film, Born on the Fourth of July , starring Tom Cruise.

Don't forget....children enjoy reading too! Many bookstores and libraries have summer reading programs for kids (and teens). The kids read a certain number of books and fill out a reading log to turn in for free books and other gifts/prizes. Try Barnes and Noble and Half Price Books to see what they offer.

Take a look at the Booklists section on this web page. They are divided into popular categories and titles that lend themselves to good discussions for your book group. I read many of these books and many have been suggested by my friends as good books to read. (Of course there's no guarantee as sometimes it happens that the title one group may love the next group will dislike!)

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. ~Chinese Proverb

The Tender Bar, by J. R. Moehringer is a great Father's Day read! With an absent father and needing a male influence in his life, J. R. turned to the flamboyant patrons of a grand old New York saloon as surrogates. For more on this book, click on the following link to Reading Group Choices.com.

"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are."- Mason Cooley

Another tip for when you travel or if you plan to just lie around while on vacation......order a Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device from Amazon.com and read, read, read!

Another popular idea is to choose two books with the same theme. These two titles, one fiction and one non fiction, both deal with Alzheimer's Disease: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel , by Debra Dean and The Family on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Love and Courage, by Elizabeth Cohen work very well together. They could be read and discussed at the same meeting or one after the other.

If you love to travel take a look at a new booklist titled "Traveler's Tales". There are listings for those who are thinking of visiting a different country or perhaps even moving there. These books are great for those who love reading for a sense of place! See how many spots you recognize on http://www.guessthespot.com/!

If you like to read books in series and don't know what title was first or in what order they should be read, here's a great web site where you can find all that information. Just go to What's Next? on the Kent District Library in Michigan web page.

You might be interested in starting a book group that reads only novels from the list Modern Library: 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century. Lots of discussion has been ongoing about the novels that were chosen since this list was announced in The New York Times on Monday, July 20, 1998.

Try going international! The BBC has a World Book Club. Tune into World Book Club on the internet to hear world famous authors talk to Harriett Gilbert about their key works. Listen to the latest edition with Edna O'Brien discussing The Country Girls. Forthcoming listens include Patricia Cornwell on Post-Mortem. You can even take part by submitting questions via the BBC webpage. Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/ In the Search box type in World Book Club. Click on BBC Best Link - World Book Club.

If you're planning a trip or just staying home this summer, listening to books on audiotape or CD and downloadable books count as "reading" a book. You can listen in your car, on an airplane, while cleaning house, shopping, walking the mall, or just relaxing in your lounge chair on the patio. An interesting way to "read" a book is to listen to it on audiotape, CD, or downloaded. There are many excellent book choices available through your local library, bookstore, or on Amazon.com for those who may be visually impaired. This format is also a really great way to "read" a book!

Besides reading and talking about your book club selection, another area to explore would be about the author of the book. Who wrote the book? What other books has the author written? What awards and recognition has the author received? Is the author still living? If so, maybe e-mail the author to share that you picked his or her book for your book club selection. The author will surely be honored, and you might even strike up a correspondence and conversation about the very book you selected for your book club.

Paperbacks are great because you can take them with you wherever you go, and even leave them for another person to pick up and read! But have you ever wondered about the difference in paperback editions? Mass market paperbacks are smaller and are mostly printed on inexpensive paper and the more expensive trade paperbacks are larger and printed on a better quality paper.

Do you know where to get a book that might be out of print and your library doesn't own a copy? Ask the Interlibrary Loan Department of your local library to order it from another library system for you. They most likely will be able locate a copy for you!

Narrative Nonfiction books are a popular choice for those who love a good story but don't care for Fiction. You can find them in every subject imaginable: adventure, biographies, cooking, sports, travel and more. Some reading group web sites even include discussion questions for nonfiction titles.

You see the ISBN on books you read but do you know what it means? The International Standard Book Number is a unique 10 digit number assigned to each published book denoting the title of the book and the publisher and is used mainly for ordering purposes.

For a change of pace, ask your book club members to read and discuss a good romance novel. Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown are prolific authors who write books you will enjoy. (BTW, I met Nora Roberts at a library convention which was a big, big thrill for me!)

Many book clubs seek out the most recently published books to be read and discussed. But some clubs prefer the classics, books that were first read in high school in an English Literature course. Oftentimes reading a book again after many years, especially when discussed in a book club setting, can make the old book become new for us again. (Think about rereading Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics)!!)

Pay attention to your group dynamics. Everyone has their own personality, some are more extroverted while others are by nature very shy and introverted. To increase the chances that every member of the book club will enjoy the experience, it is often helpful to have a written format on how to review and discuss the book. Think about how much time people are allowed to speak. Is everyone given the chance to say something, even if they decline at a certain point? Go over these expectations in detail at the first meeting and maybe review them again at the beginning of each session.

Multi-generational Book Club - Reading books is a lifetime hobby for many of us. We can pass on the joy of reading to our grandchildren by forming a special book club consisting of grandparents and grandchildren. The grandchildren should be in the same grade level (6th or 7th grade) so the book is appropriate to their grade/age level. Then the book can be shared and enjoyed by grandparent and grandchild. What a great way to pass on the joy of reading to our grandchildren!

What to do if you can't get a group together for a book club? Try setting up an online book club where members meet and discuss the book over the Internet rather than in person. Sometimes you can get an author to join in your online discussion!

Before selecting a book that has been translated into English, be sure to research on the particular translation you are using. Not all translations are good. A bit of research by respected book reviewers, consulting with your local librarian, or even an e-mail to the local community college foreign language professor, can help confirm your decision to go with one translation over another. The result will be a better read for your group.

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