Mary Ellen Quinn is the author of the Historical Dictionary of Librarianship (2014), the former editor of Reference Books Bulletin, and a long-time contributing writer to Booklist.
This week Lisa Belkin, who writes the New York Times‘ Motherlode blog, announced a new book club devoted to parenting books. Once a month she’ll select a book, write about it, and invite readers to comment. She’ll also chat with the writer.You can read more about the Motherlode Book Club here.
As Oprah is ending her syndicated show, The Nielson Company has compiled statistics on the effect her book club has had on book sales over the past 10 years. You can find the full story here.
PBS Masterpiece has launched its 40th anniversary Book & Film Club. The web site offers guides (discussion questions, links, and more) arranged by author. There are also tips on creating and running a book and film club, and a list of print and online book group resources. Being a longtime Masterpiece fan, I just sighed up for […]
Check out this article from today’s New York Times about speed-dating at San Francisco Public Library. It’s a new twist on the romance book club.
Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices asked me to pass this along: It’s one-of-a-kind: a list of favorite DISCUSSIBLE books for book groups! Though there are many lists of books and many book awards, not all of the books on them make for the kind of lively, fun, interesting, thought-provoking, unforgettable discussions that reading groups crave. […]
Today Oprah announced her latest book club selections—Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Speaking as an old-school English major, I’m glad to see some Victorian classics added to the mix. Today was also the day Jonathan Franzen finally appeared on Oprah’s show to talk about his novel Freedom, which […]
Google launched its eBookstore this morning, bringing another big player into the rapidly expanding e-book world. Google’s e-books are stored in the cloud, so there’s nothing to download, and can be read on your Smartphone, Web browser, or e-reader–except Kindle, of course. Books can be purchased from the Google eBookstore, or from other retailers, including a number of independent […]
Was Jane Austen a sloppy writer? That’s the claim made by Oxford professor Kathryn Sutherland, and she’s posted more than 1,000 pages of Austen manuscripts online that she says prove her point. In fact, Sutherland has concluded that Austen’s celebrated style is really the work of an unknown editor. The claim has generated publicity and even controversy; in an NPR […]
Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices e-mailed me to say that the 2011 of edition of Reading Group Choices is now available. This edition includes more than 65 titles selected for their special interest to book groups. “Conversaton Starters” for each book are designed to stimulate lively discussions. Barbara writes, “We gave 200 hundred copies of […]
This is Book Club Week on My Chic Life, a food, drink, and party blog. Today the blog features a Book Club playlist. On Tuesday it’s appetizers, Wednesday it’s desserts, Thursday it’s more book club food, and Friday it’s cocktails inspired by famous book club books. So far I don’t see too much about actual books, but maybe, […]