Blog

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.