Archives - Reading Group Guides Newsletter

From my calendar these past few weeks and for the upcoming ones, you would never know that summer means that life slows down. It’s been jam-packed with author and book group events. And there’s been a lot humming from publishers as well.

This week, Simon & Schuster announced the launch of Book Club Favorites, a new initiative that features and promotes noteworthy book club titles, which will debut in July. THE RULES OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman, now available in paperback, is the program’s inaugural title. Once a month, Simon & Schuster will select a new book, primarily paperback fiction, and invite readers to join the club. Throughout the month, discussion questions and exclusive content will be available on the dedicated Book Club Favorites website and Facebook group. At the end of the month, readers will be invited to participate in the Book Club Favorites Facebook Live discussion, at which time the following month’s pick will be revealed. Click here for more info on this wonderful new program and how you and your group can get involved! You can see a guide for THE RULES OF MAGIC here.

We have lots of news in this late spring newsletter; forgive us for rushing the seasons a bit by getting excited about some fall/winter books, as well as those that are now in stores.

Earlier this month, we held one of our favorite events of the year, our 7th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event at BookExpo. Twenty-four publishers presented fall/winter titles of interest to book group leaders, booksellers and librarians. Publishers moved from table to table discussing their books (there were eight rotations in all), and I loved seeing the excitement building in the room as the books were discussed. You can see some photos from the crowd above. Advance copies were given away, and we look forward to reading what attendees had to say about the books that were shared. If you were there and picked up galleys, please post your comments on Word of Mouth, as well as on other websites where you share commentary about books. Three of the books above are ones that readers were buzzing about; more than 130 were presented.