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ReadingGroupGuides.com Newsletter |
November 2003 |
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We're Still Growing! |
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I am happy to share that ReadingGroupGuides.com continues to grow each month. In October alone more than 109,000 unique visitors came to the website! May we suggest you take a moment and think of friends who are readers that might enjoy this newsletter and forward it on to them so we can continue to grow? This month we added 33 new guides. You can see them listed later in this newsletter.
Many book clubs hire book club facilitators to help them select books and run their book discussions. We thought many of you might be curious about what a book club facilitator might be able to lend to your group. This month we interview Rachel Jacobsohn who founded a group called The Association of Professional Book Club Facilitators. Jacobsohn also is the author of The Reading Group Guide Handbook. To further explore this subject, we brought together four book club facilitators from around the country to talk about how they work with their groups.
Here are our tips for November and December...
Tip for November: Think about bringing the fixings for a holiday meal to your next meeting so they can be donated to a local charity or food bank. Also, think about bringing a favorite holiday recipe to share with your group members. If your recipe came from a cookbook, remember to share the title of the book!
Tip for December: Think about having members bring a book to donate to a children's charity this month, or making a group donation to an organization like First Book or Reach Out and Read. Also, this time of year everyone is stumped on gift giving ideas for at least one person on their gift list. Suggest ideas for books to give as presents. Whether it's an extra stocking stuffer or something that will be perfect for your recipient's interest, why not have some input from real booklovers?
If you would like your group to be featured in an upcoming issue of our newsletter, please see the home page of ReadingGroupGuides.com for details.
Quick reminder as you start your holiday shopping. You can support ReadingGroupGuides.com by making your Amazon.com holiday purchases via the links on our website. We receive a percentage of those sales, which allows us to continue to deliver the quality editorial we do each month. The link right below this letter is another way to access Amazon and support us!
Have a great November. Enjoy your Thanksgiving celebration.
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected]) |
Visit Amazon.com by clicking here.
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THE KEEPER'S SON by Homer Hickam |
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The Keeper's Son is a lively tale of love and redemption. Its setting is Killakeet Island of the Outer Banks, home to a peaceful population of fishermen. Dominating the glorious beauty of the little island is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, kept for generations by the Thurlow family. Seventeen years after the loss of the keeper's youngest son at sea, Josh Thurlow still searches for his baby brother. The strands of loss, love, war, and the unyielding nature of Providence are wound ever tighter until the astonishing final chapter. |
Read the guide for THE KEEPER'S SON here.
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THE STAGGERFORD FLOOD by Jon Hassler |
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In her eightieth year, Agatha McGee is feeling her age, more tired and less a part of daily life in town. When an article in the local paper tells the whole town about her failing health, Agatha decides she's spent enough time in the house. During her attempts to return to society, a flood hits the Badbattle River, engulfing every house except hers. Staggerford needs Agatha like never before, and seven neighbors, friends, and former students seek refuge with Agatha for four days and nights. |
Read a guide for THE STAGGERFORD FLOOD by Jon Hassler here.
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PITCHING MY TENT by Anita Diamant |
Following the enormous success of her two bestselling novels, The Red Tent and Good Harbor, award-winning author Anita Diamant delivers a book of intimate reflections on the milestones, revelations, and balancing acts of life as a wife, mother, friend, and member of a religious community.
Over the course of two decades as a columnist, Diamant wrote essays about friendship and family, work and religion, ultimately creating something of a public diary reflecting the shape and evolution of her life -- as well as the trends of her generation.
Pitching My Tent collects the finest of these essays, all freshly revised, updated, and enriched with new material, forming a cohesive and compelling narrative. |
Read a guide for PITCHING MY TENT here.
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Interview: Rachel Jacobsohn, Founder of the Association of Professional Book Club Facilitators |
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In this insightful interview Rachel Jacobsohn, the founder of the Association of Professional Book Club Facilitators, explains the role of facilitators in book club discussions and offers advice to book groups who would like to hire one. She also talks about her own organization and a book she wrote in the 1990s, THE READING GROUP GUIDE HANDBOOK. |
Read our interview with Rachel Jacobsohn here.
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Book Club Facilitators Roundtable Interview |
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ReadingGroupGuides.com brought together four book club facilitators from around the country to talk about their backgrounds, the books that have generated some of the best discussions, and the issues that their groups have encountered over the years and how they've been able to resolve them. The participants include Nancy Griftner of Sarasota, Florida; Rebecca Havenstein-Coughlin of Canton, Michigan; Bette Lehman of Cape Cod, Massachusetts; and Judith Palarz of Los Angeles, California. |
Read the Book Club Facilitators roundtable here.
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Book Club Interviews |
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Tammy Maher of El Dorado Hills, California talks about her book club, Big Valley Literary Society. Although the group has been in existence for only a few months, its members already have found fun and creative ways to discuss the books they've read. |
Read our Book Club interview here.
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This Month's Poll |
Where do you typically buy the books that you read with your book club? (Check as many as apply.)
At a local chain bookstore
At a local independent bookstore
Sam's Club
Wal-Mart
Costco
Target
BJs
Other warehouse or big box store
Online bookstore
From my library.
Borrow from friends.
I cannot remember what I do. |
Answer our poll questions here.
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Newest Guides |
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American Gods by Neil Gaiman
As We Lay by Darlene Johnson
Casa Rossa by Francesca Marciano
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter
Fatima's Good Fortune by Joanne and Gerry Dryansky
Forever by Pete Hamill
I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down by William Gay
If I Gained the World by Linda Nichols
In Revere, In Those Days by Roland Merullo
The Keeper's Son by Homer Hickam
The Lady, the Chef, and the Courtesan by Marisol
The Language of Light by Meg Waite Clayton
The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
Lost Discoveries by Dick Teresi
Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
Mating by Norman Rush
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson
Pitching My Tent by Anita Diamant
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill
Slow Way Home by Michael Morris
Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation by Leora Tanenbaum
Staggerford Flood by John Hassler
The Star Rover by Jack London
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Wild Heart: A Life by Suzanne Rodriguez
Wilderness Run by Maria Hummel
Wine for Women by Leslie Sbrocco
Wintering by Kate Moses |
See the Newest Guides here.
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This Month's Contest: Win THE LAST TIME THEY MET by Anita Shreve |
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A subscription to our newsletter is all you need to be entered in our monthly contest. This month, one lucky reader will win enough copies of THE LAST TIME THEY MET by Anita Shreve for his or her entire reading group. |
Read contest details and more about THE LAST TIME THEY MET here.
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Do you like what you see here, and want to forward it to a friend? Then click our link on the bottom of the page to do just that!
Happy reading. We'll see you next month.
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected]) |
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