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May 2004

ReadingGroupGuides.com Newsletter May 2004
This Month on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Register Your Group NOW!
THE BOOK CLUB COOKBOOK by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp --- Enter Contest to A Copy for Your Group
PLANT LIFE by Pamela Duncan
HUNTING MIDNIGHT by Richard Zimler
Invite the Author --- Bringing Book Groups and Authors Together
Upcoming Guides
Book Club Interviews
This Month's Poll
Newest Guides
This Month's Contest: Win A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS by Elizabeth McGregor
On ReadingGroupGuides.com
 
ReadingGroupGuides.com
Find a Guide by Title
Find a Guide by Author
Advice and Ideas
See Upcoming Guides
Register Your Group NOW!
 
This newsletter arrives in your mailboxes a tad later than usual again this month. We needed a few extra days to make some of the changes that were suggested last month when a group of you "test drove" our Register Your Group form. To those of you who replied, thanks for your ideas and suggestions. We are ready to start registering groups. You can click on the link below to Register YOUR Group. In the months to come registered groups will be eligible for special book prizes and other offerings, so sign up now!

Also, this month we are happy to share that we have added links to Amazon.ca for our Canadian readers, so now our Canadian visitors can shop more easily with ReadingGroupGuides.com. We earn a small percentage for each sale made, so if you would like to support us, please purchase your books by using these links.

This month's poll is about serving themed meals, snacks and desserts at your meetings. Over the years some of you have shared some terrific recipe ideas with us. Others of you have told us you are stumped on how to pair food and books together. We have a solution!

THE BOOK CLUB COOKBOOK was has just been published. It's chock full of 100 book/menu ideas and commentary about book clubs around the country. For those of you who love our book club interviews, here's a chance to look at what 100 groups are buzzing about. We were so excited when we saw this book that we decided to do a special feature about it. We have an interview with the authors and a contest where 20 groups each will win a copy of the book. See details below! As the authors say, "Happy reading and bon appétit!" For more about this book, go to TheBookClubCookbook.com

I am looking forward to moderating a panel at Book Expo America Convention in early June about how bookstores can work with book clubs and authors. Among the panelists are authors Sue Monk Kidd and Adriana Trigiani. I read Trigiani's LUCIA LUCIA a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. A guide for this book will be available in July. I look forward to reading her Stone Gap Trilogy in the weeks to come. Next up I am going to read THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. So many of you have raved about this book that I look forward to swinging in my hammock reading it this weekend. Yes, it is finally feeling like summer is on the way here.

Here's hoping you can find time to discover a new book or author this month.

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])
Register Your Group here.
 
THE BOOK CLUB COOKBOOK by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp --- Enter Contest to A Copy for Your Group
 
Does food play as big a part in your book club meetings as the book discussion? If so, your group is not alone. That's why we were so happy to see a new book called THE BOOK CLUB COOKBOOK, which shares recipes and menu ideas for 100 books including such book club favorites as THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, THE LIFE OF PI and GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING.

To celebrate this book's release we have an interview with the authors in which they share their inspiration for this book as well how they conducted research for it and how they suggest groups use it. And we have a contest where 20 clubs will win a copy of the book for their group!

For more about this book, go to TheBookClubCookbook.com.
Read more about THE BOOK CLUB COOKBOOK here, including an interview with the authors and contest details.
 
PLANT LIFE by Pamela Duncan
 
Weaving together the voices of several remarkable women across generations, Pamela Duncan tells a story of faith and forgiveness, acts of love and acts of betrayal. With the same artful brushstrokes that made MOON WOMEN a wonder, Duncan paints a masterful portrait of seemingly ordinary lives, and of what it means to grow a life and a future--in the rich soil of the past.
Click here to read the guide for PLANT LIFE by Pamela Duncan here.
 
HUNTING MIDNIGHT by Richard Zimler
 
From the internationally bestselling author of THE LAST KABBALIST OF LISBON comes a novel of incomparable scope and beauty that takes the reader on an epic journey from war-ravaged nineteenth-century Europe to antebellum America. A bereft child, a freed African slave, and the rich history of Portugal's secret Jews collide memorably in Richard Zimler's mesmerizing novel--a dazzling work of historical fiction played out against a backdrop of war and chaos that unforgettably mines the mysteries of devotion, betrayal, guilt, and forgiveness.
Read a guide for HUNTING MIDNIGHT here.
 
Read more about Patricia Gaffney here. Read more about Eric Schlosser here. Read more about William Lashner here.
Invite the Author --- Bringing Book Groups and Authors Together
 
Invite the author to your next book group meeting!

This summer, these acclaimed authors are available to speak via telephone about their books with your book group. A limited number of groups will be selected to participate. Sign up now at InvitetheAuthor.com for the chance for your group to talk with one of the authors that will be available in June and July. Here are some of the participating authors. Click on the link below to see more!

June Authors:
Discuss the dark side of the all-American meal this June with best-selling author Eric Schlosser. Eric will call reading groups to discuss Fast Food Nation.

Discuss Saving Graces and the power of close friendships with bestselling author Patricia Gaffney.

July Author:
Bestselling author William Lashner will call reading groups to discuss Past Due, his engrossing tale of suspense involving one of the most intriguing characters of modern popular fiction: Victor Carl.
Read details the Invite the Author program here.
 
Upcoming Guides
 
Here is a list of some of the reading group guides that will be available in upcoming months. While these titles and the months they will be available are subject to change, we share this information with you so you might plan your group's future reading.
Read our Upcoming Guides here.
 
Book Club Interviews
 
This month we bring you the following book club interviews:

Gena Hohman of "The Readers Digress" from Kingsley, MI

Mark Rumreich of "The Worms" from Indianapolis, IN

Sinéad (a.k.a. The DJ) of "Bibliofemme" from Dublin, Ireland

Chris Caccamo of "The Morning Book Group" from Stow, OH

Barbara Rose of "The Bluestockings"

Paula Mielke of "Women in Communications East Metro Book Club" from St. Paul, MN
Read our Book Club interviews here.
 
This Month's Poll
 
Does your group serve themed meals, snacks or desserts at your meetings?

All of the time
Some of the time
Never, but this is a good idea
Never
We do not eat at our meetings
Answer our poll questions here.
 
Check out our Author Bibliographies here. Read about the titles that readers are talking about. Publishers and Authors add your guides to ReadingGroupGuides.com. Details here.
Newest Guides
 
The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg
Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels
A Celibate Season by Carol Shields and Blanche Howard
The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
Death in Summer by William Trevor
Destructive Emotions by Daniel Goleman
Fancy Strut by Lee Smith
Fiona Range by Mary McGarry Morris
The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle by Lois Battle
A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle
Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
Hunger by Elise Blackwell
Hunting Midnight by Richard Zimler
Important Things That Don't Matter by David Amsden
In the River Sweet by Patricia Henley
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
Our Father Who Art in a Tree by Judy Pascoe
The Outside World by Tova Mirvis
A Road Through the Mountains by Elizabeth McGregor
The Sun Road by Hannah MacDonald
Victorine by Catherine Texier
A Whistling Woman by A. S. Byatt
The War on Choice by Gloria Feldt
Wonder When You'll Miss Me by Amanda Davis
See the Newest Guides here.
 
What To Do When No Guide is Available Search Bookreporter.com for thousands of book reviews and author interviews. Search lists of books coming out in the next few months.
This Month's Contest: Win A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS by Elizabeth McGregor
 
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 A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS by Elizabeth McGregor for his or her entire reading group.

Here is a description of the book:

From Elizabeth McGregor comes an unforgettably moving, richly layered novel with a timeless love story at its core. Beautiful, suspenseful, hauntingly erotic, A ROAD THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS tells of one woman's extraordinary journey to a new life with the help of the man she thought she'd lost long ago --- a journey that will take hold of your heart.
Read contest details here.
 

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.

Don't forget to visit our other websites from TheBookReportNetwork.com: Bookreporter.com, AuthorsOnTheWeb.com, FaithfulReader.com, AuthorYellowPages.com, Teenreads.com, and Kidsreads.com.

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

The Book Report Network
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New York, New York 10107