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ReadingGroupGuides.com Newsletter |
July 2004 |
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Having a Bookish Summer! |
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Happy Summer-
Hope you are enjoying lovely weather and some down time wherever you are. We have lots of news to share from here where things have been VERY busy.
First...more than 585 groups have registered themselves with us at this point. We are hoping to have 1,000 groups registered by the end of July, so if your group has not yet registered, please be sure to do so. We will be offering a new set of "awards" to groups who register by August 31st. We'll have more details on our prize offerings in August.
We are recommending two new books that may be of interest to groups. The first is GOOD BOOKS LATELY and the second is THE BOOKLOVER'S COOKBOOK. For more on each, click on the covers above.
As many of you know I am writing a column for Pages magazine each month. In the November/December issue, we'd love to talk about how groups celebrate the holidays either with parties or charitable donations. If your group does something special that you would like to share, please send me a note at [email protected].
One book we mention this month is THE SUMMER GUEST by Justin Cronin. I am hearing nothing but RAVES about this one. Our reviewer at Bookreporter.com just loved it.
This month's prize book is LUCIA, LUCIA by Adriana Trigiani. What a wonderful summer read this love story is! It exudes great style with its talk about fashion in the '50s. I remember shopping at B. Altman and this book revived every wonderful memory of those days.
Have you been to see The Notebook? I just loved that movie. Let me know what you thought about it --- and how it compares to the book, by dropping me a note at [email protected].
Have a great July.
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected]) |
Register Your Group here.
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MARY AND O'NEIL by Justin Cronin |
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Justin Cronin's poignant debut traces the lives of Mary Olson and O'Neil Burke, two vulnerable young teachers who rediscover in each other a world alive with promise and hope. From the formative experiences of their early adulthood to marriage, parenthood, and beyond, this novel in stories illuminates the moments of grace that enable Mary and O'Neil to make peace with the deep emotional legacies that haunt them: the sudden, mysterious death of O'Neil's parents, Mary's long-ago decision to end a pregnancy, O'Neil's sister's battle with illness and a troubled marriage. Alive with magical nuance and unexpected encounters, Mary and O'Neil celebrates the uncommon in common lives, and the redemptive power of love. |
Read more about MARY AND O'NEIL here.
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THE SUMMER GUEST by Justin Cronin |
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From award-winning author Justin Cronin, The Summer Guest takes readers to an idyllic Maine hideaway where for decades vacationers have found solitude, tranquility, and of course superior fishing. Tracing the stories of three generations, from the frontlines of war to the private battlefields of home, The Summer Guest poignantly depicts they ways in which families redefine themselves in the face life's greatest tests. Written in the gentle, perceptive prose that earned Justin Cronin unanimous praise for his debut Mary and O'Neil, this is a book to treasure-and to share with your most treasured friends. |
Click here to read the guide for THE SUMMER GUEST by Justin Cronin.
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Invite the Author --- Bringing Book Groups and Authors Together |
Invite the author to your next book group meeting!
This summer, the following 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 your chance to talk with one of these authors!
August Authors: Groups will be chosen at random from entries received by July 22, 2004.
Mary Kay Andrews discusses LITTLE BITTY LIES
Lionel Shriver discusses WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
September Authors - Groups will be chosen at random from entries received by August 19, 2004.
Edward P. Jones discusses THE KNOWN WORLD
Laura Lippman discusses BY A SPIDERS THREAD
Laurie Lico Albanese discusses BLUE SUBURBIA |
Read more about the Invite the Author program here.
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ON THE NATURE OF HUMAN ROMANTIC INTERACTION by Karl Iagnemma |
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Karl Iagnemma's prize-winning short fiction brings a vibrant and innovative new voice to the genre. On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, his first book, has earned acclaim from critics coast to coast, who hail his imaginative, arresting approach to matters of the heart and mind. This is a story collection whose characters include a frustrated academic seeking a mathematical formula for romance, a nineteenth-century phrenologist in love with a con artist, and a woman who is adept at carving magnificent wooden mannequins but struggles to sculpt a fulfilling relationship. Encompassing the historic and the contemporary in a tone that is at once frank and wise, savage and lyrical, Iagnemma's works comprise an astonishing range. |
Read a guide for ON THE NATURE OF HUMAN ROMANTIC INTERACTION by Karl Iagnemma here.
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ONCE REMOVED by Mako Yoshikawa |
In Once Removed, Yoshikawa continues in the tradition of Alice Walker and Amy Tan with a powerful story of two women from different cultures who form a deep friendship that, though severely tested, can never be broken.
Lyrical, evocative, and richly imagined, Once Removed is an exceptional tale of two families, two cultures, and the connection between two women that survives the betrayals of those around them. Taking us from the exotic Japan of the 1940s and '50s, to the verdant English countryside, to the urban streets of Boston, Mako Yoshikawa is a gifted storyteller who has firmly established her place in contemporary fiction. |
Read our guide for ONCE REMOVED here.
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Book Club Interviews |
This month we bring you the following book club interviews:
Veronica Staley of "Wine, Women and Prose" from
St. Louis, MO
Julie Rand of Jefferson, Maine
Carrin Mahmood of "Chapter Chat" from White Bear Lake, MN
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Read our Book Club interviews here.
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Newest Guides |
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An Accidental Woman by Barbara Delinsky
Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith
The Crossley Baby by Jacqueline Carey
Dad Interrupted by Van Whitfield
Desert Queen by Janet Wallach
Don't Play In the Sun by Marita Golden
The Full Matilda by David Haynes
Grace Will Lead Me Home by Katherine Valentine
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Hills at Home by Nancy Clark
Honor Lost by Norma Khouri
An Inconvenient Wife by Megan Chance
The Knitting Sutra by Susan Lydon
Lake News by Barbara Delinsky
The Last Day of the War by Judith Claire Mitchell
The Laying on of Hands by Brenda Rhodes Miller
Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
Mary and O'Neil by Justin Cronin
Massachusetts, California, Timbuktu by Stephanie Rosenfeld
On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah
On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction by Karl Iagnemma
Once Removed by Mako Yoshikawa
Passing for Thin by Frances Kuffel
A Place to Land by Martha Manning
Prince Edward by Dennnis McFarland
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
Samaritan by Richard Price
Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson
She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
The Summer I Dared by Barbara Delinsky
Sunday Brunch by Norma L. Jarrett
Ten Circles Upon the Pond by Virginia Tranel
The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah
Transmission by Hari Kunzru
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
Under the Boardwalk by Carly Phillips
The Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky
A Walk on the Beach by Joan Anderson
Without Mercy by Renate Dorrestein |
See the Newest Guides here.
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This Month's Contest: Win LUCIA, LUCIA by Adriana Trigiani |
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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 LUCIA, LUCIA by Adriana Trigiani for his or her entire reading group.
Here is a description of the book:
It is 1950 in glittering, vibrant New York City. Lucia Sartori is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old daughter of a prosperous Italian grocer in Greenwich Village. The postwar boom is ripe with opportunities for talented girls with ambition, and Lucia becomes an apprentice to an up-and-coming designer at chic B. Altman's department store on Fifth Avenue. Engaged to her childhood sweetheart, the steadfast Dante DeMartino, Lucia is torn when she meets a handsome stranger who promises a life of uptown luxury that career girls like her only read about in the society pages. Forced to choose between duty to her family and her own dreams, Lucia finds herself in the midst of a sizzling scandal in which secrets are revealed, her beloved career is jeopardized, and the Sartoris' honor is tested. |
Read contest details 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.
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
250 W. 57th Street - Suite 1228
New York, New York 10107 |
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