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ReadingGroupGuides.com Newsletter |
May 2005
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Our Fifth Anniversary
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We celebrate the 5th Anniversary of ReadingGroupGuides.com this month. Thank you for reading and celebrating this milestone with us. We currently have 1,620 guides available and last month nearly 200,000 unique visitors came to the website. Since we know from our research that book clubs have approximately 12 members in them, this site potentially has an impact on more than 2,400,000 readers each month. As we add guides and develop special features to surround them, we always keep our readers --- and their groups --- top of mind.
Over the past five years we have featured profiles of more than 100 book clubs. Interested in having your group included? Please go here for information on what we need for your group to participate.
We started registering book clubs last May and I am pleased to share that to date we have more than 2,275 clubs registered with us. My goal is 2,500 by May 31st. Is your group registered with us yet? If not, register now! By the way my goal for this time next year is to have 5,000 registered groups, so if you know friends who are in book clubs, please forward this newsletter to them and encourage them to register. We'll consider this your anniversary gift to us!
Speaking of celebrations...this weekend mothers will be feted for Mother's Day. (For the record, I still am lobbying for Mother's Week!) When my boys were younger I told friends that I saw this holiday that included "warm fruit, burnt toast, and a card or gift with glue squished somewhere on it!" My boys now are old enough to chill the fruit, include something more exotic than toast on the breakfast tray and they usually have flowers or a plant as part of the celebration.
Since we know many Mother's Day presents are selected at the last minute, we've included some book selections in this newsletter that would make great gifts, as well as book discussions. One is Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen. This would be perfect for a Mother/Daughter Book Club discussion. Not in a mother/daughter book club? Well, may we suggest you try one just to discuss this book? We've spoken in the past about the "One Book Book Club," which is a great way to get your toe wet if you are not yet ready to commit to a monthly discussion. It's also a great way to have a discussion with a separate group of friends outside of your "usual" club. Never know where this might lead.
Also this month we add guides for Sue Monk Kidd's new one, The Mermaid's Chair, Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik and Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells --- and 17 other titles to get your group reading. One book I enjoyed this month is The Frog Prince by Jane Porter. If your group is looking for a lighter summer read, this could fill the bill.
We ask you to answer our Audiobook Survey. Weigh in on how you listen --- or not. For answering, you can enter to win a Creative Labs Muvo MP3 player and a year of Audible's Premium Listener service that allows you to download two audiobooks each month. We'll be selecting one winner. The survey will be open through Friday, May 13th.
Enjoy May...and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])
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A GREAT MOTHER/DAUGHTER Book Club Selection: BEING PERFECT by Anna Quindlen
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What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than with a Mother/Daughter Book Club title? In Being Perfect, Anna Quindlen gives inspiring guidance on how to create a life that is uniquely yours, a life that's fulfilling despite its flaws, a life that comes from the center of you.
Quindlen shares wisdom about "the perfection trap," the price you pay when you become ensnared in it, and the key to setting yourself free. She believes that when your success looks good to the world but doesn't feel good in your heart, it isn't success at all.
She asks you to set aside your friends' advice, what your family and co-workers demand, and what society expects, and look at the choices you make every day. When you ask yourself why you are making them, Quindlen encourages you to give this answer: For me.
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Click here to read more about Being Perfect.
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Special Feature and Contest: OH MY STARS by Lorna Landvik
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From Lorna Landvik, the author of the bestselling book club favorite, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons comes Oh My Stars, her most ambitious novel yet, with a cast of characters whose travails and triumphs you'll long remember. It is a tale of love and hope, bigotry and betrayal, loss and discovery -- as Violet, who's always considered herself a minor character in her own life story, emerges as a heroine you'll laugh with, cry with, and, most important, cheer for all the way.
Click here to read a piece from Landvik where she talks about her books.
Win a chance to chat with Lorna Landvik about Oh My Stars here:
See guides to all of Landvik's books: Oh My Stars, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, Patty Jane's House of Curl, The Tall Pine Polka, Welcome to the Great Mysterious, Your Oasis on Flame Lake
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Read more about Lorna Landvik's new title, Oh My Stars, and details on how to win a chat with her here.
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THE RED CARPET: Bangalore Stories by Lavanya Sankaran
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Wry humor and a delicious grasp of the friction between generations in Bangalore are the hallmarks of Lavanya Sankaran's fresh, deeply nuanced debut collection. "A potpourri of beggars and billionaires and determinedly laid-back ways," Bangalore, India's own Silicon Valley, is a crucible for prosperity, and at the chaotic crossroads between past and present. Here, American-trained professionals like Tara return to their old-fashioned families with heads full of Quentin Tarantino dialogue; a successful entrepreneur is shaken when his partner suddenly reneges on their plan to return to America; a traditional Indian mother slyly circumvents her Western-educated daughter's resistance to marriage; a neighborhood gossip is determined to discover what goes on behind the closed curtains of the hip young couple across the street; a chauffeur must reconcile his more orthodox credos with his employer's miniskirt lifestyle.
Witty, affectionate, and wonderfully wise, Lavanya Sankaran's first collection attests to her remarkable literary talent.
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See the guide for The Red Carpet here.
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Mystery/Thriller Spotlight
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Each month when we look at our traffic reports, we are surprised to see that the Mystery/Thriller genre is one of the most-searched. Why are we surprised? For years we have been told that these are not "the kind of titles" being read by book club readers. Clearly, our readers beg to differ on this subject.
As a result, this month we wanted to put a spotlight on three new titles available in this genre, The Closers by Michael Connelly, Citizen Vince by Jess Walter and Cast of Shadows by Kevin Guilfoile. And may we suggest that you take a look at our Mystery/Thriller section for more ideas?
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Read a listing of mystery/thriller titles here.
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For Registered Readers
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The following will be this month's offerings for Registered Book Club Readers:
Roxana Robinson, author of Sweetwater, This Is My Daughter and the just-published A Perfect Stranger and Other Stories will discuss Sweetwater with groups via phone chats and give away free copies of her books to the groups selected for this discussion. Read more about Sweetwater here.
Charles Martin, author of The Dead Don't Dance and the just-published Wrapped in Rain, will discuss his work with groups via phone chats in June and July and give away free copies of his books for groups selected for this discussion. Read more about these two books later in this newsletter.
A select number of groups will be offered copies of Debbie Macomber's latest bestseller, A Good Yarn, for their book club discussions. You can read more about A Good Yarn here.
Note: Book Clubs registered with us by Tuesday, May 10th will be eligible to participate.
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Register your book club here.
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Southern Fiction
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Wrapped in Rain
by Charles Martin
Charles Martin's tremendous talent is evident throughout this story of the power of forgiveness and sacrifice. This fine novel exemplifies many of the best elements of evangelical Christian fiction. Wrapped in Rain is a tough and tender novel about weathering adversity and recognizing the many faces of love, regardless of who, how, where, or why. Love is a risk --- but it's far more dangerous to live without it. Read more here.
The Dead Don't Dance
by Charles Martin
Dylan and Maggie Stiles have a perfect life --- they have a terrific marriage and they are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child. The day their son is born the world abruptly changes when Maggie lapses into a coma. Instead of Dylan celebrating he is now looking for himself --- and his faith --- a world without Maggie. This is the story of his finding his way back to life. Read more here.
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Read more about Wrapped in Rain and The Dead Don't Dance by Charles Martin here.
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This Month's Poll: How much do you read?
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How many hardcover books do you read in an average month?
More than 10
8-10
5-7
3-4
1-2
None
How many paperbacks do you read in an average month?
More than 10
8-10
5-7
3-4
1-2
None
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Answer our poll question here.
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Newest Guides |
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Antonio's Wife by Jacqueline DeJohn
The Baby Trail by Sinead Moriarty
The Baker's Apprentice by Judith R. Hendricks
The Breaking Point by Sue Shellenbarger
Citizen Vince by Jess Walter
The Closers by Michael Connelly
Deception by Denise Mina
Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
The Frog Prince by Jane Porter
The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert
Ireland by Frank Delaney
Leaving Cecil Street by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon
Mambo Peligroso by Patricia Chao
The Mermaid's Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik
On Hitler's Mountain by Irmgard A. Hunt
The Ruby Ring by Diane Haeger
The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik
Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells
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See the newest guides here.
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Audiobook Survey
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This week we are kicking off our new partnership with Audible.com with two exciting features. The first is our Audiobook Survey. Weigh in on how you listen --- or not. For answering, you can enter to win a Creative Labs Muvo MP3 player and a year of Audible's Premium Listener service that allows you to download two audiobooks each month. We'll be selecting one winner. The survey will be open through Friday, May 13th.
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Answer our Audiobook Survey here.
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Contest Winners |
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Our winner in The Reading Group Contest who receives 12 HarperPerennial titles for 12 members of her book club is Jenne from Denton, TX
Here are the twelve titles that her group read:
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez Reverte
The Mixquiahuala Letters by Ana Castillo
Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Home Port by Olive Higgins Prouty
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Dubliners by James Joyce
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5 runner-up winners will each win 12 copies of The Reading Group:
Carmelita from Bluefield, WV
Kelli from Cedar Rapids, IA
Karen Perrin from Roseville, CA
Lori from Washington, DC
Jeanne from Royal Oak, MI
Winners in the Persuasion Contest:
Evin from Sunnyvale CA
Tina from Portland, OR
Tara from Simsbury, CT
Linda from Machesney Park, IL
Janice from Dresher, PA
The winner in the Historical Fiction Contest who wins 12 copies of both The Sixth Wife and Katharine of Aragon for her group is Sandie from Greenfield, MA.
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This Month's Contest: Win Copies of the Pulitzer Prize Winning GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson
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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 up to 20 copies of GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson for his or her entire reading group.
Click the link above to see more about this award-winning book.
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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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