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ReadingGroupGuides.com Newsletter |
February 2006
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Like Plucking Books from My Personal Shelves
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I love this month's lineup of guides and features. So many of our featured titles are books that I have read --- and thoroughly enjoyed. I like when that happens as I feel like I am plucking books from my personal shelves to hand to you.
The Same Sweet Girls is a book I loved when it first came out in hardcover last year. Cassandra King has written a book about a lasting friendship among four women, which is a great title for a book club discussion. I do not have longtime girlfriends like that, but I love to read stories about women who gather like this. Last summer I read Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman in an early galley. I enjoyed it and trust that it sparked a lot of discussion with my married friends about children and husbands, and who comes first in a marriage.
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar is the book I told you about last month, which is one my favorites for 2006. EVERY reader who I have passed it along to has loved it as well. I read White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway in late November and found myself feeling and seeing Hong Kong in the summer of 1967. So much has been written of the '60s here in this country that there was something very powerful about reading this story of two sisters whose world was so close to the war in Vietnam. Trust that their story will stay with you.
For those of you who like books with a Christian message woven into the storyline, I enjoyed River Rising by Athol Dickson.
While these are the books I already have read, I found myself jotting notes of titles I want to read as I perused the guides and the promo blurbs. I like when that happens.
This month all of our readers are invited to enter the contest to win a chat and copies of The Same Sweet Girls with the aforementioned Cassandra King, as well as a second contest to win copies of The Alchemist's Daughter. Details are below. Our winner in last month's contest who won 12 copies of The Conjurer's Bird for her group was Willette of Washington, DC.
Our Registered Book Groups we will have three offers of chats and books --- Honeymoon With My Brother by Franz Wisner, The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease and White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway --- later this month for groups who have their groups registered with ReadingGroupGuides.com by Monday, February 13th. If your group is not already signed up, sign up here.
The news of Oprah's latest book club selection has been everywhere, but if you missed it, we are happy to share that Night by Elie Wiesel is her pick. We have the guide for this book, as well as Day and Dawn here.
In last month's newsletter we ran the wrong promo blurb for The Masque of the Black Tulip. Our apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
Here's wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day. May your true love give you --- a book you love. Maybe it can have a red cover!
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])
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Click here to register your reading group.
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THE SAME SWEET GIRLS by Cassandra King --- Win 12 Copies and the Chance to Chat with Cassandra
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The Same Sweet Girls, now available in paperback, chronicles the joyous and heartbreaking ups and downs in the lives of a tight-knit and spirited group of Southern women who met in college and have been fast friends ever since. There's Julia Stovall, the first lady of Alabama, whose picture-perfect veneer hides dark secrets of the past; Lanier Sanders, whose husband won custody of their children after uncovering her affair; Astor Deveaux, a former Broadway showgirl who can't keep her flirtations in check; and the courageous artist Corrine Cooper, whose inspiring story comes to life as the novel unfolds.
Seven VERY lucky groups will win 12 copies of The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King, and a chance to have Ms. King call into their next reading group meeting! Interested? Send your name, mailing address, and a brief description of your reading group to [email protected] by March 5th.
-Click here for all the contest details.
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Click here to read our guide for The Same Sweet Girls.
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THE ALCHEMIST'S DAUGHTER by Katharine McMahon --- Enter to Win 12 Copies for Your Book Group
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There are long-held secrets at the manor house in Buckinghamshire, England, where Emilie Selden has been raised in near isolation by her father. A student of Isaac Newton, John Selden believes he can turn his daughter into a brilliant natural philosopher and alchemist. Secluded in their ancient house, with only two servants for company, he fills Emilie with knowledge and records her progress obsessively.
Set against the backdrop of eighteenth-century London society, The Alchemist's Daughter is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey through a world of mystery, passion, and obsession.
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Click here to read our guide for The Alchemist's Daughter.
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LOVE AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE PURSUITS by Ayelet Waldman
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Controversial novelist and columnist Ayelet Waldman brings us a novel that will get people thinking --- and talking --- about love, family, loss and healing. This is an insightful psychological portrait of a woman grieving over the death of her newborn daughter and unable to connect with her stepson. With wry candor and tender humor, acclaimed novelist Ayelet Waldman has crafted a strikingly beautiful novel for our time, tackling the absurdities of modern life and reminding us why we love some people no matter what.
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Click here to read our guide for Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.
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LEONARDO'S SWANS by Karen Essex
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In Renaissance Italy, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, daughters of the Duke of Ferrara, compete against each other for husbands, status, power, and above all, to have their portraits done by Italy's greatest painter --- Leonardo da Vinci. A haunting novel of rivalry, love, and betrayal that transports readers back to Renaissance Italy, Leonardo's Swans will have you dashing to the works of the great painter --- not for clues to a mystery but to contemplate the secrets of the human heart.
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Click here to read our guide for Leonardo's Swans.
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THE MASQUE OF THE BLACK TULIP by Lauren Willig
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Two hundred years ago, secret documents so sensitive they could alter the course of history were stolen from a courier with the London War Office. At the scene of the crime, the victim was left with a curious note containing only a small black symbol pinned to his chest. Authorities were baffled. It took two centuries for a young American history student, Eloise Kelly, to uncover the missing pieces of the puzzle...
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Click here to read our guide for The Masque of the Black Tulip.
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MY JIM by Nancy Rawles
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Told with spare eloquence and mirroring the true stories of countless slave women, My Jim recreates one of the most controversial characters in American literature. A nuanced critique of the great American novel, My Jim is a haunting and inspiring story about freedom, longing, and the remarkable endurance of love.
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Click here to read our guide for My Jim.
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THE SPACE BETWEEN US by Thrity Umrigar
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Poignant and compelling, evocative and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India and witnessed through two compelling and achingly real women, the novel shows how the lives of the rich and the poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and vividly captures how the bonds of womanhood are pitted against the divisions of class and culture.
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Click here to read our guide for The Space Between Us.
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For Registered Book Clubs --- Three Exclusive Offers!
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This month we are running the following three VERY special contests for Book Groups that have registered with us by February 13th:
Honeymoon With My Brother by Franz Wisner - 10 groups will win 12 copies of the book for their group and the opportunity to have what is sure to be a lively chat with Franz Wisner AND his brother Kurt.
About Honeymoon With My Brother:
This is the true story of Franz Wisner, a man who thought he had it all --- a high profile career and the fiancée of his dreams --- when suddenly, his life turned upside down. Just days before they were to be married, his fiancée called off the wedding. Luckily, his large support network of family and friends wouldn't let him succumb to his misery. They decided Franz should have a wedding and a honeymoon anyway --- there just wouldn't be a bride at the ceremony, and Franz' travel companion would be his brother, Kurt.
The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease - Three groups will win 12 copies of the book for their group and the opportunity to chat with Brenda Rickman Vantrease.
About The Illuminator:
It is England, in the late fourteenth century; the printing press has yet to be invented; books are rare and costly, painstakingly lettered and illuminated with exquisite paintings.
For Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow and mother trying desperately to safeguard her holdings without the dubious protection of her late husband, it is a time made both sweeter and more perilous by the arrival of a master illuminator called Finn who is working not only on approved church texts, but secretly --- and dangerously --- on a forbidden English translation of the Bible.
White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway - Three groups will win 12 copies of the book for their group and the opportunity to chat with Alice Greenway. As this author lives in Scotland (a five hour time difference if you are in the Eastern Standard Time Zone --- and you can calculate for other time zones from there) when you send in your entry we will need you to let us know the approximate time that your group meets and what time zone you are in when you send your reply mail so these chats can be coordinated.
About White Ghost Girls:
Summer 1967. The turmoil of the Maoist revolution is spilling over into Hong Kong and causing unrest as war rages in neighboring Vietnam. White Ghost Girls is the story of Frankie and Kate, two American sisters living in a foreign land in a chaotic time.
In Alice Greenway's exquisite gem of a novel, two girls tumble into their teenage years against an extraordinary backdrop both sensuous and dangerous. This astonishing literary debut is a tale of sacrifice and solidarity that gleams with the kind of intense, complicated love that only exists between sisters.
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Click here to register your group.
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New Feature on ReadingGroupGuides.com: What To Do When No Guide is Available
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While we have hundreds of reading guides available, and we're adding more all the time, it can happen that no guide is available for the book your group has chosen to read. It can be intimidating when it's your turn to lead the discussion and you have no idea where to begin. In order to aid your discussion and enjoyment of your group's choices, we have created a list of questions that can be used for those books with no reading guides.
We've broken these out to cover the following ten genres: Biography, Christian Fiction, Classics, Current Events & Politics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, Mystery & Thriller, Memoir, and Religion & Spirituality.
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Click here to read our lists of generic questions.
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This Month's Poll: New Members Welcome?
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Is your group looking for new members?
-We always are looking for new people.
-We sometimes look for new people.
-No, we never look for new people.
Tell us what you have done to find new members. Drop Shannon McKenna a note at [email protected]. Also, note that you can post that you are looking for new members on the ReadingGroupGuides.com message board. We break out our listings by state!
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Answer our poll here.
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Check Out the ReadingGroupGuides.com Message Board!
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The word is out! The ReadingGroupGuides.com message board is an ideal place for book club members to post messages for other book club members, about all kinds of topics.
-Looking for new members for your group? Then post a listing.
-Looking for a new group to join? Post a listing.
-Tell us what your group is reading.
-Share how you choose books.
-Give us your tips for leading a discussion.
-Share your book club story.
-Tell us some fun and interesting ideas for book clubs.
-Post recipes and serving ideas.
Please Note: To post on the ReadingGroupGuides.com Message Board you will be asked to register a username and password. Simply follow the directions in the registration window that pops up the first time you post. After that you will be able to create new discussion topics and reply to others' discussions whenever you are logged in.
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Click here to visit the ReadingGroupGuides.com Message Board.
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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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