October 2010

Top Ten Discussion Books --- and The Winners Are...

This month, we are really excited to share our readers’ selections of their Top 10 Favorite Discussion Books, which were gathered from the submissions in our ReadingGroupGuides.com 10th Anniversary Contest. Stephen Bedford in our office had the yeoman’s task of compiling the top selections from more than 12,000 entries, so a huge round of applause to him for a job well done. After he tracked the top titles, a small group of us met and looked deeper at your selections. We had fun doing this as we found ourselves remembering familiar titles, learning about some new ones, and getting to know your groups better as we read through your lists. We felt we were at the table with many of you as the personality of a group can come forth by looking at their selections. For those of you who are thinking of adding group members, you may want to consider sharing your group’s favorite titles with incoming members as a way to give them a better idea of what excites your group.

The replies gave us a lot of ideas for lists beyond the “Top 10.” You can click here to see our Top 10 Discussion Books, as well as some other lists we created from the results. We will be unveiling additional lists throughout the fall, including one with historical fiction titles, so stay tuned for those. You can also vote in our latest poll, where we ask which of the Top 10 titles your group has read.

If you’re wondering if your group was one of the grand prize winners, click here. As you may recall, we chose 50 groups to each receive a $200 gift card to the retailer of their choice or to donate to a local library, school or organization. We thought that by doing this, your group could receive a month’s worth of selections ---- on us! It warmed our hearts to see how many of you elected to donate your prize to a library, school or charity. Stephen will be contacting the winners to arrange for prizes to be sent over the next week. A contest and prize like this wouldn’t be possible without the loyalty, support and feedback from all of you, so thank you for celebrating with us. We’ll also be blogging about the contest entries throughout the fall on the ReadingGroupGuides.com Blog. If you ever have a blog idea or suggestion, please contact Contributing Editor Dana Barrett at [email protected].

Speaking of the blog, we learned earlier this week that the ReadingGroupGuides.com Blog was included as one of the Top 50 Book Club Blogs to Inspire and Learn From as created by Masters in Education, an online education program. You check out the full list here. We’re thrilled to be a part of such a great list.

October is National Reading Group Month, an initiative of the Women’s National Book Association. Each year they select a list of their Great Group Reads, which can be found here. We have guides for each of these titles on ReadingGroupGuides.com This year’s National Event will be held in Nashville on Saturday and will feature Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been; Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter; Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Adam & Eve; Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand; and Lee Smith, author of Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger. There are also local chapter events in Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Information can be found here.

I have a couple of other opportunities to get on your radar. The first is the annual Miami Book Fair International, which is one of my favorite events of the year. This year’s fair will take place from November 14-21 and will feature an excellent lineup of authors, including Dave Eggers, Nora Ephron, Jonathan Franzen, Sebastian Junger, Sue Miller and more. The street fair event will run from November 19-21 with lots of panels and author programming scheduled for those days as well. If you live nearby, then you should certainly look into attending on some level or even volunteering. If you live where it gets cold in November, now’s your chance to escape to Miami for a few days! Check out some more information about making travel plans here, and we will have a full programming lineup for this event as soon as it is ready.

Many of you know the work of Kristin Hannah. She’s the author of Firefly Lane, True Colors and Winter Garden, and the upcoming Night Road, which will be in stores on March 29, 2011. Pssssst….I have read Night Road, loved it and can see it sparking many an interesting book club discussion! And...this spring Kristin will host a select number of "book club parties" --- a chance for book clubs to come and meet her to celebrate the publication of Night Road. Want Kristin Hannah to host a book club party in your city? Then click here to vote! This will be such a treat for the winning clubs!

We’re launching four special contests this month, starting with Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. This title was one of our Top 10 Discussion Books, so we love that we get to feature it here in the newsletter. This is a World War II book that flips between that era and present day, and became such a success due largely to book groups. I have gotten many notes from readers about this book. A favorite came from my friend Elllyn, who wrote me saying, "I read Sarah's Key at the end of August --- started it at 10AM while the kids and my husband rode on the rides at Hershey Park and kept reading until I finished it later in the afternoon --- it was fabulous. Don't you love when a book sweeps you away like that? Tatiana’s second U.S. release, A Secret Kept, is out now. 80 readers will receive a paperback copy of Sarah’s Key. Enter here by Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET for your chance to win. Don’t miss this opportunity to win a book that readers just rave about!

Our second contest is for A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias, his first book in more than a decade. Here, Yglesias tells the fictional story of Enrique Sabas and his wife, Margaret, and their 30-year relationship from courtship to marriage to family to their twilight years. We have 50 paperback copies to give away to readers. Enter here by Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET for your chance to win.

Our third contest is for an advance reader edition of The Other Life by Ellen Meister. This one won’t be in stores until January, but you can preview it now and keep it in mind for your group when it’s available. The book is about a happily married woman who possesses a strange paranormal gift. Every time she makes a major life decision, she knows an alternate reality exists in which she made the opposite choice. She also knows how to cross over and begin living this alternate life. A situation arises that puts her at a crossroads between the happy life she knows and the life she may have had. 100 readers can win an advance copy by entering here by Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET.

Siobhan Fallon’s collection of short stories, You Know When the Men Are Gone, is our final contest book for October. Siobhan takes a fictional look at the military wives at Fort Hood anxiously awaiting their husbands to return, coping with deployment or grieving. Obviously, this is a very topical subject and a book that’s sure to generate a lot of discussion when it hits stores in January. Siobhan herself lived at Fort Hood while her husband served two tours in Iraq. 100 readers can win an advance copy by entering here by Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET.

For our registered readers, we have two exclusive opportunities this month. 100 readers can win a copy of Justin Kramon’s debut novel, Finny, which has been getting some strong reviews since its release during the summer. Those winners will also receive a special note from Justin to possibly arrange a visit to your group to discuss the book. And three groups can win an author chat with Mindy Starns Clark about her novel, Secrets of Harmony Grove, a mystery set in the Amish countryside.

We’re adding a plethora of new guides to our database this month, including Fall of Giants: Book One of the Century Trilogy, the latest historical epic from Ken Follett that’s in stores now. Also, we have the guides for Emma Donoghue’s New York Times bestseller and Man Booker Prize-nominated Room and Susan Henderson's Up From the Blue. Room and Up From the Blue were two of my Bookreporter.com Bets On picks, along with Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, my latest pick. Room is also our monthly contest book for October, so be sure you're signed up for our newsletters or pass our subscription form along here.

Lots to digest, read and talk about. Here’s to a great month of book discussion!

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])
 

Here’s your chance to win a copy of the international bestseller Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay --- the bestselling book club favorite from one of Europe’s most acclaimed authors --- with a special contest. 80 readers will have the opportunity to each win one paperback copy of the book for their group. The deadline for entries is Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET.

More about Sarah’s Key:
Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
 

We are celebrating the paperback release of A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias --- an emotional, deeply-felt novel of one man’s beloved wife --- with a special contest. 50 readers will have the opportunity to each win one paperback copy of the book, which is in stores now, for their group. The deadline for entries is Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET.

More About A Happy Marriage:
A Happy Marriage is both intimate and expansive: It is the story of Enrique Sabas and his wife, Margaret, a novel that alternates between the romantic misadventures of the first weeks of their courtship and the final months of Margaret's life as she says good-bye to her family, friends and children --- and to Enrique. Spanning 30 years, this achingly honest story is about what it means for two people to spend a lifetime together --- and what makes a happy marriage.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
 

We are previewing next year’s release of The Other Life by Ellen Meister --- a haunting novel of one woman’s paranormal ability to see the consequences of her decisions --- with a special contest. 100 readers will have the opportunity to each win one advance copy of the book, which will be in stores January 20, 2011, for their group. The deadline for entries is Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET.

More about The Other Life:
If you could return to the road not taken, would you? Happily married and pregnant, Quinn Braverman has an ominous secret. Every time she makes a major life decision, she knows an alternate reality exists in which she made the opposite choice --- not only that, she knows how to cross over. But even in her darkest moments --- like her mother’s suicide --- Quinn hasn’t been tempted to slip through…until she receives devastating news about the baby she’s carrying.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
 

We are previewing next year’s release of You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon --- a collection of short stories about military wives and the tension-filled lives they lead --- with a special contest. 100 readers will have the opportunity to each win one advance copy of the book, which will be in stores January 20, 2011, for their group. The deadline for entries is Wednesday, November 3rd at noon ET.

More about You Know When the Men Are Gone:
There is an army of women waiting for their men to return to Fort Hood, Texas. As Siobhan Fallon shows in You Know When the Men Are Gone, each woman deals with her husband’s absence differently. In gripping, no-nonsense stories that will leave you shaken, Siobhan Fallon allows you into a world tightly guarded by gates and wire. It is a place where men and women cling to the families they have created as the stress of war threatens to pull them apart.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
 

Sue Monk Kidd has touched the hearts of millions of readers with her beloved novels and acclaimed nonfiction. Now, in this wise and engrossing dual memoir, she and her daughter, Ann, chronicle their travels together through Greece and France at a time when each was on a quest to redefine herself and rediscover each other.
 

BOUND by Antonya Nelson

Looking forward to the joys of connubial bliss, newlyweds Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves, diplomats of the British Empire, set out toward Turkey for an exotic honeymoon. But on their first night in the city, a harem girl is found murdered, strangled in the courtyard of the sultan’s lavish Yildiz Palace. Sir Richard St. Clare, an Englishman who works at the embassy in Constantinople, is present and recognizes the girl as his own daughter who was kidnapped twenty years earlier. Emily and Colin promise the heartbroken father that they’ll find her killer, but as the investigation gains speed, they find that appearance can be deceiving --- especially within the confines of the seraglio.
 

She brought us Elegance, Innocence and The Flirt --- and now the exceptional Kathleen Tessaro takes contemporary women’s fiction to new heights with The Debutante. The story of a troubled New York artist transplanted to London, where she gets drawn into the strange, secret history of a notorious debutante from the previous century, Tessaro’s novel is a mystery combined with a love story within a poignant tale of a modern young woman’s self-discovery --- and readers of Jane Green, Anna Maxted and Marian Keyes will take it deep into their hearts.
 

Jessilyn Lassiter no longer has to convince people she’s not a child. Having just turned 19 in the summer of 1938, her love for Luke Talley has never been more real. And Luke is finally beginning to care for her in the way she’s always dreamed of. But their budding romance is interrupted when Tal Pritchett --- a young, black doctor --- comes to Calloway, stealing the heart of Jessilyn’s best friend, Gemma, and stirring up the racial prejudice that has been simmering just beneath the town’s surface. The tension starts to bubble over when Jessie’s elderly neighbor Miss Cleta becomes the first white townsperson to accept Tal’s treatment. And when a young black man is lynched, Calloway is brought to its knees once again as Jessilyn realizes that her anger can make her heart as full of hate as the klan members who have terrorized her town and her family.
 

For October we have two very special opportunities for Registered Book Groups. Our featured titles this month are Finny by Justin Kramon and Secrets of Harmony Grove by Mindy Starns Clark. Groups who have registered with us by Tuesday, October 19th have the chance to win author chats and/or free books. If your group is not registered, click here to register.

Finny by Justin Kramon --- Book Giveaway: One hundred groups will win a paperback copy of Finny, along with a special offer from Justin Kramon to visit your book club meeting.

More about Finny:
Justin Kramon’s debut novel, Finny, is a sweeping, enchanting voyage, an insightful story about a young woman’s complicated path to adulthood. We meet Finny Short as an observant, defiant 14-year-old who can’t make sense of her family’s unusual habits: Her mother offers guidance appropriate for a 40-year-old socialite; her father quotes Nietzsche over pancakes. Finny figures she’s stuck with this lonely lot until she meets Earl Henckel, a boy who comes from an even stranger place than she does. Unhappy with Finny’s budding romance with Earl, her parents ship her off to Thorndon boarding school. But mischief follows Finny as she befriends New York heiress Judith Turngate, a girl whose charm belies a disquieting reckless streak.

Secrets of Harmony Grove by Mindy Starns Clark --- Author Chat and Book Giveaway: Three groups will have the opportunity to chat with Mindy Starns Clark and receive up to 10 copies of the book.

More about Secrets of Harmony Grove:
When New York marketing executive Samantha Collins finds herself unemployed, she moves out of her pricey Manhattan apartment to sleepy Harmony Grove, Pennsylvania. She plans on running the bed-and-breakfast she had bought as an investment in Lancaster County. However, when the manager she lets go is later found murdered on the property, Samantha’s troubles take a serious turn. A handsome local wishes to befriend her, but can she trust him? And when her ex-boyfriend shows up, wanting to reconcile, can she cope with him in the middle of this crisis? Samantha must learn to depend on the Savior she has recently taken into her heart. And she’ll need all the help she can get, because the secrets she uncovers in Harmony Grove threaten her livelihood, her safety, and ultimately her life.
 

Bound by Antonya Nelson: Critically acclaimed author Antonya Nelson’s much anticipated first novel in a decade --- a story of tangled lives, set in a Wichita riveted by the reemergence of an infamous serial killer.
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham: Michael Cunningham’s masterly new novel is a heart-breaking look at the way we live now, much like his legendary, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours.
Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship by Cathie Beck: A memoir of friendship about a mother who puts an ad in the paper seeking friends, and finds a group that changes her life.
Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson: A penetrating study of ordinary people resisting the Nazi occupation --- and, true to its title, a dark comedy of wartime manners.
Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela: After a lifetime of taking pen to paper to record thoughts and events, hardships and victories, Nelson Mandela has bestowed his entire extant personal papers, which offer an unprecedented insight into his remarkable life.
The Debutante by Kathleen Tessaro: An auction appraiser stumbles across a box full of pricey items and sets out to return them to their rightful owners.
Doors Open by Ian Rankin: Ian Rankin creates a highly-charged caper of second guesses and double crosses right until the harrowing finish.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer: The bestselling book --- by one of the preeminent literary voices of his generation --- that has ignited a national conversation about what we eat.
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett: This first installment of Follett’s The Century Trilogy follows five families spread across the continents in sweeping historical detail and narrative as only the master behind Pillars of the Earth can do.
The False Friend by Myla Goldberg: A woman who was presumed kidnapped more than 20 years ago returns to her hometown, much to the disbelief of its citizens, and offers her account of the fateful event.
Finny by Justin Kramon: A funny, emotional and honest coming-of-age story follows a young woman from her teen years through her mid-30s in this highly-praised debut.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow: An ambitious, award-winning debut told from multiple perspectives about an 11-year-old biracial girl and the event that shattered her world.
The Golden Hustla by Wahida Clark: Nina Coles, hood chick from What's Really Hood?, makes a home in Atlanta hoping to turn her life around. But she'll learn that you can't run from trouble in New York Times bestselling author Wahida Clark's newest urban tale.
The Good Sister by Drusilla Campbell: The gripping story of two sisters, one of whom begins suffering from postpartum depression while the other sister helps her recover as she comes to terms with the family legacy of lies and secrecy.
A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias: The fictional account of a courtship, 30-year marriage and its tragic outcome from the author of Fearless.
In the Belly of Jonah: A Liv Bergen Mystery by Sandra Brannan: The first novel in this series follows amateur sleuth Liv Bergen as she uncovers the death of an intern at a mining camp and the strange circumstances surrounding it.
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli: A richly detailed, vivid novel of the Vietnam War and its aftermath on three people: a photographer, a deserter and a woman seeking answers to her brother’s death.
A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal: Now a Judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and dedicated to helping those subjected to tyranny throughout the world, Buergenthal writes his story with a simple clarity that highlights the stark details of unimaginable hardship.
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden: A successful playwright procrastinates her next project by visiting her friend’s Dublin apartment, and reflecting upon their 20-year friendship.
The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire: The bestselling author of Wicked offers this religious satire on the eve of the Y2K hysteria as a town’s residents become embroiled in church scandals.
The Other Life by Ellen Meister: Happily married and pregnant, Quinn Braverman has an ominous secret as every time she makes a major life decision, she knows an alternate reality exists in which she made the opposite choice --- not only that, she knows how to cross over.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender: A young baker discovers she can taste the emotions of whoever prepares her food, which leads her to confront friends, family members, past decisions and her mother.
The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel: Loyalty, loss and the ties that bind: These are the ingredients of The Recipe Club, a "novel cookbook" that combines an authentic story of friendship with more than 80 delicious recipes.
The Reversal by Michael Connelly: Detective Harry Boesch and attorney Mickey Haller team up to keep a brutal serial killer behind bars despite exonerating evidence.
Room by Emma Donoghue: The haunting bestselling, Man Booker-nominated novel of a young boy, his mother, the only room he knows and the circumstances that put him there.
Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye: Set against the powerful lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota, Safe from the Sea is a heartfelt novel in which a son returns home to reconnect with his estranged and dying father 35 years after the tragic wreck upon the Great Lakes.
The Secrets Sisters Keep by Abby Drake: Drake's funny and wise family soaper features four unhappy sisters who arrive at their uncle’s 75th birthday party, only to find the guest of honor has gone missing.
The Stray Sod Country by Patrick McCabe: McCabe's enjoyable final installment to his Small-Town series is the charming and often dark ensemble story of Cullymore in 1957, a small Irish town near the U.K. border.
Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander: This historical mystery set in Constantinople focuses on a husband and wife’s investigation of the murder of a harem girl, and the lengths that those in power will go to keep it covered up.
To the End of the Land by David Grossman: An Israeli mother fears for her son’s safety as he enlists in a military campaign, but keeps her hope and faith strong by sharing fond memories of their family.
Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother and Daughter Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey, and France by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor: The bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and her daughter embark on a trip to discover more about themselves and each other.
Two Cents Plain: My Brooklyn Boyhood by Martin Lemelman: A graphic novel memoir of a boy’s childhood in the rapidly decaying Brownsville section of Brooklyn during the 1950s and 1960s.
Undressing the Moon by T. Greenwood: A breast cancer survivor recounts her troubled childhood and the free-spirited artist mother who abandoned her.
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris: The Unnamed is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson: Tillie Harris's life is in disarray --- her husband is away on business, the boxes in her new home aren't unpacked, the telephone isn't connected yet --- and sudden labor pains force Tillie to reach out to her estranged father for help.
Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature by Osprey Orielle Lake: Artist-author-advocate Osprey Orielle Lake explores how the beauty, vitality and ecological systems of the natural world can guide and transform human perspective, particularly as we face current environmental crises.
The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink: The acclaimed author of The Reader follows old friends as they plan a party for a friend just out of prison, and plot their next attack.
You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon: Fallon takes readers inside the homes and hearts of army wives anxiously awaiting the return of their husbands in this collection of stories.

Please note that these titles, for which we already had the guides when they appeared in hardcover, are now available in paperback:

The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison: The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition --- boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, an attempt to find a deeper sense of place, and a slower pace, in a small New England town.

The following new guide is now available for Christian book groups:

Catching Moondrops by Jennifer Erin Valent: Racial tensions boil over in the wake of an interracial marriage in a rural Southern town in the late 1930s, leaving marriages, friendships and families ruined.
Faithful by Kim Cash Tate: A woman’s search for a husband leads her to analyze her friends’
seemingly great, but actually troubled marriages.
For Time and Eternity: The Sister Wife Series, Book 1 by Allison Pittman: A young woman finds herself tempted by a handsome Mormon despite her parents’ strict warnings.
A Hope Undaunted: Winds of Change, Book 1 by Julie Lessman: An ambitious young woman thinks she has the perfect life mapped during the roaring 1920s until a childhood rival threatens all her plans.
The House on Malcolm Street by Leisha Kelly: A widower struggles to find perspective, support and faith as she raises her daughter after a tragedy.
Making Waves: Lake Manawa Summers, Book 1 by Lorna Seilstad: A debutante finds love with a sailing instructor while her family spends a summer vacation along a lake.
A Memory Between Us: Wings of Glory, Book 2 by Sarah Sundin: A military officer falls in love with his nurse amid the chaos at the height of World War II.
Whisper on the Wind: The Great War Series, Book 2 by Maureen Lang: An heiress and a newspaper editor form an unlikely emotional bond in World War I Belgium.