Category: In The Club

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Mulholland Books.

In 1901, Evelyn Nesbit, a New York society darling, dined with Stanford White in his decadent 24th Street apartment. Evelyn was given champagne, lost consciousness, and woke, nearly naked, in bed next to White. An acclaimed architect and notorious womanizer, White was 47. Evelyn Nesbit was just 16.

Four years later, Evelyn married Harry Thaw, a playboy millionaire rumored to be mentally disturbed. One night in 1906, a vengeful Thaw shot and killed White before hundreds of theatre-goers at Madison Square Garden—a venue designed by Stanford White himself. The murder and ensuing trial were the scandal of the century, perhaps the nation’s first tabloid murder.

 

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Under the radar: We’ve put together our own favorite overlooked books from 2017, as well as 10 small press books from 2017 you shouldn’t miss. If your group feels like it’s read everything popular and doesn’t know where to go next, these should help!

To put on your radar:
– Our most anticipated LGBT reads for 2018
– Most anticipated Nonfiction for 2018 from Bitch Media
– Book Riot’s overall most anticipated for 2018

What did we recommend over and over again on Get Booked? Several of these were directly related to book group questions — in particular Behold the Dreamers, The Fortunes, and Young Jane Young.

More games, less reading! Here are some literary games to try out at your next meeting — I particularly need my group to do “A Book A Minute.”

More 2018 Read Harder suggestions, you say? We’ve got posts up now for the tasks concerning nature and genre.

How about some body-positive reads? These can be hard to find. Here are a few Alison recommends, and she’s included a few personal favorites of my own (Come As You Are! This Is Who I Am!). While some are less ideal for groups than others (especially public-facing ones), all of them are worth a look.

Love literary fiction, and also curious about graphic novels? Here are some graphic novels with less capes and more interpersonal story arcs. I had only heard of two of these, hello TBR!

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

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The biggest book club news of the week: PBS and the New York Times are launching an online book club together. Now Read This is “a monthly collaborative book club with planned audience engagement across both outlets and on multiple platforms.” Meaning it’s a Mega Fancy online book club. Will you be tuning in? Their first pick is Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, which for my money is a super-smart pick. It’s a National Book Award winner and a novel by a woman of color — an excellent combo.

The best book group picks of the best of lists: Reading Group Choices checked their own recommendations from 2017 against the Best Of lists and has a list for you! I was actually surprised to find books that hadn’t been on my radar, and it’s a nice cross-section of well-known and some surprises.

Get more meta: read some books written by fictional characters. I myself have read one of the Richard Castle books and while it wasn’t life-changing, it was fun to compare what I thought of the TV character and the book that he “wrote.”

Read like Roxane Gay: her 2017 favorites post is, as usual, a joy to look over. It’s not restricted to 2017 releases, just what she read during the year, and the categories always crack me up. For example: “A Memoir that Was Really Very Extra but the Writing Was Fine and the Book Certainly Held My Prurient Interest”. Lots of great discussion fodder here!

Read like Gabrielle Union: her 10 favorite books. Related: I just finished We’re Going to Need More Wine and can unequivocally recommend it for discussion — the tone is conversational and quick, she’s hilarious bordering on crass in a delightful (but also sometimes disturbing) way, and there are so many heartbreaking and surprising stories to learn about our favorite teen cheerleader. It’s also a very interesting example of the Celebrity Memoir as a genre. Trigger warning for discussion of her rape.

Get into the Middle Ages: here’s a list of 100 books that showcase the time “in all its colorful, contradictory, and mind-bending splendor.” My book group dream: read a Sharon Kay Penman novel and then one of these nonfiction picks and dig right in.

Diversify your romance reading: here are some romances by Native American authors! My TBR, it explodes.

We talked about forthcoming adaptations last time; for your Page to Screen meeting, here are some of our favorite adaptations from 2017. For those keeping score, Mudbound gets recommended yet again.

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

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Start off the year easy: We’ve got a book list for when you don’t really feel like reading. Most of them are centered around activities, and therefore perfect for a low-key book group meeting!

Ready to plan your page-to-screen viewings for 2018? Here are 13 you won’t want to miss. The Crazy Rich Asians adaptation cannot come soon enough, I tell you.

Love mystery shows but not so sure about comics? We’ve got some pairing suggestions to help your group find the right one(s). Any mention of Orphan Black has my immediate attention.

Ready, set, hold: 46 books by women of color coming in 2018!  Some writers might already be familiar (Tayari Jones, Zadie Smith, Roxane Gay), but there are also quite a few debuts and new voices to discover here.

Want to go off the bestseller list? LitHub asked booksellers what books from 2017 deserved more attention, and here are 40 of them for your consideration. They run the gamut — fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, you name it.

Read like David Bowie! His son has started a book club in his honor, and the first pick is Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. It appears the discussion will take place on Twitter on February 1.

As we say goodbye to Sue Grafton, now might be the time your group revisits (or starts!) The Alphabet Series.

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig.

Meet Ginny Moon. She’s mostly your average teenager—she plays flute in the school band, has weekly basketball practice and reads Robert Frost poems for English class. But Ginny is autistic. And so what’s important to her might seem a bit…different.

Full of great big heart and unexpected humor, Ludwig’s debut introduces the lovable, wholly original Ginny Moon who discovers a new meaning of family on her unconventional journey home.

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The first of our picks for the Read Harder Challenge 2018 are rolling in! We’ve got true crime and posthumously published book suggestions for those of you looking to get a head start.

It doesn’t have to be the holidays to do a bookish gift exchange! For whenever you want to do one, here are some tips on how to run one.

You know what pairs great with food? Food history! Everyone at Book Riot is talking about The Cooking Gene, and I personally am very ready for a Cheddar themed book group meet-up.

Need a good bookish game for your next meeting? Inspired by the “name of your fantasy series” tweet, Kelly decided to create games to find everything YA, from your superhero identity to the fantasy kingdom you’ll take over to your mixtape title and beyond. For the record, my YA Travel Adventure is Mars, via blue hedgehog. Tallyho!

Feeling nostalgic? We asked and Rioters answered, giving us 13 favorite books set in the 80s. Speaking of mixtapes, what an excellent opportunity to create and share a playlist with your group!

Need some inspiration in these dark days? Ann rounded up 15 books about badass women from history, and each title looks at a group of women — from science to sports to pirates and much more. A lot of these are also gorgeous objects physically; might be time for a discussion about your favorite design elements in books!

Looking for shorter, lighter reads? Kelly put together a list of YA paperbacks (actually physically lighter!) that would make great contenders for your early 2018 group discussions.

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

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The 2018 Read Harder Challenge is here! I love how different this year’s list is from last year’s — an Oprah Book Club selection! A western! A book with a cover you hate! So fun.

Have a very bookish year: some tips and tricks. Spoiler: one of these tips is “join a book club” which you’ve already got down, but some of these others could help you find the time in your day to keep up with your book group.

It’s not a book group without refreshments and Susie has seven winter drink and book pairings for you, both boozy and non-alcoholic. I will be over here with a chai and Nikki Giovanni, love that one.

More themed Best Of lists for your perusal:

– Autostraddle’s Top 10 Queer & Feminist Books of 2017
– The Root’s 16 Best Books of the Year by Black Authors
– Tor.com’s Top Young Adult SFF of 2017
–  Our Favorite British Reads of 2017
– LitHub crunched 35 outlets’ best of lists and came up with the Ultimate Best Books of 2017
– We rounded up Award-Winning Canadian Books of 2017
– Slate picked the 8 Best Audiobooks of 2017
– EW picked the 10 Best Romance Novels of 2017

Not a “best of” per se, but Liberty has some favorite noir for you. Hard cosign on, well, most of these, but particularly Sara Gran and Walter Mosley.

Listen to biographies while you cook! Or knit, or clean, or whatever it is you are doing that means you can’t hold a book in front of your face. Carina has assembled a list of her favorite biographies on audio, all read by the author!

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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This newsletter is sponsored by The House on Foster Hill by Jaime Jo Wright.

Weaving a tale of mystery and romance, this promising author’s critically acclaimed debut is a dual-time narrative about an abandoned house and two women, a century apart, changed by the deadly secrets it holds. Can they unravel its mystery and find a renewed hope before any other lives—including their own—are lost? “With sharp dialogue and plenty of scares, this is a gripping tale that never loses sight of the light.” –Foreword Reviews

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Do you want a bunch of great books? We’re doing another giveaway! It’s a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year, and you can click here to enter.

There’s no time like the end of the year to think about rebooting your book club, and Tara has some suggestions as to how.

Tis the season for best-of lists! These can be great for deciding what you’ll be reading in the coming months; many of the books will be headed to paperback editions, they’ve been vetted and read and reviewed, and there’s (usually) a decent variety of themes to pick from. And this year’s pickings are particularly good:

Vulture has declared their top 10 best comics of 2017, as did the AV Club. Some overlap here, but not as much as you might expect. I am woefully behind on my comics reading, so I’ll be bookmarking these to start remedying in 2018.

Huffington Post has their 10 best fiction up (including a bit of sci-fi, but mostly literary fiction), as does The Guardian. I really love HuffPo’s list in terms of books I’m excited to see get press. The Guardian’s is more of a surprise in terms of the picks, because I’m not familiar with quite a few of them!

The Guardian also picked their favorite mystery/thrillers of the year, and they’ve got quite a few Book Riot favorites in there. (Attica Locke 5ever.)

NPR’s Best Of includes 350 (!!!) books that their staff loved from the past year. You could spend hours filtering through it all (if you haven’t already), especially since some of these characters are thematic rather than genre. For example: Ladies First; Rather Short; Rather Long.

The Book Riot contributors decided to make up new awards categories for some of this year’s best books — please enjoy the results. My personal favorite is the “What The F*** Just Happened,” for perhaps obvious reasons.

We also picked our favorite queer books of 2017, and it’s a long and wide-ranging list in terms of both genres and representation!

Also in themed best-ofs, here’s Rebecca’s take on the best genre-bending nonfiction of the year.

And here are our official, voted-on, Best Books of 2017 across all categories!

And that’s our show: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

 

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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This newsletter is brought to you by Book Riot Insiders.

Get booky with our new release calendar, exclusive newsletter and podcasts, and amazing giveaways. Stay on top of upcoming titles with the curated New Release Index, complete with genre filters, notes from All The Books host Liberty, and a customizable Watchlist. Subscribe to Book Riot Insiders and live your best bookish life!

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Read the best of the best: The NYT has put out their 10 Best 2017 list. I’m happy to see it’s an inclusive list with stand-outs like Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. It’s also not just fiction — they evenly split it, with five fiction and five nonfiction titles. They also put out their 100 Notable Books list, in case 10 is not enough for you, also split between fiction/poetry and nonfiction.

HOWEVER. LitHub had some problems with the 100 Notable Books list, and has rounded up a bunch they think should not be missed.

Is your group excited about Harry and Meghan? Here’s a round-up of royalty-themed romances to help you celebrate!

What should be on your group’s radar for 2018? Here’s our recommendations on which upcoming releases to put on hold at your library ASAP.

Wanting to read classics in 2018, but branch out as well? We have a solution! Here are 100 classics in translation! Some will be very familiar, but there are lots you might have missed.

What is flash fiction and should you be reading and discussing it? Our working definition is “basically any story under 1,000 words,” and we think yes. Here’s a list of female writers of the genre to get you started, perfect for busy holiday schedules.

Need some adventures to take your minds off reality? Have some teens in space. I just finished Jade City (so good) by Fonda Lee and had no idea she’d written a YA space opera — to the library, Jeeves!

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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This newsletter is sponsored by The Hanging Girl by Eileen Cook.

Skye Thorn has given tarot card readings for years, and now her psychic visions are helping the police find the town’s missing golden girl, Paige Bonnet. Paige is everything Skye’s not— rich, pretty, and popular. But they’re both living a lie. A dark, rivet­ing mystery that questions just how far you’d be willing to go to become someone else.

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Read and watch: The movie adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s Mudbound has been released on Netflix, and it’s an Oscar contender. The book is also much beloved among readers, so there’s no time like the present to add it to your group’s calendar.

Read and eat: Did you know there are cookbooks based on kids’ books? There are! Anne of Green Gables! Redwall! The Gruffalo! Why don’t I own all of these already?! Must acquire and have a tasting party ASAP.

A passel of mystery authors answered contributor Jamie’s “Little Q&A”, and the responses are both fun and informative. You might have read one of them in your group, or you might have read a bunch of mysteries — either way, worth the read!

Looking for diverse YA reads? Sharanya rounded up A WHOLE LOT (seriously, so many) of books with Asian-American protagonists, and it includes a bunch of personal favorites (shout-outs to Not Your Sidekick, The Epic Crush of Genie Lo, Warcross, Want, Tiny Pretty Things, and Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel). I love discussing YA, since there are so many angles to think about them through. Did it reflect your own teenage experiences/emotions? How realistic did the dialogue feel? How much did it grab you, and if not why not?

Looking to dip into romance on the cheap? Here’s a list of places to look for free romance audiobooks, which is a great way to get into a genre you’re not familiar with OR supplement your current reading in it.

Armchair-travel to the Middle East: This list of must-reads set in the Middle East is from this summer, but it remains a good one — it includes novels, history, and contemporary nonfiction. Salt Houses and An Unnecessary Woman are both Book Riot favorites and would make great discussion fodder.

Need to decompress from family post-Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas? Here’s a post about fictional families you would NOT want to spend the holidays with that cracked me up. Related, a thought for your December meet-ups: everyone come prepared with which fictional family your own family is most like, and why!

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Let’s dive in.

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This newsletter is sponsored by Not Now, Not Ever by Lily Anderson, published by Wednesday Books.

Jennifer E. Smith meets The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy in this deliciously nerdy sequel to The Only Thing Worse than Me Is You, inspired this time by The Importance of Being Earnest.

Elliot Gabaroche is packing up her determination, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and going to summer camp. Specifically, a cutthroat academic competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. It’s going to be an epic summer.

Not Now, Not Ever is a “witty, romantic, and exuberantly geeky.” —Jenn Bennett, author of The Anatomical Shape of a Heart

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The National Book Award winners have been selected! I was rooting for two of the four in particular (Jesmyn Ward! Masha Gessen!), so I’m delighted. If award-winners is a thing your group follows, these are ones you’ll want to add to your lists.

Need more general discussion starters? I love the idea of coming up with your own “5 best books from my youth” list and sharing it with the club. (Although picking only five would be painful.) Then moving beyond favorite books, how about favorite literary things? High on my list is, “Used books with dedications from the previous gifters” — I bought this book and this book purely for those notes.

Read like John Green: One of the Rioters compiled a list of 99 books that Green has recommended throughout the years. It’s an amazingly broad list, much wider in terms of genre distribution than I would have guessed!

Want to watch rather than read? Here are eight of this year’s bookish TED talks, all of which would be excellent discussion fodder. I definitely texted at least three people after watching Nnedi Okorafor’s.

Would you like a break from plot? This post from Clay about plotless books cracked me up and added a bunch of stuff to my TBR. Forget dissecting the plot — I’m imagining a discussion about how well a book can carry off not having one.

One last reminder: you can enter our $500 gift card giveaway until November 26! The winner gets to pick the bookstore of their choice for the gift card, and it’s open internationally.

Spotlight on: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I read this book for the first time in 2015, and it was a revelation. Judging by the chatter around the Book Riot watercooler, I’m not the only one who missed it earlier and who is discovering it now. A classic of African American fiction as well as feminist fiction, it’s well worth adding to your discussion calendar. Here are a few odds and ends that add to understanding and enjoyment of the book:

This menu for Their Eyes Were Watching God was the inspiration for this spotlight — I can’t wait to experiment with that tea cake recipe.

The NEA has a beautiful synopsis and guide, including Reader Resources and a Teacher’s Guide, that would both come in handy if you want guidelines for discussion.

Technically unrelated but still fascinating, here’s a clip of Zora Neale Hurston talking about zombies and Haiti.

And here’s an interview with Hurston’s niece, who wrote a biography of her aunt called Speak, So You Can Speak Again.

And that’s our show: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Today, I rounded up some easy-but-great reading options for the busy holiday season. Let’s dive in!

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This newsletter is sponsored by Unbound Worlds.

Build your library with a collection of classic science fiction and fantasy novels from Unbound Worlds! Fall is in full swing, and it’s the perfect time to cozy up with some classics. Unbound Worlds is giving away thirty-two books from timeless sci-fi and fantasy authors like Philip K. Dick, T.H. White, Anne McCaffrey, and Samuel R. Delaney, plus some bookish swag from Out of Print! Enter for a chance to win.

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Speaking of giveaways! If you won our $500 bookstore giveaway (open ’til Nov. 26), you could get a whole bunch of books for your group! Or a lot for yourself; we’ll never tell.

Philadelphia has picked its One Book, One Philadelphia read, and it’s Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson! Does your city have a read and a pick announced? I’m going to be rounding up all the ones I can find, so hit reply and let me know!

The holidays are a good time for a laugh — here’s some YA that will help. I love picking up YA and MG titles in the winter; they’re good for compressed amounts of reading time if you’re running around, they’re distracting and not too hard on your brain if you’re stressed, and they’re just so fun.

Speaking of things that are just so fun: do you need some Viking romance in your life? Here’s a great list. If anyone wants to invite me to their paired Viking romance/Vikings viewing party, I am there.

Craving some short nonfiction? Here are some great essay collections. I love discussing essays in a group because never once have we all agreed on which was the best one. Big love for Samantha Irby’s We Are Never Meeting In Real Life in particular (and you can hear her recommending her own favorite book from this year on Recommended!).

I have several friends doing NaNoWriMo, and know a few more who have specific groups set up for the writing challenge. For those who are participating and/or might just be interested in thinking about the craft of writing, here’s a list.

Can’t keep up with group reading at all for the holidays? Do a BYOB/any-book for your December (and/or January!) meeting. Here’s how one group did it.

For those of you who have more time and mindshare during the holidays, some options:

If you’re feeling contemplative about the past political year in politics, here’s an election-related reading list.

Does your group often end up yelling at characters for their poor life choices? Here are some sensible heroines to ease your frustrations.

And that’s a wrap: Happy discussing! If you’re interested in more science fiction and fantasy talk, you can catch me and my co-host Sharifah on the SFF Yeah! podcast. For many many more book recommendations (including the occasional book club question!) you can find me on the Get Booked podcast with the inimitable Amanda.

Your fellow booknerd,
Jenn

More Resources: 
– Our Book Group In A Box guide
– List your group on the Book Group Resources page