Category: In The Club

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

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This newsletter is sponsored by Cage Match.

Cage Match is back! Unbound Worlds is pitting science fiction characters against fantasy characters in a battle-to-the-death tournament, and you can win a collection of all 32 books featured in the competition. Enter now for your chance to win this library of sci-fi and fantasy titles!

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When is a book club not just a book club? When it’s an event. Publishers put together gala ticketed nights, libraries do speed-dating, sometimes an author shows up! Here are a few that caught my eye recently, in case you are looking for ideas and are feeling highly motivated:
– Simon & Schuster decided to do a full Book Club Matinee at the Ed Sullivan theatre! The actual fanciest.
– It might not technically be a book club, but back when I was a bookseller staffing the first one there were a ton of book club folks in attendance at Random House’s Open House.
– Libraries not only host book clubs, they sometimes host speed dating to help you decide what to read next! Lawrence Public Library’s includes mocktails.
– Well Read Black Girl has both online and in-person components, and one time Naomi Jackson came to brunch.

Speaking of Well Read Black Girl! Founder Glory Edim recently gave Ebony Magazine a list of five books that celebrate black womanhood, and the list is aces. Her picks include YA, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, so there is something for every group here.

Got themes? Here’s some fodder for your next pick meeting:
– Novels you can read in a day.
– Novels that will make you cry.

And now for this week’s Read Harder Challenge recommendations! Here are round-ups of themed lists for a couple tasks, plus a shout-out each to a personal favorite.

For: read a nonfiction book about technology.

– You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier, which is cuckoo-banana-pants as well as highly thought-provoking, and my book club had an excellent time arguing about it.
– The Best Books about Innovation, courtesy of the Smithsonian
– MIT’s Technology Review picks the best of 2016 (shout-out to Lab Girl!)
– Forbes liked a lot of the same books, which tells you about what’s buzzy.

 

For: read a book about war.

– Shani Boianjiu’s The People of Forever Are Not Afraid is about both the drudgery and the violence of military service from a female perspective, and is a rare and fascinating read. Multiple narrators, strong voices, and a ton of discussion material.
– 48 Excellent World War II Novels, if you’re feeling historical
– Also historical: 100 Must-Reads about the Civil War
– Canadian reads on war
– Women who write about war

Read on, friends!

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 right in.

Book clubs are for cities, too: New York City is starting a One Book, One New York initiative, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah is the inaugural book. Adichie’s recent comments regarding transgender women have been disheartening, but Americanah is a strong work and a great book to spur discussion. To sweeten the deal for New Yorkers, Scribd is offering a free audiobook version. And New York is not the only city with such a program; there’s a One Book, One Philadelphia, and a Seattle Reads. Get local and check to see if your region has a book club — that’s at least one month’s pick done!

Don’t worry, be booky: Our own Amanda Diehl talks about how she learned to love hosting a book group (spoiler: it took a minute). If you’ve had this experience, you’re definitely not alone. And if your nerves are stopping you from getting one going, maybe this will help!

Armchair book group: Daily Action, a group that encourages people to make daily phone calls to their representatives, has started an online book club and they’re one month in. Mid-month, they host a video discussion of the book in question — the next one is for Evicted by Matthew Desmond. It’s always hard to tell actual attendance numbers on Facebook, but the March event had over a thousand people logged, and I dig the concept.

Femmes fatale: From Agatha Christie to Natsuo Kirino to Gillian Flynn, LitHub rounds up 30 crime reads written by women in the last 100 years. This is a great place to start if you want wide-ranging, well-written mysteries for your group to dive into, and includes some excellent bonus factoids about the books.

And now for this week’s Read Harder Challenge recommendations! Here are round-ups of themed lists for a couple tasks, plus a shout-out each to a personal favorite.

For: read a debut novel.

– Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain is short, funny, and searingly incisive about the way the US treats its armed forces personnel — all of which makes it an excellent book group pick. Bonus: the movie adaptation was directed by Ang Lee!
– The Center For Fiction’s 2016 shortlist for the First Novel Prize is all killer, no filler.
– Liberty gives you 100 must-read debuts.
– Liberty also gives you 100 must-read sf/f debuts.
– Bustle’s best debuts of 2016 list has a few I loved and a few I missed entirely, which is always a sign of a good list.

For: a book about books.
– The Republic of Imagination by Azar Nafisi could be one or several book groups in and of itself. In it, Nafisi looks at four or so American classics and reflects on what they mean in the context both of their own times and in the history and trajectory of the United States. While you may not always agree with her conclusions, there is tons of food for thought (and discussion) herein.
– Author Connie Willis recommends six of her own favorites!
– Margret rounded up 100 for you.
– And our readers suggested 50+ more.

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

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This newsletter is sponsored by Duplicity by Jane Haseldine.

Julia Gooden knows how to juggle different lives. A successful crime reporter, she covers the grittiest stories in the city while raising her two young boys in the suburbs. Julia’s marriage, too, is a balancing act, as she tries to rekindle her relationship with her husband, Assistant District Attorney David Tanner, while maintaining professional boundaries. David is about to bring known criminal Nick Rossi to trial for crimes. But the story becomes much more urgent when a courthouse bomb claims several victims–including the prosecution’s key witness–and leaves David critically injured. Though Julia is certain that Rossi orchestrated the attack, the case against him is collapsing, and his power and connections run high and wide. Julia has risked her career before, but this time innocent lives–including her children’s–hang in the balance, and justice may come too late to save what truly matters…

Welcome back to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read. Onward to book-glory!

Awards are not just for the Academy: While many literary awards are announced in the fall, there’s a nice crop of finalists that are worth adding to your group TBR piles. So, how about a few must-read lists certified by panels of judges?

– The 2017 Pen America Literary Awards Finalists list is chock full of goodness. Each award has a different focus, from debuts to a variety of nonfiction to translations, so there’s a lot of range in the nominations. I’m particularly excited about the Open Book Award list this year, which includes personal favorites Helen Oyeyemi and Monica Youn.
– I am hugely excited about this year’s Nebula’s Award shortlist; I’ve read all of the Novel nominees with the exception of Borderline (must get on that), and can verify that they are brilliant.
– For groups with a kids and YA book focus, the ALA Youth Media Award winners were announced in January and include some amazing books. Rep. John Lewis’s March! Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also A Star! Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl!
– The winners won’t be announced until April, but this year’s LA Times Book Prizes shortlist is worth looking over. James McBride, Wesley Lowery, Jacqueline Woodson, Matthew Desmond, Zadie Smith, Lydia Millet, Mary Roach — it’s a who’s who of Book Riot favorites. Like the PEN awards they’ve got finalists across the genres, so no matter what your groups’ focus might be there’s something on here for you.

For your enjoyment: Elizabeth Allen details the 14 people you’ll find in every book group. (SO ACCURATE.)

For facing down those TBR piles, now you’ve got them: B&N put together a piece on techniques for picking your next read, and you could absolutely apply these to your next book group pick.

And now for this week’s Read Harder Challenge picks! Since when it comes to books, more really is more, I’ll now be giving you round-ups of themed lists for a couple tasks, plus a shout-out to a personal favorite.

For: Read a book about sports.

– Personal favorite: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka. This book features a crochety, alcoholic, meandering narrator; Sri Lankan history and politics; cricket; and a huge twist.
– Favorite Books About Sports
– 6 Books About Basketball
– Gymnastics Books For All Ages
– Are You Ready For Some Football (Books)?
– 100 Must-Read Books About Running
– 8 Books To Read After Seeing CREED

 

For: Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative.

– Personal favorite: The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber. A beautiful memoir about father-daughter relationships, growing up the daughter of an immigrant, and the search for place and identity. (And, of course, food.)
– 11 Books By Or About Immigrants and Immigration
– 8 Must-Read Immigration Stories By And About Latinos
– Books About Immigrants and Refugees That Should Be Adapted For The Stage
– 3 Stories Exploring U.S. Immigration [VIDEO]
– 17 Books That Perfectly Capture The Immigrant Experience
– 12 Nonfiction Books About Immigration

 

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

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This newsletter is sponsored by Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz.

Seoul, 1978. At South Korea’s top university, the nation’s best and brightest compete to join the professional elite of an authoritarian regime. Success could lead to a life of rarefied privilege and wealth; failure means being left irrevocably behind. In this sweeping yet intimate debut, Yoojin Grace Wuertz details four intertwining lives that are rife with turmoil and desire, private anxieties and public betrayals, dashed hopes and broken dreams—while a nation moves toward prosperity at any cost.

 

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

Kim Kardashian and (my beloved) Chrissy Teigen have started a book club! Vulture had some suggestions for them. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to round up other high-profile book groups and what they’re reading. I’m pretty fascinated by this phenomenon; celebrities who publicly read are (happily) becoming more common, but to declare it a book club takes it to the next level. That being said, only some of these actually involve the celebrities in question while others are more “inspired by.”
– Oprah’s Book Club (the original!), currently reading Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
– Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf, currently reading The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
– Lena Dunham (kind of), Lit Thursday recommendations on Lenny
– Florence Welch (also kind of), Between Two Books, currently reading Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
– Reese Witherspoon, currently reading The Wonder by Emma Donoghue and The Dry by Jane Harper
– Andrew Luck, currently reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanathi
– Sarah Jessica Parker will be teaming up with the ALA to create Book Club Central, launching in June

Mark Zuckerberg had one, but it only ran for one year. How many of these will last? As anyone who has tried to run a book group knows it can be tricky to maintain momentum, especially when you don’t have regularly engaged members. The Internet allows anyone to join, but how many people will show up and talk?

It’s also worth noting that the current picks skew heavily white (surprise!), although individually some of have a better track record of picking authors of color. Perhaps it’s time for a celebrity Read Harder?

Get contextual: Want to tie your picks to a literary event? Flavorwire’s got an evergreen Literary Calendar that offers an event from literary history for each day of each month! Having a historical tie-in can get you beyond “So, did everyone like this book?” and deep into its context. You could read Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and then discuss their infamous fisticuffs. You could follow up a reading of The Importance of Being Earnest with a discussion of Oscar Wilde’s arrest and imprisonment. You could read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and discuss the award-distribution history of the Booker Prize. So many possibilities!

Today I give you two picks for one Read Harder Challenge task: Read a fantasy novel.

For many readers, this task is an easy one. But for those who don’t normally read fantasy, it can be a tricky genre to get into. Readers of primarily literary fiction tend to be more interested in prose than swash-buckling hijinks; others may just struggle with suspension of disbelief. I personally am very interested in what I like to call “dragon problems” (i.e. anything to do with unrealistic situations), but I hear you. So for this task, I’ve picked two books: the first for the lit-fic aficionados, and the second for those who want more “realistic” problems in their novels.

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly

Here is a fantasy without a drop of magic in it. The publisher has been billing it as “Cabaret meets Le Carre” (presumably for its pleasing rhyme); I’ve been going with “It’s like if The Great Gatsby and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy went through a wormhole and then had a baby.”

Cyril dePaul is a spy, and a louche one at that. His lover Aristide Makricosta is a smuggler, dealer, and cabaret emcee. Their arrangement involves them pretending they know nothing about each other’s real jobs while half-heartedly spying on each other, and also definitely not falling in love, not even a little. They live in Amberlough City, center of graft, whimsy, and liberalism. When Cyril falls into the hands of the conservative neighboring province’s spy forces, their relationship has to come to an end — but neither wants to let go. In the meantime, streetwise singer and small-time dealer Cordelia is just looking to keep herself in rent and food, but finds herself sucked into the darkest side of politics as the encroaching One State Party makes its move.

It’s well-plotted and Donnelly’s prose is great. The parallels to historical and current politics are obvious, yet another discussion bonus. And the character arcs! Cyril’s cynicism and self-interest; Aristide’s savvy and force of character; Cordelia’s political awakening; their interactions with the richly imagined and portrayed supporting cast, all held me from the first to the last page. So there you have it: a beautifully written fantasy that has no magic, just an alternate world to explore. Voila!

Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Ben Krueger

Bailey Chen is whip-smart and has the college degree, the steel-trap mind, and the ambition to prove it. What she doesn’t have is a job. Or rather, a “real” job — currently, she’s the barback at her high school friend’s bar, living with her parents, and failing at networking her way into a better gig. This is her biggest concern until the day she discovers that not only are monsters real, but that an elite cadre of bartenders fights them with magical booze.

Krueger’s got a sometimes wry, sometimes slapstick sense of humor and a knack for creating entertaining characters who eat clichés for breakfast. Indeed, every time I expected the plot to go one way it turned another. And Chen attempts to balance her supernatural discoveries with being a functional member of the “real world” — the overlap creates some of the best scenes in the novel. Who wouldn’t use magic to try to ace a job interview, I ask you?  And as a bonus, recipes are interspersed between chapters. Perhaps a boozy book club is in order?

 

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

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This newsletter is sponsored by our giveaway!

We’re giving away a pair of Apple’s fancy new AirPods (which are an audiobook lover’s dream). Enter here for a chance to win, or just click the image below:

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

After Gone Girl: It seems like every book group in the country — nay, the world perhaps? — read The Girl on the Train and/or Gone Girl, and are desperately looking for read-alikes. After all, unreliable/unlikeable narrators tend to be polarizing, and book group is always better when there’s something to fight about. (Always.) Author Sarah Pinborough put together a list of 10 unreliable narrator reads, including those two, and there’s a lot of potential here. And if you’re willing to do a hardcover, The Girl Before is being touted as the next heir to the throne.

Taking book club to the streets: The folks at Little Free Library have launched the Action Book Club initiative, encouraging groups to bring together “good reads and good deeds.” The basic idea is to pair whatever you’re reading with a group project in your community, be it a food drive, a letter campaign, etc. I love this idea, especially since there are so many books that can get you fired up about the real world. Anyone want to read Infomocracy with me and then organize a voter registration drive?

Read like Obama: Our 44th President recently talked about the books he read in office and The Bookseller pulled together a book list from the broader article. The breadth of his reading is excellent — seeing Cixin Liu, VS Naipaul, Colson Whitehead, and Doris Lessing (among many others) on the same list makes my heart grow several sizes. You could do a whole year of discussions just from the suggestions here-in.

A recipe and a recommendation: I love a group that includes snacks, I love reading graphic memoirs, and therefore I love Lucy Knisley’s Relish. May I recommend doing an “orange foods” theme á la Knisley for your next meeting, and that you pick Relish the next time you’re looking for a foodie focus, a memoir, and/or a graphic novel/comic? I can pretty much guarantee that you will have things to talk about between the art, the narrative itself, and the recipes that bookend each chapter.

Which brings us to some Read Harder Challenge-friendly picks!

For: Read a classic by an author of color, and/or
Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color.

The Living is Easy by Dorothy West

This one doubles up quite nicely, if you’re looking to maximize your reading efficiency. I picked it up because it was described somewhere as “gossipy,” and I was hoping for a vibe similar to Austen’s snarky social commentary. I love a good, dishy classic, what can I say? And The Living Is Easy is that and more. Dorothy West takes a close look at black culture in Boston pre- and during WWI. While we primarily follow Cleo, an ambitious woman battling against the restraints of her gender, class, and race, we also get a look inside the lives of those she interacts with.

Cleo definitely falls into “unlikeable narrator” territory. She’s demanding, she’s headstrong, and she’ll manipulate anyone and anything around her to get what she wants. The results, as you might expect, do not always go to plan and there were definitely moments when I found myself on the verge of yelling at her through the pages. This is also the charm of the novel, because Cleo is so compelling in her desires. Through Cleo’s machinations, West skewers class consciousness, colorism, and the strictures of women’s lives in the early 1900s, as well as painting a complex portrait of sister- and motherhood.

In conclusion: there is a TON to talk about here, and I have no doubt your group will have very different opinions about Cleo, so get reading.

Even more picks (many international!) for this task, courtesy of Rebecca Hussey

For: Read a superhero comic with a female lead.

Ms. Marvel, Vols. 1 (No Normal) & 2 (Generation Why) by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona

“But Jenn,” you might be saying, “that is TWO books.” It is! You are correct. However, having done Ms. Marvel with not one but two book groups, I know whereof I speak. The thing about collections of comics (as opposed to graphic novels, which are written to be one complete story) is that they often end mid-arc, and this can make it a tricky and/or unsatisfying reading experience.

A little background, for those not familiar with the comics scene: Ms. Marvel is amazing and wonderful and ground-breaking for many reasons. Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, is Marvel’s first Muslim superhero to get their own comic. In addition, Kamala is a Pakistani-American teenager written by G. Willow Wilson (a Muslim woman) and co-created/edited by Sana Amanat, a Pakistani-American Muslim woman. And “Ms. Marvel” is a mantle/identity that’s been held by several other women, all white. That combination has never happened before in comics, and is not likely to occur again anytime soon. Do yourself a favor and watch Amanat’s TED Talk (I’ll wait!).

No Normal is a great introduction to comics in general, because Kamala is a normal teen who is also a giant geek (seriously, so adorable). As they introduce her, Wilson also introduces you to the general world of superheroes. Whether you’ve never read a Marvel comic or ever plan to again, you get the info you need. And then we get Kamala’s transformation into Ms. Marvel, in which she’s forced to reckon with trying to understand her identity as a teen, a Muslim, a Jersey girl, and now someone with superpowers! No Normal spends most of its time on this reckoning, with a few villains thrown in. It’s a great story, but the action really picks up in Generation Why, and The Inventor is one of my favorite villains of all time. Add to that that even combined, they’re less than 300 pages of mostly pictures; you’ll finish in no time!

Even more picks for this task, courtesy of Ardo Omer

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

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This newsletter is sponsored by Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh.

An electrifying first collection from one of the most exciting short story writers of our time.

There’s something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh’s stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities. Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition.

Hello, current and aspiring book groupers! Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met and well-read.

I’ve been a leader of four book groups, a member of two more, a fielder of book club questions via Get Booked, and a text-message-consultant for several relatives’ groups, so I feel confident in stating the following: The number one hardest thing about book clubs, harder even than making sure that everyone gets to say their piece on the book, harder than getting everyone to actually talk about the book, is picking the books. Maybe you’ve got a benevolent dictator who picks for the group; maybe there’s a rotation, maybe you vote. Regardless, with this newsletter we hope to give you some solid options for your next read (and the next, and the next).

We’ll also cover some great ideas that other groups have put into practice, ways to get the discussion moving (that aren’t just another Reading Group Guide), and the occasional recipe or two (what’s book group without treats, I ask you)! So let’s get started.

A question to add to every meeting: What about that title? Titles can be good, awful, or indifferent; sometimes we notice them (like if they’re the 1,563rd book with “girl” in the title), sometimes we don’t. Talking through why the publisher or author might have picked what they did, how well it relates to the book’s content, and what else a book might have been called with your group can yield a fascinating (and occasionally heated!) discussion.

Reading challenges, ahoy! If you want to broaden your group’s horizon or get out of a reading rut, a challenge is a great place to start. We are (naturally) big fans of our very own Read Harder challenge, but there are other options as well, and Sarah Nicolas has put together a big list.

Whether or not you’re doing a challenge, some of the picks we’ve lined up for Read Harder might be perfect for your group! I’ve got two picks below that are book-group-ready for you, with additional listings from my fellow Book Riot contributors.

For: Read a YA/MG by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+.

The Weight of Feathers, by Anna-Marie McLemore
Whether your book group already reads YA and/or magical realism or wants to add some to your list, this book is a great pick. It’s a spin on Romeo and Juliet, and possibly my favorite one ever. In a modern-day small town, the feud between the Palomas and Corbeaus has carried on to the next generation. The teenagers of both families keep a sharp eye out for each other, whether to avoid or to pick fights. Lace Paloma has not only the feud to worry about, but her own complicated family politics. When a strange boy (who inevitably turns out to be a Corbeau) saves her life, her loyalties are turned topsy-turvy.

McLemore refreshes and beautifully handles the family feud, but what makes this book shine are all the other things she adds. She also takes on the perils of corporate greed and the consequences of family abuse. Then to top it all off, there’s the shimmering and well-chosen elements of magical realism. Everyone has a secret in this book, and I didn’t see a good half of them coming. So not only can your group spend some time riffing on the Romeo and Juliet parallels, but then you can get into the many other layers.

Even more picks for this task, courtesy of Tirzah Price

For: Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey (suggested by author Daniel José Older).

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
There is no time like the present to start reading Octavia Butler. Whether or not your group traditionally reads sci-fi is irrelevant for this novel; it’s a near-future look at religion and politics, and therefore uncomfortably close to reality. Not least because, as many have pointed out, Butler’s villainous presidential candidate also wanted to “make America great again.” Written in 1998 and set in 2032, Parable of the Sower follows a young woman named Lauren who flees an attack on her community and ends up on the road in a harshly divided America. Lauren has, depending on how you look at it, a talent or a curse: she has a heightened perception of pain and sensation in others. She’s developed her own religious beliefs in response to this, and in the course of her travels decides it’s time to start a new community where her religion can grow.

Like any novel that prominently features religion and politics, there’s so much here to unpack. How relevant (or not) is it today? How compelling (or not) is Lauren’s vision? Does it make you want to read the sequel, Parable of the Talents? The questions suggest themselves.

Even more picks for this task, courtesy of Teresa Preston

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Press, publisher of Homesick For Another World by Otessa Moshfegh.

An electrifying first collection from one of the most exciting short story writers of our time.

There’s something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh’s stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities. Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition.

Do you know what’s going to be hot in the club in 2017? You and your Nintendo Switch. I mean, think about it: you’re going to have the hottest new handheld, with your copy of new Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I mean, at that point, why bother even going to the club, right? Might as well be at home, beaming Link through your tv for maximum enjoyment.

Well, at least that’s what I thinking when I wrote this! Your mileage may vary.