book groups

  • Book Group Picks, July 2021

    Book Group Picks, July 2021

    Are you in a book discussion group, and looking for affordable ways to supply your group with books to discuss? The library is here for you! Each month or so, we’ll share a varied handful of titles, any one of which would make for terrific discussion, and each of which – at the time of… Continue reading

  • Book Group Best Bets: Fiction for Discussion

    Book Group Best Bets: Fiction for Discussion

    Anyone who has belonged to a book club knows that there’s one meeting more difficult and stressful than all the rest – the meeting when members discuss which books to read and discuss for the rest of the year. How do you know what’s good? How can you be sure it will be discussable and… Continue reading

  • Seriously fun fiction

    Posted by Jen B. Literary fiction doesn’t have to be difficult, sad, or highbrow, but finding stellar writing, intriguing characterization and whip-smart wit in popular fiction is a needle-in-a-haystack hunt. Here are four great picks (plus their read-alike cousins) that are thought-provoking, good for discussion and just plain fun to read. The World to Come by Dara Horn There’s… Continue reading

  • Fall Book Group Reads: Jen’s Nonfiction picks

    Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death and hope in a Mumbai undercity by Katherine Boo Based on relentless fact-finding and reporting, this harrowing story of hope and devastation in a poverty-strewn makeshift Indian town is told from the perspectives of those who live and die in Annawadi. Groups will discuss worldwide economic inequality and solutions… Continue reading

  • Fall Book Group Reads: Jen’s Fiction picks

    What is your book group reading this year?  Here are some recent literary novels that are eminently discuss-able. Maya’s Notebook  by Isabel Allende Sent by her grandmother to a remote island off the Chilean coast for her own safety, American-born Maya Vidal logs in her diary the year of recovery from her drug-related criminal and personally destructive… Continue reading

  • Fall Book Group Reads: Misha’s picks

    Here are some of my favorite reads from 2013 that I think would be fantastic for book group discussion. Continue reading

  • Let’s talk about “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter”

    Beginning December 1, Book Chat (the Library’s virtual book discussion group) will discuss Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, the story of a childhood friendship marred by misunderstanding and suspicion. Silas, the African-American child of a single mother barely making it, and Larry, the white son of a coarse, loud braggart, were close friends despite living… Continue reading

  • A book group you can join in your PJs

    Can we talk about book groups? Why is it so hard to find a good one? I mean, it’s easy to join a book group at a book store or a library, but they may be a bit impersonal, they rarely serve food or drinks, and there’s always that one person who talks too much.… Continue reading

  • Confessions of a book club dropout

    I still haven’t found a book club. Or rather, I haven’t found one I can stick with. I’m pretty sure it’s me; maybe I’m just a solitary reader by nature, or have commitment issues. Still, I can’t help but feel like I’m missing out, seeing all those great book groups our library hosts all over the city, including a… Continue reading

  • Still More Books Worth Talking About

    Here is another mixed batch of literary food for thought, and for discussion. The Condition, by Jennifer Haigh The McKotch family unravels during the summer of 1976 when 13-year-old Gwen is diagnosed with Turner’s syndrome, leaving her forever trapped in the body of a child. Twenty years later, the three siblings are still dealing with… Continue reading

  • More Books Worth Talking About

    Good titles for book discussions come from all over the place, and provoke all kinds of responses. Here is a diverse international blend: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery Nobody guesses at the unplumbed depths hidden behind the veiled eyes of the self-taught drudge Renée or the precociously suicidal 12-year-old Paloma, until one man… Continue reading

  • Books worth talking about.

    As sure as the Seattle Winter turns to Spring, and then back to Winter again, readers will come to the library looking for something new for their book group. Here are some of our suggestions for books that will inspire discussion, and even complement each other in interesting ways. Man in the Dark, by Paul Auster… Continue reading

  • Book Groups for Busy People

    Did you get a chance to make the lastest meeting of the Central library’s book discussion group “Let’s Talk About Books”?  I missed it, and it’s too bad, because LTAB is a wonderful opportunity for book lovers like us to share our thoughts on whatever we’re reading now and get ideas for what to read next.  Plus there’s… Continue reading

  • A local book club shares!

    I am a librarian. Do I read 24 hours/7 days a week? No. Do I read during my spare time? Sometimes a lot, usually not too much. Four years ago, a friend invited me to join a ladies’ book group in Lake Forest Park. Some of these ladies read tons more than me! This past year,… Continue reading

  • ‘The Help’ reaches its tipping point

    There’s a lot to love about summer reading when you work in a library, but the best part is when people stop by to tell you what they’ve been reading. And that’s how, early in June, I found one of my favorite books of the past several years: The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  In this… Continue reading

  • Guaranteed no-pressure book group experience

    I clearly have the best job in the world, because I regularly get to go to a book group that does nothing but talk about good books — and lots of them. This isn’t your typical “let’s all read the same book and talk about it” book group. Instead, this is an informal group where… Continue reading

  • Rereading a favorite book

    Recently my book group read Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo, a book I had savored more than a year ago. But a year later, with the complications of aging and excess information crowding my brain, I had almost completely forgotten the novel. What I did remember was my reaction to Bridge of Sighs — joy… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Three ‘book group’ books

    A Death in the Family by James Agee Other writers describe this book as a near-perfect work of art. The prose is poetic and musical, and the characterizations are so true to life that you feel you are part of the family, insular and innocent in a small Tennessee town in 1915. With incredible insight… Continue reading