August
Many book club titles are popularized by independent booksellers. For hints on books that your group may want to read, take a look at the IndieBound.org website for both the IndieBound bestseller list, which charts books that currently are bestsellers at the independent bookstores, as well as their list of upcoming books to watch on their Indie Next list.
Summer is the perfect time to dive into those books you’ve always been meaning to read. This month we featured a special contest for the bestselling The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, a brilliantly crafted family drama that explores every mother's silent fear: What would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? Fifty readers had the opportunity to each win one finished copy of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter for their group. We will announce our winners shortly.
More About The Memory Keeper's Daughter:
On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. A rich and deeply moving page-turner, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.
Click here to read all the contest details. Click here for the reading group guide.
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb?
A unique collaboration between the late Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Barrows, results in a captivating historical epistolary novel that illustrates the power of resilience, romance --- and reading.
Marianne Engel is a beautiful sculptress of gargoyles who appears in the burn unit one day and tells the narrator of this mesmerizing tale that they were lovers in medieval times, when she was a scribe and he was a mercenary. Is she simply mad? Or is she truly the angel of mercy who will save him from his suicidal despair?
Already an international literary sensation, The Gargoyle is an Inferno for our time. It will have you believing in the impossible.
»Click Here for the reading group guide. »Click Here to see our One to Watch feature for Andrew Davidson and The Gargoyle on Bookreporter.com.
Rachel Berman wants everything to be perfect. An overprotective single mother of two, she is acutely aware of the statistical dangers lurking around every corner --- which makes her snap decision to aid a stranded motorist wholly uncharacteristic. Len Bean is stuck on the shoulder with Olivia, his relentlessly curious, learning disabled 10-year-old daughter. To the chagrin of Rachel's children, who are about to be linked to the most-mocked girl in school, Rachel and Len begin dating. And when Len receives terrible news, little Olivia needs a hero more than ever.
Brady Wayne Darby and Thomas Carey could hardly have been more disparate individuals. Yet when Darby, a no-account loser raised in a dingy suburban trailer park, encounters Carey, a weary man of God, an entire state --- indeed, a nation--- is affected. Embark on a wondrous journey where death, guilt and despair are unfathomably trumped by rebirth, forgiveness and hope.
Fiercely independent and seriously lacking in social graces, Michaela "Mike" Edwards doesn’t do sugar and spice. Instead she writes great copy and stays above the fray --- until mishandled office politics get her un expectedly fired. Suddenly the young ad hotshot finds herself rethinking her entire career.
But for Mike, a few wrenching twists of fate are leading to a job she never expected: teaching “life skills” to seventh-grade girls. But sometimes the best makeovers are the ones you never see coming.
Lonely Clementine is the rightful heir to the House of Peine, the vineyard that has been in the family for generations. She has spent her whole life caring for the vines, not to mention her sour brute of a father. But now the Peine patriarch is dead, and to Clementine’s distress his will stipulates that she must share the vineyard with a half-sister she hasn’t seen in 20 years and another she didn’t even know existed. Secrets tumble out as the three sisters struggle to rescue the family heritage while overcoming their own differences.
For August we have two very special opportunities for Registered Book Groups. Our featured titles this month are The View from Garden City by Carolyn Baugh and December by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop. Groups who have registered with us by Tuesday, August 12th have the chance to win author chats and free books. If your group is not registered, click here to register.
Freelance writers and bibliophiles Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon recently published Novel Destinations, a literary-inspired travel guide that covers over 500 book- and author-related landmarks in the U.S. and Europe. In this interview, the authors describe how their shared interests and mutual backgrounds prompted this collaborative effort, and explain why they chose to focus on sites linked to classics instead of more contemporary works. They also share their personal favorite literary hotspots, highlight some of the behind-the-scenes anecdotes covered in the book, and discuss ideas for future joint projects.
Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks From Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon (Travel)
In a world saturated with every kind of travel guide, Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon have created an entertaining and informative companion for book lovers eager to travel to sites frequented by classic writers and to the settings of their beloved works. And there’s lots of good food, drink and fun along the way. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.
Click here to read an interview with Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon on Bookreporter.com. Click here to read a review of Novel Destinations on Bookreporter.com. Click here to read an excerpt from Novel Destinations on Bookreporter.com. Click here to see the contest winners of the Novel Destinations Contest on Bookreporter.com
Win a Copy of THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards for Your Group 
Novel Destinations
