June 2016

I love talking to people about books. Anywhere I go, when I tell them what I do, it takes two seconds before I find myself in “book concierge” mode. I love making recommendations, and it’s even more heartwarming when friends are in touch to tell me how much they enjoyed the books that were suggested. I bet that you feel the same way when your group discussion is really engaging about a title that you selected. Remember, not everyone has to like the book; they do have to be able to have a great discussion about it. We know that by reading this newsletter you are a concierge to your book group.

Still on the subject of book group recommendations…our Book Group Speed Dating event was a HUGE success. We had close to 200 attendees and 21 publishers participated. I traveled to Chicago solo this year and am endlessly indebted to our more than one-dozen volunteers (many of them longtime readers of this newsletter) who were on hand to ensure that this event ran smoothly. You can see many of them in the photo above. More than three-quarters of those who attended the Speed Dating program had been to this event before, and they clearly were enthusiastic about the close to 100 titles that were presented.

As we know many of our readers were not able to make it out to Chicago, we’ve put together a PDF of the presentation on the site (as promised). You can see it here. Note that we had to break up the slideshow into four parts as the file for the entire show was too large! And for your convenience, we’ve compiled a spreadsheet of all the titles, which you can download on your computer and print out if you want to bring it to your meetings. Enjoy!

We still are trying to pull together plans for a New York event, so if you are interested in that and have not already let us know, click here. If you already filled out the form, we have you covered. If the stars align (there are many moving pieces that still need to come together to make this happen), we will be in touch this week with an update on whether or not we will proceed with this event!

With many thanks to our friend, Bibi Baksh, at Penguin Books, the TBRN staff and some friends went to a screening of Me Before You last Wednesday night. I love evenings like this when we all get to experience something fun, in advance, together! The film is very true to the book, Emilia Clarke is just adorable as Lou (as commanding as she is every Sunday night as the Mother of Dragons on "Game of Thrones"), the setting is gorgeous (get me a stable renovation like that!) and, yes, I needed tissues. I think you will enjoy it; read the book first!

To celebrate the film's release, we're giving away two movie tickets and a copy of the movie tie-in edition of ME BEFORE YOU to 12 lucky readers. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, June 20th at noon ET. Please note: If you're selected as a winner, you'll receive two movie ticket vouchers (acceptable at most theaters nationwide, except for AMC and its affiliates) via snail mail, along with the movie tie-in edition.

Now to this month’s update…

We have FIVE contests for you this month! The first is a big one: We’re giving 100(!) readers the chance to win a copy of New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky’s latest, BLUEPRINTS. In it, the SWEET SALT AIR author returns to her beloved New England to explores the limits of love and asks what happens when the right man comes along at the wrong time. Enter here by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET.

We are also celebrating the paperback release of bestselling author Lynn Cullen’s TWAIN’S END by giving 10 readers the chance to win a copy. From the highly acclaimed author of MRS. POE comes a fictionalized imagining of the fraught relationship between one of America's most iconic figures --- Mark Twain --- and his close personal secretary, Isabel Lyon, who was a silenced woman until now with Lynn Cullen's fascinating new novel. Fans of historical fiction won’t want to miss this one. Enter here by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET to win.

In our third new contest, we’re giving 10 readers the chance to win a copy of WHEN WE MEET AGAIN, the latest from Kristin Harmel, the internationally bestselling author of THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING. It’s the story of Emily Lyons, a laid-off Georgia journalist who, at the provocation of her formerly estranged father, embarks on the trail of a mysterious painter --- a trail that may lead her to a stunning story in her own past. Enter here by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET.

We are also celebrating the paperback release of Bill Clegg's New York Times bestselling debut novel, DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY --- which follows a circle of characters whose lives are changed irrevocably when a house fire kills several members of their small community --- with a special contest that will give three groups the chance to win 12 copies. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, June 15th at noon ET. This title was one of the Buzz Books at BEA last year, and I was so wild about it that I chose it as a Bets On selection last September.

We’re very excited about this month’s “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” contest: We’re giving three groups the chance to win a copy of bestselling author Alice Hoffman’s THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES. It’s the rich, lovely story of Rachel Pizzarro, a young woman growing up on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, who is married off to a widower despite her grander dreams. When her husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, Frédérick, arrives to settle the estate, Rachel seizes her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that sparks a scandal that affects all of her family --- including her favorite son, who will become one of the greatest artists of France. Enter here by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET for your chance to win.

Summer is a great time to read outside…until it gets too hot! For those of you who like to beat the heat and read indoors, we have a wonderful contest for you. Ever dreamed of that perfect reading space? Well, we have a special opportunity for you to win just that! Room & Board and Penguin Random House are giving you a chance to win a fully furnished reading nook, complete with chair, end table, floor lamp and, most importantly, bookshelf --- plus a library of books in the genres you love. Nice, eh? Click here to learn more about the giveaway and enter to win by Wednesday, June 8th at 11pm ET.

On Bookreporter, ALL SUMMER LONG by Dorothea Benton Frank, BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley and MODERN LOVERS by Emma Straub are the three prizes we’re offering to the winners of our Word of Mouth contest. Let us know by Friday, June 10th at noon ET what books you’ve finished reading, and you’ll have a chance to win both novels. We’re also awarding the audio versions of Emma Cline's THE GIRLS, read by Cady McClain, and Anne Tyler's VINEGAR GIRL, read by Kirsten Potter, to the winners of June’s Sounding Off on Audio contest. All you have to do is let us know by Friday, July 1st at noon ET what audiobooks you’ve finished listening to, and you’ll be in the running to win both prizes.

Our Summer Reading contests are hot, hot, hot! Last week, we gave away THE ALLIANCE by Jolina Petersheim, the aforementioned BLUEPRINTS by Barbara Delinsky, and DECEPTION ISLAND by Brynn Kelly. The next 24-hour contest of the week will go live on Monday, June 6th at noon ET. And we have quite the lineup, so be sure to sign up for our Summer Reading newsletters --- to date we have 42(!) contests lined up --- or check the site each day for these contests!

And don’t forget to enter our 11th Annual Father’s Day Contest, where five readers will be awarded a prize package that includes all of this year’s featured titles and some special treats we know dad will enjoy. Click here to see the prize books and enter by Monday, June 20th at noon ET, and you just may be one of our big winners.

In this month’s poll, we’re wondering if your group would be interested in meeting up with other book groups in your area. Social media has made it easier for groups to connect online, but how interested are you in connecting in person? Click here to let us know by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET.

ICYMI: If you have not yet registered your book group so you receive our special mid-month newsletter, here’s something that may tempt you: We’ve added a feature to that newsletter where we list new releases that we think will be of interest to book groups each month. We have a fabulous weekly “On Sale This Week” newsletter over on Bookreporter.com, as well as our Coming Soon feature, and from those lists we’ve hand-picked books we think book groups will love. You can register your group here. To receive the full list in your inbox each week, you can subscribe to the “On Sale This Week” newsletter here.

Tomorrow I am giving a full-morning presentation to Nassau County Librarians about book groups and upcoming books. This is the first of a series of speaking engagements lined up in the Tri-State area over the summer. A few people asked me to come speak earlier this spring, with one invite to Florida that I would have coveted, but my schedule was so packed that I did not have time for this. Hoping that this can become more of a regular thing going forward! I love sharing my comments about books and readers, and I love meeting readers and members of the publishing community!

For those of you whose groups are not registered with us, Happy 4th of July! Enjoy and here’s to some great reading…

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

P.S. For those of you who are doing online shopping for books, if you use the store links below, ReadingGroupGuides.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
 

At BookExpo America (BEA), we had a chance to meet some of our readers at the Speed Dating session that we ran on Friday, May 13th. We know that many of you were not able to join us this year in Chicago, and we want to give you the opportunity to see all of the amazing titles that were presented at the event. To give you an easy way to mark what you want to suggest at your future meetings, we are providing a spreadsheet with all the featured titles, which you can find on this page.

We also have made a PDF of all the titles available. Due to the large size of the file, we've divided it up alphabetically by publisher:

Part 1: Algonquin; Consortium; Europa; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Grove/Atlantic
Part 2: Hachette; Henry Holt; Ingram; Liveright; MIRA
Part 3: Other Press; Picador; Random House; Simon & Schuster; Soho Press; Sourcebooks
Part 4: St. Martin's Press; Sterling; W. W. Norton; William Morrow
 

We are celebrating the release of BLUEPRINTS --- New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky's exploration of what happens when love comes along at the wrong time --- with a special contest that will give 100 readers the chance to win a copy of the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET.

BLUEPRINTS by Barbara Delinsky (Fiction)
Returning to her beloved New England, the New York Times bestselling author of SWEET SALT AIR explores the limits of love and asks what happens when the right man comes along at the wrong time?

Caroline and Jamie McAfee are close. Not only do they enjoy their relationship as mother and daughter, they're in business together as the team that fronts the popular home renovation show “Gut It!” All is well with these two strong women, but when the network tells Caroline that Jamie is to replace her as host, Caroline feels betrayed by her daughter and old in the eyes of the world.
Jamie is unsettled by the cast change and devastated by her mother's anger, but she has little time to brood when a tragic accident leaves her two-year-old half-brother in her care. Accustomed to a life of order and precision, Jamie suddenly finds herself out of her depth, grappling with a toddler who misses his parents and a fiancé who doesn't want the child.

Amid such devastation, Caroline and Jamie find themselves revising the blueprints they've built their lives around. With loyalties shifting and decisions looming, mother and daughter need each other; but the rift between them is proving difficult to mend. As the women try to remake themselves and rebuild their relationship with each other, they discover that strength and even passion can come from the unlikeliest places. For Caroline, it's an old friend, whose efforts to seduce her awaken desires that have been dormant for so long that she feels foreign to herself. For Jamie, it's a staggering new attraction that allows her to breathe again --- and breathe deeply --- for the first time in forever.

A riveting novel from a master storyteller, BLUEPRINTS reminds us that sometimes love appears when we least expect it, and when we need it most.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com.
 

We are celebrating the paperback release of bestselling author Lynn Cullen's TWAIN'S END --- a fictionalized imagining of the fraught relationship between Mark Twain and his close personal secretary, Isabel Lyon, who became a silenced woman --- with a special contest that will give 10 readers the chance to win a copy of the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET.

TWAIN'S END by Lynn Cullen (Historical Fiction)
From the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of the “page-turning tale” (Library Journal, starred review) MRS. POE comes a fictionalized imagining of the personal life of America’s most iconic writer: Mark Twain.

In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. One month later, he fired both. He proceeded to write a ferocious 429-page rant about the pair, calling Isabel “a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction.” Twain and his daughter, Clara Clemens, then slandered Isabel in the newspapers, erasing her nearly seven years of devoted service to their family. How did Lyon go from being the beloved secretary who ran Twain’s life to a woman he was determined to destroy?

In TWAIN'S END, Lynn Cullen “cleverly spins a mysterious, dark tale” (Booklist) about the tangled relationships between Twain, Lyon and Ashcroft, as well as the little-known love triangle between Helen Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, and Anne’s husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twain’s Connecticut home in 1909. Add to the party a furious Clara Clemens, smarting from her own failed love affair, and carefully kept veneers shatter.

Based on Isabel Lyon’s extant diary, Twain’s writings, letters, photographs and events in Twain’s boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, TWAIN'S END triumphs as “a tender evocation of a vain, complicated man’s twilight years and a last chance at love” (People).

-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com.
 

We are celebrating the release of internationally bestselling author Kristin Harmel's WHEN WE MEET AGAIN --- about a Georgia journalist on the trail of a mysterious painter that will lead her to a stunning story in her own past --- with a special contest that will give 10 readers the chance to win a copy of the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET.

WHEN WE MEET AGAIN by Kristin Harmel (Fiction)
Emily Lyons has been laid off from her investigative reporting job and finds herself at loose ends, in a dead-end relationship and without the high-pressure career she loved. Into that void steps someone she thought she'd never hear from again, her estranged father --- and he needs her help.

Emily's not much interested in helping her deadbeat dad, but he swears he's changed his ways --- and to prove it, he wants her to help him track down his own father, who disappeared after the war. Dad always assumed Peter had abandoned him and his mother, until the day he receives a beautiful, haunting painting of a young woman standing at the edge of a field under a violet sky. That woman is recognizable as his mother --- and the painting arrived with no identification other than a handwritten note saying, "I always loved her."

Despite her misgivings, Emily is hungry for roots and family, so she begins to dig. And as she does, she uncovers a fascinating era in American history. Her trail leads her to the POW internment camps of Georgia and Florida, where German prisoners worked for American farmers...and sometimes fell in love with American women. But how does this all connect to the painting? If Emily finds the answer to that question, she may discover more than she ever imagined....

Harmel's trademark emotional storytelling is once again on display, married to a fascinating story that has its roots in our nation's postwar history.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
 

We are celebrating the paperback release of Bill Clegg's New York Times bestselling debut novel, DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY --- which follows a circle of characters whose lives are changed irrevocably when a house fire kills several members of their small community --- with a special contest that will give three groups the chance to win 12 copies. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, June 15th at noon ET.

DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg (Fiction)
On the eve of her only daughter’s wedding, June becomes the sole survivor of a catastrophic house fire that consumes her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband and her boyfriend, Luke --- her entire family, all gone. In the aftermath of this unthinkable tragedy, we are introduced to a series of characters whose lives are forever changed.

From Rebecca and Kelly, the couple running the motel where June seeks solitude, to Rick the wedding’s caterer, to Lydia the town’s black sheep and mother to Luke --- everyone touched by this tragedy is transformed and connected through shared heartbreak as they learn to cope with their loses and find solace in the least expected of places. At its core, this novel is the ultimate celebration of family --- the ones we are born with and the ones we create.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com.
-Click here to see why Carol's betting you'll love this book.
 

Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.

This month's prize book is THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES, a forbidden love story from New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, July 6th at noon ET for a chance to win "the Platonic ideal of the beach read” (Slate.com).

THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES by Alice Hoffman (Historical Fiction)
“A luminous, Marquez-esque tale” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from the New York Times bestselling author of THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS: a forbidden love story set on a tropical island about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro --- the Father of Impressionism.

Growing up on idyllic St. Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris. Rachel’s mother, a pillar of their small refugee community of Jews who escaped the Inquisition, has never forgiven her daughter for being a difficult girl who refuses to live by the rules. Growing up, Rachel’s salvation is their maid Adelle’s belief in her strengths, and her deep, life-long friendship with Jestine, Adelle’s daughter. But Rachel’s life is not her own. She is married off to a widower with three children to save her father’s business. When her older husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew, Frédérick, arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that sparks a scandal that affects all of her family, including her favorite son, who will become one of the greatest artists of France.

“A work of art” (Dallas Morning News), THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES showcases the beloved, bestselling Alice Hoffman at the height of her considerable powers. “Her lush, seductive prose, and heart-pounding subject…make this latest skinny-dip in enchanted realism…the Platonic ideal of the beach read” (Slate.com). Once forgotten to history, the marriage of Rachel and Frédérick “will only renew your commitment to Hoffman’s astonishing storytelling” (USA Today).

-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com.
 

GLORY OVER EVERYTHING: Beyond The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (Historical Fiction)
The author of the New York Times bestseller and beloved book club favorite THE KITCHEN HOUSE continues the story of Jamie Pyke, son of both a slave and master of Tall Oakes, whose deadly secret compels him to take a treacherous journey through the Underground Railroad.

Published in 2010, THE KITCHEN HOUSE became a grassroots bestseller. Fans connected so deeply to the book’s characters that the author, Kathleen Grissom, found herself being asked over and over “what happens next?” The wait is finally over.

This new, stand-alone novel opens in 1830, and Jamie, who fled from the Virginian plantation he once called home, is passing in Philadelphia society as a wealthy white silversmith. After many years of striving, Jamie has achieved acclaim and security, only to discover that his aristocratic lover Caroline is pregnant. Before he can reveal his real identity to her, he learns that his beloved servant Pan has been captured and sold into slavery in the South. Pan’s father, to whom Jamie owes a great debt, pleads for Jamie’s help, and Jamie agrees, knowing the journey will take him perilously close to Tall Oakes and the ruthless slave hunter who is still searching for him. Meanwhile, Caroline’s father learns and exposes Jamie’s secret, and Jamie loses his home, his business, and finally Caroline.

Heartbroken and with nothing to lose, Jamie embarks on a trip to a North Carolina plantation where Pan is being held with a former Tall Oakes slave named Sukey, who is intent on getting Pan to the Underground Railroad. Soon the three of them are running through the Great Dismal Swamp, the notoriously deadly hiding place for escaped slaves. Though they have help from those in the Underground Railroad, not all of them will make it out alive.

-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com.
 

Calling all bookworms! This is your chance to win a fully furnished reading nook courtesy of Room & Board and Penguin Random House, complete with chair, end table, floor lamp and, most importantly, bookshelf --- plus, a library of books in the genres you love.
 

Summer will be here before you know it! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We will be hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through August 25th, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also will be sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.

This year's featured titles include:

• AGE OF CONSENT by Marti Leimbach
• ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN by Wendy Walker
• ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD by Caroline Angell
• THE ALLIANCE by Jolina Petersheim
• BEHOLD THE DREAMERS by Imbolo Mbue
• BEN-HUR: A Tale of the Christ by Carol Wallace
• BLUEPRINTS by Barbara Delinsky
• BUKOWSKI IN A SUNDRESS: Confessions from a Writing Life by Kim Addonizio
• CIRCLING THE SUN by Paula McLain
• CLEAR TO LIFT by Anne A. Wilson
• THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR by Shari Lapena
• THE DAY OF THE DONALD: Trump Trumps America! by Andrew Shaffer
• DEAD WAKE: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
• DECEPTION ISLAND by Brynn Kelly
• DETROIT HUSTLE: A Memoir of Love, Life and Home by Amy Haimerl
• DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg
• DISCOVERING YOU: A Whiskey Creek Novel by Brenda Novak
• THE DOLLHOUSE by Fiona Davis
• AN ELEGANT FAÇADE: Hawthorne House, Book 2 by Kristi Ann Hunter
• ENCHANTED AUGUST by Brenda Bowen
• FIRST COMES LOVE by Emily Giffin
• THE GIRLS by Emma Cline
• THE GOLDEN AGE by Joan London
• GOOD AS GONE by Amy Gentry
• HOW TO START A FIRE by Lisa Lutz
• THE JAPANESE LOVER by Isabel Allende
• JUST LIFE by Neil Abramson
• KITCHENS OF THE GREAT MIDWEST by J. Ryan Stradal
• THE LAKE HOUSE by Kate Morton
• LILAC GIRLS by Martha Hall Kelly
• MARLENE by C. W. Gortner
• THE MERMAID'S SECRET by Katie Schickel
• MISSING PIECES by Heather Gudenkauf
• MURDER ON THE QUAI: An Aimée Leduc Investigation by Cara Black
• RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles
• SLEEPLESS IN MANHATTAN by Sarah Morgan
• SOBER STICK FIGURE: A Memoir by Amber Tozer
• STRANGER, FATHER, BELOVED by Taylor Larsen
• A TAPESTRY OF SECRETS by Sarah Loudin Thomas
• TWAIN'S END by Lynn Cullen
• UNDER THE HARROW by Flynn Berry
• THE WEEKENDERS by Mary Kay Andrews
• WHEN WE MEET AGAIN by Kristin Harmel
• THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 by Ruth Ware

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? In our 11th annual "Best Books for Dad" contest, we have five books that are perfect gift-giving suggestions for dad, keeping him busy through the rest of the year. Five readers will be awarded a prize package that includes these titles, along with some special treats. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, June 20th at noon ET.

This year's featured titles are:

• DEAD WAKE: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
• THE FAR EMPTY by J. Todd Scott
• FIVE PRESIDENTS: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford by Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin
• GHOST FLEET: A Novel of the Next World War by P. W. Singer and August Cole
• HARVEY PENICK: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf by Kevin Robbins
   

THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF LOVE by Elizabeth J. Church (Historical Fiction)
Elizabeth J. Church’s debut novel, THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF LOVE, is one of those multi-layered books that has one thinking about the road not taken, as well as the changing roles of women through the years. The book opens in Chicago during the height of World War II, where Meridian Wallace is happily studying ornithology at the University of Chicago. As she pursues her course work, she meets a physics professor, Alden Whetstone, who shares with her his theories about motion and space and what allows birds to fly. She is intrigued by him.

-Click here to read more of Carol's thoughts on the book.
-Click here to read more about the book.
-Click here to read a review on Bookreporter.com.
 

Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What You're Reading --- and You Can Win Two Books!

Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from May 27th to June 10th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of ALL SUMMER LONG by Dorothea Benton Frank, BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley, and MODERN LOVERS by Emma Straub.

To make sure other readers will be able to find the books you write about, please include the full title and correct author names (your entry must include these to be eligible to win). For rules and guidelines, click here.

-Click here to enter the contest.
-To see reader comments from previous contest periods, click here.

Sounding Off on Audio Contest: Tell Us What You're Listening to --- and You Can Win Two Audiobooks!

Tell us about the audiobooks you’ve finished listening to with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for both the performance and the content. During the contest period from June 1st to July 1st at noon ET, two lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win the audio versions of Emma Cline's THE GIRLS, read by Cady McClain, and Anne Tyler's VINEGAR GIRL, read by Kirsten Potter.

To make sure other readers will be able to find the audiobook, please include the full title and correct author names (your entry must include these to be eligible to win). For complete rules and guidelines, click here.

-Click here to enter the contest.
-To see reader comments from previous contest periods, click here.

 

The following guides are now available on ReadingGroupGuides.com:

BLUEPRINTS by Barbara Delinsky (Fiction)
Returning to her beloved New England, the New York Times bestselling author of SWEET SALT AIR explores the limits of love and asks what happens when the right man comes along at the wrong time?

DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg (Fiction)
Stunning and heartrending, the most powerfully accomplished debut novel of the year, DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY, now in paperback, follows a circle of characters whose lives are changed irrevocably when a house fire kills several members of their small community.

THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES by Shirley Jackson (Fiction)
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a classic work of short fiction, and this volume also includes 24 other stories encompassing the hilarious and the horrible, the unsettling and the ominous.

THE MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES by Alice Hoffman (Historical Fiction)
“A luminous, Marquez-esque tale” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from the New York Times bestselling author of THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS: a forbidden love story set on a tropical island about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro --- the Father of Impressionism.

ROUGH RIDERS: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill by Mark Lee Gardner (History)
The first definitive account of this legendary fighting force and its extraordinary leader, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Lee Gardner’s ROUGH RIDERS is narrative nonfiction at its most invigorating and compulsively readable.

SEX OBJECT: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti (Memoir)
Author and Guardian US columnist Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in a darkly funny and bracing memoir, Valenti explores the toll that sexism takes from the everyday to the existential.

THE SPORT OF KINGS by C. E. Morgan (Historical Fiction)
A spiraling tale of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, THE SPORT OF KINGS is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in shadow by the enduring legacy of slavery; it’s a tale as mythic and fraught as the South itself --- a moral epic for our time.

THEY MAY NOT MEAN TO, BUT THEY DO by Cathleen Schine (Fiction)
For fans of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, GONE GIRL and the best of Hitchcock comes an extraordinary thriller --- and an extraordinarily unreliable narrator --- from an author whose work has been described by Tana French as "like watching a nightmare come to life."

TWAIN'S END by Lynn Cullen (Historical Fiction)
Now in trade paperback, from the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of MRS. POE comes a fictionalized imagining of the fraught relationship between one of America's most iconic figures --- Mark Twain --- and his close personal secretary, Isabel Lyon, who became a silenced woman until now with Lynn Cullen's fascinating new novel.

THE VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman (Essays)
An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics --- from art and artists to dreams, myths and memories --- observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman’s probing, amusing and distinctive style.

WHEN WE MEET AGAIN by Kristin Harmel (Fiction)
The new novel from the author of the international bestseller THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING and THE LIFE INTENDED follows a Georgia journalist on the trail of a mysterious painter --- a trail that may lead her to a stunning story in her own past.


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

ALL THE SINGLE LADIES by Dorothea Benton Frank (Fiction)
The perennial New York Times bestselling author returns with an emotionally resonant novel that illuminates the power of friendship in women’s lives, filled with her trademark wit, poignant and timely themes, sassy, flesh-and-blood characters, and the steamy Southern atmosphere and beauty of her beloved Carolina Lowcountry.

CIRCLING THE SUN by Paula McLain (Historical Fiction)
The bestselling author of THE PARIS WIFE is back with the story of the fearless and captivating Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator living in the heart of Kenya in the 1920s.

DANGEROUS WHEN WET: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and My Mother by Jamie Brickhouse (Memoir)
Bitingly funny, raw and insightful, DANGEROUS WHEN WET is the unforgettable story of a unique relationship between a son and his mother.

A HISTORY OF LONELINESS by John Boyne (Fiction)
The riveting narrative of an honorable Irish priest who finds the church collapsing around him at a pivotal moment in its history.

SECONDHAND SOULS by Christopher Moore (Fiction)
In San Francisco, the souls of the dead are mysteriously disappearing, and to get to the bottom of this abomination, a motley crew of heroes will band together in New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore’s delightfully funny sequel to A DIRTY JOB.

 

Would you be interested in meeting up with other book groups in your area?

Yes
No
I'm not sure.