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You now have until Thursday, January 2nd at noon ET to enter our special contest for Therese Anne Fowler's upcoming novel, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD. We're giving 50 book groups the chance to win up to 12 advance digital copies of the audiobook. Scroll further down the newsletter for all the details!
Carol moderated the latest Book Club Girl "Night Out" event earlier this month. Above, you can see her with Susan Wiggs (author of THE OYSTERVILLE SEWING CIRCLE) on the left and Alena Dillon (author of MERCY HOUSE) on the far right, both of whom she interviewed that evening. Standing next to Carol is the "Book Club Girl" herself, Jennifer Hart. Click on the photo to watch their conversation.
Click on the images above for our videos and podcasts from our “Bookreporter Talks To” series.
You can find a list of all the authors Carol has interviewed thus far (and links to their respective videos and podcasts), along with a sneak peek at a few upcoming interviews, in her opening note below.
On Monday, December 16th at 3pm ET, Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
program will host their final Facebook Live Book Club chat of the year.
They will talk about their favorite books of 2019 and what they’re excited to read in 2020.
Holiday Plans --- Book Club Style
In our previous newsletter, I asked readers to share how their book group will be celebrating the holidays this year. We’ve compiled all of your responses into a blog post, which you can take a look at here. Many thanks to all who shared their holiday plans with us! Perhaps they will provide some last-minute ideas to those who need them. There are so many creative and altruistic plans; I love them.
One of the groups that I belong to is planning to watch Where'd You Go, Bernadette in anticipation of a group dinner to discuss it. I love these women, and I am sorry to miss this evening, but I am going to be at the Book of the Month Club Book of the Year Awards ceremony. The finalists are THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger, A WOMAN IS NO MAN by Etaf Rum, DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid, RECURSION by Blake Crouch, and THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides. We will share the winner in the next newsletter!
On November 14th, I moderated a really fun Book Club Girl "Night Out" event with Susan Wiggs, whose latest novel is THE OYSTERVILLE SEWING CIRCLE, and Alena Dillon, whose debut novel, MERCY HOUSE, will be in stores on February 11th. Both books deal with the subject of domestic violence in very thought-provoking ways. Susan and Alena were brilliant fun to chat with, and I enjoyed seeing so many of our readers there. I loved the opportunity to catch up with so many people. If you would like to see the conversation, you can watch it on the Book Club Girl Facebook page here. You can view this even if you are not on Facebook.
We have extended our very special audiobook contest for Therese Anne Fowler’s upcoming novel, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, for another month as the book's publication date moved to March 10th, and the audio will be available in January. Over the course of a single summer, the lives of two families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood will be changed irrevocably. We’re giving 50(!) readers the opportunity to win up to 12 digital copies of the audiobook, read by Adenrele Ojo, for their book group. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, January 2nd at noon ET (please note the new deadline). In the meantime, you can listen to a clip from the audiobook here. It will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.
There is also plenty of time to enter our “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” contest, where three groups will win 12 copies of THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK. Kim Michele Richardson’s novel, which released earlier this year, was inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s. All you have to do is fill out the form on this page by Tuesday, December 10th at noon ET, and let us know the book that you’re currently reading with your group.
We have two new guides to share with you for this late-month update. First up is Mitch Albom’s memoir, FINDING CHIKA: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family. Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. When her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Mitch operates in Port Au Prince. But at age five, she is suddenly diagnosed with DIPG, an inoperable Stage IV brain tumor. Mitch and his wife, Janine, bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household --- and their lives --- as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. We will feature our review on Bookreporter in December. Here is Mitch talking about the book on "CBS Sunday Morning" and "Today."
Our second new guide is for FIND ME, the highly anticipated sequel to CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. As you may remember, André Aciman’s 2007 novel became an Academy Award–winning film starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, the graduate student with whom he falls in love. In FIND ME, Elio’s father, Samuel, is on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Click here to read our Bookreporter review.
I am thrilled to announce (as I am every year) that our End-of-the-Year Contest on Bookreporter will be kicking off soon. One very lucky Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 52(!) of my Bets On picks from this year, while 13 other winners will receive a selection of four of these titles. Be sure to check the Bookreporter homepage beginning at noon ET on Friday, December 6th so you can enter our BIGGEST contest of the year.
Shortly after we sent our early November newsletter, we learned that THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell (for which we are currently featuring the guide and is also the latest Barnes & Noble Book Club selection) is this month's pick for “Good Morning America’s” new book club, “Cover to Cover.” Jewell gave “GMA” an exclusive look into her inspiration for the novel, which “Cover to Cover” calls “a page-turning whodunit, dripping with twists and suspense”: “THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS was actually inspired two years ago by a woman I saw in the south of France who was smuggling her two children into the private shower block of a beach club. She looked kind of furtive and a bit frantic. She looked like she had some sort of secret that she was hiding or something that she was escaping from, and I couldn't stop thinking about this woman." Take a look at our review on Bookreporter here.
“Cover to Cover” has already announced their December pick: CHILDREN OF VIRTUE AND VENGEANCE, which is the sequel to Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling YA debut, CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE. “The captivating fantasy, infused with rich West African culture, digs deep past the boundaries of imagination with a strong woman character at the helm," “GMA’s” Robin Roberts said. "I could not put down Adeyemi's debut book and same with the wonderful sequel, CHILDREN OF VIRTUE AND VENGEANCE.”
Unfortunately, Simon & Schuster’s Facebook Live Book Club chat of MRS. FLETCHER, the November selection for their Book Club Favorites program, had to be canceled due to “unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances.” S&S will be hosting their final book club discussion of the year on December 16th at 3pm ET. Rather than discussing a single title, they will be talking about their favorite book club reads from this year and what they’re excited about reading in 2020. There also will be a great giveaway, so be sure to tune in for what promises to be a fun and lively conversation.
Speaking of 2020 books to read, in December we will have a special contest where you can share your favorite books read in 2019 --- both with your book group and on your own --- to be entered to win five books that I think book groups will love next year. I have been doing a lot of “reading ahead,” and there are some terrific books coming out to kick off the new decade.
For those of you planning ahead, especially those who will be attending the Tucson Festival of Books on March 14th and 15th, I am going to be moderating panels there. Right now the authors on those panels are under wraps, but I am really excited about their lineup.
While we're on the subject of authors and interviews, we wanted to present all of our video and podcast links to you in one handy list. We would love for you to share this with members of your book group, as well as other readers!
Authors interviewed to date include:
Upcoming interviews include:
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William Kent Krueger (THIS TENDER LAND)
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Whitney Scharer (THE AGE OF LIGHT)
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Cara Wall (THE DEARLY BELOVED)
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Beatriz Williams (THE GOLDEN HOUR; THE WICKED REDHEAD; ALL THE WAYS WE SAID GOODBYE)
Wishing you all a VERY Happy Thanksgiving. We are so very grateful for our readers. See you in December!
Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])
P.S. For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, ReadingGroupGuides.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Special Contest: Enter to Win Up to 12 Advance Digital Copies of the Audiobook Edition of
Therese Anne Fowler’s
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD for Your Group
ReadingGroupGuides.com is proud to host a very special audiobook contest for A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that examines the American dream through the lens of two families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood, and the one summer that changes their lives irrevocably. Fifty book groups will win up to 12 advance digital copies of the audiobook, which is read by Adenrele Ojo and releases on March 10th. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, January 2nd at noon ET.
Please note: The publication date for A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD changed to March 10th, and the audio will be available in January, so our contest is now open until Thursday, January 2nd at noon ET.
We strongly encourage all winners to share their listening experiences on social media, including reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookreporter.com’s “Sounding Off on Audio” feature.
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD Audiobook written by Therese Anne Fowler, read by Adenrele Ojo (Fiction)
In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door --- an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.
Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll?
But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.
Told in multiple points of view, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD asks big questions about life in America today --- What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? --- as it explores the effects of class, race and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to listen to an excerpt.
Click here to enter the contest.
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest: Enter to Win 12 Copies of
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK
by Kim Michele Richardson for Your Group
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.
Our latest prize book is THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson. In this novel, inspired by the brave women of the Pack Horse Library Project, a young outcast braves the hardships of Kentucky’s Great Depression and brings truly magical objects to her people --- books. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Tuesday, December 10th at noon ET.
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson (Historical Fiction)
The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything --- everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome has its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.
Cussy's not only a book woman, however; she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.
Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere --- even back home.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
- Click here to read our interview with Kim Michele Richardson.
Click here to enter the contest.
New Guide: FINDING CHIKA by Mitch Albom
FINDING CHIKA: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom (Memoir)
Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince.
With no children of their own, the 40-plus children who live, play and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.”
Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.
Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. FINDING CHIKA is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed --- a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.
Click here for the discussion guide.
New Guide: FIND ME by André Aciman
FIND ME by André Aciman (Fiction)
No novel in recent memory has spoken more movingly to contemporary readers about the nature of love than André Aciman’s haunting CALL ME BY YOUR NAME. First published in 2007, it was hailed as “a love letter, an invocation...an exceptionally beautiful book” (Stacey D’Erasmo, The New York Times Book Review). Nearly three quarters of a million copies have been sold, and the book became a much-loved, Academy Award–winning film starring Timothée Chalamet as the young Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, the graduate student with whom he falls in love.
In FIND ME, Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever.
Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic.
Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the emotional nuances that are the substance of passion. FIND ME brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies.
- Click here to read our review on Bookreporter.com.
Click here for the discussion guide.
Now Available: PAIN by Zeruya Shalev
PAIN written by Zeruya Shalev, translated by Sondra Silverston (Fiction)
Ten years after she was seriously injured in a terrorist attack, the pain comes back to torment Iris. But that is not all: Eitan, the love of her youth, also comes back into her life. Though their relationship ended many years ago, she was more deeply wounded when he left her than by the suicide bomber who blew himself up next to her.
Iris' marriage is stagnant. Her two children have grown up and are almost independent; she herself has become a dedicated, successful school principal. Now, after years without passion and joy, Eitan brings them back into her life. But she must concoct all sorts of lies to conceal her affair from her family, and the lies become more and more complicated.
Is this an impossible predicament or, on the contrary, a scintillating revelation of the many ways life's twists and turns can bring us to a place we never would have expected to be?
- While no guide is available, be sure to check out our fiction discussion questions, which may help you in your group's discussion of the book.
Click here to read more about the book.
New November Releases of Interest to Book Groups
Below are a number of books releasing in November for the first time (which we aren't currently featuring on the site) that we think will be of interest to book groups.
THE BOOK OF LOST SAINTS by Daniel José Older (Fiction)
THE BOOK OF LOST SAINTS is an evocative multigenerational Cuban-American family story of revolution, loss and family bonds.
CARRIE FISHER: A Life on the Edge by Sheila Weller (Biography)
In her 2008 bestseller, GIRLS LIKE US, Sheila Weller --- with heart and a profound feeling for the times --- gave us a surprisingly intimate portrait of three icons: Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. Now she turns her focus to one of the most loved, brilliant and iconoclastic women of our time: the actress, writer, daughter and mother Carrie Fisher.
THE CONFESSION CLUB by Elizabeth Berg (Fiction)
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV comes an uplifting novel about friendship, surprising revelations and a second chance at love.
IN THE DREAM HOUSE: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado (Memoir)
IN THE DREAM HOUSE is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse.
NOEL STREET by Richard Paul Evans (Fiction)
In this new offering from “the king of Christmas fiction” (The New York Times), #1 bestselling author Richard Paul Evans shares a story of heart, loyalty and hope as he explores the deeper meaning of the holiday season and asks what it truly means to love and forgive.
Bookreporter.com's Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature
At Bookreporter.com, we kick off the holiday season in style with our Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature. As our gift to you, on select days through December 11th, we are spotlighting a book and giving five lucky readers the chance to win it. You have to visit the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter the 24-hour contest. As always, we are sending our special Holiday Cheer newsletter on the days when there are contests. Click here to sign up for these email alerts.
This year's featured titles are:
Click here to read all the contest details
and learn more about our featured titles.
Enter Our Ongoing Bookreporter.com Contests:
"Word of Mouth" and "Sounding Off on Audio"
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 November 15th to December 6th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of THE CONFESSION CLUB by Elizabeth Berg and A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: An Atlee Pine Thriller by David Baldacci.
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.
Please note: A new Word of Mouth contest will be up
on Friday, December 6th at noon ET.
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 November 1st to December 2nd at noon ET, two lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win the audio versions of Mary Higgins Clark’s KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM CRY, read by January LaVoy, and Martin Cruz Smith’s THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA: An Arkady Renko Novel, read by Jeremy Bobb.
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.
Please note: A new Sounding Off on Audio contest will be up
on Monday, December 2nd at noon ET.
We currently are featuring the following guides on ReadingGroupGuides.com:
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson (Historical Fiction)
A young outcast braves the hardships of Kentucky’s Great Depression and brings truly magical objects to her people: books. Kim Michele Richardson's fourth novel is inspired by the brave women of the Pack Horse Library Project.
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell (Psychological Thriller)
From the New York Times bestselling author of THEN SHE WAS GONE comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.
FIND ME by André Aciman (Fiction)
In this spellbinding exploration of the varieties of love, the author of the worldwide bestseller CALL ME BY YOUR NAME revisits its complex and beguiling characters decades after their first meeting.
FINDING CHIKA: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom (Memoir)
Bestselling author Mitch Albom returns to nonfiction for the first time in more than a decade in this poignant memoir that celebrates Chika, a young Haitian orphan whose short life would forever change his heart.
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD (Audiobook) written by Therese Anne Fowler, read by Adenrele Ojo (Fiction)
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD is a provocative contemporary audiobook that examines the American dream, from the New York Times bestselling author of Z and A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN.
OLIVE, AGAIN by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction)
#1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge, a character who has captured the imaginations of millions.
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