Copy
Exciting News From RGC!
New Fiction, Nonfiction & YA Ideas for Discussion
Contests: Book Combos & Advanced Copies
RGC's December Book List
View this email in your browser
News From Reading Group Choices
 

As we move into the new year, Reading Group Choices has some news to share! We have established partner programs with Powell's Books and IndieBound. You are now able to purchase any of the books you see on our site by clicking on the Powell's and Shop Indie buttons (pictured above) which are located on each book profile page. Through Powell's, you can buy new, used, signed, and rare copies of books, and through Shop Indie, you can connect with your local bookstores to purchase these titles as well. 

Powell's Books is one of the largest independent bookstores in the US with one of the largest online inventories. Even though Powell's is not Amazon, they still offer free shipping for orders of $50 or more, and $3.99 flat-rate shipping at any price. They also offer other specials like their current buy 2 get 1 free deal. If you choose to Shop Indie, many of your own local stores will offer wonderful and knowledgeable and in-person! customer service. And you might even get that book you're excited about in the same day! 
More News from RGC!
 
At Reading Group Choices we are passionate about reading, and we strive to provide wonderful recommendations in a variety of forms and subjects for our reading groups. We enjoy meeting our reading group members at book festivals and bookstore events, and we are eager to celebrate a new Spotlight group each month.

Recently we considered how we could continue to promote reading and books to more people. Through our partnerships with Powell's and IndieBound, when someone clicks through to purchase a book from our site, we receive a percentage of that sale. We have decided to donate the percentage of all of our sales to an organization that promotes reading, and we will choose a different organization each year. For our first year, we will donate to Little Free Library. Little Free Library promotes literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide. So if you choose to purchase any of our book recommendations by clicking on the Powell's or ShopIndie buy buttons on our book profiles, a portion of your purchase will go directly to Little Free Library. 

These partnerships are new steps for RGC for the new year, and we look forward to finding more ways to support independent bookstores, libraries, and readers around the world. 

Have fun choosing your books for 2015, and happy reading! 
Fresh Fiction Ideas for Discussion

Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night by Barbara J. Taylor

Inspired by a haunting family story, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night blends real life incidents with fiction to show how grace can be found in the midst of tragedy. Almost everyone in town blames eight-year-old Violet Morgan for the death of her nine-year-old sister, Daisy. The book opens on September 4, 1913, two months after the Fourth of July tragedy.
 

The Biology of Luck by Jacob M. Appel

The Biology of Luck juxtaposes moments from Larry's guided tour of New York City on the June day of his dream date with excerpts from his novel in which he imagines his dream date's concurrent escapades. This inventive novel-within-a-novel structure weaves a highly imaginative love story across New York's five boroughs.
 

Skylight by José Saramago

Completed in 1953 but never published until now, Saramago, with his characteristic compassion, depth, and wit, tells the intertwined stories of the residents of a faded apartment building in 1940s Lisbon. Skylight is a portrait of ordinary people, painted by a master of the quotidian, a great observer of the immense beauty and profound hardships of the modern world.
 
 
Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet
 
Mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries hijack a tropical vacation in this genre-bending sendup of the American honeymoon. Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet's funniest book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories. This is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale, darkly comic on the surface and illuminating in its depths.
 
Fresh Nonfiction Ideas for Discussion

How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman

A delightful tour through the intimate details of life in Victorian England, told by a historian who has cheerfully endured them all. Ruth Goodman, drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Victorian conditions, serves as our bustling and fanciful guide to 19th-century life. From daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of the most perennially fascinating era of British history.
 

Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America by William Souder

Pulitzer Prize Finalist
John James Audubon is renowned for his masterpiece of natural history and art, The Birds of America, and yet few people understand what sort of man he was. How did the illegitimate son of a French sea captain living in Haiti, who lied both about his parentage and his training, rise to become one of the greatest natural historians ever and the greatest name in ornithology? In this brilliant work of biography, Souder charts the life of a driven man who, despite frequent failure, no clear path to success, and rigorous physical and artistic work, became the historical figure we know today.

 
 
Strong Inside is the untold story of Perry Wallace, who in 1966 enrolled at Vanderbilt University and became the first African-American basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. Strong Inside is not just the story of a trailblazing athlete, but of civil rights, race in America, a campus in transition during the tumultuous 1960s, the mental toll of pioneering, decades of ostracism, and eventual reconciliation and healing.
 
Fresh YA Idea for Discussion
Party Like Jane Austen!
 
Just in time for the holidays, Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas brings to life the lost tradition of the Georgian Christmas celebration and one of literature's most revered authors . . . with just a touch of murder.  

Learn how to throw your own Regency-era Christmas party with Soho Press' companion guide to Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas. It's filled with all the recipes, games and decorating tips you'll need to throw a historically accurate shindig.

You can also enter to win a copy of Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas. Stephanie Barron's latest historical mystery featuring amateur sleuth Jane Austen. Become a fan of Stephanie on Facebook to keep up on all the latest Jane news! 

 
A Special Drawing Middlemarch! 

36 Winners will each receive a SIGNED hardcover copy of My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead and the special DROP CAPS design version of George Eliot's Middlemarch!
 
A captivating combination of biography, reporting, and memoir, My Life in Middlemarch traces a New Yorker writer’s passion for George Eliot’s masterwork—the eight-volume “study of provincial life” that is regarded by many as the greatest English novel.  
 


20 Winners will each receive an ADVANCED copy of 
My Sunshine Away!

M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love.

 

 
20 winners will each receive an ADVANCED copy of 
The Girl on the Train!

Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut that will forever change the way you look at other people’s lives.

 

 
20 winners will each receive a copy of Charlie Lovett's 
First Impressions!

Lovett weaves another brilliantly imagined mystery, this time featuring one of English literature’s most popular and beloved authors: Jane Austen.


 

Enter These Contests Now Through December 31st!
 
 
We have read many books (fiction and nonfiction) this year that relate to an existing classic - a character is re-imagined, or an author's life is reconstructed, or the book as a whole is revisited. And, as people who love books, we think that's wonderful! You not only get to read about Ulysses and Middlemarch, but you can take the time to finally read Ulysses and Middlemarch too. You not only get to read about Harper Lee and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but you can revisit their classics. You just need to decide which order to go in! 

     

We think these book pairings provide a fun and thorough way to read, but they also make great gifts, especially when you pick up one of the lovely redesigned and reissued classics - the Drop Caps design or the anniversary edition or the annotated version filled with illustrations, timelines, and letters. Are you going to hunker down with two yourself, or are you wrapping up a set for someone who you know will be just as excited? 

    
 
 
There are books we come across that don't seem like typical choices for reading group discussion, but sometimes they are also the books we keep thinking about and bringing up in conversation. So why do we think certain books won't work well for our groups? Because there are more images than words? Because there are letters? Because there are maps and single paragraph chapters? Because they're labeled "young adult"?  
 
            

Yes, these books may have different formats than a standard novel, but sometimes these types of books can spark the most interesting discussions - whether that discussion happens in your reading group, at your dinner table, or with someone on the bus who is intrigued by the cover. 

            

As we thought back to books from the year that stayed with us, we narrowed down our list to 10 and we stuck to 10 this time; although we did sneak a couple older titles in that have remained on our mind. In these books you will find illustrations and letters and maps and questions. There is a return to a childhood favorite as well as new childhood favorites to be created. There are translations, and there is even a compendium of the untranslatableWe hope you enjoy this small assortment of interesting books, and find one that keeps you thinking for days. 
 
November's Spotlight Book Club
Cover to Cover Book Club

Cover to Cover Book Club at the Miami International Book Festival, November 2014

Cover To Cover Book Club is a fun group of 30-35 members who meet quarterly. We discuss trending books, authors, and anything book related such as upcoming book fairs, author events, and local library activities. A few of our members are also writers. Our love of books drives us to lively discussions and unifies us with the common passion we all share for the written word. Several authors have either called in to talk to our book club or have come in person. These authors have been Sandra Brannan, Laird Hunt, and B.J. Tiernan. 

We have a book lending library in which our members borrow books to read and soon we will have a book swap night. One of our goals as a book club is to create awareness and love for reading, and we are planning a book drive to collect books for children. The great fellowship we have among our members is a positive force that makes our book club unique.
 

Become one of our Spotlight Book Clubs:
Email us at info@readinggroupchoices.com with a picture of your book group and description of what makes your reading group unique. If your book club is chosen, we will send you and your group a box of books to share!
 
Reading Group Choices 2015 is available for purchase as an ebook or print book on our website. We hope you enjoy the variety of books we have recommended this year. As always, thank you to our readers for your continued support, interest, and passion for books! 
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Contact Us

Copyright © 2014  Reading Group Choices, All rights reserved.

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences