Take our Annual Favorite Books Survey and be entered to win books and $100 for your next book club meeting!
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Fresh Fiction Ideas for Discussion
Descent by Tim Johnston
 The Rocky Mountains have cast their spell over the Courtlands, a family from the plains taking a last summer vacation before their daughter begins college. For eighteen-year-old Caitlin, the mountains loom as the ultimate test of her runner’s heart, while her parents hope that so much beauty, so much grandeur, will somehow repair a damaged marriage. But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic, as suddenly this family find themselves living the kind of nightmare they've only read about in headlines or seen on TV.
Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
 Charley Bordelon is a widowed single mother who is just barely scraping by, teaching art to inner city kids and living in a dilapidated rented bungalow in Los Angeles. But when she discovers that her late father has left her an 800-acre sugar cane plantation in rural Louisiana, she suddenly sees a chance to steer her life back on course. No one in the family had any idea that Ernest Bordelon sold everything he had in order to secure a cane farm outside his tiny hometown of Saint Josephine, and certainly no clue as to why. With nothing left to lose, Charley decides to honor her father’s wishes and heads south to start her new life as a sugar cane farmer.
The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel
 Kate Waithman thought she would only have one great love—her perfect husband, Patrick. But when Patrick is tragically killed in a car accident, Kate prepares for a life that is forever incomplete. 12 years later, Kate has built an impressive career as a music therapist and is finally ready to move on with her fiancée, Dan. Soon after their engagement, however, Kate starts to have startlingly vivid dreams about the life she would have had if Patrick survived. Even more troubling, some of the details in these dreams begin to translate to real life. There is only one piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit: a daughter, Hannah, a prodigious piano player who is hard of hearing.
 A young female attorney from New York City attempts the impossible in 1946: attaining justice for a black man in the Deep South. Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country. With Thurgood’s permission, Regina heads down to Mississippi to find Calhoun and investigate the case. But as she navigates the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past, she finds that nothing in the South is as it seems.
 The Amazing Arden is the most notorious female illusionist of her day, renowned for sawing a man in half. One night, with policeman Virgil Holt in the audience, she swaps her saw for a fire ax. A new trick or an all-too-real murder? When a dead body is discovered, the answer seems clear. But under Holt's interrogation, what Arden’s story reveals is both unbelievable and spellbinding. Even handcuffed and alone, she is far from powerless. During one eerie night, Holt must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free… and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.
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Fresh Nonfiction Idea for Discussion
10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works
by Dan Harris
 Dan Harris always believed the restless, relentless, impossible-to-satisfy voice in his head was one of his greatest assets. How else can you climb the ladder in an ultra-competitive field like TV news except through nonstop hand-wringing and hypervigilance? For a while, his strategy worked. Harris anchored national broadcasts, he covered wars. Then he hit the skids, entering a downward slide that culminated in a televised panic attack in front of an audience of millions. This adventure that ranges from the outer limits of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of self-help and the result shines a light on what may very well be the next public health revolution.
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Fresh YA Idea for Discussion
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20 Winners will each receive SIGNED copies of
Wolf Winter by author, Cecilia Ekbäck!
“Exquisitely suspenseful, beautifully written, and highly recommended.”
—Lee Child, #1 international bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers
Part atmospheric mystery, part historical-meets-occult tale, and part female-driven survival narrative, Wolf Winter is a debut novel sure to be embraced by fans of many literary genres – it has the commercial appeal and supernatural tone of Game of Thrones coupled with the beautiful prose of literary gems like Snow Child and Burial Rites. Set in Swedish Lapland in 1717, author Cecilia Ekbäck captures a distinct mixture of isolation, terror, and perseverance that has not been put to the page before.
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Meet Norway's Queen of Crime!
Check out the latest installments in
Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer series.
In Eva’s Eye, the very first Inspector Sejer mystery, two seemingly unrelated and unsolved murder cases may have more in common than Sejer originally thought.
The seventh book in the Inspector Sejer series, The Murder of Harriet Krohn, poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterward?
Hooked? Don’t miss the rest of the series: Don’t Look Back, He Who Fears the Wolf, When the Devil Holds the Candle, The Indian Bride, Black Seconds, The Water’s Edge, Bad Intentions, and The Caller.
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As we begin 2015 fresh with new goals, interests, and resolutions, we thank the authors who challenge us to think about the future, consider new ideas, ask what if, and slow down to look more deeply. Here are a handful we found especially inspiring, compassionate, and thought-provoking in 2014, and a few that are coming soon.
This list includes three collections of essays, one photographic essay, one guide, two memoirs (one composed in cartoons), two journeys, one novel, and a catalogue of pieces. Even the way these authors tell their tales make us stop and think.
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Ladies of the Book started as a social opportunity given by their local Catholic Daughters to meet outside of our business meetings. It started as 4 women and grew to 13. Their first meeting was in June of 2005 so they have been together almost 10 years now! The group has changed over the years but they are strengthened by their love of books and for each other. Their common bond is their faith in God. They meet monthly, year round and usually in one of their homes where the hostess cooks the entire dinner for the group. It is a labor of love. And it is usually the best night of the month for everyone.
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!
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 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!
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