Reading Group Guides

Tonight Madeleine and I are meeting with our mother-daughter book club to talk about Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. We both enjoyed the book, but I finished it a couple of weeks ago. To refresh my memory, I’ll visit ReadingGroupGuides.com.

ReadingGroupGuides.com is a great place to visit and look for discussion questions about a book you’ve read. If you’re leading the discussion in your book club, you can get ideas for things to talk about in your meeting. If you’re not hosting the meeting, you can still visit the site for a reminder about some of the more important actions and themes in your book.

In Celebration of Reading

Today is the National Education Foundation’s Read Across America Day. Every year the NEA schedules this day on or near Dr. Seuss’s birthday to promote the love of reading. I’m planning to participate by curling up with two good books today, Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. I’m also reading Burr, by Gore Vidal to my daughter who’s a junior in high school.

In need of a good book? Try out the recommendations at the following sites:

• MotherDaughterBookClub.com
• BookSense.com
• TeenReads.com
• KidsReads.com
• ALA Teen Read Week
• School Library Journal.com
• Bookspot.com

Shannon Hale’s Website

Fans of Shannon Hale’s books (Goose Girl, Enna Burning, Book of a Thousand Days) will find a lot to like on her web site, where she shares great information about her books and herself. Just like with a DVD, you can find deleted scenes from several of her titles and discussion guides. There are also quizzes for the books that may be fun for your mother-daughter book club to take. Set it up like a Jeopardy quiz show with a bell to ring when someone has the answer.

Also on Shannon’s site is a list of her book recommendations broken down by categories like fantasy, adult, younger readers, and recommendations by her husband. Here’s the link to The Official Site of Shannon Hale so you can check it out.

Recommendations from Powell’s

Powell’s is one of my favorite bookstores, and I’m always checking out its staff recommendations when I’m looking for new books to read. I just received Powell’s monthly newsletter with a listing for the favorite books of 2007. Included is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie. That one is definitely on my list, but I think there are others that look interesting too.

Here’s the link for the Powell’s Web site if you’d like to check the staff’s favorite books for last year as well as recommended books for middle readers and young adults.