The Reading Group Book: The Complete Guide to Starting and Sustaining a Reading Group...

by David Laskin, Holly Hughes

The complete guide to starting and sustaining a reading group, with annotated lists of 250 titles for provocative discussion.

This lively, down-to-earth book, based on the experiences of groups across the country, is a complete guide to reading groups from getting a new one going to sparking lively discussions to revitalizing a long-established group.
This one-stop handbook covers the history of reading groups, how to attract people who love good books and good conversation, and even what food to serve. Authors David Laskin and Holly Hughes provide wise advice on choosing the right people for the group; where, when, and how often to meet; whether or not to select a leader; and most important finding the right books to read. What makes this book especially inviting are the annotated lists of more than 250 books by category southern writers, all-time favorites, memoirs, biographies, travel books, Nobelists, and dozens more.
Filled with funny and insightful stories from book group members, independent booksellers, and even a sociologist who has studied the phenomenon, this distinctive guide will inspire the start-up of new groups and provide existing groups with renewed inspiration and fresh ideas."

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Great Neck, New York, I grew up hearing stories that my immigrant Jewish grandparents told about the “old country” (Russia) that they left at the turn of the last century. When I was a teenager, my mother’s parents began making yearly trips to visit our relatives in Israel, and stories about the Israeli family sifted down to me as well. What I never heard growing up was that a third branch of the family had remained behind in the old country – and that all of them perished in the Holocaust. These are three branches whose intertwined stories I tell in THE FAMILY: THREE JOURNEYS INTO THE HEART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

An avid reader for as long as I remember, I graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a degree in history and literature and went on to New College, Oxford, where I received an MA in English in 1977. After a brief stint in book publishing, I launched my career as a freelance writer. In recent years, I have been writing suspense-driven narrative non-fiction about the lives of people caught up in events beyond their control, be it catastrophic weather, war, or genocide. My 2004 book The Children’s Blizzard, a national bestseller, won the Washington State Book Award and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and was nominated for a Quill Award. The Long Way Home (2010) also won the Washington State Book Award.

I write frequently for the New York Times Travel Section, and I have also published in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Seattle Times and Seattle Metropolitan.

When I’m not writing or traveling for research, I am usually outdoors trying to tame our large unruly garden north of Seattle, romping with our unruly Labrador retriever pup Patrick, skiing in Washington State’s Cascade Mountains, or hiking in the Wallowa Mountains of northeast Oregon. My wife, Kate O’Neill, and I have raised three wonderful daughters – all grown now and embarked on fascinating lives of their own.

Reviews

[Mark Hennion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical, motivational, with great ideas on how book groups are and can be done. It would benefit from an update, if possible; one can only hope and dream that book groups are still alive and well in our 21st century, media/streaming driven society.

[Karen]

Saying that I read this book is misleading because I did not read it cover to cover, but I read enough to know that it is not very helpful to me in my book club situation because it so pointedly focused on private book clubs. The recommendations are still sound and the book lists are good but it is aimed at people starting private book clubs rather than those who have inherited a book club and problem members.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thesis

[Chanel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book with great ideas. This book was written in 1995 so a little of the information is no longer applicable but majority of the advice pertaining to book clubs is still valid.