The eBook Insider - The Reading Group Insider: Book Club Buzz Books, Resources, and Ideas for Great Reading and Meeting

The books are the most important part of the meeting. One of the best things about reading groups is that they can introduce you to titles, authors, and genres that you havent tried beforeyou may discover a new favorite!

Not sure how to choose your first book? There are many ways to go about it. You can have each member of your group bring a wish list to your first meeting and vote on the suggestionsthe title with the most votes wins. Some groups prefer to take turns choosing what to read. This way everyone gets to read a favorite. Or, you can leave it up to the discussion leader to choose.

You may find it useful to focus your group around a specific type of book, such as fiction or memoir, or a subject, such as current events or history. Themed discussions not only help you to choose your titles, but they provide natural points of comparison and discussion. Consider focusing on a specific authors bookseither for one meeting or a series of meetings. You could have each group member read a different title and compare notes. Or focus on a specific subject or historical figure. You may find, for instance, that two biographies on the same person reveal very different aspects of that persons life. Another simple way to choose books is to consult award lists like the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize and many others. Choose a few titles from the list to read, then compare the books and talk about why the selection committee might have chosen those particular titles. Keep in mind that the choices that touch on thought-provoking and even controversial themes and issues make for the liveliest discussions.

If youre thinking about focusing on a specific type of book, here are over 40 fiction, non-fiction and thriller titles that would make incredible reading group picks. Read on for descriptions of each, along with excerpts, Q&As, author essays, questions for discussion and more.

A Visit From the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan

Moving from San Francisco in the 1970s to New York City sometime after 2020, Jennifer Egan portrays the interlacing lives of men and women whose desires and ambitions converge and collide as the passage of time, cultural change, and private experience define and redefine their identities. Bennie Salazar, a punk rocker in his teenage years, is facing middle age as a divorced and disheartened record producer. His cool, competent assistant, Sasha, keeps everything under controlexcept for her unconquerable compulsion to steal. Their diverse and diverting memories of the past and musings about the present set the stage for a cycle of tales about their friends, families, business associates, and lovers.

A high school friend re-creates the wild, sexually charged music scene of Bennies adolescence and introduces the wealthy, amoral entertainment executive Lou Kline, who becomes Bennies mentor and eventually faces the consequences of his casual indifference to the needs of his mistresses, wives, and children. Scotty, a guitarist in Bennies long-defunct band, emerges from a life lived on the fringes of society to confront Bennie in his luxurious Park Avenue office, while Bennies once-punk wife, Stephanie, works her way up in the plush Republican suburb where they live. Other vignettes explore Sashas experiences and the people who played a role in her life. An uncle searching for Sasha when she runs away at seventeen becomes aware of his own disillusionments and disappointments as he tries to comfort her. Her college boyfriend describes a night of drug-fueled revelry that comes to a shocking end. And her twelve-year-old daughter contributes a clever PowerPoint presentation of the family dynamicsincluding hilariously pointed summaries of her mothers Annoying Habit #48 and Why Dad Isnt Here.