Wii Sports Resort video game begins high in the sky, with you hurtling through the clouds after leaping from the belly of a biplane.You control your Mii character with a twist of your remote, linking hands with other earthward-bound Miis, grinning for the camera.Below, an expanse of land appears; a glorious formation of lush green hills, trimmed with gorgeous golden beaches.With the wind roaring in your ears, your parachute opens with the name of...more
You've been all over the web. You've searched every book club site you can think of, but you can't find a reading guide with discussion questions. Not a good sign - especially because it's your turn to lead the book club discussion. So now what do you do?First thing - don't panic. Second - keep in mind that book club reading guides are fairly new to the trade: publishers began issuing them with any regularity about 10 years ago, maybe less. So...more
Oh, dread. It's that time of year again: your turn to lead the book club discussion - not exactly something you relish. In fact, you're beginning to lose sleep you're pacing the floors and pulling out your hair. Okay, not that bad, but still you wish you could just pass on this one.Relax. Leading a book discussion doesn't have to feel like a root canal. There are lots of book club ideas and resources that can make the whole process less painful - in fact, you can actually come to enjoy taking the lead. Really. Spend a few minutes looking at some of these suggestions. You'll be surprised how easy it is to master the process.Display a prompt. A prompt is any object related to the book that can remind club members about some aspect of the story. Perhaps a map or photos. If it's from another country, you might wear a costume or serve a national dish. Consider music or a DVD. Think of any particular item mentioned in the book - the idea is to put people in the mood and help stimulate conversation.Do an icebreaker. Play a book club game to break the ice and get a discussion moving. Try "Grab Bag," similar to the prompt above. But this time, instead of just one, collect a number of...more
They're the members who talk too much - interrupting some, taking forever to get to the point, loving the sound of their own voice. They dominate the discussions. And sometimes (gasp!) they're the ones who keep up the social chat while you're trying to hold a serious book discussion.Or maybe they're negative - the ones who rarely like a book and...more
You've just moved in, unpacked the boxes, and put everything neatly away (or maybe not). Everything's new and unfamiliar - the house, stores, school, work everything. You've left your old friends behind but haven't made new ones yet. In a word: you're lonely. Realistically, you know it can take months to begin to feel like this is "home," but in...more
Khaled Hosseini writes with power and surety, producing another best seller with A Thousand Splendid Suns. This is his second novel, following close upon the heels of The Kite Runner, and like the earlier book deals with the troubled history and people of Afghanistan.Two women, Mariam and Laila, a generation apart, are thrown together under painful circumstances.(What in this country isn't painful, especially for its women?) Tyrannized by those who hold dominion over them, the two women eventually find common cause and unite to face their enemies.Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a prosperous businessman, is married off in to Rasheed, a Kabul shoemaker. She is only 15. But when it becomes apparent over the years that Mariam will never produce a male heir, Rasheed's domination over his wife escalates into verbal and physical brutality. Enter Laila, a girl of 14. It is now the early 1990's, after the Soviets have left the country and the mujahideen are fighting for control of the country. Laila, whose parents are killed in a rocket attack, is given aid by Mariam and Rasheed. It becomes clear to Rasheed, however, that this girl will be the one to bear him a son. And so at the age...more
Here's a publishing raritya literary novel based on the darkest of Shakespearean tragedies becomes a huge commercial success. That rarity is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Much of the novel's success is due, of course, to Oprah's imprimatur as one of...more
Few books are so widely loved, or reviled, or have sparked such interesting book club discussions as Loving Frank by Nancy Horana novel based on the real-life, ripped-from-the-headlines affair of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his beloved...more
An unlikely breakthrough book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society rose quickly through the ranks to become one of the top book club reads in the US. Unlikely, because first off, it's a story told through lettersnot always a winnable...more
If you're looking for a good book to readeither for your own enjoyment or a book club suggestionwhat's one of the first things you do? You can ask a friend. But word-of-mouth recommendations depend to a large extent on personal taste. If you want...more
First there was the Bang. Then Oprah created the book club and saw that it was good. "Go forth and multiply," she commanded. And so it did spawning multitudes upon multitudes of book clubs. Then Publishers, too, saw that it was goodvery good, for...more
Selecting books - it's what book clubs do, isn't it? Books are what you're all about, so you should be pretty good at choosing them. But let's be honest - book selection time isn't always the happiest moment for everyone in your book club.Some...more