An Ignoble Experiment: Book Club News: The All-Time Top Ten Book Club Books

Book Club News: July Issue

Hello Book Clubbers!

This month, we bring you titles from our featured reading guides, a rotating selection of recommended reads paired with questions to inspire stimulating book club discussions.

What are your favorite book club books? Find out how subscribers answered in our most recent survey, along with a breakdown of how the results compare to the last time we asked this question.

You can also check out our Books & Authors "beyond the book" articles, including a recent interview with Carvell Wallace and Eve J. Chung's inspirations for her debut novel; a list of unique author-owned bookstores, some of which host book club events; and our giveaway of Susannah Gibson's The Bluestockings, the riveting account of an early feminist group in 1700s England. (Enter for a chance to win up to 10 copies for yourself and your book group!)

With best wishes,

The BookBrowse Team

Featured Reading Guides

BookBrowse presents a rotating selection of featured reading guides for titles we've reviewed to help you with ideas for possible book club reads and to keep your discussions running smoothly. Below are a couple of selections from the current lineup, with the link to the full selection below.

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), known variously as the "Lady with the Lamp" or the "Ministering Angel" of the Crimean War (1853–1856), elevated the role of nursing into a profession—especially for women—in an era that had previously regarded female nurses with disdain. Relying on Nightingale's copious letters and journals and other documentary evidence, Melissa Pritchard's dazzling historical novel Flight of the Wild Swan brings this complex and idiosyncratic woman to exquisite life.

After spending the summer working as a camp counselor, Cory is loath to return to the New York City home she shares with her mother Emer, an ambitious career-oriented woman whose energy Cory has no interest in matching. So instead, she lets herself be picked up by Rolo Picazo, the pharmaceutical CEO father of a camper, and swept away to a private island. Fruit of the Dead is a retelling of Greek mythology — the story of the harvest goddess Demeter, whose daughter Persephone is kidnapped by the god of the underworld, Hades. Lyon's novel, if thoroughly drenched in the contemporary world, isn't just modern décor filling the set piece of the original myth, but echoes the roiling energy of the Homeric poem.

See All Featured Reading Guides

Book Clubs' All-Time Favorites

What are your favorite book club books of all time?

In our most recent survey, we asked subscribers to tell us what their overall top three book club books were. More than 800 responded, and we've compiled their answers to calculate the current top ten favorite books for book club discussion.

While some of these books have clearly stood the test of time, it's also clear that it doesn't take long for new book club favorites to emerge. ... continued

Books & Authors Articles

For every title we review, we also write a "beyond the book" article that focuses on a related cultural, historical, or contextual topic. Browsing these articles is a great way for you and your book club to find new books along with supporting content to enhance your discussions.

Recent articles in our Books & Authors category include an interview with Carvell Wallace and Eve J. Chung's inspirations for her novel Daughters of Shandong. Members have full access to all articles, while others have limited access.

Go to Articles

Author-Owned Bookstores

What author owns a bookstore near you? We may think of writers as people who live behind their words, out of reach of society, but many are deeply involved in their local reading scenes, and bookstores are one of the best spaces for them to connect with their audiences.

Authors who own and operate these spaces have an opportunity to provide services to readers that reflect their own sensibilities and priorities, and some of the most exciting, community-focused and unique independent bookstores are author-owned. ... continued

Giveaway

The Bluestockings

by Susannah Gibson

From the Jacket

In England in the 1700s, a woman who was an intellectual, spoke out, or wrote professionally was considered unnatural. After all, as the wisdom of the era dictated, a clever woman―if there were such a thing―would never make a good wife. But a circle of women called the Bluestockings did something extraordinary: coming together in glittering salons to discuss and debate as intellectual equals with men, they fought for women to be educated and to have a public role in society.

Praise

"The author's engaging account honors the determination and charm with which her subjects seized as much freedom as society would allow them. Vivid popular history illuminating some neglected feminist pioneers." ―Kirkus Reviews

"Spirited, lively, and scholarly….A close-up view of some notable bluestockings leaves the reader gasping at their energy." ―Literary Review

About This Sweepstakes

We have up to 30 hardcover copies of The Bluestockings by Susannah Gibson to give away.

This offer is open only to residents of the USA, except for BookBrowse members, who are welcome to enter wherever they live. If a member not resident in the US wins, they receive an extension to their membership.

Giveaway ends July 15, 2024

Enter Giveaway

Discussions Coming Soon

Discussions are open to all, so please join us! If you would like to receive a message when a particular discussion opens, you can sign up for a one-time notification. You can also find inspiration for your book club among our more than 200 past discussions.

We're currently discussing Quinn Connor's The Pecan Children and Kristan Higgins' Look on the Bright Side. We feature The 1619 Project from Nikole Hannah-Jones starting on July 11, and Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See beginning July 18.

See All Discussions

Resources

BookBrowse offers a cornucopia of resources for book clubs including recommended books by genre, time period, setting and a wide range of themes; advice on starting and running a book club and much more!

Go to Book Clubs

Usually published once a month, Book Club News is one of BookBrowse's four free newsletters. We also publish BookBrowse Highlights every Thursday, Publishing This Week every Sunday; and Librarian News monthly. We also offer occasional emails focusing on specific genres.