February 2009
Special Feature
Hey Book Clubs! Join the Circus!
Enter the Water for Elephants Sweepstakes, sponsored by PARADE Magazine, for a chance to win an exciting trip for you and your book club (maximum five members). You could be whisked off to a mountain getaway weekend in Asheville, North Carolina where you'll meet and dine with author Sara Gruen. The prize includes two nights lodging at the Inn on Biltmore Estate, round-trip airfare to Asheville, dinner with the author, and signed copies of Water for Elephants! The sweepstakes ends on March 6, 2009.
See official rules and enter today at www.parade.com/elephants.
New and Recommended Fiction


For Christian Readers
New Christian Guides
Against All Odds: Heroes of Quantico Series, Book 1 by Irene Hannon Age Before Beauty: Sister-to-Sister, Book 2 by Virginia Smith Eve: A Novel of the First Woman by Elissa Elliott Kiss Me if You Dare: A Patricia Amble Mystery by Nicole Young Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark
Registered Book Club Promotion
For February we have two very special opportunities for Registered Book Groups. Our featured titles this month are Sleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth Flock and Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark. Groups who have registered with us by Monday, February 16th have the chance to win author chats and/or free books. If your group is not registered, click here to register.
Click here for details.
New Guides
Now Available in Paperback
Oprah's Book Club Selection
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
This month's prize:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Get a Book Club Makeover
Whether your book club is just a few months old or has been around for a while, you might be in need of a Book Club Makeover from ReadingGroupGuides.com. After reading your emails --- and talking to book clubs across the country --- we see that book groups often can fall into a routine and need a bit of livening up. It's ReadingGroupGuides.com to the rescue! We'll select groups each month for makeovers, review the problems, and make suggestions. Interested in a Book Club Makeover for your group? Click here for details.
Hey Book Clubs! Join the Circus!
Enter the Water for Elephants Sweepstakes, sponsored by PARADE Magazine, for a chance to win an exciting trip for you and your book club (maximum five members). You could be whisked off to a mountain getaway weekend in Asheville, North Carolina where you'll meet and dine with author Sara Gruen. The prize includes two nights lodging at the Inn on Biltmore Estate, round-trip airfare to Asheville, dinner with the author, and signed copies of Water for Elephants! The sweepstakes ends on March 6, 2009.
See official rules and enter today at www.parade.com/elephants.
New and Recommended Fiction
| Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford "An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut." -- Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a love story about two people who come from totally different worlds. Their story is about the conflicts between generations and cultures and how decades later they can heal the barriers and betrayals that separate them. Inspired by history and his own family story, Jamie Ford's debut novel is a perfect read for book clubs and introduces a talented new literary voice. Click Here for the reading group guide. | |
| Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble Now Available in Paperback: Now available in paperback, this heartfelt novel by bestselling author Elizabeth Noble celebrates family, friends... and the glorious, endless possibilities of life. When Barbara realizes time is running out, she writes letters to her four daughters, aware that they'll be facing the trials and triumphs of life without her at their side. But how can she leave them when they still have so much growing up to do? By drawing on the wisdom in Barbara's letters, the girls might just find a way to cope with their loss. Click Here for the reading group guide. | |
| Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese From the 1940s to the present; from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for Yemen; from an operating room in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx: an epic debut novel of doctors and patients, temptation and redemption, home and exile --- and a riveting family story that grabs you from the first page and never lets you go. Click Here for the reading group guide. | |
| A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev Now Available in Paperback: Now in paperback, the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer's mesmerizing novel --- two love stories separated by half a century, yet connected by a single wondrous act of devotion. During Israel's 1948 War of Independence --- when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages --- a gifted young bird handler dispatches one last pigeon moments before his death. The bird carries his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence --- a gift that will bear unexpected fruit half a century later. Click Here for the reading group guide. | |
| The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey It's Jake's birthday. He is sitting in a small plane, being flown over the landscape that has been the backdrop to his life --- his childhood, his marriage, his work, his passions. Now he is in his mid-60s, and he isn't quite the man he used to be. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer's. Arrestingly understated and wise, The Wilderness is a courageous novel from an extraordinarily gifted writer. Click Here for the reading group guide. | |
| A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack Now Available in Paperback: In the wilds of Topanga Canyon, Cassie Shaw has always felt right at home in the midst of nature, but everywhere else, life seems to be a little harder. At the age of 30, newly single and without a college degree, Cassie is in serious need of a paycheck. So in a desperate move, she lies on her resume when applying for an office job at an elite university. When she finds herself employed by two eccentric professors, Cassie begins to reinvent herself --- and soon encounters some very unexpected consequences. Click Here for the reading group guide. | |
| Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein When Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper is summoned to Tina Barr's apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, she finds a neighbor convinced that the young woman was assaulted. But the terrified victim, a conservator of rare books and maps, refuses to cooperate with investigators. Then another woman is found murdered in that same apartment with an extremely valuable book, believed to have been stolen. As Alex pursues the murderer, she is drawn into the strange and privileged world of the Hunt family, major benefactors of the New York Public Library and passionate rare book collectors. Click Here for the reading group guide. Click here to see our Suspense/Thriller feature for Linda Fairstein and Lethal Legacy on Bookreporter.com. |
For Christian Readers
New Christian Guides
Registered Book Club Promotion
For February we have two very special opportunities for Registered Book Groups. Our featured titles this month are Sleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth Flock and Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark. Groups who have registered with us by Monday, February 16th have the chance to win author chats and/or free books. If your group is not registered, click here to register.
Click here for details.
New Guides
- Against All Odds: Heroes of Quantico Series, Book 1 by Irene Hannon
- Age Before Beauty: Sister-to-Sister, Book 2 by Virginia Smith
- All I Need is Jesus and a Good Pair of Jeans: The Tired Supergirl's Search for Grace by Susanna Foth Aughtmon
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
- Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan
- The Bishop's Daughter by Tiffany L. Warren
- The Break-Up Diet: A Memoir by Annette Fix
- Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead
- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
- The Edge of Light: At Home in Beldon Grove, Book 1 by Ann Shorey
- The End of My Addiction by Olivier Ameisen, M.D.
- The End of the 19th Century by Eric Larsen
- Eve: A Novel of the First Woman by Elissa Elliott
- Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind by Paula Kamen
- Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent
- Firmin by Sam Savage
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Going to See the Elephant by Rodes Fishburne
- Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
- Houston, We Have a Problema by Gwendolyn Zepeda
- How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein
- An Incomplete Revenge: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear
- Kiss Me if You Dare: A Patricia Amble Mystery by Nicole Young
- The Ladies' Lending Library by Janice Kulyk Keefer
- Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
- The Laws of Harmony by Judith R. Hendricks
- Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein
- The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
- Lima Nights by Marie Arana
- The Long Journey Home by Laurel Means
- The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal
- Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas
- Loving Cee Cee Johnson by Linda Leigh Hargrove
- Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
- No Place for a Lady: Heart of the West Series, Book 1 by Maggie Brendan
- Paper Roses: Texas Dreams Trilogy, Book 1 by Amanda Cabot
- People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
- A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev
- Prayer Power: 30 Days to a Stronger Connection with God by Peter Lundell
- Rock Bottom by Michael Shilling
- See You in a Hundred Years: Discover One Young Family's Search for a Simpler Life...Four Seasons of Living in the Year 1900 by Logan Ward
- Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark
- Sima's Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger-Ross
- Sleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth Flock
- The Slide by Kyle Beachy
- Still Alice by Lisa Genova
- Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
- The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig
- This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury
- The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
- This One is Mine by Maria Semple
- Two Rivers by T. Greenwood
- We Take This Man by Candice Dow and Daaimah S. Poole
- What I Was by Meg Rosoff
- The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
- Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom
Now Available in Paperback
- American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
- Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein
- The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
- A Version of the Truth by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack
Oprah's Book Club Selection
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
This month's prize:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Get a Book Club Makeover
Whether your book club is just a few months old or has been around for a while, you might be in need of a Book Club Makeover from ReadingGroupGuides.com. After reading your emails --- and talking to book clubs across the country --- we see that book groups often can fall into a routine and need a bit of livening up. It's ReadingGroupGuides.com to the rescue! We'll select groups each month for makeovers, review the problems, and make suggestions. Interested in a Book Club Makeover for your group? Click here for details.
Labels: 2009

