National Reading Group Month -- Great Group Reads Selections

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Great Group Reads

National Reading Group Month Selects
Great Group Reads

2010 Selections

Blame by Michelle Huneven
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship by Cathie Beck
Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
Room by Emma Donoghue
Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye
Up from the Blue by Susan Henderson

Blame by Michelle Huneven
(Picador, 978-0-312-42985-0)
History professor Patsy McLemoore thought she could manage her drinking problem until she was arrested and jailed for running down a mother and daughter. No longer a free spirit, Patsy's life takes a sharp turn into sobriety and remorse in this gripping story of life changes.

More about: Picador, Blame, Booklist Reviews, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides

Bonus resources: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
(Harper Perennial, 978-0-06-190607-7)
When her husband unexpectedly leaves her, veterinarian Cami Anderson turns to friends and family for support, but it is the animals she cares for who teach her the most enduring lessons about love.

More about: Harper Perennial, The Blessings of the Animals, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides

Bonus resources: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship by Cathie Beck
(Voice, 978-1-4013-4154-1)
A memoir of how Beck, divorced, frustrated, and bored with her life in her late thirties, started a women's group and met the remarkable free-spirited Denise. Their intense friendship, until Denise's illness, provided a springboard for Beck to change her life.

More about: Voice, Cheap Cabernet, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger
(Gallery Books, 978-1-4391-6833-2) On a solo canoe trip in Maine, Jonathan Cobb falls in love with the ebullient Mary Fury, who fears that she has the gene for Huntington's disease. As they share a happy marriage together, Jonathan has to come to terms with Mary's wishes for how she plans to end her life.

More about: Gallery Books, Eternal on the Water, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides

Bonus resources: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow
(Algonquin Books, 978-1-56512-680-0)
Rachel Morse, daughter of a Danish mother and black American father, sole survivor of a family tragedy, is sent to live with her African American grandmother, where her biracial heritage causes confusion and brings unwanted attention. Social commentary and family tragedy mix in this unusual coming of age story

More about: Algonquin Books, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Little Bee by Chris Cleave
(Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 978-1-4165-8964-8)
A horrific encounter on the beach in Nigeria has repercussions in the lives of a London couple and the young Nigerian immigrant girl, Little Bee, who escapes to England and finds them.

More about: S&S Paperbacks, Little Bee, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
(St. Martin's Press, 978-0-312-61157-6)
This sweeping, suspenseful novel follows photojournalist Helen Adams in Vietnam from 1965-1975, as she learns the hard way about objectivity, guilt, and love in the maelstrom of war. Particularly relevant in the light of current conflicts, Soli also examines the role that photographers and journalists play in wartime.

More about: St. Martin's Press, The Lotus Eaters, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
(Picador, 978-0-312-42954-6) A successful playwright borrows the Dublin flat of her close friend, the well-known actress Molly Fox. In the course of one day, as she thinks about their friendship, explores Molly's possessions, and speaks to other friends and family, her life is changed by what is revealed.

More about: Picador, Molly Fox's Birthday, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound,

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
(Doubleday, 978-0-385-50112-5)
On her ninth birthday, Rose Edelstein discovers that she can feel the emotions of others by eating the food they prepare. Far from fantasy, this story about fraught family relationships is filled with insight and tenderness.

More about: Doubleday, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
(Harper Perennial, 978-0-06-184032-6)
Thick with the atmosphere of early 1960s racial tension, Florence, an 11-year old white girl in a southern town in the early 1960s tries to understand the emotions and motivations of the people around her, both black and white, from her abusive Klan-loving father to the family of Zenie, her grandparents' longtime black maid.

More about: Harper Perennial, The Queen of Palmyra, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Room by Emma Donoghue
(Little, Brown and Company, 978-0-316-09833-5)
For five-year old Jack, the only world he knows is Room, where he lives with Ma and endures nighttime visits from Old Nick, their keeper. Ma has made desperate plans to escape from this place where she's been held prisoner, but it's not clear how the bond between mother and child will survive the enormous change.

More about: Little Brown, Room, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye
(Unbridled Books, 978-1-60953-008-2)
After years of estrangement, Noah Torr returns to the cabin north of Duluth, MN where his father, now near death, is living in solitude. As father and son move toward a tentative reconciliation, Olaf tells the pivotal story of how he survived the tragic sinking of his Great Lakes ore boat thirty-five years ago.

More about: Unbridled Books, Safe from the Sea, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

Up from the Blue by Susan Henderson
(Harper Paperbacks, 978-0-06-198403-7)
Eight-year old Tillie Harris loves her beautiful, unstable mother, a free-spirited contrast to her distant, harsh father. When the family moves from New Mexico to Washington, DC her mother vanishes, and Tillie turns to outsiders for support and encouragement until she uncovers her father's treachery.

More about: Harper Paperbacks, Up from the Blue, Booklist Review, Reading Group Choices, Reading Group Guides (available soon)

Bonus resources: Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, IndieBound

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