“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven,
We formed a book club in Pensacola Beach, Florida, that moved to virtual meetings during the time of confinement. We had canceled our March meeting due to the virus, but since then we meet each month, because my group of lovely ladies was missing each other. I suggested a virtual book club meeting to discuss our book (Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty) as well as share a glass (or two or three) of wine.
Hello! My name is Sara and I’m a book group coordinator in an Italian bookshop. I read Italian novels, stories from the 20th century and contemporary fiction with my book groups. We are around 15 people in each group and usually we meet together once a month. The bookshop is our home, but during this particular moment we obviously use video calls to talk about books. You can find more info about our work by visiting the bookshop website www.libreriabufo.it or on my literary blog www.blufiordaliso.it.
Every year, Reading Group Choices surveys book groups and readers to compile our annual list of Favorite Books. And every year we randomly choose winners who receive a gift certificate to their local bookstore and a package of RGC-recommended books for their entire group!
Meet our 2019 favorite books survey winners below (and sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss the chance to take our 2020 survey!).
The Festival Fans
This is our small but wonderful book club called Reading Between The Wines that just started meeting in January of this year. We all belong to St Paul’s United Methodist Church in Carolina Beach, NC and met there several years ago. Since we all liked each other, I thought a book club would be a great great way to get to know each other better, since so many of us are retired educators.
Our first book discussion in February was for Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.
Portland High School has a student book club as well as a “staffulty” book club. The students’ group is “The Breakfast Club,” as we meet in the mornings before school. The staffulty group is “The Dinner Club” since we meet after school. The staffulty consists of 2 librarians, 12 teachers, 2 guidance counselors, 1 retired principal, 1 retired teacher, and 1 staff member. The librarians take suggestions for what books to read and then compile the reading list for the year.
