Special Issue of The Bookwoman to Celebrate National Reading Group Month 2014

Vol 78 Number 1A

NRGM Special Edition 2014

www.wnba-books.org

National Reading Group Month 2014

Official Sponsors and Friends

The Sponsors and Friends of National Reading Group Month are committed to celebrating the joy of shared reading--and, to reading groups everywhere. The Women's National Book Association (WNBA) thanks them for their invaluable support and generosity.

Current Sponsors

Silver/Premier Sponsors

Hogarth

Read It Forward

Sourcebooks

Friends of National Reading Group Month

American Booksellers Association

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction

The Booklist Reader

Reading Group Choices--Selection for Lively Book Discussion

Reading Group Guides--The Online Community for Reading Groups

Complete List of Sponsors, Friends, Content Partners (Blogs, Guides), Publisher Partners (Author Appearances), Bookstore and Library Partners available on the National Reading Group Month website.

Great Group Reads -- 2014 Selections

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)

Burial Rites by Hannh Kent (Back Bay Books)

Cataract City by Craig Davidson (Graywolf Press)

Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani (Atria Books)

The Commandant of Lubizec by Patrick Hicks (Steerforth)

Euphoria by Lily King (Atlantic Monthly Press)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Penguin Press)

Foreign Gods Inc. by Okey Ndibe (Soho Press)

Marching to Zion by Mary Glickman (Open Road Media)

Neverhome by Laird Hunt (Little, Brown and Company)

The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis (Harper Perennial)

Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks (Grove Press)

Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement (Hogarth)

The Promise by Ann Weisgarber (Skyhorse Publishing)

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Simon & Schuster)

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (Algonquin Books)

An Untamed State by Roxann Gay (Black Cat)

What is Visible by Kimberly Elkins (Twelve)

Where Somebody Waits by Margaret Kaufman (Paul Dry Books)

The World of Rae English by Lucy Rosenthal (Black Lawrence Press)

Great Group Reads 2014 Selections downloadable PDF.

***

Jill and Bebe wish to thank the members of the Selection Committee for their dedication and tenacity--a job well done as always. Bravo!

Leslie Adams (Seattle); Sonia Adams(NYC); Sally Brewster (Charlotte); Beth Frerking(Nashville); Lynn Henriksen (SF); Pat Klemans (Detroit); Kristen Knox (Charlotte); Emily La Iacona (NYC); Kate Lyons (Charlotte); Carolyn Martin (Seattle); Mary McCarthy (Nashville); Sue McDanel (NYC); Pamela Milam (NYC); Naomi Milliner (DC); Deborah Milstein (Boston); Lorine Kritzer Pergament (DC); Elissa Pugh-Arguello (Nashville); Rosalind Reisner (NYC); Quressa Robinson (NYC); Linda Rosen (NYC); Rachel Slaiman (NYC); Lois Van Stipdonk (Detroit); Rayme Waters (SF); Rachelle Yousuf (LA); Marika Zemke (Detroit)

Great Group Reads 2014 Selection Committee readers' bios.

NRGM Chapter Events

We are so excited about our upcoming National Reading Group Month programs held during October by our ten chapters:

WNBA-Boston in collaboration with the Boston Book Festival

Panel Discussion: Fiction: Love & Loss (Sat., Oct. 25; 3:45 p.m.) and with event partner Brookline Booksmith Panel Discussion: Writing Across Gender (Thurs., Oct. 30; 7 p.m.)

WNBA-Charlotte with "bibliofeast" cosponsor Park Road Books

at Maggiano's Little Italy (Mon., Oct. 13; 6-9 p.m.)

WNBA-Detroit with event copartners Novi Public Library and The Book Beat (Wed., Oct. 8; 7-8:30 p.m.)

WNBA-LA with event partner Diesel, A Bookstore (Santa Monica)

Panel Discussion: Let's Go [Book] Clubbing (Tues., Oct. 21; 6:30-8 p.m.)

WNBA-Nashville in collaboration with the Southern Festival of Books with "coffee with authors" event copartners Nashville Public Library and Parnassus Books (Sat., Oct. 11; program, 9-11 a.m.; book-signing, 11-11:30 a.m.)

WNBA-NOLA with event copartner Octavia Books at the New Orleans Museum of Art (Sat., Oct. 18; 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)

WNBA-NYC with event partner Strand Book Store, Rare Book Room (Tues., Oct. 21; 7:30-9 p.m.)

WNBA-SF in collaboration with Litquake, San Francisco's Literary Festival and event partner Books Inc. (Sat., Oct. 11; 2-4 p.m.)

WNBA-Seattle with event partner University Book Store (Thurs., Oct. 16; 7-8:30 p.m.)

WNBA-Washington, D.C. with event partner Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (Wed., Oct. 15; 7 p.m.)

Full list available here.

***

Thanks to our 43 participating authors:

Anne Benoit (New Orleans' Best Ethnic Restaurants, Pelican Publishing)

Cynthia Bond (Ruby, Hogarth/PRH)

Wiley Cash (This Dark Road to Mercy,William Morrow Paperbacks)

Kim Church (Byrd, Dzanc Books)

Jaime Clarke (Vernon Downs, Roundabout Press)

Leah Hager Cohen (No Book but the World, Riverhead)

Amy Conner (The Right Thing, Kensington)

Katie Crouch (Abroad, Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)

Kathleen Finn (Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good, Viking Adult)

Lauren Francis-Sharma ('Till the Well Runs Dry, Henry Holt and Co.)

Nadia Hashimi (The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, William Morrow)

Michelle Huneven (Off Course, Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)

Joshilyn Jackson (Someone Else's Love Story, William Morrow Paperbacks)

Sarah Jio (Goodnight June, Plume)

Allegra Jordan (The End of Innocence, Sourcebooks Landmark)

Lily King (*Euphoria, Atlantic Monthly Press)

Jean Hanff Korelitz (You Should Have Known, Grand Central Publishing)

Alice LaPlante (A Circle of Wives, Atlantic Monthly Press)

Sophie Littlefield (The Missing Place, Gallery Books)

Charlie Lovett (First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Viking Adult)

Erika Marks (It Comes in Waves, NAL Trade)

Kimberly McCreight (Reconstrusting Amelia, Harper Perennial)

Laura Lane McNeal (Dollbaby, Pamela Dorman Books)

Askold Melnyczuk (Ambassador of the Dead/The House of Widows, PFP Publishing)

Michael D. Moffitt (Grandad's Dictionary: Reflections on Life in America, WestBow Press)

Gina B. Nahai (The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., Akashic Books)

Celeste Ng (*Everything I Never Told You, Penguin Press)

Rebecca Petruck (Steering Toward Normal, Harry N. Abrams)

Susan Rieger (The Divorce Papers, Crown)

Hank Phillippi Ryan (Truth Be Told, Forge Books)

Tom Piazza (City of Refuge, Harper)

Michael Pitre (Fives and Twenty-Fives, Bloomsbury USA)

Lucy Rosenthal (*The World of Rae English, Black Lawrence Press)

N.P. Simpson (B.O.Q.: An NCIS Special Agent Fran Setliff Novel, John F. Blair, Publisher)

Katy Simpson Smith (The Story of Land and Sea, Harper)

Rebecca Snedeker (Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas, University of Cal. Press)

Marissa Stapley (Mating for Life, Washington Square Press)

Jesmyn Ward (Men We Reaped, Bloomsbury USA)

John Warley (A Southern Girl, University of South Carolina Press)

Ann Weisgarber (*The Promise, Skyhorse Publishing)

Kim Wright (The Unexpected Waltz, Gallery Books)

Julie Wu (The Third Son, Algonquin Books)

Gabrielle Zevin (*The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Algonquin Books)

*A Great Group Reads 2014 Selection

In this issue . . .

Great Group Reads
2014 Selections

NRGM Chapter Events

Participating Authors

Great Group Reads--A Sampling
Prayers for the Stolen
The Divorce Papers
Ruby
Book Girl's Guide to Cocktails
The End of Innocence

Important copyright information for contributors

NGRM 2014

Official Sponsors and Friends

Silver/Premier Sponsors

Friends of NRGM

WNBA Executive Board

President

Carin Siegfried

VP/President Elect:
Jane Kinney-Denning

Secretary
Shannon Janeczek

Treasurer

Gloria Toler

Immediate Past President

Valerie Tomaselli

For further information on the national board, chapter presidents, committee chairs, please go to the WNBA website.

Great Group Reads 2014 Selections--A Sampling

Prayers for the Stolen

By Jennifer Clement

(Hogarth, hc 978-0804138789, tr 978-0804138802)

Jennifer Clement's riveting novel about the lives of girls and women caught up in the
Mexican drug wars is not easily forgotten. Thirteen year-old Ladydi Garcia Martinez
is smart and beautiful, a deadly combination in a world where the drug lords prey on young women. Mothers dress their daughters as boys, blacken and disfigure their faces, and hide them in ditches to prevent them from being kidnapped and abused. Ladydi, her friends, and their mothers are complex, heartbreaking individuals, whose resilience drives this novel that tells awful truths with poetic language and insight. GGR reader, Sue McDanel, said "It opens up topics such as how it is that some are resilient enough to survive, how families deal with betrayal, women with husband's infidelity, as well as all the complications wrought by the drug trade and immigration, legal and illegal...I felt as if I knew Ladydi, Paula, Maria and the others and cared what happened to them. Just figuring out what might have happened after the last sentences of the book would make a great discussion."

And we recommend:

The Divorce Papers

By Susan Rieger

(From Hogarth--an imprint of The Crown Publishing Group)

Ruby

By Cynthia Bond

(Random House)

Book Girl's Guide to Cocktails for Book Lovers

By Tessa Smith McGovern

(From Sourcebooks--An Independent Vision)

The End of Innocence

By Allegra Jordan
(Sourcebooks)

Bookwoman Staff

Editor: Rhona Whitty (NYC)

Assistant Editors: Nicole Ayers (Charlotte) & Tracy Jean Sottosanti (Charlotte)

Copy Editors: Annette Marie Haley (Detroit) & Gloria Toler (Nashville)

Important Copyright Information for Contributors

We only accept articles written by the author or copyright holder. The Bookwoman, website, and other publications of the Women's National Book Association adhere to all local, national and international copyright laws. By submitting an article to us you are granting permission for its use on our website in our resource library (articles), in our member resources area and/or in our magazine and newsletters. Contributing authors retain all copyrights to their individual works.