Book group wisdom from Nancy Pearl

Who wouldn't want to hear what our local reading guru has to say about book groups? Lynne recently heard Nancy speak, and shared her notes:

Best books for book groups:

• Those than have an ambiguous ending (such as In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien, the Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, The Little Friend by Donna Sartt, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood and In The Woods by Tana French)
  
• Books where the main character has to make a difficult decision
• Unhappy books

Great ways to start a book discussion (hint, not by asking "how did you like the book?")

• Why did the author choose to write this book?
• What would you do if you were in the place of the main character?
• What's the significance of the title?
• What would the book be like if told from a different point of view?

She suggests that everyone come to book group with one question they really want to discuss, and all the questions get put into a bowl--presumably, they are then plucked out and discussed!

Reasons people stop coming to book groups:

• There is a monopolizer
• It's too hard for people to jump in and join the discussion

A few more thoughts: Nancy is a big fan of mini-series; I'm interpreting a bit here, but I think she means that she's a fan of tackling several books on the same topic, or perhaps by the same author
She suggests book groups look at different genres, such as science fiction (The Dispossessed, The Hungry Games, Ender's Game) and graphic novels (Mouse, The Photographer, Persepolis)

Finally--love this quote from Nancy: "Book clubs will change the world and make it a better place."

Who knew that's what we were doing??