Remember that one time (at band camp), where I toyed with the idea of doing a blogger retreat? Yeah, that didn’t happen, though not for lack of interest.

This time I have people helping me plan. And boy do we have a plan. We just need to gauge your interest and likelihood of going so we can plan accordingly.

So this time, the blogger convention will be either right before or right after BEA, which is taking place in New York City. And here’s what Michelle and I have come up with so far:

• A one day event from 8am-5pm
• Price of admission/participation = $110 (though there will be the potential for an early bird registration price of $75 for a limited time)
• Price includes continental breakfast and lunch
• Registration for conference will allow you to avail yourself of a deeply discounted overnight room rate (better than BEA themselves negotiated we hear) for the entire week

In order for us to plan this, we need to estimate how many people may come so we can get the right size conference room. Also, since Michelle and I will be on the hook for non-refundable deposits, please only fill out the form if you’re super duper serious. Please.

Book Blogger Convention 2010 Potential Interest Form

By filling out this form, you’re not committing to anything. We just need this information so we can move ahead in planning the convention.

Also, if you did do the book blogger convention and stayed in our awesomely discounted rooms, you’d save enough money over the course of the days to pay for your registration to the book blogger convention. Kinda like “the more you buy, the more you save.”

The winner was #47, which was Mariag! Congratulations! I’ve emailed you for your mailing address. I hope you enjoy the books! Comments are now closed.

Last year I met Mahbod Seraji at Book Group Expo and he told me he would soon be having a new book coming out. I found out that the book was coming out in May and made sure to buy a copy of his book, Rooftops of Tehran, right away.

Rooftops of Tehran is about Pasha, a 17-year-old boy who lives in Tehran. He’s a regular boy who likes girls…okay, one particular girl, soccer, books, and looking at the stars.  He can usually be found in the summer hanging out on the roof of his house, oftentimes accompanied by his best friend Ahmed. The two friends talk about girls, philosophy, and the state of their country. Ahmed is the goofy, joking one and Pasha is the serious, bookish one. Both boys fall in love around the same time, but Pasha falls in love with his neighbor, Zari, who is already engaged. Over the course of the summer of 1973, the boys become good friends with Zari and Faheemeh, the girl Ahmed has fallen for. Their friendships are innocent, but an event happens that changes all of their lives.

I loved that the sense of place was very strong. The author uses scenes to illustrate and describe Persian people and culture, making the story come to life.

“Mourning has become a very important aspect of our culture….When our child is butchered in front of our eyes, we bawl as if our soul wants to escape our body. When we’re violetntly wronged, we shriek. That’s the gift of history to us, son….Our only recourse in the face of unpardonable evil has been to wail inconsolably. I think, even now, we unconsciously identify death with oppression.”

That’s the way of the Persians — we are masters in the art of implication, sometimes at the cost of the point getting lost on an unsophisticated listener. Facts seldom matter. The meaning and the message are always woven into the fabric of our discourse.

The author found his stride partway into the book, as Ahmed really became more vivid and real.

I thought the friendship between Pasha and Ahmed was well developed. You could see their friendship strengthen over time as they dealt with very adult issues.

There’s a lot going on in this story, between Pasha and Ahmed’s friendship, the love Pasha has for Zari and the love Ahmed has for Faheemeh, the relationship the boys have with their families, how families deal with the death of a child, the various ways you can love someone, and how the Persians as a culture deal with death and loss, as well as how they dealt with displaying their displeasure with the Shah.

The story was very sweet, but I didn’t love it. I was disappointed to find that I could predict the two major surprises in the book. For me, this meant the author was too heavily hinting at what was coming. I want to be surprised! I’m what you might call an ignorant reader: I can’t usually figure out the ending ahead of time, and I rarely try. But I was able to figure it out in Rooftops of Tehran, so the author was a little heavy handed with the foreshadowing.

So here’s my dilemma: did I not like the story because I found it too predictable, or was there another problem with the writing that I can’t quite pinpoint? To be honest, I’m not sure. I will, however, be looking for Mahbod Seraji’s next book, as I really think his storytelling ability will get honed and sharpened.

Rating: 79 out of 100

Visit Mahbod Seraji’s website.

Other reviews:

Savvy Verse and Wit

S. Krishna’s Books

Book Club Classics!

Devourer of Books

Now for the giveaway! I have one copy of Rooftops of Tehran to give away, courtesy of Mahbod Seraji and Penguin! To enter the contest, just answer this question:

Have you ever been on a roof?

For +1 additional entries each, you can tweet or stumble the giveaway. Just make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. This contest will close September 6, 2009 at 11:59pm PST. Good luck!

The winner of The Lace Reader is #54, Stacy Gorkow! Congratulations, Stacy!

Comments are now closed.

Sometimes a book is read by EVERYONE, and for good reason. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry is one of those books.

The book opens with what I think is one of the most captivating opening lines I’ve read in a long time:

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that’s not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time.

So you go into this book being told by the main character that you should never believe her because she lies all the time. Awesome, right? An unreliable narrator. How is that not the basis for a fantastic book club discussion?

So you’re reading along and you find out Towner lives in California, having fled her hometown of Salem 15 years ago to check herself into a psychiatric hospital after her twin sister committed suicide. Towner received electro-shock therapy to help her mental issues, but it also erased a lot of her memories. When the story begins, Towner gets a call that she needs to come back to Salen, Massachusetts because her great-aunt Eva has gone missing. When Towner gets to Salem, you realize you haven’t even met the really crazy people, like Cal, who’s pretty much got a cult following and hates witches and the Whitney family and used to be married to Towner’s aunt , Emma, or Towner’s mom, May, who lives on an island near Salem and helps abused women escape their husbands/boyfriends, or Ann, who does lace readings and plays up the whole witch thing.

And the thing is, Towner doesn’t seem  like the crazy liar she claims to be! She seems totally reasonable! Most of the book is narrated by Towner, with a small portion of it being narrated by the police officer, Rafferty, who is investigating Eva’s disappearance, so I was trying to figure out what was real and what was a lie. Towner seems so damn reasonable that I started to wonder if perhaps being a liar was in itself a lie.

There are more SHUT UP and WTF moments in The Lace Reader than I’ve read in a long time. This *is* a hard book to put down, as Barry has crafted a very compelling and fascinating story. Every time you’ve got the story straight in your head, the author throws in a twist that just blows your mind. It is so refreshing for an author to be able to keep a reader guessing! And the ending! Oh, the ending…

The Lace Reader is more character driven than plot driven. The story tends to meander, and while I don’t think this is a problem per se, it makes it hard to write the review and hard to tell people what the book is about. There’s SO MUCH to the story, and I just want to discuss the book, not beat around the bush about how great it was.

I’m eagerly awaiting the author’s next novel, which she is apparently working on right now, as she has a unique ability to craft a very intricate story.

Rating: 90 out of 100

This post was part of the TLC Book Tours tour for The Lace Reader. Make sure you check out the rest of the tour for this fantastic book!

There are all kinds of cool things going on with The Lace Reader.

• Make sure you check out The Lace Reader’s book trailer.
• Soon, LaceReader.com will also have a downloadable t-shirt iron-on design and printable signage for booksellers.
• In the September issue of Book Page, there will be a sweepstakes in which the grand prize is a trip for two to Salem, two nights at The Hawthorne Hotel, and a guided Lace Reader tour of Salem with Brunonia.

Also, the author is going on tour again, and here’s her schedule:

• 9/8 – Bellingham, WA – Village Books – Reading and Signing
• 9/10 – Oakland – A Great Good Place for Books – Reading and Signing (I will probably be at this signing if anyone wants to join me!)
• 9/12 – San Mateo – M is for Mystery…and More – Reading and Signing
• 9/14 – Los Angeles – Vroman’s Bookstore – Reading and Signing
• 9/15—Edwards, CO – VIP Customer Book Club Event
• 9/20—Andover, MA – Meet the Author Benefit for PATHS

Events are still being lined up in:

• Dallas
• Nashville
• Wichita
• New England

Other reviews:

books i done read

In the Shadow of Mt. TBR

not enough books

It’s All About Books

book-a-rama

she reads and reads

Care’s Online Book Club

Both Eyes Book Blog

So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

Fizzy Thoughts

medieval bookworm

Booking Mama

caribousmom

Now for the giveaway. I have ONE paperback copy to give away. The contest will run through September 8, 2009. All you have to do is answer this question (if you don’t answer this question, I will come to your house and torture you with tickles for not reading the DIRECTIONS):

Have you ever had a…premonition that came true? Call it whatever you want: a weird feeling, indigestion, whatever. I want to know what it was that came true! If this has never happened to you, then just tell me that.

The contest is open internationally. You can get an extra +1 entry by either tweeting or stumbling this post, just come back and leave a comment that you did so.

Good luck!

I was thrilled when Heather from Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books agreed to be interviewed in regards to her book club. This is a MUST READ since Heather gives tips on how to conduct a good book club discussion.

How long has your book club been in existence?  We got started back in May 2005, just over 4 years ago.

Does your book club have a name? Our name is “Storie delle Sorrelle” (Italian for “Stories of the Sisters”). We wanted a name that was unique but also reflected our purpose … and it had to sound cool. One of our members even had tote bags embroidered with our group name for us.

How many people are in your book club?  Well, that depends.  My official email list has 21 names on it but several gals haven’t made an appearance for over a year.  I’d say there are 15 committed members.

Is your book club open to new members? How do new members end up in your book club?  In the past we’d accept new members no matter how they came to us.  Sometimes one gal would bring a friend, sometimes new people would find us through our blog (storiedellesorelle.blogspot.com), one gal I met in the book section of a thrift store.  But new members didn’t join very often.  Last summer we put the brakes on new membership though.  Within three months we’d added 5 new people and we agreed that we all needed to get to know each other better before allowing anyone else to join.

When do you meet? Is it a set day every month, or do you work it out so it’s on a different day but convenient for everyone?   To better accommodate conflicting schedules we do a weeknight meeting one month and a weekend meeting the next month. 

What kind of books do you read?  There are no rules as to which books we read.

How do you choose books?  When we were a smaller group each person got to pick one book to read during the year.  When we got bigger we had to come up with something new.  Here’s how it works now.  Three times a year members nominate one book each.  Once we have a list of nominated books we all rank them in preferred order and I tally the results.  The three most popular books are chosen for the next three meetings.  To make it fair, if your nominated book was chosen this time you can’t nominate one the next time around.  We’ve been doing that for a while now and it is working really well.

Which book generated the best discussion?  We had a two-part meeting for THE POISONWOOD BIBLE because there was so much to talk about, a great discussion of THE GLASS CASTLE, and controversial discussions of MY SISTER’S KEEPER and WHAT OUR MOTHERS DIDN’T TELL US. 

Do you invite authors to join your discussion when you discuss their book? How do you handle having the author in on your discussion if some or all of the members didn’t absolutely love the book?   We’ve had one author visit us in person and another join us by phone.  Both times there were members who did not like the book.  The in-person meeting went very well as the author was genuinely interested in our opinions.  The phone chat (which I missed) wasn’t such a hit; the gals said the author gave lots of one-word answers and didn’t seem very interested in being there.  My suggestion for author chats is to encourage members to share two or three things they liked and two or three things they didn’t like about the book.  That way the problem areas can be discussed (hopefully) without the author feeling attacked.

Do you have one person who moderates the discussion?  Yes, that would be me.  All the time.  I’d love to share this responsibility but my club is spoiled and they buy me off with flattery.   But seriously, every successful book club needs a dedicated leader even if it isn’t the same person for every meeting.  Before every meeting I do the following:

1.       Read the book (duh), preferably finishing at least a week before the meeting
2.       Find discussion questions online and print them out
3.       Research the author – What is his/her background?  What other books has he/she written?  Why was this book written? Etc.
4.       Find any controversies or news-worthy info relating to the book – if it is really good, print out copies for the group
5.       Send the Evite with meeting details and the hostesses chosen food theme, then follow up to make sure everyone relpies

Finally it is book club day! At the meeting I …

1.       Get the discussion started on time
2.       Keep the conversation on topic (very difficult at times)
3.       Make sure everyone gets a chance to speak
4.       Choose which discussion questions to raise and what background info to share
5.       Close the meeting with reminders about the next book and meeting

Have you ever had a professional moderator moderate one of your meetings?  No, but if that job ever comes up I’ll take it.  If you want to pay me to moderate YOUR meeting I’ve got four years of excellent experience!  And really, I SHOULD be getting paid, considering all the work I do.

How long does the discussion last?  That all depends on the book but a usually discussion is at least an hour, maybe longer.  We’ve had two that were shorter and many that were longer.

Do you eat food at your book club meeting?  Of course we do!  I’m Italian – it would be a sin not to have food.  We don’t go overboard though.  The hostess picks a theme and everyone brings something to share.  Sometimes the theme matches the book but it doesn’t have to.

How do you decide where the meeting will be held?  Several members love to host and others do not (like me).  With such a large group there is never a problem finding a hostess.  In the early fall we meet at an outdoor restaurant for Happy Hour – that’s something we all look forward to every year.

Is there anything else about your book club you’d like to share? Our group is fun and unique … we have 3 mother-daughter groups – sometimes we dress up to match the theme of the book – one member only does audio books – gals have called in on speakerphone so they wouldn’t miss the meeting while out of town … and there are so many more things I could share!
 
One final note … Running a book club is a lot of work but it can be very worth it.  I’m moderating a panel at the Baltimore Book Festival in September all about starting and improving a book club.  If you have any do’s or don’ts you’d like to share with me I’d love your input – I want this panel to be as helpful as possible.

A big thank you goes to Trish for allowing me to talk about my club on her blog today.  Just as Trish is passionate about book blogging and the network it creates, so I am passionate about book clubs and the opportunities they offer.  I’m always glad to have an excuse to talk about my club.  Thanks Trish!

Thank you, Heather! Oh, how I wish I lived near you so I could join your book club…

If you want to read more about Heather’s book club, go check out this interview in the Baltimore Literature Examiner. Heather was interviewed by our very own Anna from Diary of an Eccentric.

Heather will be moderating a panel discussion on book clubs at the Baltimore Book Festival on Saturday, September 26, 2009 entitled The Book Club Toolkit: Tools and Tips for Starting and Improving Your Book Club. It should be a great discussion! I will be on the panel, and we’d love to see you there!

In The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf, Calli, a seven-year-old with selective mutism, and her friend and neighbor, Petra, who is also Calli’s voice, go missing on the same night. Calli’s mother, Antonia, is married to a drunk, abusive husband, and has a history with the sheriff who is investigating the disappearance. Petra’s father, Martin, is determined to find the girls, and he is convinced that it was Calli’s father who took both of the girls.

The story is told in alternating viewpoints from Antonia, Martin, Calli, Petra, Deputy Sheriff Louis, and Ben, Calli’s brother. Heather Gudenkauf utilizes this method well and is able to dispense the story and history of everyone involved. Sometimes when you have this many characters, it becomes a bit cumbersome. All the characters were handled deftly, as their history and the current situation was doled out. The author has a great writing style that tells a story very simply, but very well. I could picture everything, and the situations with Calli and her dad left me with adrenaline pumping through my body.

Heather Gudenkauf does an amazing job of ratcheting up the suspense in the first chapter and keeping you on the edge of your seat all the way through to the end. I would have read this book in one sitting if I’d had enough time, but unfortunately my day job got in the way of my reading. It’s really a race against time as the families and sheriff try to find the girls, hoping they haven’t been taken by the same person who took and killed a little girl two years ago.

Calli and Petra have a really sweet relationship. Petra met Calli after she’d already gone mute, and still she befriended her. Petra’s disappearance and her absence as a narrator add to an already tense situation.

Switching topics slightly, there is a passage that I wanted to share with you, more because of what it talks about than because it shows the authors writing. But I think the author makes a great point and since I agree, I’ll share it with you.

Antonia’s mom is talking to Antonia about marriage:

People say that being a mother is the most important job you will ever have. And it is very important. But it is even more important, I believe, to be a wife, a good wife….I don’t mean you have to be a floor mat. That not what I mean at all. I mean, who you choose to walk with through life will be the most important decsion that you will ever, ever make. You will have your children and you will love them because they are yours and because they will be wonderful….But who you marry is a choice. The man you choose should make you happy, encourage you in following your dreams, big ones and little ones.”

I know I haven’t done the book justice. So please just believe me when I say I loved this book and will be passing it around to everyone in my book club.

Rating: 95 out of 100

You can buy The Weight of Silence at a discount! Use the coupon code SILENCE10 at eharlequin.com for 10% off of The Weight of Silence, and it’s effective aug  1 – sept 15 at eHQ for print or digital.

Make sure you check out Heather Gudenkauf’s website.

I want to thank TLC Book Tours for letting me be a part of this tour. Check out the rest of the tour stops for The Weight of Silence.

Other reviews:

Fizzy Thoughts

Book, Line, and Sinker

Virtual Wordsmith