Crowd-Sourced List of Hidden Gem Book Discussion Titles

Yesterday marked the end of 3 presentations I did for RAILS on Book Discussions over the last few weeks.

The first 2 were webinars on how to Recharge Your Book Club.  You can access the recording of one of them with a link to the slides here.

Yesterday though, I did one of my favorite trainings-- a book discussion for book discussion leaders.  We discussed The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon.  I will have notes on our discussion up tomorrow, but today I have a treat that was promised to attendees from all 3 presentations.

During the course of all three presentations I asked participants to share their favorite “unique” titles that worked well in discussion-- those hidden gems that made for an awesome discussion.

Below, you can see the slide where I listed mine to start off this ask:

Click here for access to the full presentation with 

clickable links [slide 11]

At the end of this post I have reproduced the fantastic crowd-sourced list with links to book discussion information about these titles to help you start using one of these with your group. Each of these titles has been used in a successful book discussion, I just don’t know who did which books.

But first, before we get to that, I also promised a few people at yesterday’s discussion that I would include a mention of the ARRT Literary Book Discussion and Leadership Training for which I will be the 2016 coordinator.  These discussions are meant for book discussion leaders and happen 4x a year.  All ARRT members are welcome [membership is only $10]; in fact, 2 regulars at these ARRT events were with me for yesterday’s discussion too. All details can be found here.

Now here is the list that we all made together. It is long. Thanks to everyone who offered up their own hidden gem titles. This is going to be a great resource for all of us who run book clubs.  What a great example of using the compound interest of all of our experiences to make for better experiences for all of our patrons. YAY sharing.

If anyone else wants to add to this list, please leave a comment. I am totally using a few of these myself.

• Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian.  
• Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura Schrod
• Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs
• Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast 
• Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
• Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
• A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 
• American Born Chinese by Gene Leun Yang
• The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
• The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
• Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• The Cider House Rules by John Irving
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes 
• The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
• Enduring Love by Ian McEwan 
• Whistling Past the Graveyard Susan Crandall
• Dreamland : Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
• The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell 
• Heretic’s Daughters by Kathleen Kent
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, The First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 by Richard Zacks
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
• One Plus One by Jojo Moyes
• 150 Pounds: A Novel of Waists and Measures by Kate Rockland
• Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
• Good Omens - Gaiman and Pratchett
• The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
• I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg