Over the 26 years that I have been a librarian and led book discussions and book discussion leader training programs, I have seen the popularity of book discussions wax and wane. And now is one of those times when in person book discussion groups are becoming more ubiquitous across more libraries.
Need more proof? Just the other day, Roxanne Gay (she whose books are HUGE book discussion group favorites) had this essay in the LA Times on how she went from a book club skeptic to devotee. You can read that essay at this link.
Whether your library hosts book discussion groups or helps connect your community based book groups with discussable titles or a combination of both, access to resources you can use to identify the best book choices is key.
When you are looking at potential book discussion books there are many factors to consider. In my Recharge Your Book Club training program, I list the bare minimum requirements for discussable books on Slide 11:
Ease of acquiring
Explores basic human truths
3-dimensional characters
Ambiguous endings
Unique style, frame, or setting
Diverse points of view
Doorways not mirrors
Media sensations or current events: tread with caution!
Proven winners…backlist
I want to focus on those last 2 bullet points today. First, media sensations. You know, the books everyone is discussing, the titles chosen by the popular celebrity book clubs, and those buzzy, zeitgeist titles I wrote about last week here. You need to be careful about choosing these books when they are at their peak. Not only will they be hard for you to make available for your patrons, but (and this leads to the last bullet point), they might not actually make for good discussions.
When a book is so buzzy, often it is being picked up by book discussion groups because they want to be part of the buzz; however, when we are talking about people who come to the library for their book discussions, we also know that these people care about a professionally moderated experience. They are willing to miss out on the buzziest books to have a better discussion. They also more willing to give an off the beaten path title a try.
(Side note, once or twice a year, I love to take a break from the required reading aspects of book discussions and ask people to come to just talk about the books they have read and loved outside of the group. I also encourage them to talk about the books they want to read. Discussion of these buzzy titles inevitably comes up. Inevitably someone has read them as well and a mini discussion occurs. This is also a nice respite from the grind meetings especially for you. It gives everyone a chance to connect as readers and book lovers. And every single time, the next time you do this, people have read books they heard about at this meeting and the discussion continues. June and December are great times for these meetings.)
Those super buzzy popular titles, some turn out to be discussion duds but more than few hang on and become discussion group favorites. But it takes time. Groups have to discuss them, tell other groups how great they are, and so on, it repeats. This takes time. Again-- that last bullet point. They need to be a year or more old to know this.
Okay Becky, but how do I do this? How could I possibly talk to all the book clubs in the country about their experiences? Thanks for asking. It really isn't that hard because there is a free resource that does this for you-- Reading Group Choices and in particular their once a year survey of groups all over the country.
They just released their 2025 Book Club Favorites-- a crowd sourced list of the top fiction and nonfiction for book groups that they READ in 2025. Notice that does not mean the books came out in 2025.
Click through to the fiction results and you will see the top 2 titles are from 2023 and 2019. You will also see Theo of Golden there. Yes this is one of the buzziest books of right now, but interestingly, this is a previously self-published title that got its start in book clubs, and those groups are exactly what propelled it to its current spotlight moment.
99% of these titles for the 2025 survey results in fiction and nonfiction are NOT from 2025. And every single one rose to the top of a survey of hundreds of book clubs. These are the answers to the question, "what was the best book discussion book your group read in 2025?"
These survey results go back to 2003 all on this one page. But I would suggest using the last 3-4 surveys for the best results. Anything that shows up there is the definition of a proven winner and provides an excellent starting point for you to plan you book discussions going forward.
If your library has cut book discussions over the lean years and want to get started back up again, you can check out my Recharge Your Book Club slides or contact your local system to have me do this training for your area. My contact info is available here. I also can work with you by the hour to get your library ready to have book discussions again. From figuring out when to have them, to drumming up interest, to helping you create the best experience possible for your specific patrons, I have done book discussions and book discussion consulting for 26 years. I have seen it all.
My favorite events to do are when the library invites all the area book clubs to come for an event where I am the speaker. It allows the library to identify and connect with all of the local community, not in the library, book groups. They are able to collect names and set up a database, reach out to them about programming, offer help with getting their titles, see who is willing to take new members, and more. And while they are there, I talk to them about ways to make their discussions better for everyone. I did these frequently before the pandemic and I know community members still come into the library to talk about how great those programs were and even some who say I saved their group.
However you are serving your community with books discussions, the Reading Group Choices annual favorites survey is a must use resource.
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