Tips for Choosing Better Book Discussion Titles with a Resource Even I Forgot About

As part of my training for library book discussion groups, I go out of my way to share some of the best under the radar resources to identify discussable books. 

But first, and this is actually the most important part of finding discussable books, before you Rin to those resources, you really need to understand what makes for a great book discussion book. Too often we are just picking what everyone else is doing or what is popular or what is going to be a movie, rather than taking the time to think about WHY a book is discussable in general.

Here are my tips for choosing discussable books:

• Ease of acquiring in a variety of formats
• I love when people read the book in print, e, and listen. Their format choice almost always adds to the discussion.
• Explores basic human truth
• love, family, death, grief, fear, sadness, joy, etc....things all humans understand, know and feel
• 3-dimensional characters
• You want to really talk about those characters like there are real people
• Ambiguous endings
• This irks many but that is exactly why it is great for discussion
• Starting at the end is always a good idea
• Unique style, frame, or setting
• Talking about how the author constructed the book and why they might have made those choices is a great discussable topic
• Marginalized voices
• Doorways to people different than those in the group are more interesting to discuss than books that mirror the group's known experience
• When considering media sensations or current events: tread with caution!
• Really think hard about a hot book. Sure the group wants to be in the know, but often they are lacking in other keys ways in this list.
• Proven winners, both titles and authors
• Use your backlist

If you can check off a handful of these boxes for a potential titles, you will have a great discussion. Not everyone will like the book. In fact, you may have fewer "like" the book this way, but you will 100% have better discussions. And the discussion is what keeps people coming back.

But where to find these titles? I have shared a variety of resources over the years with the "book discussion books" tag, but today, I was reminded of another. A resource that I know and use but honestly forget to check when trying to find book discussion books-- NPR Books, specifically their Books We Love coverage.

From an article on their site entitled, "What to Read Next With Your Books Club":

Sometimes you finish a book and just have to talk about it with someone else. If your book club is looking for its next conversation-sparking title we have a dozen for you! These fiction and nonfiction titles were all recommended by NPR staff and critics for the latest installment of Books We Love, our annual year-end books guide. Books We Love allows you to browse 12 years-worth of book club recommendations and filter them by genre to find the title that's perfect for you and your reading buddies. Here are a few to get you started:

Click here to read more of that particular article, but the part I was reminded of, the 12 year's worth of Book We Love databases where "Book Club Idea" is a tag and you can combine it with more tags to find the right book for your book club.

So, I am here today to remind you all that even I forget about a resource that I know about, blog about, promote, and champion. I knew it had the Book Club Idea tag and yet, I never remember to use it that way.

I hope this post helps to reinvigorate your book clubs by improving how you identify titles, both in the resources you use but also, by considering WHY something makes for a good book discussion choice.