IndieBound is out with their Winter 2010-2011 Reading Group Favorites list and S&S titles are topping the list!
In the Top Ten, Jeannette Walls’ Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel (Scribner, 9781416586296) is the #1 pick (!!!), followed by #3 Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel, by Audrey Niffenegger (Scribner, 9781439169018), and #6 A Happy Marriage: A Novel, by Rafael Yglesias (Scribner, 9781439102312)!
Featured Titles include:
The Kitchen House: A Novel, Kathleen Grissom (Touchstone, 9781439153666)
The Madonnas of Echo Park: A Novel, Brando Skyhorse (Free Press, HC: 9781439170809, TP publishing in February 2011: 9781439170847)
Day After Night: A Novel, Anita Diamant (Scribner, 9780743299855
The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton (Washington Square Press, 9781416550556)
For the full list, click here.
So, let the book club discussions begin! See below for some highlights from Indie Next List pick’s reading group guides:
#1 Jeannette Walls’ Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
(Scribner, 9781416586296)
Lily has high expectations for her children, from sending them off to boarding school despite their protests to enforcing strict rules for keeping animals as pets. When Rosemary falls in love with a wild horse and asks her mother if she can keep it, Lily replies, “The last thing we need around here is another half-broke horse” (pg. 190). How might this statement apply to Lily’s children as well? Are Lily’s expectations of her children particularly high or rather a reflection of the times? Why do you think this phrase was chosen as the title of the book?
Get the Reading Group Guide and more discussion questions, here.
#3 Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel, by Audrey Niffenegger
(Scribner, 9781439169018)
A bad thing about dying,” Elspeth writes to the twins, “is that I feel I’m being erased.” What does she mean by that? How does Elspeth seek to rectify this feeling of “being erased”? Similarly, after Marijke leaves him, Martin worries that his wife is gradually “bleaching out of his memory.” How is the issue of memory important to the characters in Her Fearful Symmetry?
Get the Reading Group Guide and more discussion questions, here.
#6 A Happy Marriage: A Novel, by Rafael Yglesias
(Scribner, 9781439102312)
How did Enrique’s early success as an author affect him? “He really was an American Raskolnikov, too intelligent to be reconciled to his unimportance and helpless to escape it” (pg. 64). Why does Enrique believe he cannot escape “unimportance”? Does Margaret feel the same way about him? Does Enrique remind you of any other literary characters?
Get the Reading Group Guide and more discussion questions, here.
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