I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on, I go into another room and read a good book.
--Groucho Marx

Welcome to the first BookMuse newsletter! This and future issues of Amusements will tell you what's new on the BookMuse web site, what's coming up, what you're asking about (Q & A), what you think about a scintillating topic (Readers' Poll), what you can do about that windbag in your group (Book Group Tip), and more.

What's New?

Well, since this is our first newsletter, everything is new! We are now featuring the surprisingly contemporary The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and William Trevor's powerful Death in Summer, and in the Kids' Corner Just Juice by Karen Hesse. Last month we featured Plainsong by Kent Haruf (short listed for the National Book Award) and Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland, and for younger readers, Carnegie and Whitbread winner Skellig by David Almond and Secret Letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstern, all stellar books for discussion.

In the Kids' Corner, you can read a book group interview with Cris Garlington from the Town School in San Francisco. She tells us what her third grade book group has read, how they are organized, what kind of questions work best and lots more. Check it out and tell us about your book group.

Coming Up

Naguib Mahfouz won the 1988 Nobel Prize for literature, yet many of us in the Western World have never read his work, nor that of any other Egyptian writer. Palace Walk, our next feature, is accessible and compelling. Margo's Muse Notes will guide you through this foreign world.

You may have noticed that some of our adult Muse Notes categories are still empty, so we're writing away to satisfy your reading tastes. Next month, we'll feature our first memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. We all know that popularity does not often equal quality, but here's a case where it does. You'll want to order this book through BookMuse's buy books links, since all the stores are sold out!

Also read Anji's answer below in the Q and A section for what's coming up in the Kids' Corner.

What's BookMuse all about?

All of you seem to agree that there's a great need for a web site like BookMuse, a resource for avid readers and people in book discussion groups. We are starting with a few Muse Notes on carefully selected books and plan to expand our library to many hundreds of Muse Notes over the coming months and years. Every book we feature is one we recommend for a fun and challenging discussion. Several of you have written asking whether we have information on other books that your group will be discussing. As we grow, you'll find more and more Muse Notes and Reader Reviews on the books you're looking for, but in the meantime why not choose one of the books we feature for your next meeting?

Reader Poll

Every month we'll ask you a question and publish your answers in the next newsletter.

What are the best and worst books your group has read? (only one of each, please). Send email to .

Book Group Tip

People in groups without professional leaders often complain to me that they spend the last half hour of each meeting trying to decide what to read next (notice the feature heading on BookMuse's home page). You'll save a lot of time if you choose your books several months in advance. Some groups have a meeting once a year just to choose books for the coming year. Others choose six months worth of books at a time. Don't worry that you won't be reading the "hot" book if you plan so far ahead. Often the "hot" books aren't worth discussing anyway,and if they are, they'll be there when you next choose books. They'll probably be in softcover by then!

Reader Reviews

Write a book review. Let us and others know what you think about the books you're reading. You can rate the books from one to five stars and let your eloquence shine. Parents, this is a good opportunity to let your children practice their book report and writing skills and see their name (first name only is best) on the Internet!

Q--Our book group is about to read Le Divorce by Diane Johnson and I wondered whether you might have some information for use (biographical details for instance). With many thanks, MM in London.

A--(by Gail, BookMuse reviewer) Thanks for writing to BookMuse. I know much about Diane Johnson because she was my dissertation director. She grew up in suburban Illinois and attended Stephens College. She lives part-time in San Francisco and increasingly in Paris. She is married to a UCSF physician named John Murray and has at least 3 children, all grown. She received her PhD from UCLA and wrote her dissertation on the Victorian poet, George Meredith.While doing the research for her thesis, Diane became interested in Meredith's wife, Mary Ann, who abandoned her husband and ran off with a painter. Later, Diane wrote a biography of Mary Ann Meredith and it won a National Book Award for non-fiction. She wrote the screenplay for Kubrick's film The Shining and a biography of Dashiell Hammet. But mostly, she is known for her fiction: The Shadow Knows is possibly her best book; Lying Low was short-listed for the National Book Award. Persian Nights is (I think) fascinating. Cathy Henderson has written a fine book about women writers of fiction in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in this book Cathy transcribes an interview with Diane.

What else would you like to see on the site? In the newsletter? Let us hear from you!

Cheers, Kristine

Q--Our school is starting a book club for 2nd grade students who are reading at the 3rd to 5th grade level.  Do you have any suggestions for us, i.e. what type of questions to ask once we've read the books, what books to read, etc. If you know of anyone who has done this, I would like to correspond with them to find out how they made their club successful. Thank you for your time. 

A--(by Anji, BookMuse kids' editor) Thank you for visiting our site. If you look at the kids' page on the right hand side you will see a section on Book Groups. Each month we feature a different book group.You can read the current month's interview with Town School's 3rd grade club to get some ideas of what they are reading and how they lead their discussions. Also, click on "grades 3-5" under reading levels on the left hand side of the page to get a list of books we recommend for that age. We currently have 13 books in this category, all including questions that can be used for a discussion. We recommend not reading the questions until after finishing the book as some of the questions will give more details of the story than some readers want to know beforehand.

Since you are working with 2nd graders, I would be very careful with the book selection. Even though they are reading at the 3rd to 5th grade level, they are still 2nd graders. From our list, I might suggest My Side of the Mountain, Frindle, Me and Rupert Goody, Just Juice, Mary on Horseback, and I was a Rat. Some of the other books in the category are definitely more for 5th graders, not for the ability to read words but for the intellectual content. Other books you might consider that are coming soon to BookMuse are the Catwings series by Ursula LeGuin, Wainscott Weasel by Tor Seidler, and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.