I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people
who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
--Anna Quindlen

Speaking of decorating, we hope you like our new newsletter design. We learned that many of our readers prefer to read Amusements off-line, and the original column format was confusing when printed. We hope our new design will be clearer and easier to read on- and off-line.



What's New?
We're excited about our new Author's Own section in resources. Each month we get many requests from authors, publishers, and publicists to feature their books. Author's Own--where authors or publishers pay for their own BookMuse ad pages--is our answer. Authors have a great place to tell good readers about their books, BookMuse readers learn about books we haven't featured on the site, and we pay the site's bills. Check it out.

Books. We won't brag too much about our prescience in featuring Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang--with an exclusive author interview--four months before it was chosen for the Booker Prize for Fiction. We are re-featuring the Muse Notes Plus for True History on the home page so your book group doesn't miss it. Our newest feature is Michael Chabon's fabulous, big, floppy, Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which interweaves the Holocaust and the golden age of comics.

Kids' Corner features a nonfiction book called There Goes the Neighborhood, Ten Buildings People Loved to Hate, by Susan Goldman Rubin. Written with humor and cleverly illustrated, your kids (and you) will look at the architectural world around them differently after reading and discussing this book.



Coming Up
Later in November we'll feature Muse Notes on Mary Karr's memoir Liar's Club, a book group favorite, and Graham Swift's prizewinning Last Orders, a personal favorite. Coming soon to Kids' Corner is the amazingly beautiful, mysterious, and not entirely for kids, Tibet Through the Red Box by Peter Sis. This is one of those must-own books that you'll want to read over and over. We'll also feature Polly Horvath's new book, Everything on a Waffle, about a small-town girl who just knows that her parents are not lost at sea, despite everyone else's insistence.



Book Group Tip by Anji
Last month I wrote about the need to give children in your group more say in the book selection process. With this privilege should come the responsibility of doing the background work necessary to recommend books. Whether this involves reading reviews on Amazon, consulting award lists, reading the book ahead of time, or using web sites such as BookMuse, the selectors should present their reasons as to why they think the book will facilitate an interesting discussion. The process of selection can be a sobering experience. It can force the individual to think beyond the superficial "because I heard it was good" to giving serious thought as to what kind of books actually make for good discussions.

Recommending a book for a group gives an individual a chance to push a personal favorite. This can be exciting, but it also carries some risk. It means being tough enough to withstand criticism for your selection. What happens when the book a child recommends is not well received by the majority of the book club? Can the child separate criticism of the book from criticism of him/herself? Will the other participants be reluctant to voice their real opinions about a book if they are worried that the selector's feelings will be hurt? These are important questions to consider before they affect your discussions.



An appeal and free books
In order for us effectively to provide you with the high quality, free content that you want, we need a better idea of how you currently use the site and what parts of it you like and don't like. Please help us out. Everyone who answers the following survey will be eligible to win a free book from our upcoming book giveaway program (ten winners--books to be announced). Please take a few minutes to do this one time, short survey, by cutting and pasting it into an email note to us. Feel free to write about anything else to do with the site, as well. Thank you!

1. What are the main reasons you visit the BookMuse site? (e.g. find kids' or adult book recommendations, find information on a book you already have in mind, other reasons) 2. Do you have a favorite page or section of the site? What is it? Why? 3. How often do you use the search function on the site? (every time you visit, most of the time, etc) 4. Do you read the Kids' Muse Notes? 5. Do you read the Adult Muse Notes? If yes, do you think Muse Notes Plus add significantly more value to your discussions/reading than the shorter Muse Notes? 6. If you use Muse Notes Plus, which sections do you usually read: Overview, Topics for Discussion, Commentary, Literary Criticism, Further Reading, Leader's Tips? Do you have suggestions for how we could improve these sections? Are there Muse Note Plus sections you never read? 7. In the resources category, have you read/found useful the BookMuse Personals, Author's Own, Bookstores, Literary Prizes, Author Interviews, and/or Book Group Tips? Do you have suggestions for how we could make these sections better?

Interested in writing Muse Notes? We're looking for a few good writers for BookMuse. Please contact us.

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