You are the same today that you are going to be five years from now, except for two things: the people with whom you associate and the books you read. -- Charles Jones

Have you read books that you think have changed who you are? Let us know and we'll publish your comments in the next issue of Amusements. 



What's New?
Happy Birthday, BookMuse! We are one year old this month--and counting.

In response to many of your requests, we've added more book group tips to the resources section of BookMuse. The new section is called, appropriately, starting a book group, and includes tips from Rachel Jacobsohn, a member of BookMuse's advisory board, and author of The Reading Group Handbook. We'll keep adding to this and the book group tips section of resources, so check in periodically for inspiration and ideas.

The home page currently features Being Dead by Jim Crace, a story of love and death, "not for the faint-of-heart" and Frederick Busch's The Night Inspector, a moody, beautifully written story set in post Civil War New York City. Kids' Corner features The Sword in the Stone, a classic written by T. H. White. This book is for older kids hooked on Arthurian lore, who want to find out what really happened when Arthur was a child being raised by Merlin.



Coming Up
Your book group members may not all love our next featured book, but they won't be able to stop talking about it. The Hunter is Australian Julia Leigh's first novel, set in the wilds of Tasmania, where a nameless man goes to find the last remaining Tasmanian tiger. Later this month we'll give you Muse Notes Plus for Ford Maddox Ford's 1915 masterpiece The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion. You'll see why this novel should be a book group staple.

Kids' Corner will highlight a French picture book with a challenging story for younger readers, The Boy Who Ate Words. by Thierry Dedieu. The story and the pictures are big and bold. Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher will engage fifth graders on up with the intriguing story of Marjan who was called in to the Sultan's palace to help Sheherazad tell her thousand and one tales. Endless possibilities for discussion.



Book Group Tip by Kristine
I used to lead a book group in which, for the first couple of meetings, one woman insisted on polling all the members at the beginning of the meeting on whether or not they liked the book we'd read. I was new to the job and not as assertive as I am now with my opinions. NEVER ask that question. It leads to a dead end. Think of questions that lead somewhere, that take you inside the book. Why did the character do what he/she did? Why did the author structure the book the way he/she did? Take a favorite passage from the book and examine it closely. If someone insists that she/he didn't like the book, try to dig in to specifics, and get away from the general "feeling" of dislike. All of these will lead to far more interesting discussions than finding out whether or not people "liked" the book.




Our Readers' Survey
Thanks again for all your survey responses. Some of what we learned might interest you. More than half the respondents use BookMuse to find new adult book recommendations and to find tips for reading group discussions. Others come to the site to research books they're already planning to discuss and to find kids' book suggestions. Almost everyone preferred the Muse Notes Plus to the shorter Muse Notes, but some readers didn't know the difference. (We have some work to do here.) The most common praise was that readers love the high quality writing and ease of using the site; the most common criticism was that there's not enough of it--we need to add more titles. The other oft-made suggestion was that we should highlight the resources section on the home page since many of you don't or didn't know about all the valuable content we've put there. A few select quotes:

I'd like to hear from other book groups around the country--what they're reading, and any innovative ideas for book groups. Last summer our group read Shakespeare's Measure for Measure then went to see it performed at the Hudson River Shakespeare Festival. It was a lovely and memorable evening!

I would like to see a section on general sorts of discussion questions that could apply to any book.

I would love to see some creative ideas for furthering book discussion above and beyond topics for discussion. For example, we just did Alias Grace and our facilitator chose to hold a mock trial where one party was for and one against the subject. Not only was it hysterical but it fostered great discussion.

Prompted by questions in this survey I now know what the "Plus" means beside the titles. This is an amazingly complete coverage for an individual book--what a treasure.

If you'd like to add your own feedback, please write us at .

Please contact us if you're interested in sponsoring BookMuse or advertising on the site, at