Ladies' Home Journal and Reading Group Choices have teamed up to bring book clubs a more specific and interesting way to provoke a lively book discussion! Each month LHJ chooses a book, suitable for book club reading, and Reading Group Choices' Literary Director, Neely Kennedy , reads the book then write a blog post with the intention of pulling the best parts to discuss!

************************************************************************************************

It’s a Hard Knock Life; Orphan Wisdom

In the Ladies' Home Journal Book Club June selection, Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline takes readers on an absorbing and very personal journey, intertwining the stories of a misfit teenage girl, Molly, and a reclusive ninety year old woman, Vivian, who bond over their painful orphan childhoods. Though the two women are brought up in different eras, and Molly's modern experience is less harsh than Vivian's thanks to child-protective services laws, their experience of abandonment, abuse, neglect, and mistrust are largely the same.

A Walk Down Memory Lane; The Routes of Our Pain

In May’s best-selling Ladies' Home Journal Book Club selection, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, author Rachel Joyce tells the story of one man’s unlikely decision to walk the length of England from Kingsbridge to Berwick upon Tweed. Harold Fry’s spontaneous pilgrimage begins as a means to save an old friend after receiving a letter that she is in hospice dying of cancer.  It is a surprisingly touching journey...

Gods of Gotham: Race Crimes, the Sacred Hatred

In the April’s Ladies' Home Journal Book Club selection, The God’s of Gotham, author Lyndsay Faye pays homage to her passion for murder and mayhem whodunits. Her historical fiction mystery is set in 1843 New York City at the time of the Irish Potato Famine that motivated one hundred and twenty five thousand, largely Irish Catholics, to immigrate to the U.S. Most destitute with scant jobs to be had and little skill, they succumb to lives of crime and poverty.

Beginner's Goodbye: Dealing with Loss,
A Book Club Discussion

In the March LHJl Book Club selection, The Beginner’s Goodbye, seasoned novelist Anne Tyler tells the intimate story of how a quirky publishing house editor, Aaron Woolcott, deals with the loss of his wife, Dorothy, after a tree falls on their home. Quotes taken from the book below outline his often peculiar, yet honest, perspective on his wife, marriage, colleagues, and family as he moves through the classic stages of grief.

True 'Haute Couture': Designing Personal Character; The Fabric of Our Humanity

The often conflicting emotions of ambition and ethics lie at the center of Kate Alcott’s period novel, and LHJ February book club pick, The Dressmaker . Finding herself with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for famed designer Lady Duff Gordon, aspiring seamstress Tess Collins learns that blind ambition sometimes comes at great consequence

Creating Personal Miracles

In the LHJ December book club pick, The Snow Child , The New York Times best-selling author, Eowyn Ivey, spins a modern day fairytale about a couple trying to build a new life in the harsh wilderness of Alaska. After fleeing comfortable circumstances in order to escape the grief of losing their child, Mabel and Jack’s story begins with the darkness of their first year in Alaska...

Connecting to Loneliness

In the LHJ November book club pick Heft , introspective author Liz Moore writes about how feeling alone in the world can serve as a common denominator that connects people to one another. Arthur Opp, a morbidly obese recluse narrates the story, reflecting on how his path to isolation developed over the years due to loss and estrangement from family and friends, a battle with a negative self-image, and after being falsely accused of having an affair with the much younger, awkward and shy misfit, Charlene Turner.

Colliding Worlds: Native American and Puritan Cultures in the New World, a Book Club Discussion

In the LHJ October book club pick, Caleb’s Crossing , historical novelist Geraldine Brooks writes about the conflicts between 17th century Martha’s Vineyard inhabitants, newly-settled Puritans and Native Americans. The contrasting beliefs and customs between the two cultures are told as experienced by the narrator, Bethia Mayfield, a preacher’s daughter, and Caleb, the son of the Wampanoag Chief, who crosses over into Bethia's “civilized” world...

Realizing the American Dream, a Book Club Discussion

In the LHJ September book club pick, The Shoe Makers Wife , a leading book club favorite author, Adrianna Trigiani, tells the story of the Italian immigrant experience at the turn of the century. Like many emigrants faced with poverty, this three part story spans Ciro Lazzari and Enza Ravenelli’s intertwined destiny, as they set out for America in search of opportunity and the dream of a better life...

Ana’s Legacy: Abuse of Power, a Book Club Discussion

In the LHJ August book club pick, Conquistadora , author Esmeralda Santiago, tells the historical-fiction epic, set in the mid-19th century, of one woman’s unwavering ambition. Ana Larragoity Cubillas Nieves, inspired by her brazen explorer ancestors who once sailed with Columbus in discovery of the New World, hatches a plan to persuade her future husband and twin brother to move from Spain and purchase a sugar plantation in Puerto Rico...

The Irony of Perspective, a Book Club Discussion

In the LHJ book club July pick, The Astral , author Kate Christensen tells the modern day realist story of Harry Quirk, a poet who finds his life in shambles; a mid-life crisis.... As he moves through the stages of crisis, self-defense, and ultimately reconciliation, Harry finally cultivates a perspective that allows him to stop looking back so that he can begin to live again...

Expectations and Next to Love

In June’s LHJ Book Club pick, Next to Love , author Ellen Feldman tells the heartbreaking, but hopeful story of three women’s lives during the paradigm shift of the Baby Boomer generation—1944-1964, spanning WWII and the war in Vietnam...

The Language of Flowers and Nature vs. Nuture

In The Language of Flowers , the LHJ Book Club pick for May, author Vanessa Diffenbaugh tells the moving story of Victoria Jones, a young woman whose journey through the foster-care system has taught her to be untrusting of herself, the world, and the people in it. Isolated and alone, only her treasured Victorian language of flowers allows her to communicate her true emotions. But until she meets a young man in a flower market, only she understands the message...

Illusions and Vaclav & Lena

In the LHJ book club pick, Vaclav & Lena , author Haley Tanner tells the story of a young Russian immigrant boy’s obsession with becoming a great magician. While Vaclav studies and practices his magic, his best friend, love interest and assistant, Lena, hides behind the illusions of her horrific home life. It’s a delight to read how Tanner skillfully marries the literal theme of magic with a deeper metaphor and exploration of illusions.

How Sisters Shape Our Lives, A Book Club Discussion

The special bond of siblings can often be the longest and most important relationship in our lives, transcending friends, jobs, parents, and sometimes even marriage. LHJ Book Club pick, The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen, tells the story of sisters Milly and Twiss and the heartbreak, sacrifice, love and secrets that they share through childhood, adulthood and old age.