Next month marks the fourth annual celebration of National Reading Group Month. The Women’s National Book Association began the 31-day endorsement of reading groups in 2007, and as in years past, the 2010 celebration will include activities hosted by traditional and online book clubs and at bricks-and-mortar bookstores and libraries. WNBA National president Mary Grey James said the organization “proudly endorses this national celebration of reading groups at a time when there is much talk about the ‘decline of the book’ and ‘reading at risk…. National Reading Group Month is a perfect platform for book clubs (individual members and groups) to gather at their local bookstores and libraries to pick their future reading lists and celebrate the congeniality which naturally springs from the reading group experience.”
The nine WNBA chapters—in Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.—will participate in National Reading Group Month. Among the planned festivities are the National Reading Group Month Signature Event, which will be held at the Nashville Public Library Downtown on Saturday, October 9. It will include breakfast and book signings by Melanie Benjamin (Alice I Have Been), Tom Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), Sena Jeter Naslund (Adam & Eve) and other authors. The event is co-sponsored by the Nashville Public Library and Davis-Kidd Nashville.
Additionally, WNBA’s National Reading Group Month Selection Committee has chosen 13 books, 12 novels, and one memoir as this year’s Great Group Reads. The books are listed at www.wnba-books.org, as is a complete list of WNBA chapter National Reading Group Month events.
Official sponsors of this year’s Reading Group Month include HarperCollins, Hyperion/Voice, Simon & Schuster, and Unbridled Books.
