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Book Club News
Greetings!

First off, if you have not already done so and would like to, please do take a few minutes to vote for our Best of Year books (closing this Friday).

This month we recommend books to discuss with your book club in 2021; all twelve titles received excellent reviews from BookBrowse and other media sources, and all have recently published in paperback, or will do soon.
We also reprise our lists of All-Time Favorite Book Club Books, based on the results of our February survey of almost 2,000 BookBrowse subscribers.

And in BookBrowse's own book club forum we're discussing The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline. The discussion has only been open a couple of weeks and, in terms of number of posts, is already on track to be our most popular discussion of the year, so I can safely say that, if you want to consider it for your own book club, you'll find plenty to keep the conversation flowing!

Very best,
Davina
Book Club Discussion
Discussions are open to all. Please do join us! See upcoming discussions.
The Exiles
by Christina Baker Kline
From the Book Jacket

The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train returns with an ambitious, emotionally resonant historical novel that captures the hardship, oppression, opportunity and hope of a trio of women's lives - two English convicts and an orphaned Aboriginal girl - in nineteenth-century Australia.

From the Discussion

"This is the best book I’ve read in 2020. I inhaled it in two days. I loved this great story built on historical facts. It was very informative about the British prisoners that were sent to Australia and so relevant to events that are going on today. I’ve read all of Ms. Kline's books and love her stories but The Exiles was the best yet!" - CandaceF
 
"I loved this book. I learned about a time period and people I knew nothing about. The book was written and paced in a way that kept my interest the entire time. I will be recommending it!" - LeslieH
 
"I loved the book very much, although it was often a bit agonizing to read. It makes me even more curious about the time period and the people who lived it, and I think that's what a good historical novel does. It makes us thirsty to know more facts." - Gloria
 
"It reads as historically accurate but didn't feel like nonfiction. I would love to visit some of the museums that are mentioned at the end. The characters were great and really came to life. Like pauj, I didn't know that women prisoners were sent to Australia as well. One funny note is that this is the fourth book I've read this year set in Tasmania, I think fate is telling me to go there!" - ColoradoGirl
 
"The action is non-stop and the story takes unpredictable turns. I have already recommended this book to several people; this is something I only do when a book is truly interesting. The characters are strong women; something I can appreciate at this time in this country." - Tired Bookreader
Custom House. Historical Fiction. 384 pages. Published Aug 25, 2020
BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.7/5
2021 Book Club Recommendations
The end of the year is a great time to take stock of your book club and make plans for the future. In this roundup, we recommend a dozen books for your group in 2021, all of which are newly released in paperback or will be available in paperback soon.

All of the books on the list earned five stars from BookBrowse reviewers, so you can't go wrong, whatever you choose. Also, we invite you to check out the selections from our Anti-Racist Reading List which includes books from the past two years that should foster dialogue on current events.
Book Club's All-Time Favorite Books
Earlier this year, almost 2,000 subscribers to this newsletter shared with us their favorite book club books of all time. And they were well qualified to answer the question given that over 90% had been in a book club for at least three years, 55% had more than ten years of book club experience under their belts, and almost half belong to two or more groups!

Current & Upcoming Book Club Discussions
Discussions are open to all, so please join us! If you would like to receive a message when a particular discussion opens, you can sign up for a one-time notification. You can also find inspiration for your book club among our more than 150 past discussions.
Open Now.......
Open Now
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Opens Jan 9......
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Resources for Book Clubs
BookBrowse offers a cornucopia of resources for book clubs including recommended books by genre, time period, setting and a wide range of themes; advice on starting and running a book club and much more!
Usually published once a month, Book Club News is one of BookBrowse's four free newsletters. We also publish BookBrowse Highlights every Thursday, Publishing This Week every Sunday; and Librarian News monthly.
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