Best new paperbacks:

The BookPage monthly feature for reading groups

  • The latest paperbacks

  • Book recommendations

  • Web sites

  • Links to publishers

  • Group guides

    		•  October paperback releases offer good choices for reading groups

    REVIEWS BY JULIE HALE

    Cover River Season
    A sensitively rendered story about race, friendship and freedom, Black's debut novel is set in a small Texas town in the 1960s. Jim, the main character, is a 13-year-old ready to spend a lazy summer engaged in his favorite pursuits: fishing and playing baseball. When he learns that his fishing hole is being used by an older black man named Sam, he is disappointed and disturbed by the presence of the stranger. Yet the two soon become close, and Sam, who played baseball in the Negro Leagues, acts as a surrogate father to Jim, coaching the boy through his first crush and helping him cope with the death of his troubled father. Their unlikely friendship is convincingly portrayed by Black, who writes expertly about the tumultuous 1960s. This quiet coming-of-age novel has all the makings of a classic. A reading group guide is available online at www.riverseason.com.

    Cover Living to Tell the Tale
    Tracing his personal history through the 1950s, Márquez applies the same skill and lyricism he demonstrates in his fiction to the genre of autobiography. The first in a series of three volumes chronicling his remarkable career, Living to Tell the Tale is a fluid, fascinating account of the Nobel Laureate's upbringing in Colombia and his development as a writer. Unconfined by the bounds of a strict chronology, Márquez offers a meandering account of his childhood and adolescence in a vivid narrative that's filled with anecdotes about his unconventional family, as well as insights into his personal relationships, his work as a journalist and novelist, and the love he feels for his homeland. The book is also a record of a country in a constant state of upheaval, as Márquez provides a survey of contemporary Colombian politics. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.readinggroupcenter.com.

    Cover The Night Country
    This chilling novel from O'Nan is the perfect choice for October book clubs. A modern-day ghost story that takes place in the suburbs of Connecticut, the book centers on the survivors of a tragic car crash that occurred on Halloween. Three teenagers died in the accident, and two lived: Tim, who suffered no injuries, and brain-damaged Kyle, a former bad boy and rebel. A year after the accident, Tim is struggling with survivor's guilt, while Nancy, Kyle's mother, takes on the role of caregiver for her son and fights to maintain her marriage. Watching over them are the ghosts of the three dead teens, Marco, Toe and Danielle, who have their own stories to tell and provide commentary on earthly life as it continues without them. Ominous and haunting, this innovative novel is reminiscent of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. A reading group guide is available in print and online at www.picadorusa.com.

    Cover The Bookseller of Kabul
    Seierstad, a 31-year-old Norwegian journalist, offers a one-of-a-kind look at Afghani culture in this compelling account of the three months she spent with a Kabul bookseller named Sultan Khan. Seierstad lived with Khan and his large family—two wives, various children, his mother, brothers and sisters—in the spring of 2002, just as the Taliban was being ousted from power. Donning a burqa and becoming acquainted with the family's Islamic lifestyle, Seierstad gives readers an inside view of the country—the soul-crushing tyranny of a government that forces Khan to hoard and hide books; the dismal economy and 12-hour work days; the arranged marriages that are a cultural mainstay, regardless of regime. Seierstad's narrative is a courageous report of her time in Afghanistan at a critical moment in history, a book that skillfully reflects the difficulties and dangers of being a Westerner and a woman in a country that devalues both. A reading group guide is included in the book.


    Has your club recently read an excellent book that sparked good group discussion? If so, BookPage would like to hear about it. Contact us at reading@bookpage.com with a description of the book and the reasons for your recommendation. We'll pass the top choices along to our readers.

    © 2004 ProMotion, inc.
    www@bookpage.com