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March 29, 2025

Wow, ReadingGroupGuides.com is almost a quarter-century old! That means we have been celebrating the fabulousness of book groups for nearly 25 years. We have so enjoyed sharing ideas for book groups and discussion guides with you --- and hearing from you about things that make your book group meetings interesting. Over the years, we have brought you features that we feel would enhance your discussions. Some of our best ideas for content have come from readers. So if you have any ideas to share with us as we get ready to celebrate 25, please let me know!

Anna Quindlen Book Group Event

Anna Quindlen Book Group Event

David Sheff, author of Yoko: A Biography

John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world’s most famous unknown artist. “Everybody knows her name, but no one knows what she does.” She has only been important to history insofar as she impacted Lennon. Throughout her life, Yoko has been a caricature, curiosity and, often, a villain --- an inscrutable seductress, manipulating con artist and caterwauling fraud. The Lennon/Beatles saga is one of the greatest stories ever told, but Yoko’s part has been missing --- hidden in the Beatles’ formidable shadow, further obscured by flagrant misogyny and racism. This definitive biography of Yoko Ono’s life will change that. In this book, Yoko Ono takes center stage.

Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor, is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER is told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits.

Charlotte McConaghy, author of Wild Dark Shore

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. As they nurse Rowan back to strength, it begins to feel like she might be just what they need. Rowan starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes that Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late.

Katy Hays, author of Saltwater

In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident. And every year, the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the 30th anniversary of Sarah’s death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them --- the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. Haunted by the specter of that night, the legendary Lingate family unity is pushed to a breaking point, and Helen seizes the opportunity. Enlisting the help of Lorna Moreno, a family assistant, the two plot their escape from Helen’s paranoid, insular family. But when Lorna disappears and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened, Helen has to confront the fact that everyone who was on Capri 30 years ago remains a suspect.

Harlan Coben, author of Nobody's Fool

Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. And beside him is the lifeless body of his girlfriend, Anna. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts --- and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low-level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. It’s unmistakably Anna. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce, there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day.

Editorial Content for The Writer

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

I enjoy each and every collaboration involving the great James Patterson. However, something special happens each time he teams up with J.D. Barker, who already is a master of the horror and thriller genres. Read More

Teaser

NYPD Detective Declan Shaw gets a call: How fast can you get to the Beresford building on Central Park West? In the tower apartment, Shaw finds a woman waiting for him. She’s covered in blood. A body is lying dead on the floor of the luxurious living room. Every book in the apartment’s floor-to-ceiling shelves is by the same author: bestselling true-crime writer Denise Morrow. "This is you?" Shaw asks the woman. "You're a writer?" Only one person knows the ending to this story. Is it the victim or the killer?

Promo

NYPD Detective Declan Shaw gets a call: How fast can you get to the Beresford building on Central Park West? In the tower apartment, Shaw finds a woman waiting for him. She’s covered in blood. A body is lying dead on the floor of the luxurious living room. Every book in the apartment’s floor-to-ceiling shelves is by the same author: bestselling true-crime writer Denise Morrow. "This is you?" Shaw asks the woman. "You're a writer?" Only one person knows the ending to this story. Is it the victim or the killer?

About the Book

“Consider blocking out a few hours of uninterrupted reading time” for THE WRITER, #1 New York Times bestselling author James Patterson’s “Excellent…perfectly executed…genuinely suspenseful” (Booklist) thriller about a true-crime author swept up in a murder plot.

NYPD Detective Declan Shaw gets a call: How fast can you get to the Beresford building on Central Park West?

In the tower apartment, Shaw finds a woman waiting for him. She’s covered in blood. A body is lying dead on the floor of the luxurious living room.

Every book in the apartment’s floor-to-ceiling shelves is by the same author: bestselling true-crime writer Denise Morrow.

"This is you?" Shaw asks the woman. "You're a writer?"

Only one person knows the ending to this story. Is it the victim or the killer?

Audiobook available, read by Peter Ganim

Editorial Content for This Book Will Bury Me

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Ashley Winstead, whom I have long admired, has written what could be her most interesting psychological thriller to date. THIS BOOK WILL BURY ME is a unique and eye-opening exploration of the current addiction to true-crime podcasts and presents the human beings behind them in many different ways. Most of all, it provides ample room for discussion about the fine line between true-crime lovers and negligent interference in open murder cases. Read More

Teaser

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho, takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected, and they begin to suspect that the killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans.

Promo

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho, takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected, and they begin to suspect that the killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans.

About the Book

From the nationally bestselling author of IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE and MIDNIGHT IS THE DARKEST HOUR comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches.

It's the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story.

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose and even glory.

So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don't add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions and begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap.

Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans.

Audiobook available, read by Leslie Howard