Pop Lit Book Club – serie

This volume offers students and book club members a handy and insight-filled guide to Morrison's works and their relation to current events and popular culture.One of the few authors to attain both commercial success and literary acclaim, Toni Morrison, a longstanding member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is widely read by high school students and general readers. Her books have been adapted into highly extolled films such as Beloved, largely because, even when set in the past, they grapple with issues and emotions relevant to contemporary society. Designed for students and general readers, Reading Toni Morrison is a handy introduction to Morrison's works and their place in the world. The book begins with a look at Morrison's life and writing. Chapters overview the plots of her novels and discuss their themes, characters, and contexts. The book then examines Morrison's treatment of social issues and the presence of her works in popular culture. Chapters provide sidebars of interesting information along with questions to promote student research and book club discussion.Provides questions that can be used to generate book club discussionIncludes sidebars to highlight interesting information about the author and her workOffers a selected, general bibliography of print and electronic resources to facilitate further studyFilm adaptations of the author’s works, such as Beloved, are discussed and their impact explored

One of the most important emerging novelists today, Khaled Hosseini has enjoyed critical success and popular accolades. His first book, The Kite Runner, was voted Reading Group Book of the Year in 2006 and 2007 and was made into a major motion picture. His second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, seems destined to follow the same path. Written for book club members and students, this guide overviews Hosseini's works, themes, characters, and contexts and relates his fiction to current events and popular culture. Sidebars present interesting information, and chapters contain questions to stimulate book club discussions and student research. The volume closes with a selected, general bibliography of print and electronic resources.The book begins with a glance at Hosseini's life and his use of the novel form. It then looks at his novels, summarizing their plots and discussing his characters, themes, and contexts. The book gives close attention to his handling of current events in his works, and to the presence of his fiction in popular culture. Chapters include sidebars of interesting information, along with discussion questions designed to promote book club discussion and student research.

This essential discussion of Amy Tan's life and works is a necessity for high school students and an enriching supplement for book club members.A tour-de-force in Asian American writing, Amy Tan has created works that are essential to high school and undergraduate literature classes and are often book club selections. Reading Amy Tan is a handy resource that offers both groups plot summaries of five of Tan's novels, as well as character and thematic analysis. The handbook also provides an overview of Tan's life and discusses how she emerged onto the scene as a novelist. Tan’s typical themes, including Asian American issues and mother-daughter relationships, are examined in relation to today's current events and pop culture. Readers will also discover how and where they can find Tan on the Internet, and how the media has received her works. The “What Do I Read Next” chapter will help readers find other authors and works that deal with similar subjects. This handbook is an indispensable tool for both high school and public libraries.Summarizes each of Tan’s novels, offering a plot summary and a discussion of themes, settings, and charactersProvides questions that can be used to generate classroom and book club discussionIncludes sidebars to highlight interesting information about the author and her workOffers a selected, general bibliography of print and electronic resources to facilitate further study

One of today's most important novelists, Cormac McCarthy is at the peak of a long and productive career. The film adaptation of his No Country for Old Men is a major motion picture, and his fiction is widely read in book clubs. This volume looks at his works, characters, themes, and contexts and relates his writings to current events and popular culture. Chapters include sidebars of interesting information, along with questions to stimulate book club discussions and student research.One of today's most important novelists, Cormac McCarthy is at the peak of a long and productive career. He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Road in 2007 and the National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses in 1992. This book is a guide to his works and their relevance.The volume begins with a look at his life and his use of the novel as a means of expressing his ideas. The book then looks at his works, themes, characters, and contexts. It then discusses his exploration of current events and the presence of his fiction in popular culture. Chapters include sidebars of interesting information and provide questions to stimulate book club discussion and student research.

Best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver's life and works are explored in this comprehensive, unique reference guide. Ideal for book club members and essential for high school students, this valuable resource introduces the plot summaries as well as theme and character analysis for seven of Kingsolver's major works. Kingsolver's usual topics, primarily focusing on the working class, environmental issues, feminism, and Native American studies, are closely examined in relation to current events and contemporary popular culture. Also discussed are Kingsolver's presence on the Internet, as well as the media's reception of the author. Each chapter concludes with thought-provoking, analytical discussion questions, ideal for encouraging book club conversation as well as stimulating classroom discussion. The What Do I Read Next chapter will delight readers who enjoy Kingsolver's work. This guide is a must-have for public and high school library shelves!Best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver's life and works are explored in this comprehensive, unique reference guide. Ideal for book club members and essential for high school students, this valuable resource introduces the plot summaries as well as theme and character analysis for seven of Kingsolver's major works. Kingsolver's usual topics, primarily focusing on the working class, environmental issues, feminism, and Native American studies, are closely examined in relation to current events and contemporary popular culture. Also discussed are Kingsolver's presence on the Internet, as well as the media's reception of the author. Each chapter concludes with thought-provoking, analytical discussion questions, ideal for encouraging book club conversation as well as stimulating classroom discussion. The What Do I Read Next chapter will delight readers who enjoy Kingsolver's work. This guide is a must-have for public and high school library shelves!

This book offers an overview of the contributions of author Nora Roberts to the popular literary market.Nora Roberts's captivating biography and extensive canon are explored in this comprehensive reader's guide, including coverage on her early works, critical successes, trilogies and quartets, short stories and novellas, futuristic mysteries written as J.D. Robb, and titles under other pseudonyms. Reading Nora Roberts shows how this remarkable author expands the limits of the genres in which she writes, exploring feminist ideas, Celtic and Western settings, psychological and religious themes, and Gothic and supernatural elements. The book also highlights Roberts’s willingness to have her characters face serious real-world issues, including sexism and racism, gun violence, abortion, suicide, corporate greed, and career burnout.Details models of dialogue, slang, and humor, illustrating Nora Roberts's intuitive replication of human quandaries and compromisesIncludes a timeline of Nora Roberts's life and career, which began in 1979 with a novel and magazine story and advanced to story anthologies, novellas, romances, sagas, trilogies and quartets, Gothic romance, and futuristic thrillers

This book is a compelling reference guide for book clubs on the work of Joan Didion, with summaries of her major works and discussion questions.Reading Joan Didion is the ideal way to enter this extraordinary and versatile author's world—a world that counts among its citizens burned-out hippies, cynical and delusional players in the film and music scene, and even members of the Charles Manson family.In addition to looking closely at major works of fiction, Reading Joan Didion also focuses on Didion the essayist, critic, and founding member of the New Journalism Movement, which uses fiction-like narrative techniques to go deeper into subjects that traditional objective reporting allows. Also covered is the rich screenwriting partnership of Didion and husband John Gregory Dunne, and the overwhelming late-career success of The Year of Magical Thinking, written in the aftermath of Dunne's shocking death and completed just before the author's daughter also passed away unexpectedly.

This exploration of author Laurell K. Hamilton's work examines the many novels of her series and shows how her writing has been a major influence on contemporary visions of the vampire—an ideal reference text for book club leaders.Long before Twilight achieved epic levels of popularity, Laurell K. Hamilton was reshaping the image of the vampire with her own take on the vampire mythos in her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter fantasy novel series. While Hamilton's work draws on traditional vampire and fairy lore, her interpretation of these subjects brought new dimensions to the genres, influencing the direction of urban fantasy over the past two decades.Reading Laurell K. Hamilton focuses upon Hamilton's two bestselling series, the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and the Merry Gentry series. The volume is intended as a resource for leaders of book clubs or discussion groups, containing chapters that examine Hamilton's role in the current vampire literature craze, the themes and characters in her work, and responses to Hamilton on the Internet. The book also provides a brief overview of Hamilton's life.