Author(s): Susan Osborne

Cultural Studies

"A book club gives the opportunity to meet up with friends and wake the brain up a bit with lively and often quite aggressive discussion" - Dawn French. How do you keep your reading groups discussions lively and focussed? If you want to gain new insight into literature and share your passion with friends this book offers readers guides for 75 of the very best reads - guaranteed to provoke spirited debate! Each of the readers guides includes a summary of the book, a brief author biography, discussion points to spark debate, and a set of titles for further reading that deal with similar themes.A 'background' section provides pointers to more material about the bookonline and as well as further thought-provoking material: Where did the author come from? What made them write the book? How did the context in which they wrote influence them? If you'd like further insight, debate, discussion and analysis to underpin your understanding and enjoyment of reading - then look no further than this guide.New titles in this edition include: "The Long Firm", "Leper's Companions", "By the Sea", "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax", "Buddha of Suburbia", "The Icarus Girl", "Black and Blue", "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break", "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress", "The Cutting Room", "Shadow of the Wind", "Giving up the Ghost" and many more! First published 2002; this 2nd edition 2008.