Is there anything better than walking into a bookstore, library or even a friend’s house and discovering shelves decorated with beautiful books? While it’s not exactly the same, we designed Bookclubz.com to elicit that same feeling -- the comfort of being surrounded by books! The virtual world has its limitations (ahem, new book smell), but our hope is that as you navigate to your club’s page or individual profile, you feel inspired, intrigued or simply at home with the books we share on our site every month.
New to Bookclubz? Allow us to give you a tour! But before we get started, we want to note that our book recommendations are often in partnership with publishers and authors and they are often paid or sponsored with content provided by the partner. These sponsorships support our mission to offer free web and app services to the clubs on Bookclubz.
Every month we highlight 5 books from 5 different genres: Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Romance. Depending on the month we sometimes swap out Romance for YA! You can find them front and center on our homepage with accompanying discussion guides for your book club meeting. While there are five new recommended reading by genre promotions each month, the discussion guides for the books live forever on our discussion guide page. Trying out a new genre can be daunting so check out these recommendations as you experiment and broaden your tastes.
Scrolling right along…
Book of the Month! You can’t miss it on the homepage. Like our recommended reading by genre, Bookclubz staff selects a book to promote every month, often in partnership with a publisher or author. In addition to the book cover and book summary you will also find a link to the book’s discussion guide. Our ‘Book of the Month’ is not genre specific. One month we may feature literary fiction and another month we offer a memoir. Most important to us is that you get to discover (or rediscover) a great book for your book club!
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Now just below our ‘Book of the Month’ selection is another row of books, the most popular on Bookclubz. A longer list is available under the “Top Books” tab. Unlike the promotions above it, these books appear based on what YOU, Bookclubz’ members, are reading with your book club. It’s always interesting to see what books other clubs are reading and just one more place on our homepage to draw inspiration for your own club’s picks!
But wait, there is more.
If you scroll to the top of our webpage and click on “Books” you will see an option to enter three new spaces (Indie Author Corner, Hear Our Voices Book Club and Girlhood Around the World) on the website with more books to discover. Think of these spaces as that hidden room in the back of the Library that you didn’t know was there, but boy are you glad you discovered it!
- The Indie Author Corner is a collaboration between Bookclubz and Dartfrog and it is a dedicated space that exposes book clubs to new, independent authors and books!
- Hear Our Voices Book Club is a contribution from Algonquin Books whereby each month, we feature powerful paperbacks and strong stories from and about underrepresented voices.
- Girlhood Around the World is another collaboration with Algonquin books. Inspired by Girlhood by Masuma Ahuja, each month this page features a book that showcases the unique experiences of girls growing up across the world.
Have ideas for how we might feature more books? Wish there were more recommendations? Please share your ideas and wishlists! You can email us at hello@bookclubz.com.