In recent years, the memoir has been celebrated as our liveliest literary genre and condemned as the confessional mode of a self-obsessed society. Now Jill Ker Conway turns her attention to some of the most notable examples of the form, revealing the distinct archetypal patterns that women and men have turned to when telling their life stories. In sensitive analysis of an extraordinary range of narratives from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Katharine Graham, she shows how memoirs satisfy our deep yearning to enter imaginatively into other lives.

• Tip: A wonderful companion to the discussion of any memoir! Read a series of memoirs with your group and look for the patterns and techniques that Conway describes.

• Suggested Reading List: All Over but the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg; Almost a Woman by Esmeralda Santiago; First Comes Love by Marion Winik; Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen; Personal History by Katharine Graham; The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway; The Shadow Man by Mary Gordon

Southern Selves:
From Mark Twain and Eudora Welty to Maya Angelou and Kaye Gibbons, a collection of Autobiographical Writing
Edited and with an Introduction by James H. Watkins

In the autobiographical writings of superb artists like Kaye Gibbons and Reynolds Price, Richard Wright and Dorothy Allison, the South's rich tradition of storytelling is brilliantly revealed. Whether slave or master, intellectual or "redneck," each voice in this moving and unforgettable collection is proof that southern literature richly deserves its reputation for irreverent humor, exquisite language, a feeling for place, and an undying, often heartbreaking sense of the past.

• Tip: Perfect for Southern writers groups, or those interested in a particular Southern author's work. Read an essay from the collection in conjunction with a work of fiction by the same author. What light does the essay shed on your reading of the fiction? What aspects of the author's writing, if any, can you attribute to his or her Southern heritage?

• Suggested Reading List: Absalom, Absalom!, The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier; Ellen Foster and A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons; The Moviegoer by Walker Percy; Quite a Year for Plums and Sleeping at the Starlite Motel by Bailey White; A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor.

Italy in Mind:
From Lord Byron and Edith Wharton to Susan Sontag and Michael Ondaatje--Two centuries of writers celebrate their love affairs with Italy.
Edited and with an Introduction by Alice Leccese Powers

Comprising short stories, novel excerpts, essays, journal entries, letters, and poetry from over forty celebrated writers, Italy in Mind captures all the contradictions of the Italian scene: enduring tradition and trendy consumerism, ravishing landscapes and urban sprawl, demonic bureaucracy and unvanquishable human warmth. The result is a work of enchantment, a vital and lusciously atmospheric volume that is a tribute to both Italy and to generations of literary travelers.

• Suggested Reading List: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb, A Room with a View by E. M. Forster, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, To the Wedding by John Berger, A Tuscan Childhood by Kinta Beevor, Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes.

• Tip: While Powers's collections are wonderful companions to books set in Italy and Ireland, they can also stand alone as reading group selections. Choose one of the books and compare the authors' recollections or descriptions with those of group members who have been to the region, and those featured in other books set there. Which authors paint the most accurate--or enticing--view of the country?

Ireland in Mind:
From Oscar Wilde to James Joyce, from Virginia Woolf to Frank McCourt, three centuries of Irish, English, and American writers in search of the real Ireland.
Edited by Alice Leccese Powers

From the editor of the outstandingly popular Italy in Mind comes another superb collection: three centuries of fiction, poems, and essays, from both Irish expatriates and non-Irish visitors. From the comic terror of Frank McCourt's First Communion to the raucous pagan festival Muriel Rukeyser attended in County Kerry in the 1930s; from John Betjeman's lyrical evocation of a ruined abbey in the mist to Eric Newby's hilariously disastrous bicycle trip through Ireland; this anthology serves up a kaleidoscope of images describing a mysterious, elusive country.

• Suggested Reading List: The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing edited by John Somer and John Daly, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain, The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen, More Bread or I'll Appear by Emer Martin, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane, Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence, The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction edited by Dermot Bolger.

Woman:
An Intimate Biography
by Natalie Angier (Anchor Books)
National Bestseller / National Book Award Finalist

In this extraordinarily wide-ranging exploration, the Pulitzer PrizeÐwinning New York Times science writer lifts the veil of secrecy from that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces, the female body, exploring the essence of what it means to be a woman. Witty, irreverent, and sharply intelligent, Natalie Angier presents a powerful case against scientists who have given Darwinian evolutionary theories new life, and offers instead a thoroughly liberating and enlightening reading of the complexities of the brain, biology, and the female body.

• Tip: Consider some of the most memorable female characters from previous books your group has read in light of the facts and theories Natalie Angier presents in Woman. Have any of the authors fallen prey to the common stereotypes or misconceptions about women that Angier describes? In light of your reading of Woman, how accurate do other authors' portrayals of women--their desires and motivations--seem?

• Suggested Reading List: Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout; Evening by Susan Minot; A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton; Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden; Midwives by Chris Bohjalian; My Life, Starring Dara Falcon by Ann Beattie; Open Secrets by Alice Munro; Rules of the Wild by Francesca Marciano; Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Lives of the Poets
By Michael Schmidt
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

In a stunning volume of epic breadth, Michael Schmidt connectsthe lives and works of more than 300 poets over a perios of 700 years--spanning the globe from Scotland to Australia, all sharing the English language. Accessible yet comprehensive, Lives of the Poets delves into the unique contributions made along the evolutionary course to the modern lyrical canon. For anyone who loves poetry or the history of literature, Lives of the Poets is a rare treat for the mind and the senses.

• Tip: The Lives of the Poets is an ideal selection to accompany a discussion of poetry with your group. Choose a selection of poets included in Schmidt's book and use the text to enrich your appreciation and understanding of their work. Read more about discussing poetry with your group.

Why Read the Classics?
By Italo Calvino

In this stunning posthumous collection, one of the most celebrated fiction writers of the twentieth century presents thirty-six literary essays that shed dazzling new light on the classics. Learn why Lara, not Zhivago, is the center of Pasternak's masterpiece Dr. Zhivago, and why Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are a pinnacle of twentieth-century literature. From Cyrano de Bergerac to The Odyssey and from Xenophon to Dickens, Calvino covers the classics he loved most with a fresh and wise approach. Why Read the Classics? confirms Calvino's place among that select group of writers whose literary contributions include not only groundbreaking fiction but unique criticism as well.

• Tip: Reading literary criticism is a wonderful way to enhance a discussion of the classics and get you thinking in new ways about a book that you may feel you know well already. Choose a classic that's discussed in Why Read the Classics?, preferably in an edition that includes an introduction to the work by a writer or scholar such as the Everyman's Library series. Read the introduction from the book along with the appropriate section of Why Read the Classics? before you read the book itself. How does Calvino's assessment of the work compare to that of the introducer? Whose viewpoint do you value more? Does one add more to your enjoyment and understanding of the work than the other?