Who writes the guides?
Each of our guides is developed and written by our company founder, Marilyn Herbert. Marilyn is a graduate of the University of Toronto and has taught English language skills to students at all levels from elementary to college. After administering and facilitating her own bookclub in Toronto for nearly twenty years, Marilyn founded BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX in 2002 to share her research and interpretation of novels with other readers. Today, Marilyn organizes and conducts novel discussions for private and public book groups, as well as developing new guides for BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX. If you are in the Greater Toronto Area, you can engage Marilyn to facilitate your bookclub meeting – or you can purchase our guide and facilitate your own successful discussion!

How do you choose the books you cover?
Many of the books we select are award-winners or critically-acclaimed novels that we know will suit the bookclub circuit. We select the best titles of literary fiction from around the world – books that we have screened and can’t wait to share with you. Because we are a Canadian company, we are also particularly committed to promoting works of Canadian fiction. Right now we only deal in fiction titles, but keep watching for the introduction of a new line of guides on memoirs and literary non-fiction!

What if my club wants to discuss a book that you haven’t got in your catalogue?
No problem! Just give us a call or drop us an email and, with enough advance notice, we can put together a guide that will help you lead a fabulous discussion on the book of your choice.

Publishers make reading guides available for free online. What makes your product unique?
While publishers make lists of questions available through their own websites, we go several steps further! We provide you with questions to feed your discussion, as well as with unique interpretation of the novel’s themes, characterization, narrative style, and more. We save you the time and effort of locating and compiling information on the author and the historical context – aspects of the book that we know intrigue readers – and we help you understand how an author has reinvented a particular time and place. Each of our guides runs about 80 pages and allows you to choose what to use!

So, what comes in the “box”?
Each BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX kit contains:

• one copy of the discussion companion;
• a copy of our unique Read-Alongside-Guide (RAG), which includes questions, focus points and fast-facts for club members to consider while they read the novel, which can be photocopied for use by your group. Each RAG has space to jot down ideas;
• handy BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX bookmarks to share with the members of your club.

What does a BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX discussion guide look like?
Our new guide format comes in a 9x6 booklet of approximately 80 pages with perfect binding. It has plenty of room for your own thoughts and observations, and is indexed and cross-referenced.

What is a PDF discussion guide?
This is a downloadable version of the BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX printed discussion guide. After you complete your purchase, the guide appears on your desktop in PDF form. (Allow a few minutes for the download to open.) You may enjoy it right away and it will remain available to you for 30 days.

Does BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX offer any other services besides the guides?
Why, yes! Our service includes:

• book summaries and recommendations to help you develop your reading list
• a Feedback section where you can connect with other readers and groups in order to share interpretations and reactions to a novel
• a Newsletter highlighting an aspect of novel discussion or 'bookclubbing'
• telephone tutorial and follow-up discussions for BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX members
• email support for your questions, comments, and concerns
• gift certificates
• link to Amazon.com through this website for other purchases

We look forward to speaking with you soon!