~~~~~~~~~~~ A Little History ~~~~~~~~~~~
TNBBC (The Next Best Book Club) was born in September 2007 on Goodreads.com. Today it proudly boasts nearly 24,000 members who are collectively, endlessly, searching for the next best book. It's remains one of the largest, most active groups on the Goodreads site today.
Two extremely popular reading challenge groups, created and moderated by members from the group, made their debut on TNBBC and now exist as their own groups on Goodreads - Cynthia's Seasonal Challenge Group and Around the World in 80 Books.
Two extremely popular reading challenge groups, created and moderated by members from the group, made their debut on TNBBC and now exist as their own groups on Goodreads - Cynthia's Seasonal Challenge Group and Around the World in 80 Books.
(Currently on hiatus) - Did you know that TNBBC hosts regular Author/Reader discussion groups on Goodreads? I feature a new author and their novel every month. It's the perfect opportunity to fall in love with a new book and interact with the author who wrote it!
~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Past Contributors ~~~~~~~~~~~
In an effort to introduce you to a variety of different genres and presses, in 2013, TNBBC took on our first review contributors. We were thrilled that these amazing and lovely book folk honored us with their reviews!! Allow me to introduce you:
Bronwyn Mauldin (2015 - ) is a published author and the creator of GuerrillaReads, and you can find her work all over the internet, including places like Necessary Fiction, The Battered Suitcase, and Clamor Magazine.
Melanie Page (2013 - ) was the first guest reviewer to join our team. She blogs over at Grab the Lapels - a blog that focuses specifically on books written by women. She also reviews for JMWW, Notre Dame Review, American Book Review, The Collagist, and Necessary Fiction!
Drew Broussard (2013 - 2017 ) is the testosterone to our estrogen! He blogs at Raging Biblioholism, lives in NYC and reads, a lot. When not doing that, he's writing stories or playing music or acting or producing or coming up with other ways to make trouble. He also has a day job at The Public Theater in New York City.
Nick Page (2016) is a gamer at heart. When he's not living the nine-to-five life as the manager of educational technology at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, you can bet your bottom dollar he'll be playing his favorite video game Minecraft.
Madeleine Maccar (2013 - early 2014) was our resident bizarro specialist. She blogs at Books, with Occasional Food, does some editing-on-the-side with Eraserhead, and can also be found reviewing for Chicago Center for Literature and Photography.
Kelsey Lueptow (2015 - 2015, 1 review ) was all about literary and feminist fiction. She also teaches English Comp, attends graduate school, does the mommy-blog thing at Diary of a First Time Mom, contributes to Everyday Feminism, and she's a published poet.
Leland Cheuk (2015) is the author of THE MISADVENTURES OF SULLIVER PONG (CCLaP Publishing). He is a MacDowell Colony fellow, and his short fiction has appeared in publications such as Valparaiso Fiction Review, Tahoma Literary Review, and Lunch Ticket. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and lives in Brooklyn.
Kate Vane (2015 - 2016) was the second author to join our review team! She writes crime and literary fiction, and shares her thoughts on books from the same genres.
Lavinia Ludlow (2013 - 2017 ) is our writer-in-residence. She is a musician and writer dividing time between San Francisco and London. Her debut novel, alt.punk (2011), explored the ragged edge of art, society, and sanity, viciously skewering the politics of rebellion. Her sophomore novel, Single Stroke Seven (2016), explores the lives of independent artists coming of age in perilous economic conditions. Both titles can be purchased through Casperian Books. Her short works have been published in Pear Noir!, Curbside Splendor Semi-Annual Journal, and Nailed Magazine, and her indie lit reviews have appeared in Small Press Reviews, The Rumpus, The Collagist, The Nervous Breakdown, Entropy Magazine, and American Book Review.
~~~~~~~~~~~ Where You Can Find More TNBBC ~~~~~~~~~~~
As if moderating a group and blogging about independent authors, publishers, and books weren't enough... TNBBC can also be found hanging out on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube (this is sorely under maintained). We also have a bookshop page, where I feature the books and authors I've worked with!
Still need more TNBBC? Awww... you're making me blush....
We're flattered to find ourselves at the center of bookish attention. Here are some of the places we've been:
May 2010: I make an odd photo appearance in this recap of BEA (scroll all the way down).
July 2010: Interviewed by the LA Times and cross posted to the Chicago Tribune
July 2010: Interviewed by the LA Times and cross posted to the Chicago Tribune
July 2010: A portion of my review for I Curse the River of Time was pulled by GrayWolf Press for the book's press release!
June 2011: Friday's Five Books - recommending 5 awesome indie novels over at Between the Covers
June 2011: Guest Post sharing my review of Warm Bodies with KindleObsessed
Aug 2011: Hosted this Blog Tour for author David Maine!
Sept 2011: Interviewed by Better Word Books
Sept 2011: I made a death wish at the Wish Tank
Nov 2011: Second guest appearance on The Indie Book Collective Blogtalk Radio Show
Nov 2011: My "On Being Indie" series inspired Consortium Books' 11/16/11 #indieview Twitter chat
Nov 2011: Top 10 Indie Picks from 2011 article appears in Bookpage.com
Nov 2011: Top 10 Indie Picks from 2011 article appears in Bookpage.com
Nov 2011: Quoted in Indie Reader.com article on Consumer Book Reviews
Dec 2011: That same Indie Reader.com article runs in Huffington Post!
Dec 2011: Part II of the Indie Reader.com article on Consumer Book reviews
Dec 2011: The Lucinda Literary website goes live and showcases the TNBBC interview.
Dec 2011: Thrilled to be influence once again for Consortium Books' 12/14/11 #indieview Twitter chat.
Jan 2012: A wonderful post about TNBBC that I just happened to stumble across, by Open Letter Monthly.
Jan 2012: Hosted this Blog Tour for author Larry Closs and his novel Beatitude. He shared this amazing post in thanks.
March 2012: Hosted this blog tour for Ryan Bradley and his debut Code For Failure.
May 2012: Caught on tape at the PEN Festival's "Reviewing Translations" panel. I made a comment about reviewing my favorite author at the 1:01:00 mark. Check it out! (I get cut off, it says it was a reel change, but I know it was because I was talking too long - snigger snigger!)
May 2012: Girl Who Reads hosts a guest post of mine re: Goodreads for Bloggers.
July 2012: Choo Choo... All aboard the Amercias Blog Tour! Pulled together for Jason Lee Norman.
July 2012: I supply the audio for CCLaP's podcast of the final two readings at the KGB pre-BEA event.
July 2012: Hosted another #indieview!! Our topic? ARC's.
Sept 2012: TNBBC's very first Night Out With Author David Maine at Book Thug Nation (and failed)
Sept 2012: Hosted David Maine at KGB's Sunday Night Fiction event (and rocked it)
Oct 2012: Blurbed in Mark A. Rayner's advance copy of The Fridgularity
Nov 2012: Asked to write the very first guest introduction for Necessary Fiction's Writer in Residence program.
Nov 2012: Red Hen Press blurbs a piece of my review for An Age of Madness on page 14 of their Spring 2013 catalog!
Feb'13: I accept the Marketing Director's job with CCLaP
Feb'13: I am all over this NY Times article discussing Goodreads for book discoverability.
Feb'13: Book Sexy Review features me for her Short Story series (and talks me WAY up!)
Feb'13: Our biggest, baddest blog tour so far - two weeks of awesome for Joshua Mohr's Fight Song!
April'13: My conversation about short stories with J Robert Lennon appears on Books on the Nightstand.
July'13: From Sarah, with Joy spotlights me with an interview about reviewing.
Feb'14: Rebecca of Love at First Book asks me to contribute to Literary Loves.
March'14: We're featured in Chicago's Printers Row as "readers of the week"
April'14: I discovered a portion of my review for Heather Fowler's This Time, While We're Awake was blurbed inside her upcoming collection Elegantly Naked in My Sexy Mental Illness. Thanks Queen's Ferry Press!
April'14: Cobalt Press included our Four Fathers interview mini-series in Volume 2 of their journal!!!
May'14: Chicago Literati interviews me about CCLaP, TNBBC, and which books turned me on to the Small Press scene.
Sept'14: Melanie Page interviews me over at Grab The Lapels.
Sept'14: Best book blurb I've ever given: for Ryan W Bradley's The Waiting Tide
Jan'15: Sharing my favorite read of 2014 on the Alternating Current blog.
Jan'15: I become the Chief Staff Interviewer for Alternating Current's blog The Spark
Sept'15: Interviewed over at Lectito on TNBBC and all that jazz.
Feb'18: Intereviewed by THE Ben Tanzer over at This Podcast Will Change Your Life.
2018: Named #2 best book group on Goodreads by Book Riot
2019: Named one of five online book clubs you must join by That Sweet Gift
Dec 2011: That same Indie Reader.com article runs in Huffington Post!
Dec 2011: Part II of the Indie Reader.com article on Consumer Book reviews
Dec 2011: The Lucinda Literary website goes live and showcases the TNBBC interview.
Dec 2011: Thrilled to be influence once again for Consortium Books' 12/14/11 #indieview Twitter chat.
Jan 2012: A wonderful post about TNBBC that I just happened to stumble across, by Open Letter Monthly.
Jan 2012: Hosted this Blog Tour for author Larry Closs and his novel Beatitude. He shared this amazing post in thanks.
March 2012: Hosted this blog tour for Ryan Bradley and his debut Code For Failure.
May 2012: Caught on tape at the PEN Festival's "Reviewing Translations" panel. I made a comment about reviewing my favorite author at the 1:01:00 mark. Check it out! (I get cut off, it says it was a reel change, but I know it was because I was talking too long - snigger snigger!)
May 2012: Girl Who Reads hosts a guest post of mine re: Goodreads for Bloggers.
July 2012: Choo Choo... All aboard the Amercias Blog Tour! Pulled together for Jason Lee Norman.
July 2012: I supply the audio for CCLaP's podcast of the final two readings at the KGB pre-BEA event.
July 2012: Hosted another #indieview!! Our topic? ARC's.
Sept 2012: TNBBC's very first Night Out With Author David Maine at Book Thug Nation (and failed)
Sept 2012: Hosted David Maine at KGB's Sunday Night Fiction event (and rocked it)
Oct 2012: Blurbed in Mark A. Rayner's advance copy of The Fridgularity
Nov 2012: Asked to write the very first guest introduction for Necessary Fiction's Writer in Residence program.
Nov 2012: Red Hen Press blurbs a piece of my review for An Age of Madness on page 14 of their Spring 2013 catalog!
Feb'13: I accept the Marketing Director's job with CCLaP
Feb'13: I am all over this NY Times article discussing Goodreads for book discoverability.
Feb'13: Book Sexy Review features me for her Short Story series (and talks me WAY up!)
Feb'13: Our biggest, baddest blog tour so far - two weeks of awesome for Joshua Mohr's Fight Song!
April'13: My conversation about short stories with J Robert Lennon appears on Books on the Nightstand.
July'13: From Sarah, with Joy spotlights me with an interview about reviewing.
Feb'14: Rebecca of Love at First Book asks me to contribute to Literary Loves.
March'14: We're featured in Chicago's Printers Row as "readers of the week"
April'14: I discovered a portion of my review for Heather Fowler's This Time, While We're Awake was blurbed inside her upcoming collection Elegantly Naked in My Sexy Mental Illness. Thanks Queen's Ferry Press!
April'14: Cobalt Press included our Four Fathers interview mini-series in Volume 2 of their journal!!!
May'14: Chicago Literati interviews me about CCLaP, TNBBC, and which books turned me on to the Small Press scene.
Sept'14: Melanie Page interviews me over at Grab The Lapels.
Sept'14: Best book blurb I've ever given: for Ryan W Bradley's The Waiting Tide
Jan'15: Sharing my favorite read of 2014 on the Alternating Current blog.
Jan'15: I become the Chief Staff Interviewer for Alternating Current's blog The Spark
Sept'15: Interviewed over at Lectito on TNBBC and all that jazz.
Feb'18: Intereviewed by THE Ben Tanzer over at This Podcast Will Change Your Life.
2018: Named #2 best book group on Goodreads by Book Riot
2019: Named one of five online book clubs you must join by That Sweet Gift
2019: Interviewed by Melissa Duclos in Magnify
2020: Interviewed by Jessica at The Mark Literary Review
2021: Interviewed by Jessica for the debut episode of The Mark Literary Review Podcast
2021: Co-organizer of SMOLfair, with Jesi Buell, Annalyse Gillman, Miette Gillette, and Jason Teal
2021: Co-organizer of SMOLfair, with Jesi Buell, Annalyse Gillman, Miette Gillette, and Jason Teal
