You can read all the online book reviews in the world, but nothing beats real-world conversations between readers, and authors. To help our community grow, we will host our second West Coast edition of the Mediabistro Book Club tonight (October 11th) in Los Angeles.

Follow this link to RSVP for the free party at the Viceroy Santa Monica Hotel. The book club will feature loads of free books, short readings by four authors, and the chance to meet editors from The Los Angeles Review of Books, Slake and GoodReads.

The slate of featured authors includes: Joseph Mattson with The Speed Chronicles, Grace Krilanovich with The Orange Eats Creeps, Richard Grossman with The Animals and Sanjiv Bhattacharya with Secrets & Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy. Read more about the books below…

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Simon & Schuster has launched a book club site on Facebook called “Something to Read About.” The club will open on October 12th with a discussion on Jaycee Dugard‘s memoir, A Stolen Life. Readers can join in from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

Follow this link to browse the site. Here’s more: “This new page is designed to enhance readers experience with books and authors by featuring a variety of activities and events including a spotlight ‘Book-of-the-Month’ title, moderated conversations about favorite books, a listing of authors from all Simon & Schuster’s imprints who are available to call into reading groups, favorite book club selections, and daily updates. Fans of the page will also have direct access to videos, photos, a book-specific discussion forum, and excerpts as well as opportunities to interact with some authors and enter contests for free books.”

October’s book-of-the-month title will be Alice Hoffman‘s The Dovekeepers. Jodi Picoult‘s Sing You Home will follow in November and Kathleen Grissom‘s The Kitchen House in December. The site also has two book club samplers available with excerpts from popular authors including Phillipa Gregory, Chris Cleave and Samuel Park.  What do you think?

Bible study leaders Chuck and Stephanie Fromm were fined $300 this month for hosting a Bible study at their home in California. According to the City of San Juan Capistrano, the couple needs a “conditional use permit” for churches to host the study and would face $500 fines for future events.

ABC News interviewed the Bible study leaders about the case. The nonprofit legal defense fund Pacific Justice Institute has appealed the ruling and will represent the Bible study participants.

Here’s more from the Pacific Justice Institute: “The Bible study group, which met on Sunday mornings, until the City threatened further fines, was perfectly suited for his home, said Chuck Fromm. There was no noise beyond normal conversation and quiet music on the home stereo system. They met inside their family room and patio area. Many neighbors have written letters of support, denying they were disturbed by the presence of the Bible study. The group is not affiliated with any particular church, nor is it seeking to establish a church in the home.”

You can read all the online book reviews in the world, but nothing beats real-world conversations between readers, and authors. To help our community grow, we will host our second West Coast edition of the Mediabistro Book Club on October 11th in Los Angeles.

If you are an author or publicist looking to participate, you can follow this link to apply. The deadline is September 5, 2011 at 11:59 PM (PT). If you are a reader, mark your calendar–the next installment of our free book club will feature four authors from different genres, tons of book giveaways and plenty of practical conversation. The location will be announced soon.

East Coast authors can sign up for the November 17, 2011 edition of the Mediabistro Book Club. Follow this link to apply.

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Skype made book club headlines today as one author used the video chat service to visit book clubs around the country.

If you want to have an author speak to your book club through video chat, check out our Authors Who Visit Book Clubs list to find nearly 1,000 writers–simply explore the “Video Chat” category to find a video-friendly author in your favorite genre. Read our Host a Virtual Book Club on Facebook, Skype or Google article for more tools.

Here’s more from Reuters: “Nine book clubs across the United States took part in an hour-long discussion earlier this month with Meg Wolitzer, the best-selling author of the ‘The Ten-Year Nap,’ in what is thought to be the first coast-to-coast virtual book club with multiple participants.” (Image via)

Jacket Copy broke the news today that BookTour.com will close. Since 2007, the site has helped authors, publicists and readers connect through book tours.

Site manager Kevin Smokler wrote an email about the closure: “Fewer author tours and changes in book marketing budgets have made our company financially unviable. And while we would like to continue providing the valuable service that is BookTour, everyone here has families to feed and bills to pay.”

In this new environment, book club visits could be the best way for writers and readers to connect. Check out our Authors Who Visit Book Clubs directory and invite a nearby author to visit your group. Follow this Google Docs link to explore (and sort!) the genres, websites and contact information for more than 500 writers around the world.

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Goodreads has partnered with First Book, a charity group whose mission is to make sure children who reside in low-income communities are able to have access to books. Together, these two organizations will be fighting illiteracy using the Goodreads Book Club.

Every time 10,000 Goodreads members add A Visit From the Goon Squad to their shelves, the organization promises to donate 1,000 books. So far, 25,000 members have added the book. If another 5,000 members follow, then Goodreads will provide 3,000 books.

Here’s more from the site’s blog post: “Our initial goal is to donate 5,000 books—which means we need 50,000 people to add A Visit From The Goon Squad by August 2, when the Book Club concludes with a live video chat with author Jennifer Egan. If more than 50,000 people add the book before the end date, we will honor our pledge and donate up to 10,000 books!”

Are you looking for a way to host a book club meeting online? Having a virtual book club has never been easier thanks to new video tools from Facebook, Skype and Google.

1. You can host your book club parties with a new group calling feature on Skype. The new feature lets you chat with up to ten different people at once.

2. You can set up video chats on Google+ Hangouts. It is part of Google’s new social toolset called Google+ (invitation-only right now). The feature is a “live multi-person video” chatroom that lets you have conversations with your online friends.

If you are webcam challenged or just have one other person in your book club, then you can use Facebook Video Chat. Yesterday Facebook updated its chat feature to allow for multiple person chats and also added the ability to hold one-on-one video calls.

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What are the best book clubs for kids?

A Reddit user posed this great question this week: “My son is only 5 months old but we still read to him frequently. I would like to start getting a book collection going for him as he grows. Books like as Dr. Seuss and such. Does anyone know of any affordable book programs for children that I could get signed up for?”

This GalleyCat editor started collecting some book club suggestions and resources for kids. We’ve embedded a link to Al Roker‘s book club above–add your ideas in the comments section.

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Skype has released a new group video calling feature that lets users have conversations with up to ten people at a time. This is great news for book clubs that wish to meet from remote locations or, better yet, book clubs who’d like to invite the author to attend.

To take advantage of this new feature, More.com is running a Skype book club promotion. Author Meg Wolitzer will attend nine book club meetings in August via Skype to talk about her novel, The Uncoupling. Interested book clubs can enter to win a Skype visit by answering a simple question: “Tell us why your book club should be selected.”

Follow this link for more details.