Once Again, Good Morning America's Reading Club Pick Is a Book Sense 76 Title

Book Sense 76 picks continue to be the books of choice for network morning shows' book clubs. On Thursday, July 11, ABC News' Good Morning America aired the second installment of its monthly "Read This!" segment, in which one book club recommends a book of its choice to another book club and GMA viewers. Joining co-hosts Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer live in the GMA studios, the Mostly, We Eat book club of Bernardsville, New Jersey, recommended Enemy Women (William Morrow) by Paulette Jiles to the 12 Oaks Book Club out of Atlanta.

Enemy Women, which is Jiles' debut novel, was a 2002 March/April Book Sense 76 pick. This is third time in just under four weeks that a 76 title was selected for a network book club. On Thursday, June 13, "Read This!" recommended Ann Packer's The Dive From Clausen's Pier (Knopf), a Top Ten Book Sense 76 selection for May/June; a week later NBC News' The Today Show kicked off its monthly book club by choosing Stephen L. Carter's The Emperor of Ocean Park (Knopf), a Top Ten Book Sense 76 selection for July/August.

Enjoying a meal while discussing a book, members of the Mostly, We Eat book club. From left to right: Ellie Rose, Mallary Saltzman, Tom Smith, Mary Bolster, Kyle Oye, Hal Purdy, Tony Howarth, and Kertsin Howarth.

Mostly, We Eat member Mary Bolster said their club chose Enemy Women, because "our founding member, who is not here with us today [Hal Purdy, who is on vacation], is a Civil War buff, and we like that aspect of it…. There's also a very strong heroine and a wonderful love story. We thought that was a good combination of history and human interest."

Copies of Jiles' novel were delivered via horseback to the 12 Oaks Book Club, the horse ridden by a woman dressed in mid-19th century dress. The 12 members of the 12 Oaks Book Club -- all women -- joined GMA live from Atlanta.

Enemy Women follows the story of the Colleys of southeastern Missouri during America's Civil War. When the Union militia drives the family out of their home, 18-year-old Adair Colley is left to care for two young sisters. They flee into the mountains in search of a safe haven. Adair is then betrayed by a fellow traveler and arrested on charges of enemy collaboration.

Jiles is a critically acclaimed poet and previously was awarded the Canadian Governor General Award, Canada's highest literary honor.

On the "Read This!" segment last month, the Pulpwood Queens of Jefferson, Texas, recommended to the Mostly, We Eat book club Ann Packer's debut novel, The Dive from Clausen's Pier. Mostly, We Eat members like to combine their love of food with reading, discussing the book while enjoying food items relevant to their book club choice. Today was no exception, as the members of the book club mimicked the picnic in Clausen's Pier and discussed Packer's novel before a picnic table full of food.

The members said they enjoyed the book, all except their Mostly, We Eat spokesperson, Mary Bolster. "I was the big dissenter [among members of the book club]," she told Gibson and Sawyer. "But they fought hard for it, and they were great in making me open my mind about it."

After the show, Mostly, We Eat member Tom Smith told Bookselling This Week, "Some of our best discussions come when there is a disagreement on the book."

Over the next month, the 12 Oaks Book Club will read Enemy Women and will join GMA next month, at which time they will review Jiles' novel and recommend a new book to another book club.

For more on "Read This!" go to http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/index.html, and for more on the Mostly, We Eat book club, go to http://www.mostlyweeat.org/. --David Grogan