Why Reese’s Book Club is betting big on ‘micro-communities’

On an August weeknight, a group of no more than 100 people—primarily women—occupied a small, astroturf-covered slice of Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s west side. Reclined on beach chairs or scrawling book recommendations on a floor-length mirror with purple marker, the group debated the merits of audiobooks versus hardbac

When Kelly Anderson first heard that her debut novel was a Reese’s Book Club pick, she was in her physician mode at a medical clinic in Kitchener, Ont. In the course of a heavy workday with a lineup of 20 patients, she received an urgent text from her American editor to call her immediately. Anderson’s…