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Reader's Paradise

Best book-club books of the recent past

13 years ago

My book club has not yet selected our books for this year. (We're on an odd schedule.) I'm having trouble coming up with a suggestion. Which books have worked well for other book clubs in the past few years?

In my own club, we have particularly enjoyed:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

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Comments (7)

Kath
13 years ago
I will again recommend Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. Along the same lines is Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons (called Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English in the US for some strange reason). Both of those I class as 'nice' books, like GLPPS.
Room by Emma Donoghue, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is also a good read, and not as depressing as the subject matter might suggest.
ccrdmrbks
13 years ago
My book club does a mix of new and tried-and-true. Some of our best discussions came over:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
A Thread of Grace Mary Doria Russell
The Help Stockett (we didn't all love this, but it was a good discussion)
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What makes a book the perfect book club choice?
Q
Comments (24)
Thank you all for you responses. You've given me some good ideas, and some names of books that just might spark some discussion. I'm always a little leery of books about the Holocaust; I often find them too upsetting to read. But The Sunflower sounds like it goes beyond just relating the horrors to some deeper reflections on human nature. My library doesn't have a copy, nor a copy of A Thread of Grace, but I think I'll look elsewhere for them. I like the idea of the reading kits. I believe our local library has a few of those; I'm not sure how many. I went to one meeting of the library book club. We discussed Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, a fabulous book, but I was disappointed in the discussion. It was dominated by a woman who wanted to discuss current-day politics, and the leader/librarian, couldn't seem to slow her down. The discussion ended exactly one hour after we started, even though we had lots more to discuss.
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Book Club Angst
Q
Comments (33)
Hmm. I've been in several book clubs for over 20 years. A lot of what I'm reading here sounds familiar. I have a different point of view. I want to read well-written fiction. I don't care if it's depressing or delightful. I don't care if it's historical fiction or science fiction or fantasy or mystery. What I care about is that the author can string words together in a way that draws me in and makes me care about the characters and what happens to them. I hate to see discerning readers discard the Oprah picks just because they were downers...or just because Oprah picked them. I read a fair number of her choices before she ever discovered them, and I was glad to see those authors getting the recognition I felt they deserved. (Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald...an exquisitely written novel about an incredibly awful family. I didn't want it to end.) Stories without conflict....not much to write about. Not much to talk about. Shakespeare knew that dysfuntional families and star-crossed lovers brought out the audiences. Tragedy or comedy....there has to be a hook. Someone asked about Broken For You. Loved it; my book club loved it. A downer? In some ways, yes. But also a story to lift the spirits as well. I think the best writers do that. A writer who makes me think. A writer who gives me insight into the actions and motivations of others. A writer who gives me a new perspective on my own world, and on the worlds I will never experience. A writer who challenges my mind; a writer who delights my mind. These are the writers I want to read, in or out of a book club.
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Speaking of Book Clubs...
Q
Comments (35)
Well, I'm in my book club primarily for the socializing! I would read books anyway. I enjoy the social aspect of discussing books with others, and I really like the women in my group. I realized one day that while I had garden friends, and sewing friends, and friends I used to work with, I knew almost no one who lived the same town as me, despite having lived there for 18 years. I knew that the mother of one of my daughter's friends was in a book club, and asked her if they were taking new members. The rest is history, and I'm having a whale of a time. I'm even reading books I'd otherwise never have encountered on my own. Some I like, some I do not, but it does expand my horizons.
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Update on what our book clubs are reading
Q
Comments (18)
Kathy- I just got The Storied Life of A.J. Fikrey and so far, I love it! Thanks for the recommendation : ) I finished the book....and I really enjoyed the first half. I think if it had ended there, I would have recommended it to many of my friends. The second half seemed like too many gaps in time and not enough detail. Almost like a different book. Maybe that was intentional or just to keep it short, but I didn't care for it. The ending was not my favorite (don't really like that type) but before any of that was even suspected, it started feeling a bit different around the topiary park. That was when it seemed unrealistic to me. I mean, do people all really act like that? One and done...then long term relationships? And Maya was so cute as a little girl. I felt like I missed a lot of her growing up. Also, I really liked the chief, but thought the closet find (and his reaction) was too contrived. Maybe someone else, but not him. This really helped though, so thank you for the recommendation! It made me realize what I like and didn't like about the pacing and this will help me layout my own story. Oh, and it was funny that I signed up for a free month of Unlimited Kindle to read the book, after starting the free peek on Amazon. Then, I got to his rant about e-readers! LOL
...See More
vickitg
13 years ago
Some that our club rated highly for discussability:

The Girls - Lori Lansens
The Help
Snow Flower... - Lisa See
Water for Elephants- Sara Gruen
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Going back a little further -- these were some favorites:

Bean Trees -- Barbara Kingsolver
Cider House Rules -- John Irving
East of Eden -- John Steinbeck
House of Sand and Fog - Andre Dubus
Life of Pi -- by Yann Martel (May 2004)
Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem
Peace Like a River -- by Leif Enger
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
kathy_t
Original Author
13 years ago
Many thanks for sharing these. I am intrigued by several of these titles and will check them out. -- Kathy
kathy_t
Original Author
13 years ago
So I took a couple of suggestions from this thread to my book club meeting - and none of my suggestions made the cut! But maybe next time... -- Kathy
vickitg
13 years ago
:( Sorry. So what will you be reading?
kathy_t
Original Author
13 years ago
I just posted our selections on the 2011 Book Club choices thread. (I tried to post the list earlier, but my Firefox browser crashed just as I was finishing, so I turned off my computer in frustration.) Since you've asked in this thread, I'll repeat the list:

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Biography Night (individual choice)
Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
Our community One Read book (title as yet unknown)
Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

My group has already read several of the the suggestions that were offered in this thread, and generally we liked all of them, so I think we'd like the others as well. I will keep this list handy for future selections. Thanks again! -- Kathy

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