I'd like to suggest The Fish Can Sing by Halldor Laxness. It lends itself well to discussion (I should know, it was required reading when I was in high school). It's a historical coming-of-age story about a young boy in Iceland in the early 20th century. It's a nice little book and does not suffer from the famous Nordic gloom.

I've just read Very Valentine by Adriana Tregiani. It is fun to read and should engender discussion about the nature of love and marriage at any age as well as the nature of career choice and the difference in work habits in different countries.

After reading Testimony the latest by Anita Shreve I thought it would be a great choice for a book club discussiion. It deals with a "sexual situation" in a New England private school viewed from the participants & the school & the family of those involved. I found it very apropo of what we hear going on with the younger generation happening today & wondered what adults thought of it-whether parents, grandparents-whatever. I thought it would be a very timely discussion ...

Pat

"The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" lends itself to various interpretations of the ending and motives of the characters. It is a bit long, but well worth reading, in my opinion.

Also "Mistress Shakespeare" by Karen Harper. This is well-researched fiction based on facts in the Bard's personal life. Was Shakespeare married to 2 different women at the same time? It appears from the marriage bonds preserved that he indeed was. Was his father a closet Catholic? There is evidence that he was. Lots of fodder for discussion here.

I concur with Pat on Testimony, especially if your members have children in the middle school through college age range. It is not just the sex scandal but the public nature of it thanks to both electronic communications and the younger generation's attitudes which make this book intriguing.

This past year, my bookclub has gotten good discussions from The Shack (as much as I hate to admit that, since I thought it was both cheesy and poorly written,) Loving Frank, Peace Like a River and Rebecca.

Some of my bookclub's best discussions have been:

The Red Tent by D'amant (spelling)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
We Were the Mulvaney's by Joyce Carol Oates--we thought it was the best discussion of our seven years even though we did not like the Mulvaney's.

Thanks so much for your recommendations! Now I'm off to look up the various books.....wig

BROKEN FOR YOU would be a great book club selection. It has the suggestion discussion guide in the back as well.
It is quite a book.

We had a great discussion using "The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness" by Simon Wiesenthal. It starts with the true story of Simon being a prisoner in a Jewish concentration camp during WWII and working in a hospital where there is a dying SS soldier who asks for Simon's forgiveness in what he (the soldier) has done. What would you have done?

The book explains Simon's response and then goes to detail answers from other famous leading intellectuals such as the Dalai Lama and co who all contribute their thoughts to this moral dilemma.

Our bookclub had a fascinating (and lengthy) discussion about this.... It sounds very heavy (and it is a serious subject), but it opens to the door to all kinds of responses from book club members....Plus you can get it in paperback.

We recently read "My Life in France" by Julia Childs and it generated the liveliest discussion I've seen in my 2 years in the book club (and it was very obvious that everyone read the book & enjoyed it!). Right now we're reading "The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio"...I'm 1/4 of the way into this book and like it so far (the contests for those products will be especially funny to people who grew up in the 50's and 60's).

I loved The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio and that would be a good choice--all sorts of "discussable" issues there. I even rented the movie to watch with my then 6th grader. Unfortunately, the drunken dad smashing the new chest freezer frightened her so much that we had to turn it off.

Threads like these always give me some good ideas for my own book club. Our planning meeting is looming and I'll keep some of these books in mind.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

This deals with a high school Columbine style shooting, from the perspective of the mother of the culprit. She revisits the whole life of the child through the book searching for clues as to why it happened.

This has sparked off many MANY debates as it relates back to larger issues such as nature vs nurture and also what circumstances lead to these high school shootings happening. Its a minefeld of issues this book and therefore can become quite heated! Besides this, its also written in a non traditional non linear fashion so is interesting from a purely literary perspective.