To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite, today. Tomorrow may change. Great story, terrific character development, heartbreaking. Easy to read. What more do we need?

That's like asking us to choose our favorite from among our children-
I couldn't possibly pick one. However, some that my book club has enjoyed and/or that have generated good discussion are:

Charms for an Easy Life (we loved it and had a good discussion)
The Razor's Edge ditto-a classic
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (mixed opinion about the book, but GREAT discussion)
The Elegant Gathering of White Snows and The Secret Life of Bees (most of us didn't LIKE these books-very "fem-power" and touchy-feely, which we don't usually go for-but we had a good discussion about both books)

I don't have a favorite, but many, and one of them is Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard. I won't claim it's the best book I've read, but I still like it very much.

A couple to consider - Coming up for Air by George Orwell and Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Both wonderful books.

I liked Muriel Spark's book A Far Cry from Kensington much better than The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Her books are not long and she is a very good writer, so you might get some good conversation going.

If only I could pick one favourite, but I have many.

To mention a few:

Perfume by Patrick Süskind. Very good for a discussion.

You might want to try something by Neil Gaiman. American Gods is a bit on the long side for a book club read, but Neverwhere and Stardust are just the right length. (The former was written at the same time as Gaiman was writing a script for a TV series of the same story, and the latter has been filmed and premieres in the USA in August).

re: Miss Jean Brodie: We are all mothers with children in school, from kindergarten to college age, so had a lively discussion about the different influences children encounter, and how to manage that the parent's values get a hearing as children grow.

I could NEVER pick a favorite but I do think too few younger readers have read Mockingbird. Invisible Man is also not being read anymore and is a wonderful book.

I remember studying The Riders by Tim Winton at university, and we had some fantastic debate in our tutorial.

I imagine that many readers of this forum know that my favorite book is Kristin Lavransdatter. BUT, for a reading group, a book that I really love and would work is Peace Like a River, by Leif ..... (sorry, I can't think of his last name, and I'm not at home.)

Like many of you, I could never pick just one favorite. But I will toss out a few that I read over and over again:

"Peace Like a River" by Leif Enger
"Giants in the Earth" by O.E. Rolvaag (Norwegian emmigrants in the mid-western US)
"Too Late the Phalarope" by Alan Paton (apartheid in S. Africa)
"My Antonia" by Willa Cather (pioneers in the Western US)
"I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith
"The Go-Between" by Hartley (we had a wonderful discussion on this here at RP some years ago)
and I second "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"

Peace Like a River is way up there as one of my favorites. Maybe just second to To Kill a Mockingbird.
Isn't it amazing how Lee managed to create such a character as Boo Radley who is seen only once and has no dialogue? Yet, his presence is strongly felt as he experiences a lost childhood through the children he watches and protects. And Atticus is unforgettable as the epitome of strength and honor.

We tried a discussion here of Invisible Man about 3 years ago and it didn't go over well. I think Russ was the only person to finish it. I've always intended to go back to it, even bought a Louis Armstrong collection with "Black and Blue" on it for ambiance. Still cannot make myself pick it up again.

Several years ago there was a national One Book, One Community movement-the libraries in my local three county area have done it now for several years, and Mockingbird was one of the first titles. I also remember Rocket Man, The White, and Kite Runner. They were all well-received and sparked good discussions.

Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go
Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a gold mine for a book discussion :)

Here are a few that come to mind for me that are a bit off the beaten path but that I found quite enjoyable:

Little, Big, John Crowley
Plowing the Dark, Richard Powers
The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Julian Barnes
The Street, Anne Petry
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (aka Dangerous Liasons) Calderon de Laclos
Evelina, Fanny Burney

The Thornbirds, is one i'll never forget~actually read it twice. ;o)

patty_cakes

Hello Peach,

I am not sure if you want our favorite books or our favorite book club books. For me, the lists are vastly different.

MY favorite books tend to be older:
New Grub Street - George Gissing
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
L'Assomoir - Emile Zola
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

However, the books that led to the best discussions at my book club were:

The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown - this led to a long
discussion about the power that religion has in every
day life. The discussion was awesome.
Princess - Jean Sasson
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn
My Sister's Keeper - Jody Piccoult - I do not generally care for her books, but the make-up of my group (some cancer docs and lawyers) made the discussion amazing.
Better OFF: two people, one year, zero watts - Eric Brende
Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer - probably the best book we've read and discussed in terms of depth of conversation and learning.
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak - this book was great, but our discussion fell a bit flat as we all had very similar opinions. But definitely worth reading!

PAM

The only way I can list my favorite book ever is to list the books that I have reread over and over again:

>Once and Future King by TH White

>Discworld series by TErry Pratchett

>The Good Omen By Neil Gaiman

>Little Women

>Tale of Two Cities

>Hamlet

Best book club reads, as far as discussions go, these come to mind:

>Sunflower by Simon Wisenthal

>Kite Runner

>Undaunted Courage Steven Ambrose

>Birds without wings

Wow. Thanks everyone. There is certainly a lot to think about there. Choosing book group books is always tough for me as there are so many to choose from. At our book group we take turns to host the meetings at our own home and then the person that hosts gets to choose the next book. There is no group concensus on the books we read. The person that hosts chooses and that is that, so I try to put a bit of thought in as the others don't really get a choice when it is your turn. It is great for choosing more unusual books that the others wouldn't ordinarily choose.

A number of titles seem to keep coming up like 'Peace Like A River', 'To Kill A Mockingbird', 'The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie' and 'Invisible Man'. Certainly 'The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie' would be a classic choice for us as we are based in Edinburgh. However I think that some of the other women at our book group have read that already and we try to avoid books we know others have read. However I have not read it and will try to read it some time. I had not considered 'Peace Like A River' before so that is a great find. Thanks. The other two look great too actually. So many books, so little time!!

There are a couple there that I have considered previously to this discussion and may choose like 'Ella Minnow Pea' and 'I Capture The Castle'. However there are some that I have not heard of and I am going to have to look them up to see if I like the look of them. For example I know very little about 'Book Thief' and many of the books posted by 'wrmjr'. Are they good?

Thanks

My group had a very satisfying discussion after reading Pearl Buck's The Good Earth. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is, at some level, I Capture the Castle moved to America. My club read both, back to back, and enjoyed both but I think had more to discuss with ATGIB.

Not to hijack this thread, but thank you to all who have mentioned Peace Like a River. I read it thanks to the recommendations on this forum and found it to be original and absolutely terrific and I intend to propose it to my bookclub.

I have just looked up books suggested by many of you. In particular these books suggested by
wrmjr seem to be original books that I have not heard of before. I happen to harbour a great love for fantasy and science fiction so these were right up my street. Thanks for the original suggestions. I particularly like the look of: Little, Big: John Crowley, Plowing the Dark: Richard Powers, The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters: Julian Barnes and Evelina: Fanny Burney

Thanks

I'd second A History of the World in 10½ Chapters - it's a brilliant book. A discussion might be tricky, however, as the book is actually ten interconnected short stories (plus a digression on the meaning of love).

Ricard Powers is wonderful; my personal favorite is The Time of our Singing. That made a wonderful discussion book for a online bookgroup I'm on. I am not sure it would be a good one for an hour group tho - its a book with much to discuss and I suspect a RL group would barely touch the surface. But his others might be. I discovered that Julian Barnes book by chance years ago - not sure its a discussion book but I loved it. My fav of his is ENgland,England which your crowd might appreciate (yes I know you are in Scotland :)

Many here loved Book Theif. Its narrative structure is a bit out of the ordinary and may put off people. But a open minded reader should be able to get passed that. Don't be put off with the Young Adult marketing. Its easily an adult book.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Book Theif

I'm glad you are intrigued by some of my choices. As I said, I was trying to list some a bit different. I can see the Barnes being a bit tricky for some groups to discuss; however, almost everyone will react to at least 1 of the 10 1/2 chapters, so the discussion isn't likely to be a dud. Little, Big could be tricky to get unless it has recently been republished. I think it's a wonderful book, but if you have people who aren't much into fantasy (I don't mean the dragons and sword type), then they may not get it.

Good luck! Russ

A history of the world in 10.5 chapters was actually one of the books that I was seriously considering choosing along with Peace like a river. It is interesting to hear you guys say that it is not a discussion book really, as it sound like there may be a lot to discuss.

I quite like to choose unusual books as many of our members tend to like fairly run of the mill books. When I chose The Shining it went down like a lead balloon. However when they actually read the thing they loved it. I think they were just scared of the idea of reading horror. I think they have a similar fear of sci-fi although they thought The Time Machine was quite good. I prefer to choose books that will encourage novices to the genre to read more rather than to pick something that is full on that may scare them off. I am not sure how well Little, Big would go down.