Book Club Suggestions?

Cafe Society
1

My wife started a book club that currently has ten members, and it is now her turn again to pick the book to read this month. So far they have read seven books, which have ranged from serious dramas to more lighthearted reading. For example, so far they have read The Secret Life of Bees, Water for Elephants, The Glass Castle, and Private Entrance, plus a few others.

By tomorrow night my wife has to come up with another book for the club to read, and she is looking for suggestions. So, what are some interesting books that would make for good book club reading and discussion? Any genre is ok, so long as it is an interesting book!

Thanks for the input!

2

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs (warning werewolf fiction – however my book club spent more time discussing the way the rape was handled than anything paranormal)

3

Four books I’ve read recently and loved:

The Help

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

Still Alice

Lost City of Z

Let us know what she ends up picking!

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Without giving too much away, what can you tell me about this book? We have read the reviews on Amazon, but wanted to know what you thought about it.

5

I clicked on this thread to suggest Lost City of Z. I’m reading it right now and it’s fantastic.

6

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is a good one.

My book club is doing The Enchanted April this month.

7

My mother’s book club recently enjoyed The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (although I prefer Wise Children).

The Time traveller’s Wife is a good suggestion, as there’s a lot of different ways to discuss the book.

8

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

It might be a help if you read the Original, Zombie Free book first.

The book of Ebenezer LePage. Very good, recommended, IRRC by Auntie Pam.

9

Anytime “suggest me a book” threads come up, my amazon wish list swells considerably.

10

Population 485: meeting your neighbors one siren at a time is worth looking into.

11

I read and loved Devil in the White City, but it’s pretty popular at this point, so I’d be concerned that a member may have already read it.

It’s a meticulously researched non-fiction book that reads like a novel.

12

I would also second the nomination of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, which led to a very interesting discussion in our book club (which has now been meeting for almost eleven years). Some other favorites of ours, over the years:

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger - gripping adventure and tragedy at sea

Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine - a tragicomic travelogue about endangered species

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien - a creepy, Vietnam-influenced mystery

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston - fascinating nonfiction about a near-outbreak of the Ebola virus in the U.S.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink - quiet novel about love, guilt and betrayal

The Great Santini by Pat Conroy - novel about a domineering Marine and his family

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt - deeply moving novel about growing up poor in Depression-era Ireland

Everybody Smokes in Hell by John Ridley - scabrously funny novel about a suicidal rock star and a beautiful assassin

My Dark Places by James Ellroy - nonfiction; the author investigates the murder of his own mother

Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin - sf comic (!) novel about ecological engineering, overpopulation, absolute power and war

Fatherland by Robert Harris - chilling alt-history about a murder investigation in 1964 Nazi Germany

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - true story of a Mount Everest climbing expedition gone horribly awry

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis - masterful, Pulitzer-winning history of the Framers and their dealings with each other

First Among Equals by Jeffrey Archer - an engrossing political novel, tracing the lives, loves and careers of three rising British politicians who eventually vie to become prime minister

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - another Pulitzer winner, a powerful novel about the Battle of Gettysburg

Everybody Smokes in Hell by John Ridley - scabrously funny novel about a suicidal rock star and a beautiful assassin
*
A Long Way Down* by Nick Hornby - comic novel about four would-be suicides who meet on a London rooftop

OK, I’ll stop now. Except to add… my wife’s book club read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and liked it very much; I haven’t read it.

13

We’ve had good luck with Margaret Atwood - Robber Bride, Handmaids Tale, Alias Grace in particular.

Also Michael Chabon - Wonder Boys, Kavelier and Klay, Yiddish Policeman’s Union.

The discussion around Lolita is always facinating - we still come back to that.

We tend to read in cycles - three books with a common theme. Sometimes three from the same author, but more often we do three thematic books - Yiddish Policeman’s Union was part of “Alaska.”