<p>I belong to a 13-member book group, and my next turn to select a book will be coming up in a few months. My anxiety is building already! I find it a real burden to choose a book for so many people to spend so many hours on. And when someone hates something I’ve selected, I feel terrible. So I’m hoping to get some recommendations for books that have been generally well received (I realize you can never please everybody) and, most important, have engendered lively and interesting discussions. We are not one of those pass-the-wine-and-forget-about-the-book crowds–we get into hot and heavy conversations, especially when a book offers a lot of food for thought. And we read all types of books, fiction and non-fiction, classics and hot best sellers, from Jane Austen to Tina Fey. Please share you book club successes. (Warnings about any dismal failures would be welcome, too!)</p>
<p>What are the last couple successful books that your group has read?</p>
<p>Little Bee is one my group has recently read & enjoyed.</p>
<p>My group gets most of our books from the libraries collection so we chose the books for the next year at the same time.</p>
<p>I use to belong to a Mother/Daughter book club and spent lots of time looking for books for our group. I found several book club books at our local library very helpful. My favorite is The Book Club Cookbook. It has book recommendations and recipes related to each book. To keep our daughters involved, we would usually nominate 3 or 4 books, and then vote. It takes some of the pressure off! I will also say the book I remember most is Reading Lolita in Tehran.</p>
<p>One of my favorite books I read lately that has also generated quite a lively discussion here on CC is State of Wonder by Ann Pachette. You can search for the thread here in the Parent Cafe, but don’t read all of it to prevent any spoilers!</p>
<p>I also loved Cutting for Stone, also discussed here.</p>
<p>Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin
Bo Caldwell, Distant Land of My Fathers
Dara Horn, The World to Come
Ward Just, An Unfinished Season
Muriel Barbery,The Elegance of the Hedgehog</p>
<p>She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, by Jenny Boylan.</p>
<p>(I hoped that this book would spark a discussion about what it means to be female, although the group I was in didn’t quite rise to the challenge.)</p>
<p>Water for Elephants Sarah Gruen</p>
<p>Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand</p>
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<p>Interesting choice. What did people think? (I happen to know Jenny Boylan.)</p>
<p>Please look after mom was my club’s last selection.</p>
<p>Some liked it–some did not, but it did generate a lot of good conversations about families and relationships.</p>
<p>Unbroken was a big hit in my book club but we were very divided on the Immortal Lives of Henrietta Lacks which I really enjoyed. I think a lot depends on the educational level of the group. Many in my group enjoy Jodi Picoult books, which I think are so so. We are planning to read the CC book, Before I Go to Sleep in February and one person wants to read the Stephen King book 11-22-63. I want to read it also but I bet the others will think it is too long; so I will probably read that on my own. There is a web site called Bookmovement that lists the top 100 book club books that may give you some ideas. Let us know what you decide.</p>
<p>current book is The Fugu Plan, Tokayer & Swartz
about Jews who left Germany, Poland, russia via Japan.</p>
<p>DonnaL - there was a fair amount of discussion as to whether one would leave one’s spouse under such circumstances, which didn’t really strike me as the crux of the issue.</p>
<p>I actually sent an e-mail to Boylan when I read the book, and she responded, which I appreciated.</p>
<p>We have a book club with about 15 members. We eat at someone’s house, hostess provides main meal, guests, the appetizers and desserts. IF the book was a good one, we discuss it for a bit, if not, hardly at all. We schmooze more than anything.</p>
<p>That said, choosing books is democratic. We bring lists and go online for summaries before we as a group pick one. We’ve read about 60 or so over the years., about 10 years!!</p>
<p>These were some of the groups favorites (and we’ve read some horrible books, OK books. but these were ones most of us loved.):</p>
<p>The Red Tent by Amita Diamont
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
*<em>The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
*</em>Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
*<em>Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
*</em>The Help by Kathryn Stockett
**The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson</p>
<p>I recommend all of the above, especially the starred. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them.</p>
<p>One I’m reading right now, which has the potential to provoke a lot of discussion is 2030 by Albert Brooks: It’s the year 2030, cancer has been cured for 15 years, and the major cause of death in the elderly is now a thing of the past. This means people are living well into their 90’s and above. The national debt has reached crippling proportions, and falls on the shoulders of the young, who very much resent it. Theirs is the first American generation whose quality of life is decidedly below that of their parents. Add to this the fact that a 9.1 earthquake has leveled America’s most populous city, Los Angeles, and the country is too broke to rebuild it. Currently, I’m at the part where the new Secretary of the Treasury has flown to Bejing to ask the Chinese for an additional 3 trillion dollars in loans, which they flat out refuse to do. And there are groups of disgruntled young people forming all over the country to revolt against “The Olds”, and some are committing acts of terrorism aimed at the elderly. It’s all getting very interesting, and the premise is entirely too feasible, given the current state of our economy. The stage is set for a inter-generational war, and the fallout will not be pretty. I highly recommend novel book for book clubs everywhere.</p>
<p>^crazed, I think I was in that book club. We also read Snow Falling on Cedars, Memoirs of a Geisha. How about the autobiography of Steve Jobs? Here are a few others. Haven’t read this one, but it sounded really good:</p>
<p>The stranger’s child by Alan Hollinghurst</p>
<p>I’m not in a book club, but I think this would be a good choice: Turn of Mind, by Alice Laplante.
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-turn-of-mind-by-alice-laplante.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/books/review/book-review-turn-of-mind-by-alice-laplante.html</a></p>
<p>Plenty of fodder for discussion, quite suspenseful.</p>
<p>Our group has had success with several of the books listed by crazed(#13). We also all really enjoyed Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky and Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. We like to mix in an old classic such as To Kill A Mockingbird or a Jane Austen novel about once a year.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the recommendations! I’ve already placed some on reserve at the library. Of those mentioned, our group has already read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Cutting for Stone, Little Bee, The Help, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo–all good choices for discussion (and with respect to the first two, having two physicians in our group gave us some interesting perspectives). I’ve read and have been contemplating Unbroken and Let the Great World Spin as my next selection (though I think the latter has almost too much material to cover in one evening). I fiercely hated The Elegance of the Hedgehog and wouldn’t foist it on my worst enemy.</p>
<p>As for our habits, we meet ten times a year (August is skipped and December is a bookless holiday party) for about two hours. Light refreshments are served (many have eaten dinner before arriving), and we eat and chat for 30 to 40 min, then discuss the book for the remainder of the time, with the host (who has selected the book) offering some background and topics for discussion (sometimes the ones found online or in the back of the book, though these are often too reminiscent of essay questions from a high school English exam) At some point things turn into a free-for-all. It’s a highly educated crowd, but with many different life experiences and backgrounds. The group has existed for many years (I’m a relative newcomer), and it takes its purpose very seriously. No way we would ever just skip talking about a book we disliked–although it seems there are never fewer than half the members who are enthusiastic about any given selection. </p>
<p>Happy reading to all!</p>
<p>Well…I came late, but in addition to Let the Great World Spin and Kite Runner, my book club really liked Per Peterson’s -or Petersen’s?-Out Stealing Horses.</p>
<p>MommaJ,
I just joined ** GoodReads ** last night, my previous attempt a couple years ago, left me frustrated with the web site. A friend recommended it a couple days ago.
Well, it has improved beyond my expectations. I rated more than 80 books, and like Netflix, then offers suggestions based on your preferences.</p>
<p>There are reading groups, discussions so much there. I’m late to this party, but excited about it now.
<a href=“http://www.goodreads.com/[/url]”>http://www.goodreads.com/</a></p>
<p>This site is designed for book clubs and there is a weekly list with the popular book club selections.
<a href=“http://www.bookmovement.com/[/url]”>http://www.bookmovement.com/</a></p>
<p>OK, now for what you asked-
Based on your “highly educated crowd including two physicians” -</p>
<p>My suggestion -** Polio: An American Story.**
[Amazon.com:</a> Polio: An American Story (9780195152944): David M. Oshinsky: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Polio-American-David-M-Oshinsky/dp/0195152948]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Polio-American-David-M-Oshinsky/dp/0195152948)</p>
<p>Any American in their mid 50’s who lived during this era, and will have some personal memories of Polio vaccines, but this award winning book,is SO MUCH more than a medical history.
It was published in 2005 by the Oxford University Press and won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for History and the 2005 Herbert Hoover Book Award.</p>
<p>(This book was recommended to me by Phd In Chemistry whose husband is a doctor. I was skeptical at first…thought it might be too “scientific”.)
Check out ebook sample.</p>