Book Club Books

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I hope you all don’t mind one more book-themed thread here…</p>

<p>I have read through the “best book I’ve read in the last 6 months” etc threads and gotten some good recommendations for future reading. But I’d like to specifically get some suggestions for books that are good reads for a book club. Sometimes even a wonderful book doesn’t have much to discuss. </p>

<p>A few that spring to mind that our group has read that were good discussion books were: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks; The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; Loving Frank by Nancy Horan; Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann; The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot…many more over the years, but those are a few.</p>

<p>So…any suggestions for not just a good read, but a book that will evoke discussion?</p>

2

<p>Here’s a run-down of the CC Book Club Selections. I have enjoyed all the discussions and am not sorry I read any of the books. Maybe someone else can chime in with discussion favorites. (I need to credit Mary13 here for starting the book club and leading the discussions. I also think that CBBBlinker and SouthJerseyChessMom have participated from the start.) </p>

<p>2009:</p>

<p>CC June Summer Book Club Selection (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)</p>

<p>Dreamers of the Day – July CC Summer Book Selection</p>

<p>Sarah’s Key – August CC Summer Book Selection</p>

<p>American Wife – October CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>The Thirteenth Tale - December CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>2010:</p>

<p>The Help – February CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>The Shadow of the Wind – April CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>The Elegance of the Hedgehog - June CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>Let the Great World Spin - August CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>Cutting for Stone - October CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>The Moonstone – December CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>2011:</p>

<p>Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand – February CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>Water for Elephants - April CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - June CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>The Secret Garden and The Forgotten Garden – August CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>State of Wonder – October CC Book Club Selection</p>

<p>Before I Go to Sleep – December CC Book Club Selection</p>

3

<p>A little off the usual book club list, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, was enjoyed by every single member of our book club (a rarity!) and generated a lengthy and very interesting discussion of the book and it characters as well as the topic of early onset Alzheimers. (And no, the evening wasn’t a downer.) I second Cutting for Stone as another conversation-maker, though having a couple of physicians in our group may have contributed to the liveliness of the discussion. We’re also doing Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand for February, but while I enjoyed it, I’m having a hard time seeing it as good fodder for a lively conversation–I hope to attend that evening armed with great discussion points cribbed from the CC club (sshhh).</p>

4

<p>Several of the above also worked well in our Book Club. I’ll add The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Several in our Book Club were reluctant to include it, but in the end it generated one of the most memorable evenings of discussion we had ever had. As with Still Alice it was not at all a downer even though it is a tough subject (life in the aftermath of your spouse’s sudden death).</p>

5

<p>Ignatius gave you a great list of previous CC book discussions, which you can explore and find out which ones generated the most discussion.
Another place to get ideas for book clubs is this site:
[Top</a> Club Picks](<a href=“http://www.bookmovement.com/app/readingguide/bcbestsellers.php]Top”>http://www.bookmovement.com/app/readingguide/bcbestsellers.php)</p>

<p>About a month ago I “rediscovered” Good Reads- wow, it’s “THE” mother lode of reading information.
<a href=“http://www.goodreads.com/[/url]”>http://www.goodreads.com/&lt;/a&gt;
Create a profile, rate books, and you can compare stats with other readers,
you will be offered reading selections in specific genres,
or by authors. Click on recommendations and you will see books similar to those you liked.
Find someone with similar reading interests and you will discover so much.
There is so much there!</p>

6

<p>I am going to get a group together to read and discuss Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. I have just rediscovered that genius and it makes what I have been reading lately pale beside it. I think the authors of yesteryear had time to think, sit and ponder. I appreciate that, a wanderer now of our distracted forests.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the suggestions and links (I’ve just frittered about 30 minutes on those two sites, SouthJersey! :slight_smile: ) I also like the idea of reading Leaves of Grass (which I haven’t read since high school) or something like it.</p>

8

<p>I agree Still Alice was one of the rare books my entire book club seemed to enjoy. </p>

<p>My book club didn’t read Before I Go to Sleep but I read it based upon recommendations here and really like it.</p>

<p>I have The Year of Magical Thinking…I need to get on with reading it. Glad to hear your book club enjoyed it, jmmom.</p>

<p>Also-my book club recently read The Paris Wife - historical fiction about Ernest Hemingway’s first wife and most seemed to like it.</p>

9

<p>my2sunz what you frittered away ** only** 30 minutes ? </p>

<p>You better stay away from ancesters.com- oh my god, your 30 minutes will be 300 minutes and seem like 3!!! beware ! </p>

<p>Do tell us what you choose?</p>

<p>(I am taking an adult literature class, and we had such an interesting discussion about ** James Joyce’s “The Dead”**)</p>