Thanks. I just wanted to check things out. Last summer’s book - Seveneves - a good choice. Since then we’ve read three memoirs (one as graphic novel), one classic and one scooting toward modern classic (Persepolis). Interestingly we read mainly of-the-moment books in 2015 but not so since last October. Our summer reads have tended to be duos or sprawling as befits summer (Lonesome Dove and Seveneves).
I’m ready for something … just don’t know what … but let’s make it good.
Haha, you got me with that “sprawling” comment, ignatius! “Sprawling” is not nearly as bad as “sweeping,” though. 
I’d probably be willing to read any of the books suggested so far except Thorn Birds.
I had no idea about Joe Hill being Stephen King’s son! Had to look him up.
^^^ Yeah if you “wiki” Joe Hill you’ll see accolades and awards - achieved without riding on his father’s coattails. I really really like his NOS4A2. I wasn’t the only one: the AVClub, Library Journal and Time magazine also named NOS4A2 as one of the ten best books of 2013.
The Fireman is still on the NYT Bestseller’s list this week, I think.
The only genre I’ll veto this time around is non-fiction–three memoirs plus Circling the Sun and The Dig are enough for me for a while.
As far as “let’s make it good,” odds are we would have good luck in that regard going with something tried and true. What are some great, nostalgic, summer-read sagas (other than the vetoed The Thorn Birds), which are both sweeping and sprawling? ( 
)
If we want a readable saga like The Thorn Birds, but also want to up our game (literarily speaking), there’s always East of Eden by John Steinbeck, which we’ve mentioned before. Can you think of other novels that fall into that type of category? Not that we have to go there–I’m just thinking aloud. I’m happy with anything that’s been suggested so far.
Okay, I just looked up The Fireman: “a novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes”??? I think anyone here who knows me, knows I’m in for that one!
The Australian novel Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is a good, readable, saga-type novel. I’ve read it, would read it again.
Another book in the readable-saga category is Old Filth by Jane Gardam. I read it along time ago but would love to read it again. Not sure if folks are in the mood for another British novel though. Here’s the description from Publisher’s Weekly (as posted on Amazon):
I’m currently reading Joanna Trollope’s *The Best of Friends * because my sil has been telling me to read her for years. I can imagine pairing one of her books with something similar. (Penelope Lively or Laurie Cowen)
I do still want to do the Camus pairing! Not necessarily as a summer read though.
I’m thinking of reading Catch-22 because its been on my TBR list forever.
I looked to see what comes up as like The Thorn Birds. M. M. Kaye’s * The Far Pavilions*
popped up - one I’ve had hanging around forever. And India reminds me I still haven’t read A Suitable Boy, but 1500 pages seems a bit much to ask for even in the summer!
Yeah, I thought about the Camus pairing also - it just didn’t sound like the summer read to me either.
Interested in maybe later though.
Read The Far Paviions when I was in my reading-about-India phase and didn’t like it. Tried a couple of times to read Catch-22 and couldn’t get into it. 
Old Filth sounds good!
I’ve dipped into Catch-22 too, but never got too far. Hence the suggestion!
Any of these of interest? http://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/10-japanese-books-you-need-to-read/ or http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2011/20-essential-works-of-japanese-literature/
Any interest in stepping back into the early 20th century with a classic like The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, or To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf?
@mathmom, I’ve read a number of Haruki Murakami books (eight, I think) and liked all but one of them. It would be cool if this group read one. The guy fascinates me.
I’ve read one novel by Yukio Mishima and hated it!
@PlantMom, good suggestions. I’d go for Forster or Woolf more than Fitzgerald. I’ve already read A Passage to India at least three times, and I would be more than willing to read it again.
Adding another idea to the early-20th-century-classic list, for brainstorming purposes: The Good Soldier, by Ford Maddox Ford. (Nothing to do with war or the military).
Or, if we wanted to combine the readable-sprawling-sweeping-saga theme with early-20th-century-classic theme, maybe something by Theodore Dreiser?
Or, one more idea: I just re-read Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton, and would love to discuss it. It’s the perfect summer read!
(I don’t feel strongly about any of these, so feel free to reject them out of hand. Not sure of the etiquette of suggesting titles; hope this is not too many!)
Thoughts:
I’m pretty sure Mary has read Old Filth.
I’ve wanted to read A Suitable Boy.
Yes to A Passage to India though we talked about pairing it with another book.
We really should pick a recently published novel written as we haven’t lately - not since Circling the Sun and that was last October.
No vetoes from me at this time though I looked up a couple of the Japanese books and … well, Kitchen interests me but it’s only 160 pages. Some others sound depressing as heck - again, not for summer. The Tale of Genji scares me: “Translations of the work vary in style, form and quality – variation resulting from idioms, grammatical idiosyncrasies and poetic structures needing to be wrested back from a form of the Japanese language used nearly 1000 years ago.” We’d all be reading different translations.
Cross posted with @nottelling - We can suggest as many as we want. At some point (my guess, soon) Mary will have us whittle it down - everyone’s top five choices or something like that to see how things are going. Once all suggestions were scrapped and we started over.
Nottelling, both The Custom of the Country and The Good Soldier are on my to-read list.
Don’t worry, never too many titles. Mary will wisely weed through them, and/or we will vote and pare the list down.
All of the suggestions so far sound great to me! I’m up for anything.
Cloudstreet looks especially interesting to me.
Cloudstreet would be great for discussion. I read it with another group and was frustrated because people had relatively little to say. This group would kill it!
Tend to agree that a recent book would make for a nice change.
However, I need to say that A Suitable Boy is one of my favorite books in the whole world. It would make my heart happy if this group were to read it together.