book club choices

I desperately need to choose a book soon and haven't read anything I'd pick for my club...all too long or too much of a downer or about the Middle East... all subjects we're kind of tired of for now. Any suggestions?

hard to answer your question because you give no insight into what your book club likes generally, but I have heard a lot about this book, and it has excellent reviews...haven't read it myself, but it's on my "to read" list! Good luck in your search and I hope I may have helped....
http://www.amazon.ca/Guernsey-Literary-Potato-Peel-Society/dp/0385340990/ref=pd_...

FuzzySlippers, sorry to be so vague but my group tries anything and everything as long as the choser liked it and it's well written. My last choice was "Loving Frank" and we all liked it. I've read Geurnsey but thought it charming but too predictable and syrupy. A relationship book would be great or some unusual topic made interesting. Thx for your help.

some unusual topic made interesting

I have many ideas, but these are the more uplifting books:

The girls: a novel by Lori Lansens - conjoined twins
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson - hiking
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan - dog ownership

Just to throw some things out there:

Fiction:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square by Rosina Lippi
Good Grief by Lolly Winston

Non-fiction:
Stiff by Mary Roach (this may not be a sensitive choice if a group member has had a recent death in the family, but it's a fascinating book about cadavers and science)
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost--really funny but truly interesting travel memoir, by a man who accompanied his girlfriend to a tiny atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a year. It involves neither sex nor cannibals, really.
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

We've read "Walk..." and just finnshed The Art of Racing in the Rain so too soon for another dog book. The Girls sounds like it fits both my criteria for this choice. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the suggestions.

The Hummingbirds Daughter is my most recent "favorite"

It is a novel based on history, about a famous healer in the the authors family.

I'm sure I'll enjoy this one,(I like historical fiction) but it's a tad long for my club. Some of the women have schedules much busier than mine. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dreamers of the Day is my latest historical novel was about the Brits and Lawrence of Arabia.

My book club read Stiff by Mary Roach a couple few months back. Probably one of our most interesting discussions.

Might I suggest The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon? It was my book club selection and the group seemed to enjoy it.

My group has enjoyed a lot of different books, but the ones that come to mind that almost everybody had enthusiasm for and that generated real discussion were:

The novels of Mary Doria Russell; we have not yet done Dreamers of the Day (we will be doing a life of Gertrude Bell instead).

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

Have fun,

Robert

>9 et2304: a reent death and general squeamishness of some members rules out Stiff but I'll read it. The club loved...Dog in the Night.

>10 Mr.Durick: I'd love to know more about Gertrude Bell and would be interested to hear what you think of whatever book you choose about her. Thanks for your suggestions.

Our bookclub just chose the next 12 books. There's a wide variety for sure:

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri - personally I'm not thrilled with this one...
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
This is Not Civilization by Robert Rosenberg
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Conjurer's Bird by Martin Davies

Others that I would second are Independent People, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

Others I'd recommend are The Road, The Glass Castle, Water for Elephants.

Good luck and have fun.

12> mdianne, I have Desert Queen by Janet Wallach for the book group discussion. In support of it I have Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert by Georgina Howell. I hope to read both.

I have to have read Wallach's book by May 6, but I have no idea when I will start it or how I will incorporate Howell's book into my reading. I'll certainly let you know if something interesting comes up either in my reading or in the group's reaction.

Robert

14> Bell was a fascinating character and I'd like to know about her. I'd be very interested in which book you think is better, if you get to read both, and how your group reacted to both the book and to her as a person. Does your group include both men and women?

Dianne

Dianne,

The group has both men and women, usually more women than men. A typical meeting is 4 or 5 men and 6 or 8 women. I believe it colors the selections.

Robert

Robert, I'm sure it must but I'm trying to find a book club for either my husband alone or us as a couple. I'm already in a women's club. We've signed up at the library but they don't seem so be doing anything about getting it going. How did your mixed group get started? maybe I'll have to start one for us.

Dianne

I guess we can't have hijacked the thread, because it is your thread.

My group is at church. Before I became a regular there, some old timers formed a group with a formal structure of presentation and discussion on the second Wednesday of the month. The group was devolving toward human discussion when I came in. I started lamenting some of the weaker books and had support from a politically conservative fellow, John, whose book motto was "Read promiscuously." I also got the group to consider the cost of the book that was being chosen. Some folks fell away. We took on some heavy reading; because of the strength of John's personality we read a lot of political science, and because of my whining we read some philosophy and some serious fiction.

Some folks, mostly women, wanted a group that read more accessible, intellectually, literature and started one up on the first Wednesday. John, Helene, I, and a few others were in both groups. John and Eunace died, at separate times; the second Wednesday group had a hard time coming up with a quorom. Finally the first Wednesday group survived as the second Wednesday group evaporated. Molly's husband came about half the time. I was pretty regular. Wendell showed up with Hilme who has since died. David came regularly often with a girlfriend; now he comes sometimes. There are two couples who come when they are in town. Meanwhile some women who are not members of the church have decided it's a good place for them and so are regulars.

All that means in sum: It happened.

I've never started a group. Walking by the groups at Borders and Barnes and Noble, I have felt that I would not like to participate there. Occasionally a group advertises in one of the papers; I have considered one of them without getting around to going there.

Good luck,

Robert

It seems that those things that just evolve organically find a way to work one way or another...perhaps we'll find one like that too. I should check at the local churches,that's one I had not thought of and I agree with you that those clubs at the book stores don't seem very appealing. One thing we have enjoyed at book stores are the author readings and book signings. Some authors are quite amusing speakers as well. i think our favorite is {Lee Child} who writes thrillers. I also liked {David Wroblewski} who wrote The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

Have you ever been to the site ? People with an interest of any kind apparently can get connected to others with the same interest. I tried that for a mixed book club in our area but no luck in finding an established one. The search goes on.... Maybe others have some ideas.

Dianne

Has anyone ever done the monster on florence for a book club discussion? I'm enjoying the incidental history and the story of this true crime novel but don't know if it's really right for a mixed milieu women's book club, Any ideas out there?

Somehow the touchstone didn't take...? I was talking about The Monster of Florence...

I'm having fun with this but NOT a choice for my club. Since we serve lunch before our discussion and the menu is somehow reminiscent of the book, I now definitely want a book that takes place in Italy... Something like a thread of grace but not a war story

A book we are doing for my book club is Mary by Janis Cook Newman. It is historical fiction about Mary Todd Lincoln.

For your book about Italy I would suggest The Night Villa by Carol Goodman. It does contain violence and sex.

I'll try the {carol goodman} book since I can't cook Lincolnesquely. I'm getting down to the wire and need to read the book and plan the menu together now that it's so late. thx for you ideas.

I'll try the {carol goodman} book since I can't cook Lincolnesquely. I'm getting down to the wire and need to read the book and plan the menu together now that it's so late. thx for you ideas.

My book club LOVED The Book Thief. One of the best books I've read.

My club loved it too. What others are on your club's favorite list?

I'm looking for a book that wil take meh maybe 5 dayz to a week maybe 170-200 pages could you help meh out???

>28 angelmae101: angelmae, there's a good quick read called the glass castle that my club enjoyed. It is very fast paced and interesting story. Good luck....

I haven't been in my book club very long, but other favorites:

A Thousand Splendid Suns was generally well-liked.
Astrid and Veronika--most of the rest of them really like this, though I found it really tedious and hard to get through.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox--They read this on the retreat I didn't go on, but they all adored it (and it's very high on my TBR list as a result).
Out Stealing Horses--They read this before I joined, but they all loved it.