Help with my snobby bookclub

good post NOvel, and I second Margaret Forster, maybe 'ShadowBaby'

I know exactly what the OP means about snobby book clubs - and I write books for a living! :o

The whole point of book clubs is to read stuff you wouldn't normally read and talk about what you like and don't like which you have gone along with. If they're only reading the dull or worthy, they're missing out. Pick something you really love or really want to read. To be fair I wouldn't want to read something completely low brow (personally I'm not a chick lit fan) - but middle of the road is fine, especially if it's genre fiction.

Books should be about losing yourself in a story or a world, not about ticking off some kind of mental homework list. Pick a book or an author you love and share the love! And if they are snooty, then seriously - find another book club. Start one yourself. Life is too short for anything else!

I love Margaret Forster and read most of them or is it not highbrow enough ?
I loved Diary of an Ordinary Woman

Sorry obviously that should read Animal Farm

Very topical but an absolute favourite from my youth Testament of Youth or I have heard good reviews of Bees , my 13 year old has just read Nimak Farm at school and J have really enjoyed revisiting it . For a classic classic how about Portrait of a Lady

Brenda - I wasn't allowed to join my local one too. Moved to a new area, thought it would be a good way to meet people - told it wasn't really for my type of reader . I'm a writer ffs so no idea what sort of world they thought I lived in . . .

H Is For Hawk is wonderful.

Or, not especially topical but a bit as she passed away recently, Doris Lessing's debut novel The Grass Is Singing is an absolutely stunning book and they're unlikely to have read it previously, which I think is the problem with quite a few of the suggestions on this thread.

lol fair enough coffee....must just have been the timing.
so sorry! silly me.

really Brenda how funny....that is just what I meant.
Actually I was not invited back as I stupidly told one of them I had my stupid degree.

Sunny, that was not addressed to you!!! I had never even read anything from you! Read the OP. My response was to the OP, describing her book club as snobby, but then the only detail as being the book needs to be high brow.
Good god woman, you are as sensitive as anything! In all seriousness, I wonder whether your perception of your book club was an accurate reflection of reality.

excuded ? ^exuded, I meant. I think I was trying to excuse myself... or it's my Poundland reading glasses.

At least you got to go once, SunnyBaudelaire. In spite of repeated endeavours over the years, I have never been allowed to join one. I either get, "Oh, it's for friends only," or, still worse, "We take our reading very seriously." I was quite annoyed by that, as if I excuded chiclit vibes.

Altogether on a different level was the hoity-toity dame from the writer's group, who said that they were all "writers with potential for publication" and suggested I pay for an evening class at the local technical college.

your comment to me
"If you see snobbiness as liking high brow books, then i am more inclined to think that the problem is with you rather than the book club"

was what I was 'wittering on about'. Thanks.

Sunny, what are you wittering on about? Sorry to break it to y' but I was referring to the OP who said the book needs to be fairly highbrow. Has it occurred to you that their response may not have been about the book?

OP - have the same problem with our bookclub plus the fact that sometimes the books are too big to read in a month and there is other stuff I want to read.

Lots of good idea here though.

We recently read The Bell by Iris Murdoch - which is well written and provoked a lot of discussion although then religious bits went on a bit. I also felt it was somewhat dated.

This month - I've suggested The Time Machine - nice and short, science fiction for a change, still a good yarn that hasn't dated and lots of social comment that is still pertinent. (I'm gonna get thrown out aren't I?).

No no no..

Rebecca is chewed to death in bookclubs and there's never a good
bunfight discussion about it.

If you want something to throw among the pigeons try Lolita. Very literary too.
Or Tiger Tiger Burning Bright - same theme, if that doesn't get a good talk going nothing will.

Agree the Miniaturist is not what you want.

and I said 'self consciously highbrow' , not that a liking for good literature makes you a snob. You should read more carefully before jumping out of your pram.

enjoyingmycoffee ffs I have a degree in English lit, lol.

What about Scottish literature?

www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/the-20-scottish-books-everyone-should-read-1-685642

I particularly loved Buddha Da. it's written in Glaswegian Scots, but not hard to understand (and I'm American).

If non-fiction is ok, then I recommend two memoirs by Scottish writers:

This is Not About Me by Janice Galloway
What to Look for in Winter by Candia McWilliam

I only went once, brought along a marvellous book by Isaac Bashevis Singer, short stories I think.
When I explained its themes, they looked as though they had a bad smell under their noses, and nobody even touched it, let alone pick it up. lol.

Bobby book club?! Snobby

No sunny, I don't "know" that because I haven't experience of it and don't actually no anyone in real life who has complained about a bobby book club"

My book club is fun and a nice mix of books and people.

If you see snobbiness as liking high brow books, then i am more inclined to think that the problem is with you rather than the book club.

oh come on coffee you know what some book groups can be like, self consciously highbrow etc.

"Snobby book club" because they like high brow.

You sound delightful OP.

Orlando - by Virginia Woolf