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Original poster

Help with my snobby bookclub

255 replies

HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 05/02/2015 12:16

It is my turn to pick our next book for our book club and I am stumped. And a bit scared TBH.

It needs to be fairly highbrow and literary I'm afraid. I don't know the other women all that well (apart from the friend who introduced me to the group) and they have all been picking books that are either literary classics or modern winners of Nobel and Pulitzer prizes. So no chick lit - I think I would be kicked out of the group Grin

I'd like to do something English or British because our current book is Runaway (Alice Munro) set in Canada.

I've already read lots of classics myself but don't really mind a repeat. I just want a book that won't make me look stupid.

So wise MNers - any recommendations?

OP posts:
MannUp · 05/02/2015 12:45

Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami is excellent

DeladionInch · 05/02/2015 12:45

trainspotting was originally a book

Takver · 05/02/2015 12:44

Angela Carter also an obvious choice, I would go for The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman if I were being bloodyminded.

Original poster
HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 05/02/2015 12:44

Sorry, there are so many great suggestions here that I am finding it impossible to keep up with the thread but later today I am going to comb through and make some notes.

I love that book Watching the English.

We've done a Henry James already.

I can guarantee that they have all already read all that stuff like Possession, White Teeth, Gatsby, etc. This is where it is getting tricky you see.

OP posts:
BeautyQueenFromMars · 05/02/2015 12:44

I dare you to suggest 50 Shades, just to see their faces Grin

BellMcEnd · 05/02/2015 12:44

Sorry Takver

Saker · 05/02/2015 12:44

Or go for something quite different like non-fiction - I quite fancy this book
Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales

Tisiphone · 05/02/2015 12:44

OP, I thought from your title this was going to be from someone who was being ostracised from her book club because she didn't have inherited furniture!

Your book club isn't 'snobby', it just favours books other than disposable airport reads with pink covers featuring cartoon drawings of high heels (and yes, I'm aware Jane Austen novels have been reissued with precisely these covers...) Just choose something you like, for God's sake. Why not get them to read a Robertson Davies, as you're such a fan? You know it's good, you can start off the discussion by saying what you like about it etc?

The only snag is if people don't share your high opinion of the book, and you get cross as they slag off your favourite bits/characters as 'overdone' or 'caricatured' or 'a bit wordy'...

BellMcEnd · 05/02/2015 12:43

Brave New World?

50 Shades of Grey? Wink

Totally agree with a PP about The Tenant of Wildfell Ha. Yaaaaaaawn

Takver · 05/02/2015 12:42

I hate 'worthwhile' books - but I love the Tenant of Wildfell Hall Grin So I guess it's all a matter of taste . . .

I'd choose some thought provoking scifi, partly just because I love sci fi but also there's always lots to talk about. Consider Phlebas would tick the British author box, it's unquestionably a classic, and raises interesting questions about utopian societies, the role of the individual in history, etc.

dorothyparka · 05/02/2015 12:42

Or Muriel Spark? Ballad of Peckham Rye is fab

Original poster
HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 05/02/2015 12:42

I think classics are a bit boring at book groups - people choose them because they are scared to pick something that might not be deemed serious literature, but then the discussion is stilted because how much can you really discuss it? It's a classic - it's been praised for the last two centuries, the six of us and a bottle of wine aren't going to come up with any fresh insights! But if you want to be mean, make them read Paradise Lost. Have that you snooty fuckers.

That is such a good point.

OP posts:
SunnyBaudelaire · 05/02/2015 12:41

ooooh yes Will Self the Book of Dave.
That will annoy them.

Original poster
HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 05/02/2015 12:41

Oooh dorothyparka do you think I could get away with Wodehouse? I adore him!!!

OP posts:
CuddlesfromChickens · 05/02/2015 12:41

How about some Henry James...

OttiliaVonBCup · 05/02/2015 12:40

Or you can have Watching the English.

Non fiction, but can lead to a very lively discussion.

Original poster
HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 05/02/2015 12:40

bigmouth that is quite funny that you thought it was your group - so I'm not the only one with this dilemma Grin

Runaway (our current book) is short stories so I think I'm going to go for a novel this time...

OP posts:
Saker · 05/02/2015 12:40

Bigmouth, yes we have that at our group, or we can't talk about the ending because people haven't finished it! I have to confess to being among the snobs, I get frustrated wasting my time reading rubbish and definitely recommend avoiding any volume that has a recipe section for book groups Grin.

BossWitch · 05/02/2015 12:39

AS Byatt - Possession. Beautifully written and kind of 'about' the world of literary academia, so should score you snob points.

Zadie Smith - White Teeth. Excellent book won something when it came out (Booker?) multiple narratives interesting to talk about.

Jeanette Winterson - Written on the body. Great writing and really interesting in discussion as the gender of the protagonist isn't revealed (so fun to argue who read it as a man and who read it as a woman).

I think classics are a bit boring at book groups - people choose them because they are scared to pick something that might not be deemed serious literature, but then the discussion is stilted because how much can you really discuss it? It's a classic - it's been praised for the last two centuries, the six of us and a bottle of wine aren't going to come up with any fresh insights! But if you want to be mean, make them read Paradise Lost. Have that you snooty fuckers.

esiotrot2015 · 05/02/2015 12:39

or Rowling A Casual Vacancy, that's coming to TV soon too

esiotrot2015 · 05/02/2015 12:39

what about Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - it's currently on tv so at least topical

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 05/02/2015 12:39

Any book by Will Self should really annoy them.

I believe Terry Pratchett is a well known English writer.

Don't go for Fielding or Thackery if they are easily shocked Wink

You could go for a classic like 1984.

dorothyparka · 05/02/2015 12:39

John Banville
That's just mean Grin
Maybe Evelyn Waugh (Decline and Fall's a hoot), some Wodehouse, Stella Gibbons (Cold Comfort Farm) or Caryl Brahms to lighten (and darken) the mood?

Original poster
HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 05/02/2015 12:38

Treacletaart the funny thing is, I actually really like this group and have read some stuff I wouldn't have otherwise. I think our geographic spread helps us, an American, a Canadian (me), an English woman and two Swedes.

OP posts:
OTheHugeManatee · 05/02/2015 12:38

Joking apart, try The Magus by John Fowles. I couldn't put it down, it defies description and it's a total headfuck Grin