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Original poster

I need a Bookclub book suggestion please - something brilliant.

41 replies

dietstartstomorrow · 23/08/2009 17:30

I really want a good meaty book with fantastic characters.

Any ideas?

OP posts:
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Spacehoppa · 25/11/2009 16:07

Please let me crash no threads today...Try 'tales from a thousand and one nights' if you want something off the beaten track.

Poor, poor Shahrazad.

Fantastic(al) characters certainly...

Thelongroadhome · 12/09/2009 21:20

Thanks Mad. Think I might read it myself and think of another one for the book group. Too many heavy ones lately!

MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 11/09/2009 13:03

The Road is very well written and very gripping, but it is bleak. There are some very disturbing scenes, which I can still remember more than a year after reading the book.

It is well worth reading, but if your group prefers happy, jolly books it may not suit your mood.

Thelongroadhome · 10/09/2009 21:48

I'm needing a book too and wondering about The Road too after reading your good reviews. But, some people dont like 'depressing books' - would you say it is? Also we are not too high brow - how would it fit?

Leln · 08/09/2009 20:09

We loved "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks. I second "Confederacy of Dunces" which is one of my fave books, but would never suggest it for book club as it is too personal.

MadBadandDangerousToKnow · 08/09/2009 17:58

Some of our best books - or best discussions, anyway - have been

The Great Gatsby
The Grass Is Singing
The Color Purple

Bubbaluv · 07/09/2009 14:38

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is wonderful. Totally engrossing and beautifully developed characters. Stays with you ages after you finish the book. In fact I still think about those characters years later.

thereistheball · 07/09/2009 14:33

Nabokov's Pale Fire - brilliant, easy to read, intriguing, poetic, and it challenges conventional novelistic structures so there is plenty to talk about. Also it is not very widely read so your group probably won't be coming to it with preconceptions.

bigfatbump · 04/09/2009 22:46

We have December free and have a round up and re-judge our faves to see whether the books we loved then are still as popular after a few months. We've been going for 5 years now and some of our best months were
Three Cups of Tea
Kite Runner/Thousand Splendid Suns
Time Travellers Wife
To Kill a Mockingbird
Shantaram
The Bookseller of Kabul
Star of the Sea
Small Island
Brideshead Revisited
Bridges of Madison County

I would love to do Owen Meaney but I love it too much and would be afrais they'd all hate it.

mackerel · 02/09/2009 14:24

How about The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O' Farrell. Great book and lots to discuss.

doubleexpresso · 31/08/2009 22:00

Anything by Carol Shields. Her writing is captivating and the characeters have lots of depth.

FritesMenthe · 31/08/2009 09:04

My group takes a break in August, so we save the very long books for the summer.

Small Island by Andrea Levy was one of our favourites.

letsaveabrew · 31/08/2009 08:55

Our book group reads the Booker Prize winner each autumn and often wonder why it won!

Original poster
dietstartstomorrow · 25/08/2009 21:43

We had a medium book last time - so won't matter if the next one is long or short.

OP posts:
travellingwilbury · 25/08/2009 08:45

I have read the road as well as Shantaram and I agree about it being one of the best books I have read . Not a cheery read and it will stick in your head for a while but I thought it was really well written and it will give you plenty to discuss .

Dophus · 25/08/2009 08:32

did you have a long one or short one last time?

The Road was the best book I have read for years - loved it!

Original poster
dietstartstomorrow · 24/08/2009 18:48

Thanks everyone, think I've narrowed it down to either:

Shantaram
The Road, or
Girl with the Dragaon tattoo

DH thinks I should choose Shantaram, as he loved it - but I am a bit worried about picking a 900 page book.

We always take turns to choose our books.

OP posts:
WibblingDad · 24/08/2009 16:19

A Prayer for Owen Meany or A Confederacy of Dunces.

Both corkers with some great characters.

Spoo · 24/08/2009 16:03

The Ninth life of Louis Drax? by Liz Jenson

I thoroughly enjoyed that.

2to3 · 24/08/2009 14:15

Try "My sister, my love" by Joyce Carol Oates - it is a brilliant book, as are most of hers (for example 'We were the Mulvaneys' or 'Black Girl/White Girl'). Her fiction is reminiscient of Atwood, very well structured and detailed, lots to discuss and think about, highly recommended all round.

Dophus · 24/08/2009 14:11

The Road - plenty to discuss but quite short

tillyfernackerpants · 24/08/2009 14:09

Another Margaret Attwood suggestion is The Blind Assassin, not read it for book group but really enjoyed it

lilibet, the story just didn't grab us, didn't particularly like any of the characters, though the writing is good we all found it a bit hard-going. Makes us sound a bit simplistic doesn't it?

floaty · 24/08/2009 14:07

I just read it on holiday,left it until last but then couldn't put it down,I agree though thta the last section is deffo the weakest although by then I think I forgave that because I so enjoyed the rest .

lilibet · 24/08/2009 13:58

Floaty - I loved American Wife until about 2/3 rds of the way through. Couldn't picture him a George W Bush tho'

floaty · 24/08/2009 13:48

I've just read An American Wife and it was brilliant ,our book club has also just read The Piano Teacher which everyone liked...quite unusual for us all to like a book!We also read the Glass Castle which I really enjoyed but it is really a memoir not fiction .

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