Help with my snobby bookclub

[HeartsTrumpDiamonds]

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

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?

Drifting away from accepted classics, but stuff that should raise an eyebrow

Morte D'Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory

or if you want to read one of the best and most beautiful adaptations "The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights" - John Steinbeck (sadly he died before finishing it).

And on the Arthurian theme - "The Once and Future King" - T.H. White

Graham Greene - Our Man In Havana, The Third Man

Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

Robert Graves - I Claudius & Claudius the God

Few alternate ideas-
poetry bookclub- everyone can bring a poem and share get pissed and performs it

YA- marjorie Blackmans' Naughts & crosses. Loads to choose from in this genre.

Base it around books written in your locality- that gets people moving on from classics only.

Travelogues,non fiction,Bill Bryson

Base choices on food from a particular country,then you can eat,drink and read it : )

Ghost stories- MR James and Dickens short stories are great for a winter's evening

Shakespeare- why not? Doesn't take long to read a play,most people will have been to a play and there is loads of info on the net.

We've read books which have been adapted into films,sometimes we watched the films to compare not because we are lazy and usually drunk

I wonder how long your club has been going for? Some people get very hung up about what they think they 'should 'read and don't like to admit they love a bit of sci fi / Enid Blyton / books about pets.

I re-read the Magus a while back after being transfixed as a student the age of the protagonist (who is v naive). OMG I was shocked at the misogyny and sexism, and not at all charmed with it from the other side of young adulthood. Weird. I love the French Leiutenant's woman though

With the current news, what about to kill a mockingbird?

Lots of additional topics now, Nd sets the scene for the sequel later.

Orlando - by Virginia Woolf

"Snobby book club" because they like high brow.

You sound delightful OP.

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

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.

Bobby book club?! Snobby

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?).

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 . . .