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?

I have a friend who was in a book club that eventually banned meetings in people's homes because the settings promoted more frivolous and less focused discussions. They had to meet in a room in the local public library where no alcoholic beverages were allowed.

Ooooo, excited to find out what you choose htd !
I'm also excited to hear that you love RD. This thread has inspired me to reread the cornish trilogy after 10 yrs.

white noise by don delillo. read it for American lit module, lots of good discussion points as it is very ambiguous if a little lacking in narrative.

Someone else said Cloud Atlas: brilliant book. It's written as a set of concentric, linked stories so you start with the first part of the story from the most long ago, have a few getting more modern and then in the middle is the one in the distant future before you start reading the ends of the other stories, which all make the others make sense. It sounds confusing but it really works.

The one I was going to suggest is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, about a missionary family who go out to the Congo in 1959, told from the perspectives of the 5 women in the family. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and definitely a modern classic.

I'm amazed nobody's mentioned Kate Atkinson yet. Readable but lots to talk about and prize winning too.

Mind you, maybe they're all picking classics and prize winners 'cos they're scared too - break the mould and they might be grateful...

I think you're right, BlueEyeshadow. If these people are genuine readers, I bet they've already read many of the suggestions here. Surely the point of a book group is to discover things you weren't familiar with? Be brave!

My first though is Jose Saramago - nobel laureate, died recently. His 'Blindness' is great - pacey story with strong characters, so that you don't even have to care that it's also allegorical with deeper meaning. Also no punctuation and no names, which is interesting but which you get used to quite fast.

Zadie Smith's On Beauty is good - and is an homage to Forster's Howard's End, with corresponding characters and some scenes. Best read in sequence I think, or, you can go for 'well of course you'll have read...'.

Dorian by Will Self is an homage to A Portrait of Dorian Gray and has the word cunt in the first paragraph.

J.G Ballard is interesting, plenty to discuss.

The Siege of Krishnapur is great, very funny.

Thing is, you don't want something that everyone simply enjoys, you need something to talk about. Different perspectives and enthusiasms help. So 'a good book' and 'a good book group book' are not the same thing. Also, don't nominate something you love, as you may have to hear it being ripped to shreds, or dismissed. Picking something you haven't read yet offers a good get-out if they don't like it, 'sounded so interesting, how disappointing'.

Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Finlay is a great NF read.
Or what about some poetry? Perhaps a Seamus Heaney collection? Or Carol Ann Duffy?

Or Tulip Fever. So well written.

Possession by AS Byatt. Unbeatable and pokes clever gentle fun at literariness.

Or something really new, though non-fiction - H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. I could NOT put it down. You could read it in tandem with T H White's The Goshawk, from which it draws its inspiration.

Or how about V S Naipaul's House of Mr Biswas?

seconding Saramago.

Also Marilynne Robinson 'Lila', published last year and very very good.
Eleanor Catton 'The Rehearsal', she won the Booker with her second novel, but this is her first novel, more experimental but very very good and lots to discuss.
Juli Zeh 'Dark Matter', thriller with a philosophical edge.
Sofi Oksanen 'Purge', very very good and lots to discuss.

I see Poisonwood Bible nominated, which is fantastic: what about The Lacuna, also by Barbara Kingsolver, which won the Orange Prize in 2010 Brings in lots of actual history and politics so sure to kickstart discussions.

Another vote "The City and the City".

"Burial Rites", written by Hannah Kent, an Australian, is set in 19thC Iceland and is good, and spectacularly good for a first novel.

"Riddley Walker" by Russell Hoban will sort the feckers out.

Half a Yellow Sun by chimamanda ngozi adichie, because it was also made into a recent film too with Thandie Newton in.

I see a PP mentioned Don Quixote. How about Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsignor_Quixote? (Spoiler alert in the link!!)

Oh yes, mynameisred we read Home by Marilyn Robinson, which was very good. Perhaps too consistently liked, if anything, there was stuff to talk about but no contention.

We did also read an Orhan Pamuk, The Black Book, at my suggestions, which didn't go down so well - your namesake might have gone better!

Pleased so many people have enjoyed H is for Hawk as that is what my book group is currently reading, I just started it yesterday.

That's very suitable for you with your NN Saker! I'm about to read that myself, I used to have an ex who kept falcons so I will know what she's talking about in the book. Looking forward to it now.

For a book club I'd pick something current. If you suggest some of the classics suggested here, a lot of people will have read them already. A lot of book clubs read Cloud Atlas etc years ago! If you read things like Alice Munro I'd go for a 'serious' book that is currently making the book club rounds, something like The Children Act by Ian McEwan. Marilynne Robinson is another great suggestion, but she's not British.

Thing is, you don't want something that everyone simply enjoys, you need something to talk about. Different perspectives and enthusiasms help. So 'a good book' and 'a good book group book' are not the same thing. Also, don't nominate something you love, as you may have to hear it being ripped to shreds, or dismissed. Picking something you haven't read yet offers a good get-out if they don't like it, 'sounded so interesting, how disappointing'.

AAAAAAAUUUGGHHH I have to leave in 15 minutes and was all set with my suggestion of The British Museum is Falling Down and now I am totally doubting myself! I love David Lodge and am always trying to get people to read him. Maybe I will just suggest Pride and Prejudice

Nope. I'm going to stick to my guns. Actually DL has written a great book called The Art of Fiction too - non-fiction.

If we hadn't just done an Alice Munro book I would have gone with Robertson Davies though.

Will report back tomorrow! Thank you all of you for some amazing suggestions. Keep them coming, it will be my turn again in 5 short months

Good luck OP.

I don't have a suggestion under your criteria but I'm a rubbish reader but I loved 'one hundred years of solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, seriously crazy but compelling tale about a village over 100 years

Let us know how you get on!