Help! Recommendation for Book Group.

[biser]

It's my turn soon to recommend the book for Book Group and I haven't got a clue.

It can't be too popular, or else everyone will have read it already.
It can't be too obscure, or else the library won't have sufficient copies.
It can't be too long, because not everyone has the time.
Not too highbrow, not too lowbrow.

Is there a summary anywhere of Radio 4's A Good Read so I can crib off that?

Help please!

Our book club loved Lion by Saroo Brierly last year (just before the film came out) and the Muse by Jessie Burton.

Another popular one was A thousand Splendid Suns.

Try:
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams would appeal to everyone

An Italian Holiday by Maeve Haran (nice now the summer is fading)

Yesterday by Felicia Yap (popular in the book industry, but not so well known otherwise. Would make for interesting discussion)

Hope you find a book that works!

Half of a Yellow Sun
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
The Power
The Virgin Suicides

One that my book group all enjoyed recently - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Quirky, touching and funny.

The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Very short, but funny

The Power is 288 pages so not too long.

Americanah
The Invisible Bridge
The Son - Jo Nesbo

Dorothy Koomson The Girl from Nowhere.
The Girlfriend
The Other typist
The perfume Collector

Thank you lovely MNers. I'll search the catalogue and see what's in stock from the above selection.
Thanks again.

His Bloody Project. Superb and our book group keep coming back to talk about it.

The reluctant fundamentalist. Short and thought provoking

Ove - it's a fabulous book. Made me laugh and cry at the same time and everyone I've lent it to loved it. I can't recommend it enough.

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig.
Apparently to become a film so will become more popular but hopefully not everyone has read already!

Another vote for The Power though I bloody hated it.

I'd love to get my book club reading A Little Life, but I don't think a controversial 700 page doorstop would go down well here!

The Lost Art of Sinking - pretty short, had me intrigued.

EssentialHummus - what did you hate about The Power? I found it interesting (hence suggesting it here) but I didn't love it. I think the multiple narrative perspectives didn't help, and I found it hard to care about any of the characters.

newcross I'm in New Cross waiting for my book club to turn up, so you found the right moment to ask . I think the premise is problematic/facile anyway, but then that the author didn't make the most of it. Imo she did well to play with/point out the absurdities of some of the things we take for granted as being inherent to each sex, but there was no character development (actually little character full stop), and like you I struggled to care about any one of them.

I also found it weirdly phallocentric - odd, given the topic.

Under the Skin by Michel Faber - not too long and VERY interesting.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder is short, beautifully written and deep without being highbrow. I found it very moving. It's a classic, so libraries should have it, but it's not that widely read.

The Keeper of Things. Loved this quirky book. It's in Sainsbury's at the moment at £3. 99.

We just discussed Station 11 the other night. Although not the most favourite book I've ever read it provided lots of topics for discussion and was genuinely thought provoking but not too hard a read.