what book should I pick for my book group?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

It's my turn to pick the next book and I'm stuck. We're an all-female book group, most of us in our 50s. Recent books we've enjoyed include Uncommon Ground, Small Pleasures and Still Life. Lessons in Chemistry got a mixed reception. We all hated Crawdads.

We like books that we can analyse and which raise lots of themes/questions.

Any suggestions?

The vanishing half
a year of magical thinking
beyond black
The seven deaths of Evelyn hardcastle
silence of the girls
tangerine

all recent successes (and we had the same thoughts about your recent books)

The vanishing half probably the most theme-y

the bees by Laline Paul

Thanks. We read The Vanishing Half and enjoyed it. We've also read The Silence of the Girls which I loved but was a bit too visceral for some of the group.

I read Beyond Black years ago but can't really remember it.

I'll have a look at your other suggestions.

Bad Blood, autobiography of the late Lorna Sage.

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon .

I read the bees as part of a book group, really interesting!

Have you read any novels about Ukraine if you want something topical? Death and the Penguin was very popular with the 50 bookers earlier this year, Grey Bees is more about the war. Both by Andrey Kurkov.

The Storyteller - Jodi Picoult

A Gentleman in Moscow is absolutely brilliant.

Sorrow and Bliss?

Giving up the Ghost, a memoir by Hilary Mantel.

“Everyone is still alive”. Cathy Rentzenbrick.

I love all Elizabeth Strout books.
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is a fabulous read.
Left on Tenth Delia Ephron..autobiography
Herself and her sister Nora wrote When Harry met Sally/ Sleepless in Seattle and more so good story teller. I really liked it.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I've picked an Elizabth Strout before, as I love her writing, so will probably steer away from that. We've read a Gentleman in Moscow and most of us really enjoyed it.

Sorrow and Bliss has got really poor reviews. I've just looked up Death and the Penguin and that looks like a good possibility. Two of the group are hosting Ukranian refugees.

Beloved
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Miniaturist
State of wonder

Anything by Isabelle Allende

The Lost Letters of Esther Durrant

The Muse

I second Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel.

We all loved:

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Thousand Splendid Suns - Khalid Hosseini
And the Mountains Echoed - Khalid Hosseini
How to kill your Family - Bella Mackie
7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

These are just a few I remember. We're in our 14th year and are on our 153rd book!

Shuggie Bain
Hamnet
A man called Ove
The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Radium Girls

It's factual, but very readable. It's the story of the women who worked with radium in aeroplane factories around a century ago, and how they were treated - and fought back - when they became ill. It raises lots of questions about working conditions, poverty, health care, feminism.

The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell, set in mid 19th century. Good discussion points round women's education, or lack of it, poverty, the dangers women faced in childbirth plus there's a lovely twist 🙂

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

Miss Benson's Beetle
Look Who's Back
The Mercies
Away With The Penguins