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?

My bookclub have recently enjoyed
An Awful Kindness
The Hearts invisible furies
American Dirt
And Anxious People

Educated by Tara Westover
Moo by Jane Smiley

Very different but both utterly non-put-downable

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (don’t be put off by the topic, it’s written in a very sensitive, as opposed to gratuitous way)
Currently reading The Lincoln Highway, Towles’ latest, which is brilliant, but appreciate you probably want a different author

3 brilliant books (and yes, Crawdads is utter tripe)

Sweet Caress - William Boyd
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides
Free Love Tessa Hadley
The Whalebone Theatre Joanna Quinn
The Stopped Heart Julie Myerson
Lie of the Land Amanda Craig
How to Kill your Family Bella Mackie

Three Hours by Rosemary Lupton - probably generated one of our best book club discussions. If you look online, there’s questions relating to the book. Good book.

www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Haven-Point-Lisette-Auton/dp/024152203X

It's young adult but don't let that put you off! Deals deftly with disabilities, has some gorgeous themes and is a really good read!

Lullaby
Homegoing
Convenience Store Woman

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The invisible life of Addie LaRue - V E Schwab

Lots to get your teeth into - a great book and I feel the same about all you listed

The Collective - Alison Gaylin
What She Left Behind - Emily Freud

I read both recently and really enjoyed them!

I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell.

I've just finished I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman it was amazing I couldn't put it down. Do you have a good reads account? It's a good way of reading reviews about books before buying. I'm on my 59th book of the year! You can see a list of the books I've read at www.goodreads.com/cotswoldmama for some inspiration or if there's a book you like it suggests other like it. There's also some good accounts on Instagram where I find inspiration like the bibliofilles

Station 11.

what is worth saving when everything has gone?

I'm also in a family book club and the last book we all have 5 stars to was October October by Katya Balen it's a YA but there's so many things to discuss and it will definitely make everyone cry!

Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner.

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. - Elizabeth Smart.

We just read The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell which was a big hit. Very rare that we get an across the board winner.
I had the biggest book hangover after finishing it.

Small great things by Jodi Picoult remains one of the best (most challenging) books I've

Oops, sent before I finished! Small great things by Jodi Picoult. Without giving any spoilers it tells the same story from two different perspectives - a woman who faced racism and the man (a neo Nazi) who was the perpetrator. Great story, a little along the lines of the Colour Purple but it really made me think about unconscious bias and lots of other things too.

Where did you find the bad reviews of Sorrow and Bliss? I can only find good ones . . .

amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/09/sorrow-and-bliss-by-meg-mason-review-an-incredibly-funny-and-devastating-debut

I checked because I’ve read it and thought it was very good. Definitely has lots of discussion points for a book group. For what it’s worth I also found Crawdads dire and didn’t finish it.

@Stereolab on Amazon.

Anyone else stealing this thread for their own bookclub?

@beetlebrain funnily enough I did consider By Grand Central Station... I absolutely love thatbbook, but I think it might be a step too far for a couple of people in my Book Group. Have you read "By Heart"? It's the biography of Elizabeth Smart.

@FloorCushion I really want to read that. We read Hamnet quite recently, also a big hit, so not sure if I should do another Maggie O'Farrel so quickly, but worth considering. Thank you

I would second Station Eleven.

The Island of Missing Trees was an all round success at our BG.

If you do non fiction then House of Glass by Hadley Freeman is fascinating.

I chose All The Light We Cannot See a few years ago, everyone loved it. Then my husband chose it for his (all male) book group and they reckon its the best book they've ever read as a group.

We've also read The Poisonwood Bible which was another big hit.

I've got The Lincoln Highway on my "to read" list. We've read 2 Amor Towles novels in the last 3 years so I'll probably steer clear, but thanks for the suggestion. We clearly have the same taste in books!