Best book club books?

[Rowena191]

I've just joined a new book club which I'm loving. It's my turn to suggest a book soon, and the rule is that it must be one I haven't read, so that I am experiencing it as a new reader with the others. The flavour of the club is literary. So what books have you read that have triggered a really good book club discussion?
My answers from previous book clubs would be:
Help by Kathryn Stockett
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Have they given you a list of books that they've previously read?

No, though I have asked! I was going to pick a main suggestion and a reserve in case the main one had been done.

Book club veteran here, 30+ years.
TBH I go along mainly for the cheese.
There’s a “bookclub genre”, multigenerational saga, slightly but not unrelatably different time or setting and published recently. Boring and not much to say.
When you’re more settled I’d challenge the not having read it rule.

Is it fiction only? That sounds a bit mad to me, if (1) you haven't been told what they've already read, and (2) you're supposed to be nominating something you haven't read, hence can't know whether it's any good (unless it's by an author you have admired over the course of several novels, and even then...)

Literary fiction I've read/reread and admired recently --

Mrs S by K Patrick (included in Granta Best Young British Novelists before this was even published)
Breakdown by Cathy Sweeney (middle-aged woman starts driving to work one morning and just turns in the opposite direction and keeps driving away from her life)
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes (estranged sisters gather in the west of Ireland)
Nothing Special, by Nicole Flattery (set in Wahol's Factory in 1966)

And two good essay collections, Exposure by Olivia Sudjic (about anxiety, the online world and writing) and Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones (about disability -- very acute and well written, painful and funny).

The Sealwoman's gift (forgot who wrote it).
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
Still life - Sarah Winman
Abi Dare - The girl with the louding voice

All these I enjoyed discussing

One book I really enjoyed that was a bit different is The corset by Laura Purcell. It was not something I would have chose to read but I loved it.

Popular books in my book club recently have included:

The Salt Path
The Garden of Evening Mists
Sorrow & Bliss

If they tend to a literary bent, worth reviewing the current Booker Prize listing. I also go through Good Reads for highly rated titles, which has generally served me quite well. Also the recent NYT 100 best books of 21st century had some amazing titles (My Brilliant Friend was number 1, I LOVED this book, and the rest in the 4 book set).

I find Ann Patchett, William Boyd, Elizabeth Stroud, Isabel Allende to be fairly safe bets as well.

Many thanks for all your brilliant suggestions. I've read Still Life (loved it) and The Salt Path (enjoyed it but think this group wouldn't appreciate it). I have The Girl with the Louding Voice, My Brilliant Friend and The Garden of Evening Mists on my TBR pile, but another Tan Twan Eng book is this month's choice so I probably won't go for that. I recently loved Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and have The Dutch House on my TBR pile so might look at that. I hear good things about Strange Sally Diamond and Breakdown so will check those out. Some great ideas here, thanks

Three Hours - Rosemary Lupton

• provoked good discussion in our bookclub. Really good book.

Good thread. I too have just joined one.

I sm happy to read others suggestions as my tastes are very easy reads (jilly copper /serial killers/ Harlsn coben)

There are very few literary books I want to read that I have not actually read.

The rosemary Lipton looks good. Are there litetary serial killer? Who did it? Type mysteries?

Luckily I have a list of past reads so that's handy.

A Fine Balance is excellent. Bleak at times but so much to discuss.
Also :
A Gentleman in Moscow
In Memoriam
Trespasses
Paper Cup

Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Read
The Nightingale Kristen Hannah
Weyward Emilia Hart

When in doubt, there’s always the latest prize shortlist:

Women’s prize:

• The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright, published by Jonathan Cape
• Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan, published by Viking
• Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville, published by Canongate Books
• Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, published by Jonathan Cape
• Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy, published by Faber & Faber
• River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure, published by Duckworth

Waterstones Debut Prize:
Kaveh Akbar
Martyr!
Shortlist
[10][11][12]
Kaliane Bradley
The Ministry of Time
Josie Ferguson
The Silence in Between
Hanako Footman
Mongrel
Ferdia Lennon
Glorious Exploits
Rebecca K Reilly
Greta and Valdin