Helpful if the author and/or lead character is female. What should my book club read next?
What should my book club read next? It’s all women, we generally enjoy strong literary fiction, compelling nonfiction, short story collections and memoirs. Helpful if the author and/or lead character is female.
Jenny Lawson. Her first memoir is wonderful. Very interesting and well-written. ‘Let’s Pretend this Never Happened.’
And the autobiography of Jennifer Weiner. ‘Hungry Heart.’
Ha Let’s Pretend was the last book we read! We are currently reading “Just Mercy” on the death penalty.
Have you read ‘Furiously Happy?’ Also by Jenny Lawson.
@Lila Just Mercy was going to be my rec! We read it for our last meeting and loved it.
V6oya in the Boat or Killers of the Flower Moon
Very compelling nonfiction either: Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance or The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow; Fredrik Backman, Beartown, Jane Harper, The Dry, Laurie Franklin, This is How it Always Is. These were done in my book group and generated really good discussion!
Thank you! Books tested by other book clubs are always helpful:-)
Anything by Elizabeth Berg. Talk Before Sleep is wonderful.
I love Elizabeth Berg!
A quick memoir, “M Train” by Patti Smith. Couldn’t put it down.
A man called Ove
We loved this book in our book club, so on point!
Darker Shades of Magic by VE Schwab. A bit out of your genre, but Lila Bard is such a fantastic character. Also Reading Lolita in Tehran should be in every book club.
Love this book!
When I read this, I wasn’t in a book club, but I really wish I had been because I wanted to discuss it with someone!
Me too! And I agree it is a perfect book for a book club.
Female author/main character “helpful…” Why?
Maybe they find female authors/protagonists to be inspiring? I try to read a lot of female authors!
Should males try to read mostly male authors?
The fact is that female authors and protagonists are under-represented. She didn’t say you had to. ?
In any case, I asked Lila the question. I’m not going to assume it’s because her book club is sexist, so I’d be interested in hearing her answer. The why may be helpful in coming up with suggestions.
My book club also enjoys reading books with strong female characters. I don’t find it sexist at all.
Oh FFS knock it off.
I am not trying to answer for @Lila, but my book group reads only women authors. It was started more than 30 years ago by some women studies faculty at the local college. They felt as women we needed to read more women authors. We have stuck with this premise because we find plenty to read using this criteria. Each book group has its own personality.
@Patricia I actually wondered whether her group was associated with a women studies program. Although, 30 years of reading only woman authors…that’s a long time. So many good authors out there, both male and female. I’ve been in groups that discussed Plath, Woolfe, Atwood, Wollstonecraft, etc, but I’ve also been in groups that discussed Saramago, Nabokov, Faulkner….all fairly enriching reads and discussions.
It is a lot of years, but we never lack for titles. I personally read mostly women, I believe they need our support. For example, see this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-authors-need-your-support-heres-why_us_55bbcc7ae4b06363d5a2342b. We all have our prejudices and that is mine.
I’d hope that we’ll see changes occur naturally now that most of the publishing industry is made up of women. You publish the best of what’s coming across your desk, some of that will be written by females, some by males.
@Laurie I just said it because it has turned out that we generally enjoy these books in that book club, but we read plenty of male authors and books about men (hard to avoid those really!).
@Lila I noted that you’re reading Just Mercy. Sounds like a great book club read, although I don’t envy whoever is leading that discussion. I have the book, but haven’t begun to read it yet. I spent most of my life in Michigan, which was the first state to abolish the death penalty. Now, I live in Ohio, and the attitude toward the idea of justice, miscarriage of justice, false conviction and the like is unlike anything I’ve dealt with.
I strongly recommend @Chinelo‘s book. A hard read, but very important.
@Laurie Many of my group are lawyers, and we’ve invited a death penalty lawyer to join us to help us with the discussion. It’s a tough subject, and many of the stories in the book are heartbreaking.
My book club loved The Nightingale.
Sarah’s Key, The Rosie Project, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks!
are we in the same book club? one of mine has read all of those!
Good books for book club!
My book club read all of these last year and really enjoyed them. We just finished Paris Wife.
I liked Paris Wife also.
Currently in the middle of this gem, it is a good one!
I did enjoy this one.
Any book clubs near Hoover high?
“Alias Grace”. Margaret Atwood
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
I love this book!! It’s required reading in California high schools, which is why we never read it in our book club (too many folks had read it for school . I grew up in NY so I got to experience it as an adult, loved it so much!!)
Dear Mr. You by Mary Louise Parker is amazing, like poetry and so powerful
The Kitchen House
You me of my very favorites.
Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman, seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo, A few of the girls by Maeve Binchy, Maine by J.Courtney Sullivan, Paris for One by JoJo Moyes, The Book that matters most by Ann Hood
Love “The Kitchen House” and “Alias Grace” . Currently reading “The Jewel in the Crown” and “Falling Together”.
Mary Gordon….Pearl: A Novel. Read years ago, but it’s a book that stays with you.
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich. This debut novel is powerful. My book group had a lively discussion afterwards.
valley of the dolls!
Ms. Moffet’s First Year by Abby Goodnough. It’s about a woman who changes careers mid-life, changing from legal secretary to teacher.
Many of the ones listed above are excellent. Here are a few more: The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman, Requiem by Frances Itani (careful of the author, there are quite a few books titled Requiem).
Memoirs of A Geisha
Lilac Girls
The Nightingale
The Invention of Wings
That is my next book. I am planning on starting it tomorrow.
It had a profound impact on me.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine; Lilac Girls; The One in a Million Boy; Under the Udala Trees
I loved https://www.amazon.com/About-Women-Conversations-Between-Painter/dp/038553986X and think it would make for great discussion.
The Glass Castle
Yes I loved this book. I am waiting for the movie due out soon
Love this book!!
Mine just read & enjoyed Brit Bennett’s The Mothers 🙂
Second this. It’s fantastic.
This one is next on my list.
Our book club had a great discussion about this book
How To Create the Perfect Wife — historical non-fiction. https://www.amazon.com/How-Create-Perfect-Wife-Enlightened/dp/0465065740
“The House on Mango Street”… Sandra Cisneros
an oldie but goodie. Mrs. Bridge EvanConnell
A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey. It’s great.
Agreed.
The Joy Luck Club.
One of my all time favorites.
Pearl S Buck. Biographies of her parents and the Nobel prize winning The Good Earth.
Before We were Yours by Lisa Wingate. Historical fiction about Tennessee Adoption Society during the depression. Very interesting with strong female characters.
My favorite of the last couple years, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Fascinating book.
Loved this
I just now read the introduction to a book of short stories by Harriet Simpson Arnow. The editors describe Arnow as everything you say you are interested in. I have read The Dollmaker and have three novels on the TBR shelf after I read the short stories.
It’s a YA coming of age story, but partly because of that, Uprooted by Naomi Novik made me so happy. 17 year old girl as the main character, in the rare story where the main character is a woman and gets to have an adventure and a love interest. It starts off very Beauty & Besst and I was prepared to roll my eyes through the whole book but it quickly won me over.
Just finished the Underground Railway. Very emotional roller coaster of a book.
Have u guys read all classics?! Jane eyre, Emma, Wuthering heights, Little women, Second look for Aves, etc?!
This book club has been round for 10 years, so many of the classics have been covered! I’m newer to the group, but could ask if there are holes in the cannon:-)
THE PURPLE HIBISCUS, by chimamanda adiche
I am reading Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Excellent book!
Shark dialogues by Kiana Davenport.
May be a repeat for you all, but how about The Help? The Nightingale?
Born a crime by Trevor Noah
Sisters-In-Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman, my book group found much to discuss…https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/books/review/sisters-in-law-looks-at-sandra-day-oconnor-and-ruth-bader-ginsburg.html
Oh man half the group are lawyers – this would be fun!!!
Arundhati Roy’s latest, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness after I believe a ten year break after God of Small Things — It sits in wait on my bedside table!
I would recommend The Power by Naomi Alderman, but it won’t be published in the US until October.
Following
Of course I meant Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.
Killers of Flower Moon is by David Grann
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright!
Memoirs of a Geisha. The Nightingale.
The Vegetarian was very good
The Help
Where’d you go Bernadette?
I love this book!
Queen of the Night
There are several books with his title – which author do you recommend?
Alexander Chee – french, opera, sex, betrayal, the usual
Three non-fiction recommendations: Louisa Gilder, The Age of Entanglement, Marina Belozerskaya, The Medici Giraffe and Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper’s Wife.
OMG so many good suggestions!!!!
The Paris Architect
Some lesser known books that my book club really enjoyed were The Sky of Red Poppies by Zohreh Ghahremani and Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert
Personal History by Katherine Graham, former owner of the Washington Post. The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig.
Giovanna Fletcher, Carrie Fletcher, JoJo moyes, Paula daly, Paula Hawthorne
Ladykiller by Martina Cole
I’m reading Selected Stories , 1968-1994
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro (/ˈælᵻs ˌæn mʌnˈroʊ/, née Laidlaw /ˈleɪdlɔː/; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner. Munro’s work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time.[3] Her stories have been said to “embed more than announce, reveal more than parade.”[4]
Alice Munro
Born Alice Ann Laidlaw
10 July 1931 (age 86)
Wingham, Ontario, Canada
Occupation Short story writer
Language English
Nationality Canadian
Citizenship Canada
Alma mater The University of Western Ontario[1]
Genre Short stories
Notable awards Governor General’s Award (1968, 1978, 1986)
Giller Prize (1998, 2004)
Man Booker International Prize (2009)
Nobel Prize in Literature (2013)
Spouse James Munro (1951–1972)
Gerald Fremlin (1976–2013, his death)
Children 3
Munro’s fiction is most often set in her native Huron County in southwestern Ontario.[5] Her stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose style.[6] Munro’s writing has established her as “one of our greatest contemporary writers of fiction,” or, as Cynthia Ozick put it, “our Chekhov.”[7] Munro is the recipient of many literary accolades, including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as “master of the contemporary short story”,[8] and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work. She is also a three-time winner of Canada’s Governor General’s Award for fiction and was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s 1996 Marian Engel Award, as well as the 2004 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for Runaway.[8][9][10][11]
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