Three good ones our group read last year were: The Boys in the Boat, When Breath Becomes Air, and a biography of Harriet Tubman. Not for book group, but The Soul of an Octopus is also excellent.

We all just read and enjoyed His Whole Lofe - Elizabeth Hay. Great summer read (large parts set in cottage county in Ontario).

Everything I never told you - Celest Ng, not everyone loved it but we liked discussing it.

Our Souls At Night - Kent Haruf's last book was short and lovely, late in life love.

Looking back at our most highly rated books from previous years:

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson (lively, historical but a bit fantastical)

The Round House - Louise Erdrich (bit of a murder mystery vibe set on a reservation)

In Zanesville - Jo Ann Beard

State of Wonder - Ann Patchett - led to an interesting discussion because the book/plot very flawed but we still all really liked it.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley.

The fictional story of a private plane crash and the wealthy people who were on it. Interesting story, easy read.

Two of the most discussed books in our club were:

The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg-- a fascinating documentary of young girls raised as boys in Afghanistan.

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307952509/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_RDXTxbCWRMQDT

The Light between Oceans by M L Stedman. This was a depressing , albeit compelling book. A young couple struggling with infertility and living an isolated life as lighthouse keepers, find a baby. Our group spent hours discussing this book.

Thanks so much...those are great suggestions.

What about something like Me Before You...would that be book club worthy?

Also has anyone read Bel Canto by Ann Patchett? Would that have enough meat to discuss?

Annie, we read both of those books for our book club and they are plenty meaty for discussion. Bel Canto may generate more opinions than Me Before You, but both are good book club choices.

I am getting tired of the books our club chooses. There is one woman who kind of dominates it and always comes with a suggestion for the next book, except it isn't a suggestion , its a command. I try to pipe in but am rarely heard. Unfortunately I am a slow reader so I am lucky to get in two books per month, which means I get to read one I like and one I don't. Current selection is Queen of the South. I can't comment on it because I haven't read it yet. Before that it was Fates and Furies. I couldn't even finish that one.

Others we have read are My Name is Lucy Barton (meh); The Bishop's Wife (really bad and we all agreed about that); The Nightingale (loved that one); As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (don't even go there); and Circling the Sun (I enjoyed it).

I loooooved Bel Canto!! Great choice!

Dedtired, in our club, we each take turns picking the selection. It works out great, and we end up with a wide variety of choices.

One member always chooses young adult, another prefers biographies or memoirs, another often chooses popular fiction, and one members tends toward self help. We all agree that we like this method.

Sometimes, the person who choses will bring several selections and we vote. We also have a request to avoid war stories--which we have agreed to honor. I hope you can find a better method for your club!

I was thinking of suggesting selecting books by category, sort of like the reading challenge...don't know if it will fly, but it might be interesting...maybe a nonfiction, a play, a bio, a young adult, an historical novel, a classic, a popular fiction, a work from 20 years ago...like that.

Furby, I wish that would work for us. We've tried. Fortunately, I enjoy the women in the club and look forward to getting together so I just put up with the "book club nazi" as some who dropped out have called her. In reality, she is a nice person, just a control freak.

We have one extremely avid reader and she has read a lot of what the rest of us would suggest. But she is also a librarian and has access to a lot of great choices so she ends up suggesting a lot of what we read. We keep an ongoing suggested books list that everyone contributes to and pick the entire year by consensus about a year and a half in advance. This allows the bargain hunters and library borrowers among us lots of time to track down the books.

our conflicts in picking books are because two or three of us would pick very light reading if they could while another two or three would always pick heavier, sad or sombre reads. One woman has been suggesting pride and prejudice and zombies for the past three years and doesn't seem to understand that we will never pick it. Sorry lady! I have very diverse book tastes so I'm usually fine with whatever.

We run year around and usually do lighter reading in the summer, whether YA or graphic novels. Nonfiction generally has not been well received by the group and we typically haven't been that great with classics either, for example they mostly hated for whom the Bell tolls which I happen to love with a passion. The only type of nonfiction that has been successful is very narrative style such as in cold blood. Eric Larsen has been a popular choice as well. We do a short story or Christmas theme novella in December. I've been trying to get us to read a good female biography or autobiography for the past few years but no one else is interested.

Our club is reading Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.

Bluebell, is it any good though?

I am currently reading White Trash by Nancy Isenberg and wishing I was back in book club so I could discuss it. Very thought provoking. I got out of book club for the reason ded mentioned-two domineering members who rarely let anyone else get a word in edgewise.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/books/review/white-trash-by-nancy-isenberg.html?referer=http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVx632rhXYiwAb5Rx.9w4;_ylu=X3oDMTE0bXQ2aW83BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDVUkyRkJDMV8xBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1471761207/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nytimes.com%2f2016%2f06%2f26%2fbooks%2freview%2fwhite-trash-by-nancy-isenberg.html/RK=0/RS=FO81_PfPweTWg6Uekra6hRAqrOg-

I'm sorry, Annie, I haven't started it yet - I missed that part of your original post/request.

What about Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese? That is one I really enjoyed and is worthy of discussion. It's a great audio book, too.

What is the What. about civil war in the Sudan. An amazing story of resilience.

Our book club read The Stranger (Albert Camus' classic 1942 novel of the anti-hero murderer Meursault) and The Meursault Investigation (Kamel Daoud's 2015 counterpoint about the man Meursault murdered, as told by his brother 70 years after the murder). Neither book is long, so they were read for the same meeting and discussed together. Daoud's portrayal of Algeria was the cause for threats on his life. Interesting.

RIP, how about books from last year...I'm looking for more tried and true to recommend, even if we're a year behind the times...

I am enjoying 'My Grandmother Asked me to Tell You She's Sorry'. I have A Man Called Ove up next by the same author. I'm adding The Light Between Oceans based on Aktillery's suggestion. We have a long 2-week road trip coming up so I hope to get some reading in while we're gone.

I've read a lot of mindless lit this summer, but I do enjoy Dorothea Benton Frank and her latest, All Summer Long, was pretty good, as was Elin Hilderbrand's Here's to Us. I'm a huge David Baldacci fan as anyone knows from reading my posts about books here. DD is also re-reading Harry Potter. She says she is scanning a lot of it, but told me last night how much symbolism she missed the first time through it.

Robo mentioned graphic novels and it reminded me of one we read and liked a lot. It was Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. It is now a musical on Broadway. Very different and generates good conversation.

Annie, here is our complete list from the 2015 'season' with my assessments:)

The Boston Girl - didn't finish it, so boring and cliche I could not take it anymore after first few chapters

The Martian - LOVED it! Definitely recommend for a book club; you need not have a smidgeon of technology interest or know how to get sucked into this well written story

A Manual for Cleaning Women - I was the only one who finished this book; well written but one of the most depressing books I've read in years (it was my book too!)

The Last Chinese Chef - excellent; nice blend of easy reading with some good solid thematic work on families, culture clash, belonging and finding one's passion

In the Midst of Life - also very good; a somewhat challenging to find book written by a woman who was a nurse in England in the 50s-60s; deals with death and has a lot of wisdom and a very common sense though caring voice

The Nightingale and The Girl on the Train - both popular fave choices. Detested The Nightingale, what a potboiler (romance novelist does WWII, nuff said). Enjoyed TGOT but it was pure formula, done well but nothing to write home about

Turn Right at Machu Picchu - wonderful, wasn't at all sure I wanted to read it but a great mix of travel, history and a very funny wry narrating voice

Ok a really wild book I read outside of book club and LOVED was The Bees by Laline Paull. If your book club could potentially enjoy something out of the ordinary this book is it. The closest analogy I could make is...The Handmaid's Tale. A book from the perspective of an extraordinary bee...but way more gripping than you would think from that description.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-laline-paull-20140504-story.html

Very helpful! Thanks!