Need Ideas for a book club book!

[J-Max]

I belong to a book club several women and I formed this fall. We are are very diverse group that gets together for wine and dessert every 4-6 weeks and talk about a book we all read. There are 7 of us, some are married, divorced, single, 3 have kids, all between the ages of 27 and 32, a mix of liberal and conservative values. It is my turn to pick the next book. I am looking for something interesting and thought provoking that everyone can relate to.

Here are the last 3 books we have read:
MicroBanding
Eat Pray Love
We Were the Mulvaneys

Here are the 2 books I am most considering:
Crunchy Cons I really want to read this, I have heard it is a good book, I am sure I fit the description and I think all of us in the group would identify with it.
The Red Tent I have heard this is good from so many people and it is also on my need to read list.


I was also considering Silent Knife (cesarean prevention and VBAC), as I really would like to read it. 2 of us have had C-sec and 2 more are planning on having children in the next few years, but I think it is kinda self serving and it is too expensive (almost $30, most places)

So what do you think of my choices, or have you read a good book or know of one that you think would be good for our book club?

[nicole lisa]

Red Tent is fanatastic.

I really liked The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. And it's been turned itno a film which opens in March which will probably bring more attention to the book again.

Although the book is named for the main character, I really think there is so much about the lives of women (the mom, sister, his girlfriends) in it that would make for excellent conversations. I really think the book has more to do with the lives of women than I thought before picking it up.

Here's a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Namesake-Novel...e=UTF8&s=books

[BlueStateMama]

LOVED The Namesake. Right now I'm reading (almost done) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See and I really, really like it. Great view of women's life in rural, pre-Revolutionary China and a beautiful story of friendship.

Review from Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. See's engrossing novel set in remote 19th-century China details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women and their betrayal by pride and love. While granting immediacy to Lily's voice, See (Flower Net) adroitly transmits historical background in graceful prose. Her in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life. Beginning with a detailed and heartbreaking description of Lily and her sisters' foot binding ("Only through pain will you have beauty. Only through suffering will you have peace"), the story widens to a vivid portrait of family and village life. Most impressive is See's incorporation of nu shu, a secret written phonetic code among women—here between Lily and Snow Flower—that dates back 1,000 years in the southwestern Hunan province ("My writing is soaked with the tears of my heart,/ An invisible rebellion that no man can see"). As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well.

[nicole lisa]

Originally Posted by BlueStateMama

LOVED The Namesake.

Parts of it were so beautiful and others sad - I wept quite a bit through it, for sadness and joy.

[SunRise]

I havent read the books you suggest... (But I might read Crunchy - Con too)


I am almost finished reading "Unless" by Carol Shields.

Its pretty good, easy to read, keeps me wondering what the outcome will be. The author did lose my interest during her tirade on Trombones

It is about a woman in her forties. She is happily married with three daughters. She is an writer. One of her daughters (19 year old) has dropped out of college and gone to sit on a street corner in a metropolitan city to beg for money and understand the meaning of Goodness. The family tries to adapt this path that their oldest has taken into their lives and continue to live on.

She is a Canadian author, well known for her novel "The Stone Diaries"

[Teensy]

My book club read The Namesake and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Other books we read and enjoyed were The Kite Runner and The Year of Wonders. I loved The Red Tent too - any of those would be great selections.

Another book for a book club to read: The Man in the Box. Read by itself, it's just an okay book. But read with others it makes for an interesting discussion because people draw very different meanings from the book.

[BlueStateMama]

Ooooh, I forgot. I recently read The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls and couldn't put it down - excellent book.

[MomOBrien]

Another vote for The Red Tent.

[cathe]

I suggest:

Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres
My Sister's Keeper by Jody Picoult

The one I am suggesting for my book club pick is:

The Thirteenth Tale - it sounds great

[Literate]

Ooh, exciting thread! I started a really great book club recently (if I say so myself! ). I just love everyone in it, and I didn't even know them all very well at the beginning. So far we did:
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (good discussion)
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (good discussion)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (good discussion)
White Noise by Don DeLillo (tonight's meeting -- hated it)

I want to pitch a radical idea for a selection. Read one or more of the following:
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

And maybe watch "Super Size Me". I think it would be a great discussion, but I know it's a lot of material. It's not my turn to host until May, so I may have to wait. (She who hosts, picks. But sometimes people are open to suggestions.)

[LiamnEmma]

Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres

[A&A]

Water for Elephants

[philomom]

The Time Traveler's Wife

[terrordactyl]

the red tent is great one of my favs
how about .....
memoirs of a geisha
the davinci code
like water for chocolate
message in a bottle
the notebook

[BookGoddess]

Red Tent, Memoirs of a Geisha, Blessings (Anna Quindlen author), Snow Falling on Cedars, The Twentieth Wife are all great books with the potential for wonderful discussions.

My absolute hands down favorite book right now is As Meat Loves Salt. I love love love this book. Can you tell how much I like it?
It's historical fiction set in 17th century England. The main character is a morally ambiguous fellow - he's dark, taciturn, full of passion and rage. The ending will surprise you. This tale would be at the top my list for a book club selection. Here's a link to the Amazon.com reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Meat-Loves-Sal...3485319&sr=8-1

[libba]

My book club is finishing "once Upon a Year" by Lisa Harper --- best book we've ever done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[My_Three_Sons]

I just finished The Birth House by Ami McKay, and it was awesome. Would be a great book for a book club of women.