A book to please 9 differing women??

[nutgoneflake]

I'm in a reading group and it's my turn to choose again. We've had a run of cr@p choices thanks to one of our number who is, shall we say, a born schoolmistress who likes to influence the choices as much as she can. I want to tell her, politely, that I've chosen already, thankyou. But I HAVEN'T!! Any suggestions for a cracking read? We're all women, we don't really do highbrow (despite her ^^ attempts) but we don't do "holiday reads" either. Our all time favourite so far has been "Time Traveller's Wife" as an idea of our level!

Any thoughts?? Please?!

[Buenchico]

For an all-women group, 'The Abbess of Crewe', by Muriel Spark, would seem to be an excellent choice. At only 106 pages (and with well-spaced text) it's more of a short story than a novel but it's wickedly funny and offers a great deal for discussion.

A book which I really enjoyed was 'To the Baltic with Bob' by Griff Rhys Jones. I didn't expect much from it when I bought it. (I grabbed it in a hurry, from W H Smith's at Waterloo International, just as my Eurostar service was about to leave). I assumed that it had only been published because of the celebrity status of its author. Instead, I discovered that GRJ is a masterful storyteller. Your group of ladies might well find it a useful insight into the male psyche ;-)

Chris

[tickledtrout]

What about 'The Book Thief' by Marcus Zumak. Its the story of a young girl growing up in Germany during the 2nd World War.

[Maddie'sMum]

I loved Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - it tells the story of a hermaphrodite making her way in 20th century America - sounds a little odd, but I don't know how else to describe it! I wasn't looking forward to it but had nothing else to read whilst on holiday and I finished it (all 544 pages) in one day - I couldn't put it down. Trust me!

[nutgoneflake]

Thanks for those ideas - we haven't come across them before, so I'll go to the library armed with a few queries. Sometimes it comes down to how many copies they can get at once, but I'll probably read them myself anyway if they can't get nine! There's nothing like a book recommended by someone who's read it to get me all impatient to read it myself!!

Thanks all!!

[Scylax]

Another idea or two :

'Cold Comfort Farm' by Stella Gibbons
Penguin edn.1994. 233 pages of sunny
earthiness. A book renowned for the catchphrase;
'There's something nasty in the woodshed'.
It is pure Prozac, with no side-effects.

Also; 'South to Samarkand' by Ethel Mannin.
A brave lady's defiance of the prohibition on
Europeans entering this forbidden city in the 1930s.
A nail-biting journey; talk about intrepid....

[bensmum]

A friend lent me "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" which is not a book I would have chosen myself but it was very good and extremely thought provoking without being highbrow. I also enjoyed Zadie Smith's "On Beauty" and "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox" by Maggie O'Farrell was another very good read.

[cyanide]

Hi,nutgoneflake,hows you?Personally i`d recommend these for you;
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Venus-Sarah-Dunant /dp/1400060737
or;
Fred and Edie by Jill Dawson
http://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/1650

[TheBirches]

Have you tried Memoirs of a Geisha?

[nutgoneflake]

I'm going to have a huge pile of books by my bed now for the next few weeks, so if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know I've got my nose in one or other of them!!

Thanks for the links too, cyanide :o)

[afairclough]

Hi a few more you might try that I really enjoyed

The Kite Runner - by Khaled Hosseini
Half a Yellow Sun -by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Restless-by William Boyd

Hope you enjoy them to.

[sophie_1003]

vanishing acts by jodi picoult is very good, also the coy we have has some suggestions for questions to be asked in book clubs, i loved the time travellers wife but it's so sad!!

[sophie_1003]

copy**

[nutgoneflake]

Sophie - I agree - I still think about Time Traveller's Wife occasionally, and we read it about 18 months ago! We've never sat for the whole evening and talked about just the book, we usually end up having a good old gossip too, but with that book we talked and talked and talked non-stop. I've recommended it to loads of people since then too. We read another Jodi Picoult, the one about the sisters, forgotten the title for the mo. It was my choice last time, actually! I enjoyed it, and some of the others did too, but 'missus' made a few remarks of course.....!!

[pingping]

i have really enjoyed 'My Sister's Keeper' (which is probably the one you mention) and 'Salem Falls' from Jodi Picoult and as mentioned by sophie_1003, all her books have a section at the back designed to help discussion at book clubs.

what about 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold?

an excellent website to try is: http://www.literature-map.com/

as this allows you to find authors who write in a similar style to ones you already know you like.

[sophie_1003]

I know what you mean about still thinking about it, I thought about it for ages, trying to figure out a way he could've survived! The DaVanci Code was actually very good, despite all the hype it had!

[nutgoneflake]

My Sister's Keeper - that's the one!! We're reading The Lovely Bones after my choice as it's one we've all heard good things about. Thanks for the link too, pingping.

Sophie - I'm always trying to save Henry too!

[TheBirches]

I thought Alice Sebold's 'Lucky' was actually better than 'The Lovely Bones'.....

[librarywitch]

Hi,

Another good website for books is www.reader2reader.net.

We use it a lot in the library service and lots of our readers groups have put suggestions on there!

The readers group that I run have just read Labyrinth by Kate Moss and they really enjoyed it so that may be worth a look.

Hope it helps

LW