Your best/memorable book club discussion

[Anonymous]

I haven’t been in a book club for years, but I’ll never forget many years ago, I was in a very active book club. Our discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was one I remember as being spirited and extremely thought provoking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I quit book club after we read “Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead and discussion centered around how much of it was based on true events. Including the existence of an actual underground train running from south to north. Definitely memorable.

This is so disappointing.

[Anonymous]

I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

[Anonymous]

Any book that was *good* but that a lot of us were disappointed with, or disliked- that’s the month with a good discussion. If we all liked it, the conversation ends more quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in two bookclubs and am a librarian.
The most riveting book we’ve discussed is The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.
I’ve not read much like it.
I desperately want to discuss A certain Hunger but no one else wants to read it. (Cannibalism)
I just talked one group into north woods and I cannot wait to discuss.
I love chewy books but most do not.

You and I would be great in a book club together. Aside from the host, I'm the only one who ever seems to prepare for the discussion. After reading the book I do lots of extra research on the author and the book, reading interviews and listening to podcasts and so forth. I'm sure other members find me annoying as hell.

For North Woods I had 5,000 things to say and there were people who just didn't even bother to understand the book. I've given up on caring if others find me frustrating.

This would be me, and I would get irritated quickly if other people weren't similarly "doing the homework!"

Also, I think I'm too judgey for a book club.

OMG yes. I'm not reading any more Kristin Hannah, ffs.

I’m super judgey too and OMG will NOT read any more Kristen Hannah!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

I'm in a similar book group and over the years we've read many of the books on your list. We have men and women members and ages span from 30s to 80s, everyone brings different experiences. Requirement is that everyone reads the book. The best discussions are when there are dissenting opinions, no one's hurt or made to feel their POV is bad. As a young mother I was once in a wine mommies group that read Kristin Hannah-esque novels and it was overal a pretty unsatisfactory experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

I'm in a similar book group and over the years we've read many of the books on your list. We have men and women members and ages span from 30s to 80s, everyone brings different experiences. Requirement is that everyone reads the book. The best discussions are when there are dissenting opinions, no one's hurt or made to feel their POV is bad. As a young mother I was once in a wine mommies group that read Kristin Hannah-esque novels and it was overal a pretty unsatisfactory experience.

Yeah -- torturous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My book club just finished reading North Woods and no one liked it but me. I was very disappointed.
One book club member wrote a fantasy novel and self published and everyone was gushing about it.
North Woods nearly won the Pulitzer. One of the members is an English teacher and gave the book an F.
I am over it. I love these girls but doesn't anyone recognize quality literature these days?

Currently in the Middle of this book and absolutely loving it. Its so unique, its hard to even describe i!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

I'm in a similar book group and over the years we've read many of the books on your list. We have men and women members and ages span from 30s to 80s, everyone brings different experiences. Requirement is that everyone reads the book. The best discussions are when there are dissenting opinions, no one's hurt or made to feel their POV is bad. As a young mother I was once in a wine mommies group that read Kristin Hannah-esque novels and it was overal a pretty unsatisfactory experience.

At a school event today one of my mom friends was recommending I read her favorite book by Kristin Hannah and in the conversation I was thinking, "I haven't read anything by her so why does that author's name sound so familiar?"

I just remembered reading it here and had to check.

That's disappointing since I think of this woman as a little more serious about literature than the wine mommy crowd.

My book club has enjoyed many of the books in the above post. I was surprised that Abraham Verghese was fairly divisive.

[Anonymous]

A Little Life was the most memorable discussion in my long time book club

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

I'm in a similar book group and over the years we've read many of the books on your list. We have men and women members and ages span from 30s to 80s, everyone brings different experiences. Requirement is that everyone reads the book. The best discussions are when there are dissenting opinions, no one's hurt or made to feel their POV is bad. As a young mother I was once in a wine mommies group that read Kristin Hannah-esque novels and it was overal a pretty unsatisfactory experience.

At a school event today one of my mom friends was recommending I read her favorite book by Kristin Hannah and in the conversation I was thinking, "I haven't read anything by her so why does that author's name sound so familiar?"

I just remembered reading it here and had to check.

That's disappointing since I think of this woman as a little more serious about literature than the wine mommy crowd.

My book club has enjoyed many of the books in the above post. I was surprised that Abraham Verghese was fairly divisive.

NP. People here are being a little snobby. I read a ton, including plenty of respectable literary novels. I’ve also read several Kristin Hannah books and enjoyed them. Are they the greatest books ever written? Of course not. But they’re decent stories and have good characters and they make you think (e.g., I enjoyed The Women about life for female nurses during and after the Vietnam war).

Please don’t judge a woman you respect because she reads books by an author you don’t know, just because some snarky people on the internet were being unkind.

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed when we discussed The Family Upstairs & The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell. It just brought out a lot of interesting perspectives and discussions about mental health, abuse, etc and our sharing perspectives & understanding of the book. It was interesting to discuss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in two bookclubs and am a librarian.
The most riveting book we’ve discussed is The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.
I’ve not read much like it.
I desperately want to discuss A certain Hunger but no one else wants to read it. (Cannibalism)
I just talked one group into north woods and I cannot wait to discuss.
I love chewy books but most do not.

I've added both of these to my list! At first I thought you were talking about Sparrow by James Hynes. That book really stuck with me ("Told from the perspective of an enslaved boy being raised in a Roman brothel, a stunning literary historical novel of identity, family, suffering, and freedom").

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

I'm in a similar book group and over the years we've read many of the books on your list. We have men and women members and ages span from 30s to 80s, everyone brings different experiences. Requirement is that everyone reads the book. The best discussions are when there are dissenting opinions, no one's hurt or made to feel their POV is bad. As a young mother I was once in a wine mommies group that read Kristin Hannah-esque novels and it was overal a pretty unsatisfactory experience.

At a school event today one of my mom friends was recommending I read her favorite book by Kristin Hannah and in the conversation I was thinking, "I haven't read anything by her so why does that author's name sound so familiar?"

I just remembered reading it here and had to check.

That's disappointing since I think of this woman as a little more serious about literature than the wine mommy crowd.

My book club has enjoyed many of the books in the above post. I was surprised that Abraham Verghese was fairly divisive.

You judged a woman's taste (and intellect) based on the fact she liked one popular author?? Seriously??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fortunate to be in a great book group with women who really love to read, including two librarians and a former high school English teacher. Everyone always reads the book and regardless of whether they loved it or hated it, everyone comes with questions. That's not a requirement, but it's definitely our vibe and it makes for an interesting discussion. Here are some of the books that inspired our most memorable discussions:

James -- Percival Everett
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store -- James McBride
The Covenant of Water -- Abraham Verghese
Circle of Hope -- Eliza Griswold
The Sentence -- Louise Erdrich
Matrix -- Lauren Groff
Short Stories by Jesus -- Amy Jill Levine
Pachinko -- Min Jin Lee
Priestdaddy -- Patricia Lockwood
Caste-- Isabel Wilkerson

I'm in a similar book group and over the years we've read many of the books on your list. We have men and women members and ages span from 30s to 80s, everyone brings different experiences. Requirement is that everyone reads the book. The best discussions are when there are dissenting opinions, no one's hurt or made to feel their POV is bad. As a young mother I was once in a wine mommies group that read Kristin Hannah-esque novels and it was overal a pretty unsatisfactory experience.

At a school event today one of my mom friends was recommending I read her favorite book by Kristin Hannah and in the conversation I was thinking, "I haven't read anything by her so why does that author's name sound so familiar?"

I just remembered reading it here and had to check.

That's disappointing since I think of this woman as a little more serious about literature than the wine mommy crowd.

My book club has enjoyed many of the books in the above post. I was surprised that Abraham Verghese was fairly divisive.

You judged a woman's taste (and intellect) based on the fact she liked one popular author?? Seriously??

Not the PP who posted that but I do.