I’m a promiscuous reader: I belong to two book clubs, and sometimes it feels like I’m balancing a couple of jealous boyfriends. “Your other book club must read smarter books,” someone will say. Or, “I hear you’re losing members.”
Truthfully, the two groups are more similar than different and they’re a lot like many other reading groups across the country. They’re both composed of women in their thirties and forties, some big readers and some ‘I’ll read it the night before’ skimmers. We all look forward to drinking wine and our monthly chance to share stinky cheese that our husbands and children won’t touch. Of the thousands of books published every year, we always end up choosing some of the same books, and I find we often have common favorites. Looking into it, I discovered that a few of these books are indeed book club superstars. Something about them appeals to reading groups everywhere and makes for memorable discussions.
The following books have been winners with both my clubs and standouts for many others. If you’re looking for something with broad appeal, try any of these five gotta-love-it book club picks:
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. A tragic story, beautifully written, you will be moved by this book. It begins with murder and ends with transcendence. Read this and learn what your friends imagine about heaven.
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. This one sounded so forced and sentimental, I thought I’d have to skip it, but it’s original and heart-warming without being corny. Set in Georgia in the 1960s, it features a motherless fourteen-year-old fleeing her abusive father and finding a virtual hive of mother figures.
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. This is a sweeping tale set in contemporary Afghanistan. You’ll see an unfamiliar culture from the inside and never forget the gripping story that encompasses poverty and privilege, war and redemption, friendship and love.
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant. This is a book club classic, imagining the dramatic story of the biblical Dinah. It brings ancient times to passionate life and leaves other historical fiction in its own dust.
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. This memoir has you open-mouthed from the opening pages, when the author is in a taxi going to a party and passes her homeless mother rooting through a New York city dumpster. The story of Walls’s brilliant, but criminally negligent parents may inspire book club members to reveal their own childhood horrors, but none will top the author’s.
Of course, you still want to choose offbeat books that you won’t find at Costco. And it’s true that books people loathe often inspire the finest discussions. But if you select any of the five above, you won’t be subject to a fellow reader’s wrath, as I was recently. “You’re the one who picked Blink?” my book club friend said, “I absolutely hated that book!”
I replied with the most cutting line I could muster, “My other book club loved it.”
