Help - I need to choose a book for my book club.

The Outcasts of Time by Ian Mortimer. Ian Mortimer is a historian, who has written several Time Travellers guides - eminently readable books about different periods of history. This one is his first work of fiction and is about two stonemasons in 1348, who are walking home to Devon from Winchester, where they have been working on the new cathedral. They catch the Black Death on the way and one of them has a vision where he can either die that night or move forward 99 years each day for the next week and prolong his life. A beautiful, moving book and historically extremely accurate.

Anything by Anne Tyler, Matt Haig , Jane Harper.
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
Eleanor Oliphaunt is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Hamnet or anything by Maggie O Farrell
Anything by Kate Atkinson

I could go on!

My suggestion is the last runaway by Tracey Chevalier, the author of The Girl with the Pearl Earring, which if you havent already read it is a great read about rembrandts household seen from the view of a servant girl. The Last Runaway concerns a quaker girl leaving england and going with her sister to america. It is well researched and has very believable plot lines of quakers , quilting and slavery. I do not want to spoil the plot but the rather good and believable line is that the girl is so seasick even though it was a calm crossing ,that she realizes that she has , so to speak, burnt her boats ;and could never go back to britain as she could not face another sea journey. This rather clever part of the plot puts somewhat of a different slant on her journey. Have suggested this to many different people and the various parts of the plot appeal to them as the actual background is very believeable and gives you a sense of what going to america meant in those days. Hope you enjoy it

American Dirt by Jeannine Cummins is a great read and plenty of topics for discussion afterwards.

Flowers for Algernon

midgey

Have you read The Salt Path by Raynor Winn? She has written another called The Wild Silence which I think I enjoyed more.

The Salt Path would be my recommendation too. A great book and inspired me to join a virtual walking challenge. However, I enjoyed The Salt Path more than The Wild Silence.

where the cawdads sing =brilliant book great for a book club

The Island, Victoria Hislop and the sequel One August Night.

Just Once by Lori Handeland. Best book I have read in ages

I have recently read some of Dorothy L Sayers books having read somewhere that Prince Philip used to read them in down time when his ship during the war, and a friend in Switzerland coincidentally asked me to get hold of a copy of one of her spiritual books for her. Just finished The Nine Tailors and thoroughly enjoyed it. Old-fashioned elements, and of its time, but beautifully written, more complex than Agatha Christie. Am going to read more of her work. Also re-reading PG Wodehouse Mike and Psmith, came across it while having a clear-out of books, and had forgotten how laugh-out-loud funny it is.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

All the light you cannot see.
By Anthony Doerr. Brilliant, well written and thought provoking.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Speak Okinawa by Elizabeth Miki Brina.

Route 66 and all that by paul strong. A bit different from the usual novel. Very funny, think Bill Bryson meets Gervais Phinn. An essential read,great travel book.

l would defo recomend Our House its brilliant, so different.

Lucca

MagicWand
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

Another one by the same author “Rules of Civility”. Excellent

Thank you Lucca, I've put it on my 'To Be Read list!

I was in a pre-COVID book club and the lady running didn’t want people to have to spend money on books, so there was an arrangement with the local library. They provided the requisite number of books from lists they compiled. The books all had to have been published for at least a year, I believe. It worked well for us!
I know it’s an older book, but a previous club introduced me to ‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith, which I really enjoyed.

We collected together about twenty different genres of books -
travel, book adapted for TV, crime, Best seller etc
Each one was numbered and then we picked that genre which gave us a focus for the book each month.

Here is a very different kind of book "Dibs in search of Self" - which is so good it is still in print after decades, and is by Virginia Axline. Its a true story and much is based on verbatim accounts of conversations, with a young boy being helped to 'find himself' . Once you get into it , it is as gripping as any novel and full of insights and understanding.
And thank you for all the excellent recommendations here!

I would thoroughly recommend The Curious Charms or Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick. This is a thoroughly interesting read which has stayed with me for a long long while. It's a story of a husband and wife and he has found a charm bracelet of his wifes and that starts the story...... I wont spoil the adventures but enjoy the journey. This is author that writes enjoyable stories. Hope you and your book club will try this.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Anything by Jessie Burton - but especially The Miniaturist which I couldn't put down and the Muse. A book by Laline Paull called The Bees - an allegorical tale which will wring emotion out of every pore. Truly excellent

The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brian. All human life and emotion is there, even though it is set in a nunnery - fascinating.

No Borrhead I will certainly look into that. Thank you

dragonfly46 do you use The Pigeonhole app? It offers books in ‘staves’ usually over ten days. But - you can create your own book club to read the books on offer. There are some which are just about to be published, some new authors and some classics to chose from. It also means that longer books don’t seem so daunting as you are only reading about thirty pages or so per day.