Books I'd love to read if I had a book club!
Noor's Picks
I just recently finished Gone Girl (look out for a review next month) and I think this book would be absolutely perfect for a book club because there is so much I want to discuss about it. From the shift in voice of one character to the changing perspectives to the fact that you don't know whether or not this man killed his wife, this book, in three wonderfully written parts, packs in so much commentary about human nature, relationships, and even psychology and it's something that would definitely be experienced well with a group.
Neil Gaiman is my absolute favorite author and I actually think absolutely every one of his books should be a book club book, but I picked this one this time. American Gods deals with a lot of interesting themes about mythology and Gods and meshes them together with a story about an ex-convict. There's a lot to the book and there's so much to talk about and so many different things to take away that I think it's an experience best shared!
As I've mentioned before, I'm a huge Jodi Picoult fan. This is definitely one of my favorite books by her, if not my absolute favorite (it's just so hard to pick). As with Neil Gaiman's books, many of her books could be book club material, but I chose this one in particular because I thought I'd enjoy the discussion and potential debates that would ensue. I won't ramble on about the plot here (just click one of those links above and read the blurb) but I think the main lawsuit that takes place throughout the novel would be a great talking point because of the controversy surrounding it in the book. And then there's the ending, I know I wanted to discuss that after I read it!
Another favorite of mine, this is a children's book that is much, much more than a children's book. Even if you're not in a book club you should read this book at least once (a sentiment I expressed when I reviewed it last year). I'd love to read it if I had a book club because first of all, I just love talking about this book. Also, there's just so much to gain from the drawings and the musings and sharing in the wonder seems like a fantastic idea to me.
After both the book and the movie became fairly popular a few years ago, I'm sure most of you are familiar with (or at least with the idea of) the story of the boy stranded in the ocean with a Bengal tiger. I love not only the way the book is written and would totally enjoy talking about that (and other aspects of the book) in a group, but I love books that ask questions and this one asks a pretty interesting one about reality at the end, so I'd like to see people's thoughts on that.
Marlon's Picks
This book has gotten me and a few others through a lot of tough times. It's Hitchens's most genuine, down-to-earth writing. None of the pedantry and affinity for long-winded tangents appears. It is simply an unfinished meditation on how one dies (unfinished because the author died while writing it). Though it seems very personal, I find that the ideas presented in the book are really quite difficult to unravel by yourself and I would love to discuss it with more people.
This is a novel that's actually gotten people killed.
I think it's one of the most important pieces of literature to have ever existed. Not only does it ask its readers to celebrate our "mongrel" nature in the world, and to use our oppressor's language against them, and offer a solution to the problem of language, it marks one of the first major, comprehensive criticisms of Islam from a writer who comes from a non-Western cultural history (though this criticism is only part of a bigger take on systems of knowledge, which is damn awesome). The problem is, it can't be read by itself, one has to prepare by having read, at the very least, Plato's Republic, Voltaire's Candide, Mrs. Dalloway, and Duras's script for Hiroshima Mon Amour. Otherwise, its depth and scope leave most of its critics and supporters unable to actually finish the novel. But, just, wow. This novel seriously changed my life and I would love to discuss it with others.
Cassandra Clare
The Mortal Instruments # 6
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This book is just absolutely huge. There is so much jam packed into these 725 pages that it just blows me away. The way she sets up for another series while concluding the one at hand, the way the characters interact and their developments come to what is presented as a kind of closure. There's just so much in this novel to talk about and I feel a group setting would really be awesome for that. Perhaps we can discuss it at a gig for Simon's band.
This novel is just so beautiful. The meshing of magic and reality, the way memories find us and what we do with them, how the past haunts us and so much more are all intertwined with two tales: one of a man visiting his old home, and one of and one of another man, years earlier, killing himself and setting a kind of darkness that haunts the boy. It's hauntingly good and one of my favorite works so I'd love to hear what others say about it!
Westerfeld kind of creates a part-map, part-list on the problems one might face in the literary world. The book has its fair shares of downs, like a bit of a lucky narrator, I'll admit now, but it also has a strong sense of sincerity and genuine criticism and praise of the world a writer may enter if she can make it. There is tragedy, the looming sense of Imposter Syndrome, the conflation of really polished writing and really not so polished writing . . . yeah there's a hell of a lot to talk about with this book let's do it.
What 2014 releases did you mean to read?
Let us know in the comments!
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