I have a long commute to and from work every day so when I decided that I would like to join a book club, I really wanted to find one that was close to my home. After looking for a while I decided instead to start up a group of my own. It turned out to be quite easy to do and our small group has now been meeting regularly for almost three years.
Many book club members complain that they spend all their time reading the club choices and rarely get to read the books they would select if left to their own devices. There is some truth in this but the benefit, of course, is that the club challenges you to read outside your comfort zone and that can be extremely rewarding.
It is a good idea – particularly if your club members work full time, to choose a shorter book every so often. Here are five novels that are interesting enough to give your book club lots to talk about but that won’t take too long to read.
The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. A short, perfect novel with not a word too many used by the author.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy A moving post-apocalyptic novel centered on a father-son relationship.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. Innocent and sad.
Atonement by Ian McEwan. Love, war, lies, and class prejudice in a quintessentially English setting.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote. The heroine, Holly Golightly, is one of fiction’s best-known characters. She was portrayed by Audrey Hepburn in the movie version but the novel is darker than the movie. More novella than novel but an interesting book club selection with the potential to provoke discussion on society and morality.
Each of the novels on this list also has a movie tie-in that your club could perhaps get together to watch.
