I would really just like to know how often you meet. Some of the books are so long. My book club is in Berlin and the members are reading in a foreign language so we are always looking for something relatively short. To read ‘James’ we’ll have to skip another monthly meeting. Unless anybody else has a better idea.
We meet monthly except for July. I didn’t read it in a foreign language but James goes pretty quickly. James and Huck will be placed in August for extra reading time. There are several longer books on the list this time. I suspect most won’t get chosen for that reason.
But James contains so much dialect that it’ll be difficult for non-natives! Congratulations to you.
@Alison_Pask The Door-to-Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn is perhaps a book your group might enjoy. It is a short charming book which would allow discussion about many of the characters. It was originally written in German and translated into English. It is brilliantly written but with straight forward language. It is truly a hidden gem of a book.
2 Likes
Thank you for the idea - I will look it up myself. As my members are German speakers and, hence, also German readers, they may well know the book in German, even if I don’t. Actually we don’t read anything translated - is that very snobbish? There are so many books written by genuine English speakers. We did read ‘When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit’ a while ago, which is naturally very well-known in Germany, but she actually wrote it in English first, even tho the German is also her own.
But thank you - and please keep the suggestions coming!
@ Alison_Pask
Has your group read any of Lisa See’s books, like Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (based in China) or The Island of Sea Women (based in Korea)? The books are about 350 pages, historical fiction but again the wording is straightforward. Also, if your bookclub is primarily female, there could be some fascinating discussions about the women in the book.
Honor by Thrity Umrigar is an excellent book as well. It is about a woman’s return to her home country (India). It is very well-written. One thing though is that it discusses some very difficult topics relative to the treatment of women. As you can imagine, it is not cheery.
Does your bookclub read all genres? Any specific areas of interest?
Have you been in Berlin long? Love Germany. The company I worked for had our EU office in Darmstadt. One of my BFFs now lives in Saarland.
@here I decided we should break the ice in our International category and move this discussion here, I hope that’s ok!
1 Like
I love Lisa See, but we have not had her books recommended.
So many wonderful books to choose from.
1 Like
Maybe look at Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These which made the short list for the 2022 Booker Prize. The book has an amazing depth for such a short book (128 pages) and would provide much to discuss. Keegan’s writing is also a delight—clear, precise, and powerful.
2 Likes
Starting at the easy end, I’ve been here since the early eighties, a few of my readers are in their 80s themselves and we have acquired enough men to consider them in our choices! Our limit in pages is nearer 200 but April won’t take place so we can read Paul Lynch The Prophet for the May meeting.
We certainly don’t talk about crime or detective things as I find that boring in retrospect and it seems we tend on the serious side… Thank you for all your suggestions and I shall look them up as I haven’t heard of any of them. Thanks a lot!
Clare Keegan: yes, absolutely brilliant. As well as my book club I have three groups for English but always with some reading and I ‘drove’ them all through Keegan last Christmas. Now we can go to the film and enjoy it.
Thank you for the background! I will keep the information you mentioned in mind as parameters. The options I mentioned, except for The Door-to-Door Bookstore all tend to be longer and geared to more of a female audience. Will keep thinking of ideas!!!