My Top Ten Books for Book Groups (Fiction)

Ran into friend Jenn B. last night and she mentioned that she sometimes looks at elliotsreading for suggestions for her book group (Thanks, Jenn!), so I'm going to offer some - the Top Ten Books for Book Groups. I've been in a couples book group for almost 20 years, and we've covered a lot of ground - almost exclusively fiction. This list is the ones I can think of (off the top of my head) that have been the most universally liked and led to the best discussions. We've found that short novels or even novellas work very well, short stories are problematic (but I might have some suggestions in a later post). I'm leaving off a few personal faves that not everyone in the group liked (Emperor's Children, Gorgeous Lies, for example) as well as some true classics that I loved reading but may be too daunting for all but the most adamant book groups (The Inferno, The Past Regained, e.g.). So here are ten that worked really well for us, in no order:

The Age of Innocence (Wharton) - or almost any of her classics
The Periodic Table (Levi)
A Month in the Country (Carr?) - a great novella!
The Light in the Piazza - we read it before the musical came out - both great!
So Long, See You Tomorrow (Maxwell) - possibly the top of the list. Every serious reader ought to read this one.
The Known World. Perhaps the best American novel of the past 10 years.
The Remains of the Day. Better if you haven't seen the movie.
Billy Budd. I'd love to see the opera someday.
Housekeeping (Robinson) - people had strong and divergent opinions on this one.
Atonement (MacEwan) - Again, better if you haven't seen the movie; also controversial, especially the ending.

That should keep you going for a year (with a summer interlude)!