There are books, and then there are book club books. The sign of the later is when you’re finished reading it, you want to discuss it with someone else who has read it. So, here are ten books, published in the past year or two, good for discussion at book clubs everywhere…..except mine of course, where the majority prefer light and fluffy (see last week’s Beach Reads). Not that there’s anything wrong with those, (I read both) but the ideal book club selection should have enough material in it for a lively discussion. (I’ve critiqued the cover art too…although this batch is not as good as last weeks, but it’s what’s inside that counts!)

A Great Country – Shilpi Samaya Gouda

Family saga.  For the Shahs, Indian immigrants who came to America twenty years ago, the move to a lovely upscale Pacific Heights neighbourhood is the culmination of a dream, until their 12 year old son is arrested in a violent encounter with police.  For their three children born and raised in America, success is not so simple.  Themes – immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege. I enjoyed her other books, especially her first, Secret Daughter.

One Perfect Couple – Ruth Ware

Psychological Suspense, reminiscent of Agatha Christies And Then There Were None. Things are not going well for Lyla and her actor boyfriend, until he auditions for a reality TV show in England and wins.  They are whisked away to a small island in the Pacific with five other couples, and things are fine until a storm hits, the film crew suddenly departs, and the couples are left alone as a killer stalks among them.  Deprived of their cell phones the group must band together for survival.  As tensions run high and supplies run low, Lyla finds this game show is all too real, and the stakes are life and death.  Although Ruth Ware is one of my favorite authors, I wasn’t prepared to like this book as much as I did, given my general dislike of reality tv shows, but I found it very suspenseful, with a truly surprising ending.  I won’t reveal the theme, but it’s sort of like Lord of the Flies for adults, with a twist.  I think this is her best book yet.

The God of the Woods – Liz Moore

Psychological suspense and family drama.  August 1975, early morning in the Adirondack Mountains, a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk.  Barbara Van Laar, the 13-year-old daughter of the affluent family who owns the summer camp, has gone missing, prompting a massive search.  But this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared, her older brother vanished 14 years ago, never to be found.  A real page turner, with a satisfying ending.

A Calamity of Souls – David Baldacci

Historical fiction/courtroom drama.  South Virginia, 1968, the civil rights movement is raging.  A young white male lawyer teams up with a female black lawyer from Chicago to represent a black man wrongly accused of brutally killing his wealthy white employers.  Fast paced, good characterization, and a riveting court case, with a surprise ending.  Wow – is all I can say, this was one of the best books I read last year. Lots to discuss, racism, the civil rights movement, a bygone era that’s starting to look familiar again.

The Briar Club – Kate Quinn

Historical Fiction. Washington DC 1950, a story of friendship and secrets in a female boarding house during the McCarthy era.  Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, until a mysterious widow with secrets of her own, arrives and starts to hold weekly dinner parties in her room.  The book opens with a dead body upstairs and the women must decide who is the true enemy in their midst.  I had never read anything set in the McCarthy era, so I enjoyed this immensely.

Those People Next Door – Kia Abdullah

A gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours.  Salma Khatun is hopeful that the safe suburban neighbourhood they have just moved to, is a fresh start for her family and teenage son, but not long after they move in, the man next door rips out the anti-racist banner she put on her front lawn.  She doesn’t confront him as she wants to fit in, so she moves the banner inside and puts it in her window, only to wake the next morning to find her window smeared with paint.  Things escalate from there and battle lines are drawn, while they are unaware their two sons have become friends.

The Women – Kristen Hannah

Historical drama about the forgotten role of women in the Vietnam war.  21-year-old Frankie, a sheltered young woman from an affluent military family, enlists as a nurse during the Vietnam War.  The story follows her tours of duty and the decades thereafter.  I found this story fascinating and disturbing as all war stories are, particularly as I had never read anything set in Vietnam.    

The Berry Pickers – Amanda Peters

Family saga/mystery.  July 1962 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl from Nova Scotia goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, where her family travels for work every summer, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors and remains unsolved for fifty years.  Meanwhile a young girl grows up in Maine, the only daughter of affluent parents, never quite fitting in, until she searches for the truth about her family.   A debut novel by a Canadian author, very good.

One of the Good Guys – Araminta Hall

Psychological thriller/mystery.  “Hall’s feminist tour de force, shines a light on how easy it can be for strong women to be coerced and manipulate by ’good men’….and how easily these men hide in plain sight.”  

How often have you heard a divorced woman say – I thought I married one of the good ones?  Two people meet in a small coastal British village and think they know each other, until two female hikers are declared missing from the same area. Honestly, this book just creeped me out, as it was meant to, particularly the good guy character.  Totally amazing plot twists made for a very bold statement at the end.

The Midnight Feast – Lucy Foley

Psychological thriller/mystery.  A multi-character novel about a reunion that turns deadly at a luxury resort in the English countryside. When a body is discovered on the opening night in an adjacent wood all the secrets of the past come spilling out at the midnight feast.  The founder of the resort, one of those perfect influencer types, was especially well done, and justice was served like desert at the end.  Easily her most riveting book yet.

I love it when my favourite authors just keep getting better and better.  I wonder how they can keep coming up with such amazing ideas and plots which also make for a great discussion.   I would like to start my own book club someday, but have you ever tried to coordinate the schedules of a bunch of retired people…

Happy Reading!