Help Me Choose My Book Club's Next Read

Discussion in 'TMB Book Club' started by Trip McNeely, Jul 3, 2022.

  1. Trip McNeely

    Trip McNeely Guys like us....we are a dime a dozen
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    I joined an established book group this year, and my turn for choosing the next read is almost upon me. As the newcomer to the group I want to pick something good and I'm overthinking things, so I'm coming to you guys for some help. The group is mix of guys in our mid/late 30's to early 40's. I'm also responsible for choosing a whiskey to bring, so feel free to give some suggestions on that as well.

    The books that have been chosen so far:
    • Sapiens - Yuval Harari
    • A Happy Death - Albert Camus
    • Escape from Camp 14 - Blaine Harden
    • Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
    • In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
    • Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
    • How to Change Your Mind - Michael Pollan
    • Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine
    • Exhalation - Ted Chiang
    • The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman
    • The Joke's Over - Ralph Steadman
    • Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse
    • Walkaway - Cory Doctorow
    • Open City - Teju Cole
    • The Sellout - Paul Beatty
    • Reincarnation Blues - Michael Poore
    • The Deficit Myth - Stephanie Kelton
    • The Topeka School - Ben Lerner
    • Being Heumann - Judith Heumann
    • Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
    • Empire of the Summer Moon - S.C. Gwynne
    Books I'm currently considering are The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, and The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. I think I'm leaning towards a novel but open to anything well-written and thought provoking.
     
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  2. The Blackfish

    The Blackfish The Fish in Black
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    The Warmth of Other Suns would be a great choice.

    also anything by Naomi Klein. The Shock Doctrine is my favorite but No Logo is really good too.
     
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  3. The Blackfish

    The Blackfish The Fish in Black
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    The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins
     
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  4. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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    Warmth of other Suns is a great read. I think It should be mandatory reading in HS. That said - it’s pretty damn long. May not be the best for a book club. Also, it’s more straight history than anything else


    I think Caste by Wilkerson would be a better choice for book club. It’s history but also leans more into themes and ideas that would make for good book club discourse.

    Coates is a great author and writer but Water Dancer sucked imo. His fiction needs more work

    Other good Nonfiction for book club
    Invisible Child - Andrea Elliot
    The Sum of Us - Heather McGhee
    Reign of Terror - Spencer Ackerman
    Unfollow - Megan Phelps-Roper

    Suggestions for thought provoking novels
    Machinehood by SB Divya
    The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennet
    Black Buck- Mateo Askaripour
    Space between Worlds - Miciah Johnston
    A Burning - Megha Majumdar
    Sea of Tranquility- Emily St John Mandel
     
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  5. The Blackfish

    The Blackfish The Fish in Black
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    I will also 2nd Caste

    I thought Vanishing Half was good not great.
     
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  6. Shawn Hunter

    Shawn Hunter Vote Corey Matthews for Congress
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    If you're in a book club, I'm guessing most of these books have already been read but I don't read as much I would like to and these are a few of the read ebooks I have on my Kindle

    Pride and PRejudice - Jane Austen
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
    My Losing Season - Pat Conroy
    A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard
    The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Basketball Junkie - Chris Herren and Bill Reynolds
    The Sun Does Shine - Anthony Ray Hinton
    Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
    Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
    The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
     
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  7. TC

    TC Peter, 53, from Toxteth
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    How about Killers Of The Flower Moon or Devil In The White City?