It’s that time of the year again…please suggest any books that you would like to be considered for our next reading list. This time we are not going to suggest any theme and we will see whether one emerges from the titles proposed! Books (both fiction and non-fiction) can be in any language as long as an English translation is readily available. It would be helpful if you could also write a couple of lines explaining why you think it works as a book club choice. If you proposed a book last year that wasn’t picked last year and are still keen to read it, feel free to include it again. We’ve really enjoyed discovering so many new authors (and revisiting old ones) this year and hope you have too. Looking forward to reading all your suggestions.
Thanks!
Catherine and Betina
13 responses
Hi,
I haven’t been able to attend many meetings this year, but I have read the books and enjoyed them. Next year’s selection pool looks fantastic – just in time for summer!
I want to suggest a book I have not read yet, but I heard a review on the radio of the author Suzumi Izuki and was fascinated. The only English title I found on evial Amazon is Set My Heart on Fire, but I would be happy to read her sci-fi books as well. Set my Heart on Fire is a semi-autobiographical novel set in the Japanese underground music scene of the 70s. Izuki was a model, singer, and writer and she sounds way ahead of her time, kind of like a Japanese David Bowie. Sadly, she committed suicide when she was only 36 years old.
Hi ladies, sorry for my very late response. I have been in the states for 3 weeks with my European phone offline.
My suggestions are:
Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (unless most everyone has already read it)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Sea_Women
Or
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199798201-the-safekeep
Looking forward to a lot of wonderful reading ahead with the great recommendations from all of you!
So many good suggestions here that I don’t feel as though I need to add anything!
Dear readers,
I’d like to suggest a small collection of three short stories by Antonia S. Byatt, the Booker Prize-winning author of “Possession”.
It’s “The Matisse Stories”. I found a review which I like and which I think describes the mood of these stories very effectively and surely better than I could do! (She is one of my favourite writers and I might not be unbiased…)
“Inspired by Matisse paintings, these three splendid stories (two have appeared in the New Yorker) pay homage to the artist as they offer equally memorable verbal portraits of apparently ordinary lives driven by pain and disquiet. Just as Byatt prefaces each story with an appropriate illustration, each also begins on a deceptively simple, even homely note: a middle-aged woman having her hair cut; a mother trying to work at home while she waits for the doctor to check her son’s chicken pox; and a woman meeting a colleague for lunch at the Chinese restaurant she regularly patronizes. But it is soon clear that darker forces are at work here. “
(Kirkus Reviews)
Thank you Betina and Cathy for organising the group!
Francesca
Hi All,
I would like to recommend 3 of my favorite books originally written in Hungarian and translated into English.
The Door by Magda Szabó
A powerful, mysterious story about the relationship between a writer and her housekeeper. It explores themes of trust, guilt, and the complexity of human connection. The novel explores what it means to truly know someone, and how power dynamics shift in unexpected ways.
Embers by Sándor Márai
Set in a decaying Hungarian castle, the novel unfolds over the course of one evening, but it carries the weight of decades of silence, memory, and unresolved emotion. Embers is about two old friends confronting a long-ago betrayal. It explores how time, pride, and unspoken truths shape our relationships.
The White King by György Dragomán
The story is told through the eyes of a young boy living under a totalitarian regime. His innocent, often humorous perspective contrasts sharply with the grim reality around him, making the emotional impact even stronger. The novel explores themes like loss, fear, loyalty, and resilience.
Thanks,
Eszter
I’ve read Embers and it is one of my favourite books ever. Great suggestion!
Here are my suggestions, four books I enjoyed reading and one I enjoyed re reading.
An Imaginative Experience. Mary Wesley. Born in 1912, went to LSE, worked in the War Office and then in antiques. Had her first novel published aged 70. A quirky funny novel about dealing with tragedies. Very witty with close observations of human behaviour.
She’s Not There A Life in Two Genders. Jennifer Finney Boylan. Intelligent look of what it means to love and be loved , feminity is described as James becomes Jenny. Very funny at times, optimistic, zany and absurd but very well written as you would expect from an author of 15 books.
The Offing. Benjamin Myers.
A lovely quiet book which explores love, growing up , friendship and living on your own terms. Full of sunshine and gentleness, which I for one really needed this year. I have not read his other books yet, but I am planning to.
Roman Stories. Jhumpa Lahiri.
She teaches creative writing at Columbia and is a bilingual writer and translator . These stories she wrote in Italian. They explore the meaning of home and exile, insiders and outsiders, natives and foreigners. What does it mean to belong to a language or to belong to a geography that moulds a language?
Other People, A Mystery Story. Martin Amis. I read this years ago and it stuck with me. The main character is in fact haunted by who she is and what she may or may not have done. It’s rather brutal and obsessive but funny too. The characters gradually take shape from their ghostly outlines as beasts, charmers or lost bit players in one of the strangest books I have read.
Again thank you for organizing this group, I have read books I would never have come across by myself and have enjoyed it greatly.
Dear friends,
Here’s my list, consisting of books I’ like to read, except for Jennifer Egan’s book which I did read and loved so much, I want to read it again ASAP
– On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – first novel by Vietnamese American poet, recipient of the MacArthur Grant. I’d never heard of him until I listened to this interview https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/magazine/ocean-vuong-interview.html which made me want to read his work;
– All Fours by Miranda July – July’s latest novel promises to be an interesting take on female identity and desire around menopause. I’m intrigued;
– Matrix by Lauren Groff – Groff’s book was called “… a robust and pleasingly strange piece of historical fiction” by The Times about a medieval female warrior;
– Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. “.. an extraordinary book that roams in space and time, and is lucid and full of curiosity” (Irish Times);
– Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, a memoir by this Australian-American writer, winner of the Pulitzer prize, about dealing with grief after her husband’s sudden death;
– Candy House by Jennifer Egan – my recent favourite, humane and beautiful even if dealing with a potential loss of humanity caused by the onset of brave new technology.
Looking forward to a new season of reading together.
Hello everyone firstly thanks for this my first year in the book club I really enjoyed reading all the options.
For next year’s list I have a few suggestions of all time favourites.
1.Night train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier. It’s my favourite book and I can’t even explain why just found it to be deep in all the right places.
2.Swing time by Zadie Smith. I’ve read a few by her but this one remains a touching story of real friendship.
3.Barcelona by Mary Costello. It’s a collection of short stories and in my opinion the best contemporary writer in Ireland beating Sally Rooney. She writes these short stories which leave a lasting impression and keep you thinking about them
4. If we are going to read any classics then I’d suggest Fiesta the sun also rises by Ernest Hemingway because it’s pure genius.
I’m now curious to read the books suggested on everyone’s lists to start that summer reading so thanks for the tips!
My suggestions:
CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA by Idelfonso Falcones
This book is rather long (624 pages) but it’s a fascinating portrait of 14th century Spain in Barcelona. The construction of the magnificent church of Santa Maria de la Mar is the background to a story of war, love, hatred, the Spanish Inquisition and the life of peasants, noblemen and members of the church in medieval Spain.
THE DROWNING PEOPLE by Richard Mason
The first two sentences: “My wife of more than fifty years shot herself yesterday afternoon. At least that is what the police assume…” introduce a riveting plot of tangled love, secrets and deceits and deaths with a twist to beat all twists at the very 11th hour.-OXFORD TIMES
HOTEL DU LAC by Anita Brookner
Edith Hope, a romance novelist who finds herself exiled to a Swiss hotel after a scandal, is a fascinating character. Her internal conflicts—between independence and societal pressure, between desire and restraint—make her deeply relatable yet enigmatic.
P. s. I forgot to say it’s not a long book, as it could seem by my description, 224 pages only.
Hi readers, I would have 3-4 books to suggest but I prefer this year to pick 1 title only as the subject is really different from anything I’ve read before:
Kukum by Micheal Jean, a biography of the author’s grand mother and a vivid fresco of a land, a community of people, of a life; here a short review:
“A Quebec bestseller based on the life of Michel Jean’s great-grandmother that delivers an empathetic portrait of drastic change in an Innu community. Kukum recounts the story of Almanda Siméon, an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle, who falls in love with a young Innu man despite their cultural differences and goes on to share her life with the Pekuakami Innu community. They accept her as one of their Almanda learns their language, how to live a nomadic existence, and begins to break down the barriers imposed on Indigenous women. Unfolding over the course of a century, the novel details the end of traditional ways of life for the Innu, as Almanda and her family face the loss of their land and confinement to reserves, and the enduring violence of residential schools. Kukum intimately expresses the importance of Innu ancestral values and the need for freedom nomadic peoples feel to this day.”
For a longer one:
https://mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/kukum-michel-jean/
See you soon
Silvia
Hi everyone! Thanks Betina and Catherine for organising this year’s book club.
The following books I enjoyed reading this year and I think could be interesting to discuss. I am glad there is no theme yet since I am such an eclectic reader!
1. The red tent by Anita Diamant. A classic I only discovered now telling an old Testament bible story as a fiction from a female point of view. I enjoyed being able to imagine those stories in my mind with the help of the great writing of Diamant. I had heard the same stories many times as a girl but they were always so dry, just facts.
2. My life with Picasso by Francoise Gilot. I adore the artworks of Picasso and so was interested in this autobiographical work of the only woman that lived with Picasso and left on her own accord. She is an artist herself. The book gives a very interesting historical perspective of the world wars, the Spanish war, life in Paris and the south of France. Also it gives an idea of what it’s like to live with a great artist.
3. Exercised by Daniel Lieberman. Non fiction. This book based on scientific research is about the way we exercise in gyms and swimming pools and by doing extreme things as running marathons. This is compared to the movement that primitive tribes make that live in Mexico and Africa. For me this book was super interesting and a real eye opener on what we’re evolved to be doing with our bodies (e.g walking a lot but slowly the whole day, gathering food) as opposed to what we actually do (sitting on a chair for 8 hours and then jumping up and down for an hour in the gym). It also explains why it’s difficult to change your body weight by exercising and many other super interesting things . Check the reviews on Amazon.
Good luck compiling the list and happy reading all!