Is written between 1970-2023
I'm restarting a book club that my friends and I used to have together.
A few of us (myself included) are primarily library users so we'd prefer books that aren't as new so they're easier to borrow from the library. So ideally at least a couple years old. I have a hard time understanding classics. We tried to read Frankenstein and I just had a hard time digesting it. So no classic recs like Mary Shelley or Ray Bradbury or Jane Austen or William Golding (or Shakespeare) please but we are OK with digestible retellings.
We want to avoid series but are OK with standalones by authors who write series, as long as the books can be understood and enjoyed without having read other books in the series.
We are OK with most genres except no gore. Murder mysteries are fine but more the cozy kind (examples such as Aunty Lee's delights by Ovidia Yu and Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala)
We'd prefer to avoid authors like <spoiler> J.K. Rowling and Neil Gaiman </spoiler> because of who they've turned out to be outside of their books.
Fiction is preferred
If there is sex, prefer fade to black and minimal kissing/intimacy. No romance focused books, romantic subplots are fine as long as they meet the aforementioned requirements.
Books we've liked in the past
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
The house in the cerulean sea by TJ Klune (this was before we knew there'd be a sequel)
Shadows for silence in the forests of hell by Brandon Sanderson
Books we didn't like
The Deep by Nick Cutter (because we found it boring and one reader was very annoyed at the inaccuracies of submarines, the horror sections didn't really affect us at all).
Any suggestions would be appreciated, please let me know if you have any questions.
by Turbulent-Maybe-1040
14 Comments
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin
Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow, maybe? YA horror, no gore, lyrical prose. Completely standalone!
Alas, Babylon by Frank.
The Leopard by Tomasi
I’m wild for Elaine Castillo’s *America Is Not the Heart* (2018). Mohsin Hamid’s *The Reluctant Fundamentalist* is another good one that plays with narratological elements.
*The Once and Future King* by T. H. White.
*Firelord* by Parke Godwin.
Here are a few standalone fiction books published before 1970 that might work for your book club:
* *And Then There Were None* by Agatha Christie (1939): A classic whodunit where a group of strangers are invited to a secluded island and start being murdered one by one. It’s a page-turner with a clever mystery.
* *Gaudy Night* by Dorothy L. Sayers (1935): This is a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery set in a women’s college at Oxford. It’s a bit more academic but still a very engaging and well-plotted mystery with interesting characters.
* *We Have Always Lived in the Castle* by Shirley Jackson (1962): This one is a bit different – a darkly atmospheric and suspenseful story about two sisters living in isolation. It has a unique narrative voice and a slightly unsettling feel that might appeal to those who enjoyed the atmosphere of *Piranesi*.
*Lunar Park* by Bret Easton Ellis
You could read Toni Morrison’s books. They hold up well and most libraries would have multiple copies. Plus, great discussion fodder
Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rawser
The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker
**Can be read as standalones:**
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
Finna by Nino Cipri
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
*The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry*, Gabrielle Zevin
*Delicious*, Ruth Reichl
*The Joy Luck Club*, Amy Tan
*Beautiful Ruins*, Jess Walter
*The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Peel Pie Society*, Mary Ann Shaffer
*Remarkably Bright Creatures*, Shelby Van Pelt
Flowers for Algernon.
I know it’s a bit older, but Night Flight, by Antoine de Saint Exupery is a phenomenal (and easy to read) story. It’s a drama about an air mail delivery during a storm in South America. It’s beautifully written and has a bunch of interesting characters.
Edit: and if you like it, Guerlain released a perfume inspired by the novel called Vol De Nuit that is still made!
Terry Brooks “Magic Kingdom For Sale – Sold!
And there are others in the series if you like that. But it does work as a standalone.
Mary, Nabokov