13 Fantastic Books Sure to Get Your Book Club Talking

June 16 2016
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At Off the Shelf, we not only love to write about great books we’ve read, we also love to talk about them endlessly—inside the office and out (where it’s more acceptable to drink wine). We’ve collected these fantastic titles that are perfect for book clubs because they incite thoughtful reflection, introduce readers to worlds they’ve never experienced before, and are beautifully written.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
by Ann Patchett

Blending literature and memoir, THIS IS THE STORY OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE stretches from Ann Patchett’s childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one. She writes eloquently about family and friends, the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.

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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Ann Patchett

13 Fantastic Books Sure to Get Your Book Club Talking

At Off the Shelf, we not only love to write about great books we’ve read, we also love to talk about them endlessly—inside the office and out (where it’s more acceptable to drink wine). We’ve collected these fantastic titles that are perfect for book clubs because they incite thoughtful reflection, introduce readers to worlds they’ve never experienced before, and are beautifully written.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

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Brick Lane
by Monica Ali

After an arranged marriage, Nazneen leaves her home and heart in Bangladesh for the mysterious and challenging city life of London, where she grows to be a devoted wife and mother. To her own amazement, when she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos.

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Brick Lane
Monica Ali

After an arranged marriage, Nazneen leaves her home and heart in Bangladesh for the mysterious and challenging city life of London, where she grows to be a devoted wife and mother. To her own amazement, when she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos.

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Breath, Eyes, Memory
by Edwidge Danticat

At the age of twelve, Sophie is sent to New York from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets, Haiti. But when she later returns home, she finds a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence. This passionate novel bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of her family and of Haitian culture.

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Breath, Eyes, Memory
Edwidge Danticat

At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti—to the women who first reared her. At an astonishingly young age, Edwidge Danticat has become one of our most celebrated new novelists, a writer who evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Haiti—and the enduring strength of Haiti’s women—with a vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people’s suffering and courage.

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Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese

Twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon, Marion and Shiva come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. CUTTING FOR STONE is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, and of two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

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Cutting for Stone
Abraham Verghese

Born of a secret union between an Indian woman and a British surgeon and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, twin brothers come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

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In a Dark, Dark Wood
by Ruth Ware

When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.

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In a Dark, Dark Wood
Ruth Ware

During a weekend away with a friend in an eerie glass house, crime writer Leonora wakes up in a hospital bed injured wondering not “What happened?” but “What have I done?” This one is for fans of GONE GIRL and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN.

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
by Fredrik Backman

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her eccentric grandmother is Elsa’s best—and only—friend. When she dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa discovers that her greatest adventure is just beginning. This is the heartfelt and humorous second novel from the author of A MAN CALLED OVE.

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My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Fredrik Backman

This warmhearted love letter between a granddaughter and her grandmother explores big emotions with wisdom and charm.

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The Sandcastle Girls
by Chris Bohjalian

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian Genocide during WWI, she falls in love with a young Armenian engineer. Years later, their American granddaughter embarks on a journey through her family’s history, uncovering a powerful story of love, loss, and secrets.

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The Sandcastle Girls
Chris Bohjalian

When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 to help deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian Genocide during WWI, she falls in love with a young Armenian engineer. Years later, their American granddaughter embarks on a journey through her family’s history, uncovering a powerful story of love, loss, and secrets.

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MENTIONED IN:

13 Fantastic Books Sure to Get Your Book Club Talking

By Erica Nelson | June 16, 2016

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The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver

Set against the Congo’s fight for independence from political occupation and economic influence, the wife and four daughters of a fierce evangelical Baptist reconstruct the story of their family patriarch and question their own roles in the destructive actions of the West in Africa.

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The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver

This family epic set in the Belgian Congo in 1959 is narrated by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist missionary. Told over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa, it is the story of one family and one nation’s tragic undoing.

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Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
by Tom Franklin

Seamlessly blending elements of crime and Southern literary fiction, CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER is the powerful and resonant story of two boyhood friends. Torn apart by circumstance, they are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small Mississippi town.

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Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Tom Franklin

Seamlessly blending elements of crime and Southern literary fiction, CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER is the powerful and resonant story of two boyhood friends. Torn apart by circumstance, they are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small Mississippi town.

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The Silent Sister
by Diane Chamberlain

Riley MacPherson’s entire life was shaped by the belief that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. More than twenty years later, she finds evidence that Lisa is alive. Her subsequent discoveries will put everything she thought she knew about her family into question.

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The Silent Sister
Diane Chamberlain

Riley MacPherson’s entire life was shaped by the belief that her older sister Lisa committed suicide as a teenager. More than twenty years later, she finds evidence that Lisa is alive. Her subsequent discoveries will put everything she thought she knew about her family into question.

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MENTIONED IN:

13 Fantastic Books Sure to Get Your Book Club Talking

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People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks

This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript, from fifteenth-century Spain to war-torn Bosnia. It falls to a renowned book conservator and a young librarian who risked his live to save it to discover its secrets and piece together the mystery of its miraculous survival.

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People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks

This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript, from fifteenth-century Spain to war-torn Bosnia. It falls to a renowned book conservator and a young librarian who risked his live to save it to discover its secrets and piece together the mystery of its miraculous survival.

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Guests on Earth
by Lee Smith

In a seamless blending of fiction and fact, GUESTS ON EARTH tells the story of Evalina, an orphaned thirteen-year-old who is admitted to a mental institution in North Carolina in 1936 where she is taken under the wing of Highland Hospital’s most notable patient, Zelda Fitzgerald.

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Guests on Earth
Lee Smith

In a seamless blending of fiction and fact, GUESTS ON EARTH tells the story of Evalina, an orphaned thirteen-year-old who is admitted to a mental institution in North Carolina in 1936 where she is taken under the wing of Highland Hospital’s most notable patient, Zelda Fitzgerald.

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The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
by Joel Dicker

A fast-paced literary thriller perfect for book clubs. Upon hearing that his mentor, Harry Quebert, has been implicated in a cold-case murder, writer Marcus Goldman sets out to discover what really happened. To save Harry, his own writing career, and eventually even himself, Marcus writes a book that will solve the crime.

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The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
Joel Dicker

A fast-paced literary thriller perfect for book clubs. Upon hearing that his mentor, Harry Quebert, has been implicated in a cold-case murder, writer Marcus Goldman sets out to discover what really happened. To save Harry, his own writing career, and eventually even himself, Marcus writes a book that will solve the crime.

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MENTIONED IN:

13 Fantastic Books Sure to Get Your Book Club Talking

By Erica Nelson | June 16, 2016

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