At least once a year I like to blog about books I think would make for good book club discussions. After attending my book club meeting yesterday, I decided to address the topic again on this blog. In our group we discussed Jaime Ford’s Love and Other Consolation Prizes, a historical novel about a young half Chinese boy in early 1960s’ Seattle. All of us liked it. When all of us like a book, though, it seems that our discussion is not as lively or lengthy, and that was the case yesterday. We agreed that it’s a sweet story.

Here is a short list of books I’ve read this past year that I think might lead to lively discussions because possibly not all readers will have the same response to them:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is a classic children’s sci-fi/fantasy tale. Children’s books can be good choices for adult discussion groups. L’Engle raises important issues with universal themes: love conquers all, the power to overcome fear, the value of being a unique individual.

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. This will certainly be made into a film because it’s an exciting and suspenseful thriller. I think it would spark discussion in a book club meeting because of some of its implausible plot points and its whodunit aspect.

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. Though this wonderful novel doesn’t have a big plot, or much of a plot at all, there is a lot here to spur discussion: family rivalries, dealing with illness and death, economic struggles, and more.

The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera, is a YA novel with a spunky, but impulsive, lead character. It raises issues of how we struggle to fit in (even as adults we deal with this) and learning to make good decisions.

The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies is actually a collection of four distinct stories that focus on the challenges that Chinese Americans face in America with assimilation, bigotry, and acceptance. Sometimes it’s good to get discussion going with topics that might be new and fresh for readers.