What Is the Best Book Your Book Club Has Read?

A club member recommended the graphic novel Maus, by Art Speigelman, and it really opened our eyes and hearts to the horrors of the Holocaust.
Tammy Behrman
Bloomington, Indiana

 

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, was our best book-club pick. I never imagined reading something written by an economist. I usually have a hard time reading nonfiction, but I raced through this book in two days. Most of all, I appreciated how I grew as a reader.
Mollie Surguine
Scottsdale, Arizona

 

Although we usually read fiction, the choice of this book was unanimous, which had never happened before: Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. The writing is incredibly engaging, and the book is thought provoking to say the least. It allowed us to let down our guard and talk about more intimate topics, such as politics and religion, than we would normally have done.
Terilyn Hernandez
Canton, Missouri

 

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. This novel tells a story of a group of very different people from different walks of life who are thrown together under difficult circumstances (held hostage by terrorists). Despite the adversity they all experience, the situation brings out the best in each person. It’s a story of how friendship and love evolve in the most unusual of settings―a real inspiration when discussed in the context of today’s chaotic world.
Cindy Hartley
Hartsville, South Carolina

 

My book club loved the wonderfully developed Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl. The title alone had us talking for hours. The bourbon we sipped helped, too.
Kate Johnson
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

 

Blindness, by Jose Saramago, sparked so much discussion of so many topics, including Saramago’s style of writing, government response to disaster, and even a comparison to Camus. As a bunch of 40-something professional women living in New York City, we usually have wildly varying strong opinions about whatever we read―love it or hate it. This was the first (and last) book we read that everyone liked―for wildly different reasons, of course.
Brenna Stewart-Torres
New York, New York

 

A favorite read of my culinary book club was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. It truly made us think about the processed foods we consume and how we can better support local food producers.
Michelle Murray
Concord, Ohio

 

My mom, my sisters, my nieces, and I started the Three Generations Book Club. The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan, about survivors of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, was the best book because my mom grew up during the Depression and shared her insights.
Judith Leavitt
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 

Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel. We sat on our host’s porch as a storm rolled in. We felt rain on our faces, heard thunder, and then ate cookies by candlelight. The book is about senses, and all of ours were touched that night.
Marta Perez
Arlington, Virginia
 

Looking for more book suggestions? Check out Real Simple’s No-Obligation Book Club.