Staff Picks: Book Club Picks for Engaging Discussion
by emjane
Every good book does not make for a good book club selection – and sometimes you don’t know until it’s too late and your group’s discussion peters out at “well, I enjoyed reading it.” Luckily, your local library has your back! Here are four books that I absolutely loved that also happen to make for great discussion. Conveniently, all four are offered as part of our “Book Clubs to Go” collection (and so are a bunch more titles). What is a Book Club to Go, you ask? It’s a handy-dandy, heavy-duty tote bag, filled with ten copies of the same title and a packet of information about the book, including discussion questions. The only thing you’ll have to provide are the refreshments!
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel | Request a Copy | Request a Book Club to Go
A fast-moving pandemic devastates the world, leaving just a small percentage of people – and almost no infrastructure – behind. Jumping between perspectives and timelines, Emily St. John Mandel tells the stories of some of these survivors and their descendants, as they make their way through western Michigan. Tense, beautiful, and thought-provoking, this literary page-turner brought plenty to talk about to my book club.
Other than books I read as a child, I don’t think I’ve read any book more than Station Eleven, and each read brings new things to think about (particularly the latest read, my first after the Covid pandemic.) HBO’s adaption is also well-worth the watch, but don’t think you can cheat your way through book club on watching it alone – while it’s very true to the spirit of the book, the plot goes in different directions.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande | Request a Copy | Request a Book Club to Go
Being Mortal is the perfect selection for a book club that likes to have deep discussions, but doesn’t have much time to read. This small book, which wrestles with the concepts of aging and death (but somehow not in a depressing way?) is a fast read, but even if you don’t have time to finish the whole thing, you can still make meaningful contributions to the group discussion. Don’t have time to read? PBS Frontline did an hour-long special on Being Mortal that gives you the gist of the book (and you can stream it FOR FREE with your AADL account)
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai | Request a Copy | Request a Book Club to Go
In The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai brings us into Chicago’s gay community in the 1980s through the perspective of quiet protagonist, Yale. Though initially Yale’s conflicts come from missteps at parties and drama at work, slowly the AIDS epidemic emerges and devastates his existence. Intertwined with this storyline is a thread in the present day, where Fiona, former friend of Yale’s, is attempting to track down her missing estranged daughter. Though these storylines initially don’t seem connected, Makkai deftly brings us into both characters’ occasionally intersecting worlds. Emotional, but not without joy and humor, The Great Believers is a meaningful character study and illuminates the destruction AIDS brought to so many in the 80s and 90s.
There There by Tommy Orange | Request a Copy | Request a Book Club to Go
What does it mean to be a modern Native person? Many of the numerous narrators within There There wrestle with their identities – as Natives, as friends, and as family. Loosely centered around a pow-wow – one where, early on, the reader realizes something terrible may happen – There There’s narrative tension and perspective shifting propels the reader forward.
If you don’t have time to read this book, make time. But if you can’t make time to read the entire volume, at least read the prologue, which could stand on its own as an essay. I’ve discussed this book with two different book clubs, and it makes me wish I had a third so that I could keep processing this work with thoughtful readers.
Want some extra credit reading? Anton Treuer’s Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians but were Afraid to Ask provides great context. And, yes, it also is available as a Book Club to Go!
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