Top Ten Tuesday (117)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature meme 

created by The Broke and the Bookish.

This Tuesday's theme is...

Top Ten Books I'd Love to Read with My Book Club

Despite the fact that I'm a part of two book clubs (one meets in person and is The Book Club That Shall Not Be Named, and the other is an online one spread across multiple time zones that's mainly full of discussions and chit-chat, though we are doing a reading challenge this year), this topic was hard. I decided to focus on what I call my in-real-life book club, since I physically go to it, and because we read a book a month and what we read is pretty varied: from Dorothy Must Die to The Night Circus to Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, our list of books is eclectic. And with a group of about ten people or so, our reading tastes are eclectic, too (whenever it's my turn to put a book up for vote, I always go YA and hope they'll love it). But trying to think of ten books I'd want to read with my book club-and that they might like--was hard, so I switched it up. Here are my four favorite books I read in book club last year (out of about ten or so, and I didn't read every month's pick), and six books I'd like to read with book club and hope they'd like.

Favorite Picks

In the Woods by Tana French: I missed the meeting when this was discussed, but no one liked it. Except for me, that is. I freaking loved it, and am glad book club gave me the chance to read this fantastic murder mystery with a ship I very much shipped.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: This was just magical. Short and sweet and strange, too. But magical.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab: When I recommend this one, people were interested in the whole superhero/villain thing it had going on. For the most part, I think book club was a fan of this. I was, too--I loved the characters, and I didn't mind how the POVs worked, and, oh, I could picture this as a movie--but my gosh, I need a sequel.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: If people in book club had a problem with this it's because they were big fans of the time period or history buffs, which makes sense, so they had certain expectations. The only expectations I had were that this book was very good and that I would cry. Both ended up being true.

Books I'd Recommend

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson: This was my favorite book of 2012 and I absolutely adore it. I'd love to have book club read it and see what they think. At the same time, I'm afraid to share this wonderful book with them, and I'm scared they won't like it.

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier: I read this book for school years and, surprisingly, was a big fan. I need more people to read it and its greatness. I'll start with book club.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: I'm actually reading this now (NO SPOILERS), but it'd be pretty interesting to see how book club would discuss it.

In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall: We did read a memoir last year, but it would be interesting to read a biography, nonfiction-esque book like this. I read part of it for a class--Primatology, I think--and really, really liked it. Plus, it's Jane Goodall!

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven: In the height of The Fault in Our Stars buzz, this seems to be the next big sappy love story. I don't know if this is something book club would like or dislike. I, on the other hand, would probably cry for days (NO SPOILERS).

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton: Book club was a big fan of the magical realism-filled The Ocean at the End of the Lane, so I'd recommend this.

Are you in a book club? Do you wish you were a part of one? If you were/are in a book club, what books would you recommend for everyone to read?