Books to Read if You Liked Divergent
What Makes a Good Book Club Read?
Whether you've been a member of a book club for a long time, just joined your local chapter of a Silent Book Social club, became a new member of Volume of the Month or — like me — simply decided reading consistently is ane of your easily doable new twelvemonth'due south resolutions, finding the right title tin can be a bit of a challenge.
I'm part of iii different book clubs, each with different levels of commitment, and I only read whatever has been chosen about half of the time, and that'southward being generous. Sometimes I don't experience similar spending time with a item title — or writer. The more than participants a book guild has, the more difficult it is to choose a novel that'll appeal to and satisfy anybody involved.
"We recollect the best book lodge books are the ones you lot keep thinking most long after you've turned the final page — the ones that make you enquire every friend and family member, 'Accept you read…?' just so you tin talk about it," say the folks at the online bookstore AbeBooks.
I couldn't agree more than with that. Even though there's no perfect answer to what makes for the smashing book gild fit, hither are a few additional tips that could help you lot choose that side by side memorable title:
- Length matters. Fifty-fifty though I devoured Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goldfinch, the members of one of my book clubs didn't appreciate that I suggested it as a read. I accept the suspicion that the fact that Tartt'south gimmicky mystery is 771 pages long didn't help my case. We've since established a books-no-longer-than-300ish-pages rule.
- Genre matters. If your book lodge is themed or devoted to one genre or subject, stick to information technology. If you're a readers' collective who dig political memoirs, don't branch out into romantic literature and vice versa. If your book society doesn't have a theme though, find it. If you're open up to annihilation — fiction, non-fiction, scientific discipline books, essays, thrillers, best-sellers — you risk alienating part of the membership. 1 of my book clubs has that "anything goes" motto and more than often than not I just don't fifty-fifty beginning whatever is supposed to exist read that month. Even though the openness of the group allowed me to enjoy Simone de Beauvoir's feminist manifesto The 2d Sexual activity or Octavia Due east. Butler's dystopian novel The Parable of the Sower, I just knew Blockchain Craven Farm was not for me.
- Don't pout upon all-time-selling or popular books. They're popular for a reason and they tend to make for safe choices when it comes to book clubs and conversation topics at parties — not that we're celebrating or assembling much lately, but one can simply hope to exercise information technology again soonish. In that location'due south goose egg like deciding to read Amanda Gorman's poetry the same year everyone else is doing it or diving into Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half alee of its HBO adaptation. In that location'south nothing wrong with starting Sally Rooney'south Normal People subsequently you've watched the testify on Hulu and everyone else has already read it.
- If y'all run out of ideas well-nigh what to read, check what Oprah Winfrey has suggested over the years, what Reese Witherspoon is up to, the suggestions from Barnes & Noble Volume Order or Goodreads' latest Selection Awards Winners. Sometimes it'southward just expert to know what other readers are enjoying. If you keep seeing The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave everywhere, mayhap that means your volume club volition enjoy it as well.
- Recent releases brand for fewer surprises and a improve understanding of the electric current cultural sensibilities. In my search for great take a chance reads, I gave both Jules Verne's Effectually the World in 80 Days (1872) and Rafael Sabatini'southward Captain Blood (1922) a try. Both were problematic and I ended up abandoning the 2nd ane entirely. I'm not proverb read only recently published stuff, merely be aware that sure content with inapppropriate or outdated depictions of race, gender, class or sexual orientation can trigger readers.
- And remember that it'due south perfectly OK to not finish a book — y'all don't even take to start reading it in the first place. Choosing a championship that will please you every single time is daunting. Doing it when there's a whole group of people involved is an impossible task. The power of a book club is to socialize and assemble around a table — or Zoom coming together or a patch of grass in the park, in COVID times. You lot can even make things easier for your co-members and opt for the cheat method we employ at Ask's book order: we're selecting books that have besides been adjusted into movies. Don't guess us — sometimes we like chatting virtually a book even if we've just watched the movie.
Source: https://www.ask.com/culture/what-makes-good-book-club-read?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740004%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex