Looking for some good book suggestions? Who isn’t? I’m always looking for interesting ideas, and Algonquin Books has some great recommendations. Check out their 2016 Book Club Calendar, filled with “new titles, old favorites — and recent books you might have missed. Topical, timely and timeless, these books will give you plenty to talk about.” And what more could you ask for? It’s surprisingly hard to pick a really good selection for a book club, in my experience. You don’t want a book that everyone will love – where’s the fun in that? – but you want something that gives you some meaty discussion. I remember when my book club read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. It was a great story and most of us really enjoyed it, but what was there to talk about? Whales are big, starvation is bad, cannibalism is hard to explain to your family. That about covered it. We had much better luck with Olive Kitteridge – half the group hated it, but we had a much more lively discussion about the book and interesting debates about several points.

Will you be suggesting any of these to your book club?