Thanks Mad. Think I might read it myself and think of another one for the book group. Too many heavy ones lately!

The Road is very well written and very gripping, but it is bleak. There are some very disturbing scenes, which I can still remember more than a year after reading the book.

It is well worth reading, but if your group prefers happy, jolly books it may not suit your mood.

I'm needing a book too and wondering about The Road too after reading your good reviews. But, some people dont like 'depressing books' - would you say it is? Also we are not too high brow - how would it fit?

We loved "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks. I second "Confederacy of Dunces" which is one of my fave books, but would never suggest it for book club as it is too personal.

Some of our best books - or best discussions, anyway - have been

The Great Gatsby
The Grass Is Singing
The Color Purple

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is wonderful. Totally engrossing and beautifully developed characters. Stays with you ages after you finish the book. In fact I still think about those characters years later.

Nabokov's Pale Fire - brilliant, easy to read, intriguing, poetic, and it challenges conventional novelistic structures so there is plenty to talk about. Also it is not very widely read so your group probably won't be coming to it with preconceptions.

We have December free and have a round up and re-judge our faves to see whether the books we loved then are still as popular after a few months. We've been going for 5 years now and some of our best months were
Three Cups of Tea
Kite Runner/Thousand Splendid Suns
Time Travellers Wife
To Kill a Mockingbird
Shantaram
The Bookseller of Kabul
Star of the Sea
Small Island
Brideshead Revisited
Bridges of Madison County

I would love to do Owen Meaney but I love it too much and would be afrais they'd all hate it.

How about The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O' Farrell. Great book and lots to discuss.

Anything by Carol Shields. Her writing is captivating and the characeters have lots of depth.