Recommendations for engaging, reasonably intelligent books.
March 28, 2018 3:45 AM Subscribe
I’m looking for engaging fiction or maybe non-fiction books for our new two person book club. They should be light to medium weight and reasonably intelligent. The goal is to get us back in the habit of reading and for my friend to survive a recent breakup. After that we can start on books that require more patience but that is not where we are now.
“Intelligent” is somewhat synonymous with “challenging” here. Our second book was Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes, a book of short stories that caused us to start sending reactions and warnings and thoughts to each other. This was unexpected but also exactly what we want out of a book club. Meanwhile I suspect a book described as “a light enjoyable romp” might be engaging for some, but is also not what we want for this.
Some things we both liked: Salmon of Doubt, Dawkins as opinionated scientist rather than as culture warrior, Bill Bryson’s books. Godel Escher Bach years ago, but too dense for either of us to sustain reading as teenagers. Rex Stout, The Little Prince, J-Pod, Cryptonomnicon (though she has specifically asked for something shorter).
I’ve been pondering SFF like Gone-Away World, Oryx and Crake, Ancillary Justice, The Peripheral, Scalzi, Mieville, Craft Sequence, Iain Banks and so on. I’d like to get her in those scenes (and myself as well), but worry I’m too partisan to pick a good gateway.
I think it’d be easier for you all to recommend fiction but non-fiction certainly isn’t out of the question.
So: Engaging and reasonably intelligent now. → Such that it builds our patience up for other slower and challenging works later.
“Intelligent” is somewhat synonymous with “challenging” here. Our second book was Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes, a book of short stories that caused us to start sending reactions and warnings and thoughts to each other. This was unexpected but also exactly what we want out of a book club. Meanwhile I suspect a book described as “a light enjoyable romp” might be engaging for some, but is also not what we want for this.
Some things we both liked: Salmon of Doubt, Dawkins as opinionated scientist rather than as culture warrior, Bill Bryson’s books. Godel Escher Bach years ago, but too dense for either of us to sustain reading as teenagers. Rex Stout, The Little Prince, J-Pod, Cryptonomnicon (though she has specifically asked for something shorter).
I’ve been pondering SFF like Gone-Away World, Oryx and Crake, Ancillary Justice, The Peripheral, Scalzi, Mieville, Craft Sequence, Iain Banks and so on. I’d like to get her in those scenes (and myself as well), but worry I’m too partisan to pick a good gateway.
I think it’d be easier for you all to recommend fiction but non-fiction certainly isn’t out of the question.
So: Engaging and reasonably intelligent now. → Such that it builds our patience up for other slower and challenging works later.
Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" sounds perfect for you -- won the Pulitizer and is also just a really fun read. A lot of Zadie Smith probably falls into this category too.
posted by caoimhe at 4:10 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by caoimhe at 4:10 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Ancillary Justice is something I'd pick from your list; there's a lot to process in reading that, but it's also a great story.
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is another I'd recommend for that kind of conversation--a great, readable story with a lot of literary merit and thought-provoking themes.
posted by gideonfrog at 4:21 AM on March 28, 2018 [5 favorites]
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is another I'd recommend for that kind of conversation--a great, readable story with a lot of literary merit and thought-provoking themes.
posted by gideonfrog at 4:21 AM on March 28, 2018 [5 favorites]
Best answer: Seconding Ancillary Justice and recommending David Mitchell’s Bone Clocks over Cloud Atlas. It fits your description perfectly.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 4:27 AM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by tatiana wishbone at 4:27 AM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
Kazuo Ishiguro-- perhaps A Pale View of Hills if you're already familiar with the later ones. Maybe even if you are not.
posted by BibiRose at 4:55 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by BibiRose at 4:55 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Gone-Away World is really, really great. Give it a shot.
posted by uberchet at 6:18 AM on March 28, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by uberchet at 6:18 AM on March 28, 2018 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I quite enjoy the Craft Sequence, but I do think it might not be the best gateway, as you put it; even among friends not "new" to SFF, I have seen comments about the wild rush of jargon and (perhaps more unbalancingly) recontextualized everythings.
If short story collections are indeed on the table, I highly recommend Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others. Hell, they put out a new edition of that recently with a nice bland cover for mainstream marketing. There is one story that includes a divorce (not the main focus) and one involving loss of a partner; you know your friend best and can decide whether that's too much. But if it sounds all right, it might even be worth supplementing with two other of his highly acclaimed stories not included therein, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (novella -- I think the F&SF back issue is the only non-Amazon way to get that now? I refuse to link Amazon) and Exhalation (short story, online free).
I also will never pass up a chance to recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's Changing Planes story cycle. In parts analytical through the science fictional lens, in others pure evocation -- this was the book that turned me on to her larger body of work, really. (I had read Omelas, LHoD, Gifts/Voices, and the start of the first Earthsea book prior -- but this is what really clicked for me.)
posted by inconstant at 7:20 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
If short story collections are indeed on the table, I highly recommend Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others. Hell, they put out a new edition of that recently with a nice bland cover for mainstream marketing. There is one story that includes a divorce (not the main focus) and one involving loss of a partner; you know your friend best and can decide whether that's too much. But if it sounds all right, it might even be worth supplementing with two other of his highly acclaimed stories not included therein, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (novella -- I think the F&SF back issue is the only non-Amazon way to get that now? I refuse to link Amazon) and Exhalation (short story, online free).
I also will never pass up a chance to recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's Changing Planes story cycle. In parts analytical through the science fictional lens, in others pure evocation -- this was the book that turned me on to her larger body of work, really. (I had read Omelas, LHoD, Gifts/Voices, and the start of the first Earthsea book prior -- but this is what really clicked for me.)
posted by inconstant at 7:20 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Elizabeth Strout's collection of short stories, Anything is Possible. It was one of the best books I read last year and I had plenty to say about it when discussing it with friends.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:36 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:36 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
A nice literary sideways entry into SF would be Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. Very well-written, interesting characters, and optimistic overall despite the premise (an apocalyptic epidemic takes down civilization).
posted by suelac at 8:43 AM on March 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by suelac at 8:43 AM on March 28, 2018 [4 favorites]
Luis Alberto Urrea has a new book out which just got a rave in the NYT (FWIW). I haven't read that yet but I just finished his short story collection The Water Collection which I thought was fantastic. I've been struggling to read anything other than mystery novels due to some life (and political) events and I was able to engage with and truly enjoy his writing.
posted by rdnnyc at 9:22 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rdnnyc at 9:22 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm reading Peter Carey's rollicking Illywhacker right now, and am enjoying the hell out of it. And I find Salman Rushdie's fiction output to be astonishingly brilliant and thought-provoking. The Moor's Last Sigh, in particular, took my breath away with its intelligence and vividness. Such a rich, satisfying book.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
So your inclusion of Gone Away World caught my eye; I'm in a post-apocalyptic fiction book club, which is far and away the coolest book club I've ever been in. (I think that was the first book I read with the club, in fact!)
Other things we read that may suit (I'm trying not to go too dark, as your friend has just been through a breakup:
Ella Minnow Pea, which is a charming epistolary novel that's about 50% a game with letters, and 50% plot. In the process it will raise thought on religious dogma and authoritarianism. And a friend who joined for the club that month texted me halfway through reading it and said "this is the most cheerful dystopia I've ever read!"
I loved Riddley Walker, but it's not for everyone because it's written in a sort of phonetic rendering of a future dialect, and that can be a real challenge (it took me about three passes through the first chapter to get the hang of it). But if you get through that there is a lot of meat there. Try this - if you're going to read Cloud Atlas, read that first, and if the middle section (which is similarly written in an imagined future dialect) gives you trouble, reconsider Riddley Walker.
The Wake wasn't an apocalypse, it was more about "this is the end of a partiuclar way of life. It's set in England right after the Normans have arrived, and is about a Saxon guy who starts one of the bunches of guerilla groups that lived in the woods and raided Norman villages for a few years after. As the book goes on you will start to suspect that this particular narrator is a little unreliable.
J was....funky. It's a book about a couple who meets sometime several years after a societal breakdown, which those in authority have chosen to solve with some hella-dramatic public policy; you don't pick up on what happened right away, but it is fleshed out as the book goes on and is kind of a thought-provoking policy.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:12 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Other things we read that may suit (I'm trying not to go too dark, as your friend has just been through a breakup:
Ella Minnow Pea, which is a charming epistolary novel that's about 50% a game with letters, and 50% plot. In the process it will raise thought on religious dogma and authoritarianism. And a friend who joined for the club that month texted me halfway through reading it and said "this is the most cheerful dystopia I've ever read!"
I loved Riddley Walker, but it's not for everyone because it's written in a sort of phonetic rendering of a future dialect, and that can be a real challenge (it took me about three passes through the first chapter to get the hang of it). But if you get through that there is a lot of meat there. Try this - if you're going to read Cloud Atlas, read that first, and if the middle section (which is similarly written in an imagined future dialect) gives you trouble, reconsider Riddley Walker.
The Wake wasn't an apocalypse, it was more about "this is the end of a partiuclar way of life. It's set in England right after the Normans have arrived, and is about a Saxon guy who starts one of the bunches of guerilla groups that lived in the woods and raided Norman villages for a few years after. As the book goes on you will start to suspect that this particular narrator is a little unreliable.
J was....funky. It's a book about a couple who meets sometime several years after a societal breakdown, which those in authority have chosen to solve with some hella-dramatic public policy; you don't pick up on what happened right away, but it is fleshed out as the book goes on and is kind of a thought-provoking policy.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:12 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
seconding Mary Roach for interesting and light(ish) takes on some very diverse subjects.
posted by twoplussix at 3:08 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by twoplussix at 3:08 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Maybe Carol Shields? Both engaging and reasonably literary. You could try Unless. Or Michael Chabon, maybe The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
Some of the books my own small book group has read which might fit your criteria are: Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes (good but strange, or strange and good), Georgina Harding's The Painter of Silence (goodish, a bit minor but an interesting time and place) and Hope Jahren's Lab Girl (non-fiction, about her science career and her mental health).
We also read André Alexis's Fifteen Dogs, which was recommended to me on MF, and has probably been the most challenging but rewarding book we've read so far (note: has some dark passages).
Hope this helps - I'm not entirely sure that I'm parsing challenging but light- to medium-weight correctly.
Actually, something you could consider is "classic" nineteenth-century literature, which usually has complexity of writing but the story itself is usually engaging. Eg Trollope's The Warden (relatively short).
For what it's worth, re your list of SFF, those that I have read I wouldn't think of as entry SFF - I'd look for something a bit less complex.
posted by paduasoy at 3:45 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Some of the books my own small book group has read which might fit your criteria are: Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes (good but strange, or strange and good), Georgina Harding's The Painter of Silence (goodish, a bit minor but an interesting time and place) and Hope Jahren's Lab Girl (non-fiction, about her science career and her mental health).
We also read André Alexis's Fifteen Dogs, which was recommended to me on MF, and has probably been the most challenging but rewarding book we've read so far (note: has some dark passages).
Hope this helps - I'm not entirely sure that I'm parsing challenging but light- to medium-weight correctly.
Actually, something you could consider is "classic" nineteenth-century literature, which usually has complexity of writing but the story itself is usually engaging. Eg Trollope's The Warden (relatively short).
For what it's worth, re your list of SFF, those that I have read I wouldn't think of as entry SFF - I'd look for something a bit less complex.
posted by paduasoy at 3:45 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also, given your username, you might enjoy Margaret Mahy's The Catalogue of the Universe if you haven't already read it.
posted by paduasoy at 3:48 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by paduasoy at 3:48 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
China Miéville's The City & the City could be a good choice—it's a relatively easy read, it's SF/F-y without being too into the dragons and spaceships, and the premise of the book is interesting enough to spark discussion.
posted by panic at 4:39 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by panic at 4:39 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also maybe Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels. Review here - only the first part as the rest is paywalled, but it should give you a sense of it.
posted by paduasoy at 4:43 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by paduasoy at 4:43 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch might be a good nonfiction fit. The book site has a sample.
Thirding Ancillary Justice as well on the fiction side.
posted by gracenote at 7:54 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thirding Ancillary Justice as well on the fiction side.
posted by gracenote at 7:54 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you all so much! The Yiddish Policeman's Union and Ancillary Justice are what we'll be reading. Ted Chiang, Mary Roach, and Gone-Away World are likely on the list after that. But really just about everything here is going on my reference list for the future. I also especially appreciate that people saw short stories as a thread worth pursuing.
Ancillary Justice seems like the safe bet based on number of responses in this thread and my own interest in it.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is one that I noted when researching previous AskMefi book reccs, was highly recommended by someone I talked to today, and upon returning here I see paduasoy mentioning it.
posted by tychotesla at 2:19 AM on March 29, 2018
Ancillary Justice seems like the safe bet based on number of responses in this thread and my own interest in it.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is one that I noted when researching previous AskMefi book reccs, was highly recommended by someone I talked to today, and upon returning here I see paduasoy mentioning it.
posted by tychotesla at 2:19 AM on March 29, 2018
China Miéville's The City & the City could be a good choiceBTW, BBC is doing a TV adaptation of this.
posted by uberchet at 7:12 AM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thirding Mary Roach. Entertaining and informative. I have also enjoyed everything I've read by Matt Ridley. He makes science understandable for the unscientific mind.
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:36 PM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:36 PM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by emkelley at 4:02 AM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]