Not wanting to join a ready-made one,  two friends and I made our own mini club. It has been a revelation:

We started Summer 2011 and this is what we have read so far:

Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen
Loved every single word.

The Grass is Singing, by Doris Lessing
Amazing in every way. Devastating

American Pastoral, by Philip Roth
Funny, dark, intelligent. Turned me on to read loads more Roths

The Paris Review Book of Short Stories
Dissapointing – some vg lots very average.

Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
Superb in every way. Thank you Esther. Want to read Travels with Charlie now.

Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner
Nice prose passages but ultimately self-indulgent

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
We all RATED this HIGHLY

Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann
Too long, took up too much time. Loved the beginning

Stoner, by John Williams
Overrated – sad and dusty

The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber
Very odd book, hard to love, hard to abandon. Always waiting for a big reveal…

The Days of Abandonment and My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Loved the former, only loved the latter in parts. Didn’t understand about the hand-made shoes. Were they any good, or not.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson – to be discussed at our next meeting.
Belle B and Esther B loved this. I was mystified.

The Schopenhauer Cure by Irving D Yalom
Esther read after I recommended.

A Death in the Family By Karl-Ove Knaussberg

A Little Life – by Hana Yanigahara
pretty dreadful. Why did she write this book?

Hot Milk – by Debra Levy
Inpirational, original, and true in the way that only fiction can be.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Found it ponderous

Currently Reading – The Son by Jo Nesbo, (helps me go to sleep)  Landscapes by John Berger, (tickles the finer parts of one’s messy head) Indignation by Philip Roth (love it but dismaying at the end)