Book Club Reads: What do YOU suggest?

I've been asked to head up my ward's (religious congregation's) book club. We need to map out a list of books for at least the next six months (a year's worth would be better). Here is what I suggested to them. What do YOU suggest? Needs to be pretty squeaky clean for this group!

* NurtureShock (non-fiction): The authors are the ones who wrote the article "The Inverse Power of Praise," which explained that praising children for being smart, instead of for working hard, actually *decreased* their confidence and willingness to try difficult tasks. This book goes through various topics in child-rearing, and often challenges our assumptions and pop-culture ideas. Chapters cover confidence, sleep, lying, racial attitudes, intelligence, sibling conflict, teen rebellion, self-control, aggression, gratitude, and language acquisition. I'm only on chapter 2 but LOVING it already and wanting to talk to others about it!

* Outliers (non-fiction): Author Malcolm Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. To support his thesis, he examines the causes of why the majority of Canadian ice hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year, how Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates achieved his extreme wealth, and how two people with exceptional intelligence, Christopher Langan and J. Robert Oppenheimer, end up with such vastly different fortunes. Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.

* The Lost Painting (non-fiction) by Jonathan Harr: The book traces the recent discovery of a Caravaggio painting, The Taking of Christ (c. 1602). I've mentioned it before: it reads so much like a fictional mystery that I kept having to double-check that it is truly non-fiction.

* Team of Rivals (non-fiction) by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Biography of Lincoln and his cabinet members, whom he actually culled from his rivals for the presidency. It's 750 pages, and I have only gotten through 550 so far, but LOVED learning about Lincoln's abilities to mediate between the great minds (and egos) of his day. Makes me realize even more what a political genius he was, and how blessed our country was to have him. (Would be best to read something long like that after we've had a month off...perhaps after the summer.)

* The World is Flat -- or -- Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman (non-fiction): The first book analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity.

* A Short History of Nearly Everything (non-fiction): a general science book by Bill Bryson, which explains some areas of science, using a style of language more accessible to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was the bestselling popular science book of 2005 in the UK, selling over 300,000 copies. He uses humor and digs into the lives of the scientists to liven up this layman's sweep of science, from atomic theory to geology to biology...and everything in between.

* Funny in Farsi (humorous memoir) by Firoozeh Dumas. Each chapter is a short vignette, often just a few pages long. Humor in being immigrants to the US from Iran -- both about Iranian immigrant culture and about American culture.

* The Twelve Little Cakes (humorous memoir) by Dominika Dery. Tells stories from Dery's life that take place from before her conception up until her late childhood, as well as detailing life in an Eastern bloc country. Dery's parents were dissidents who had taken part in the failed Prague Spring of 1968, causing them to live under suspicion: Jana's parents, who were among the Communist elite, disowned her, Jarda had difficulty finding or keeping a job, and the family always had to be wary of informers. However, the couple managed to raise their two daughters in a loving, even adventurous household despite their troubles.

* The Eyre Affair (fiction -- a little bit sci fi, mystery) by Jasper Fforde. Set in an alternative 1985, the literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. more athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyre_Affair

* The Book Thief (fiction), by Markus Zusak, is set in Germany before and during World War II. The story is told from the point of view of Death, who narrates the story and gives a whole new image to the "death" image we the people see. "Death" finds the story of the book thief, Liesel Meminger, whose life is changed when she picks up a book (The Grave Digger's Handbook) left behind in the snow. So begins a love affair with words and books.... (I just skimmed it again, and noticed one swear word in English. Liesel's foster mother swears at her in German...which didn't bother me but might bother someone who knows the language!)

* To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee and/or I am Scout (young adult version of Harper Lee's biography by Charles J. Shields) and/or Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (Original version of Charles J. Shields' biography of Harper Lee). Read either Harper Lee's novel or one of her biographies (or both the novel and the biography of your choice). Lee doesn't really grant interviews, but Shields put together a fabulous biography based on letters and other public records. Very interesting to see how much Lee drew from her own life in writing To Kill a Mockingbird.

* Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks. "September 2003 marked the 50th anniversary of this first and only published novel from esteemed poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Initially entitled "American Family Brown", the book that would eventually come to symbolize some of Brooks' most provocative writing was introduced to the reading public with little fanfare. The success of other highly anticipated commentaries on black life at the time prevented the book from getting the acclaim it so richly deserved, given the proven talent of the writer. Recent treatments by dedicated Brooks scholars, however, have engendered renewed interest in this engrossing, well-written tale of Maud Martha, a spirited and idealistic black woman. Brooks' finely crafted story reveals the effects of global and local events on the black family and community through her protagonist, Maud Martha. In Maud Martha, a novel that captures the essence of black life, Gwendolyn Brooks recognizes the beauty and strength that lie within each of us."