Best Discussion Books for Book Club

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1400032059 by Charles C. Mann.

Take a look at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00E5X5ZFS/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. Taking readers along the 2,000-mile California Trail, Keith Meldahl uses the diaries and letters of the settlers themselves—as well as the countless hours he has spent following the trail—to reveal how the geology and geography of the West directly affected our nation’s westward expansion. He guides us through a corrugated landscape of sawtooth mountains, following the meager streams that served as lifelines through an arid land, all the way to California itself, where colliding tectonic plates created breathtaking scenery and planted the gold that lured travelers west in the first place. The author is a geologist; it's one of my favorite books.

I've been reading http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000JMKTEQ/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. It's a first person narrative and it's just lovely. I think your book club would really enjoy it.

I'm currently reading http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451645600/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett. Lindhout was kidnapped in Somalia and kept prisoner there for more than a year while her family tried to raise the money to pay her ransom. I am only now (about 1/3 in) reaching the part where she is kidnapped, and I've been really struck by how compelling the earlier part of the narrative is - the book is beautifully written. My favorite nonfiction book this year, hands down, was http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307718964/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Sheri Fink, an investigation of allegations of euthanasia by medical professionals at a hospital in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. While I was reading it, I couldn't help talking about it to my friends, my family, and basically everyone I could force to discuss it with me. It is dark, and long, so you'll have to read your crowd, but it's the one book this year that made me wish I had a book group because it raises the kinds of ethical issues you need other people to help you process. Even better: long excerpts from both of these books were published in the New York Times, so you can have people look them over and see if they have a taste for the style and subject matter. Amanda Lindhout: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/magazine/lindhout-kidnapping-somalia.html. Sheri Fink: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30doctors.html?pagewanted=all

Non-fiction books I've enjoyed (and repeatedly reference/discuss still today) in 2013: The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want (Garrett Keizer) Delusions of Gender (Cordelia Fine) Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes (Gregg Mitman) The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers (Michael Blastland) Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (Kathryn Schulz) Nthing the Hilary Mantel novel Wolf Hall (although it took a bit to settle into the pronoun usage)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005T5O9QW/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Kathryn Edin http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0547248237/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Temple Grandin http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005X29TEI/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Gary Paul Nabhan These are all interesting books which seem like they'd be good for discussion. I know after I read them, I talked about them with friends even if they hadn't read them.

Our group really liked http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FC0ZIA/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00B4FU6KE/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. I also just have to throw http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374281785/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ out there -- it's sort of science fiction-y, but most just fabulous, hilarious satire. :)

These were really popular this year, so you may have already considered them: Historical fiction - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/books/review/life-after-life-by-kate-atkinson.html?_r=0 by Kate Atkinson Non Fiction - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/sheryl-sandbergs-lean-in.html by Sheryl Sandberg

The two books I've read recently that fit your nonfiction category are http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465071937/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00633PE4K/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. Death at Seaworld is based on the same events as Blackfish, the documentary that came out recently. It is hard to read at times, but has SO many discussion elements regarding animals in captivity. And Group Genius is amazing in the way it looks at the process by which innovation happens.