Recommend a good *short* book?

[swee'pea99]

Book club tonight and I've just been to check out a couple of promising looking titles from the 'good books' thread - one was 430 pages and t'other over 700! Give me strength! Can anyone recommend a book (novel preferably) of reasonable length, by which I mean 200 pages, give or take.

 

[John the Monkey]

Tim Krabbé, "The Rider"?

Currently in one of the book swaps, if you're happy to wait.

 

[swee'pea99]

Not a bad book, but I'm not sure it's one for my reading group, most of whom are women 'd'un certain age'.

 

[Globalti]

The Escape Artist by Matt Seaton. You could read it in a couple of hours and won't be able to put it down, but there's a tragic twist at the end.

 

[Andy in Sig]

The Pianoplayers by Anthony Burgess. As clever as it is amusing.

 

[Corvette chic]

I can recommend The Ice Chorus - Sarah Stonich don't let the coment on the front put you off

306 pages plenty to discuss - I am a woman of a certain age

 

[John the Monkey]

I've heard lots of good things about Alexei Sayle's novella, "Mr Roberts", which might be more up your book club's alley?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, about 100 pages I'd guess.

What about some Somerset Maugham short stories?

 

[longers]

The Escape Artist by Matt Seaton. You could read it in a couple of hours and won't be able to put it down, but there's a tragic twist at the end.

Isn't it great when people tell you something is going to happen, they're just being awfully kind by not telling you exactly what. Oh, and it's a bad thing that happens too

 

[Gary Cummins]

I read 'Resistance' recently by Owen Sheers, about 340 pages so longer than you want but would appeal to women of a certain age I suspect:

1944. After the fall of Russia and the failed D-Day landings, a German counter-attack lands on British soil. Within a month, half of Britain is occupied.
Sarah Lewis, a 26-year-old farmer’s wife, wakes to find her husband Tom has disappeared. She is not alone, as all the women in the isolated Welsh border valley of Olchon wake to find their husbands gone. With this sudden and unexplained absence they regroup as an all-female community and wait, hoping for news.

I'd agree with previous posts re Somerset Maughan short stories, and matt Seaton's book is great.

Other stuff:

Catcher in the rye which is pretty short or In cold blood by Capote. I have been catching up on classic American literature of late and really enjoying it.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Daisy Miller by Henry James. That's nice and short and appropriate for a book club.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks all. I think I'm going to go with the Alexei Sayle - we read his collection of short stories Barcelone Plates about two years ago, and it went down very well. I think we could just about handle a bit more Alexei. We did The Old Man & The Sea a while back incidentally - if there's a better short book, I've yet to come across it.

 

[ianrauk]

John Steinbeck - Of Mice And Men.

I never get tired of reading it

 

[swee'pea99]

PS We did 'Resistance' six months ago - the ladies enjoyed it more than I did (tho' I thought it was ok) and by strange coincidence, I just re-read Catcher in The Rye. Another cracker!

Thanks for all suggestions. We always need new books...

 

[marinyork]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (I know you don't like SF swee'pea99).
The House on the Strand or The Flight of the Falcon aren't that long.
A Clockwork Orange.
The Black Tulip.