Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

We have done Murakami in a bit, so not a bad idea. Though maybe the new one? Or is it too new?

IQ84 is not yet in libraries. Too new.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Round House

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Boiy Casares - I love this book and have always wanted to discuss it with others, as none of my friends are ever convinced to read it by either my description or after watching "Last Year in Marienbad"

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

The Red House by Mark Haddon

Description from Amazon:

A dazzlingly inventive novel about modern family, from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The set-up of Mark Haddon's brilliant new novel is simple: Richard, a wealthy doctor, invites his estranged sister Angela and her family to join his for a week at a vacation home in the English countryside. Richard has just re-married and inherited a willful stepdaughter in the process; Angela has a feckless husband and three children who sometimes seem alien to her. The stage is set for seven days of resentment and guilt, a staple of family gatherings the world over.

But because of Haddon's extraordinary narrative technique, the stories of these eight people are anything but simple. Told through the alternating viewpoints of each character, The Red House becomes a symphony of long-held grudges, fading dreams and rising hopes, tightly-guarded secrets and illicit desires, all adding up to a portrait of contemporary family life that is bittersweet, comic, and deeply felt. As we come to know each character they become profoundly real to us. We understand them, even as we come to realize they will never fully understand each other, which is the tragicomedy of every family.

The Red House is a literary tour-de-force that illuminates the puzzle of family in a profoundly empathetic manner -- a novel sure to entrance the millions of readers of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Trying to think of recent(ish) books...

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Tenth of December by George Saunders
The Cat's Table by Ondaatje
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Do we ever do nonfiction? Maybe The Emperor of All Maladies?

I second Tenth of December.

First, some seconds on books already mentioned here:

A friend of mine raved about Tenth of December - compared it to Raymond Carver meets Vonnegut - so I'll second that one, though I think it's brand-new and not out in paperback yet, so this is probably one to wait on till later in the year.

I've heard good things about Suite Française, so I'll second that one, too.

I've also heard raves about The Emperor of All Maladies and will second that one as well.

Here are some other things on my to-read list:

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer - nonfiction book about memory and the U.S. Memory Championship, by Jonathan Safran Foer's brother.

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy - I've had "read more Cormac McCarthy" on my mental to-do list for ages, and I read something Roger Ebert wrote where he raved about this one. I've read The Road and No Country for Old Men so far and was really impressed by both.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - his memoir and a book that I hear people talk about a lot, primarily about Paris in the 20s and about the other writers he interacted with there.

Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks - the latest book from the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but not out in paperback yet. I'd love to read this once it's more widely available.