What’s your favorite book club pick of 2014?

OK, I admit that I’m not in a book club, BUT because I led one for 5 years or so, I still think about the “discussability” of a book when I’m reading it. I just finished The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (author of the memoir, The Color of Water : a Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, and 2 novels, Miracle at St. Anna, and Song Yet Sung).

The Good Lord Bird made me think about the real stories behind iconic heroes (it’s about abolitionist John Brown, who comes off looking like a nut case), and about bravery, about killing done in the name of religion, narrative point of view (the story’s narrator is a slave boy who is mistaken for a girl, and decides the mistake can work to his advantage), the use of humor in telling a tragic story, slavery and race.

I know some book groups are starting to line up their titles for 2015. What are your favorite discussion books so far this year?