These are a few of the most well-received titles that we have done in ESL Book Club recently. All of these spurred on great discussions, and were universally agreed upon to be page-turners. Fannie Flagg's book was the most popular.
A Redbird Christmas--Fannie Flagg
Hush--Jacqueline Woodson
Tuesdays with Morrie--Mitch Albom
If you think you would like to test out some of your conversation club participants to see if they might enjoy reading for pleasure in English, here is a very short ghost story by Jean Rhys called I Used to Live Here Once http://personal.bgsu.edu/~rshultz/Rhys.htm. The writing is very rich, and the meaning quite subtle, so explanation by the club facilitator will likely be required. Let them read it through once, go over vocabulary with them (there is a lot in this story), and then read it for them with feeling. Afterwards, let them try it again, and have fun getting everyone to guess at the meaning. This was very successful discussion, and the whole thing didn't take more than 20 minutes at the most.
