My book group wants 2 fiction suggestions

I think it would be okay to suggest and use something from early childhood.  I remember "The Pokey Little Puppy" and "Ferdinand, the Bull".

You remember, maybe.  The pokey puppy was often distracted by something curious and Ferdinand was not attracted to fighting.  He preferred smelling the flowers.  We didn't learn much about his interactions with cows.

Now that we are more or less ancient, we may have interesting insights into such characters, their habits and our memories of the stories and the effects on our thinking.

What I actually suggested was "Dona Flores and Her Two Husbands" by Jorge Amado and "The Way of All Flesh" by Samuel Butler.  I had to look at this list of books t.ly/mYBnZ for those two titles for those two to come to mind but I did remember enjoying those novels.