Books we’ve read


2002

  • Lumber Queen, Ellen C. Anderson
  • 50 Russian Winters, Margaret Wetzler
  • Friend of My Youth, Alice Munro
  • Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams
  • Otherwise, Jane Kenyon
  • The Red Tent, Anita Diament
  • In the Fall, Jeffrey Lent
  • The Old American, Ernest Hebert
  • Bee Season, Myla Goldberg

2003

  • The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
  • Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
  • Nanny Diaries, Emma McLaughlin, Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
  • The Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman
  • Still Alive: a Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, Ruth Kluger
  • O’ Artful Death, Sarah Stewart Taylor
  • The Lone Woman, Bernardo Atxaga
  • East of Eden, John Steinbeck
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

2004

  • Coming of Age in Mississippi, Ann Moody, Birmingham Jail Speech, M.L.K.
  • The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
  • Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
  • The Art of Happiness, Dalai Lama
  • Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie King
  • Elegance, Kathleen Tessaro, Elegance, Genevieve Antoine Dariaux
  • Ahab’s Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund
  • Helen Keller, Helen Keller, excerpts from Lies My Teacher Told Me
  • The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
  • Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
  • Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom

2005

  • The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
  • How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez
  • Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
  • Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich
  • My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult
  • The Ladies Auxillary, Tova Mirvis
  • There is Room For You, Charlotte Bacon
  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann BrasharesQueen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip,
  • Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence, Rosalind Wiseman
  • The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

2006

  • Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson
  • Stark Decency, Allen Koop
  • Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
  • Clay’s Quilt, Silas House
  • Pudd’n Head Wilson, Mark Twain
  • The Optimist’s Daughter, Eudora Welty
  • Outlander, Diana Galbadon
  • Night, Elie Weisel
  • Our Endangered Values, Jimmy Carter
  • Losing the Garden, Laura Waterman
  • The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

2007

  • Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
  • Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
  • When The Spirit Catches You, You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
  • Burning Margueritte, Elizabeth Inness-Brown
  • Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
  • Atonement, Ian McEwan
  • Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
  • Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare
  • Gift of the Magi, O. Henry

2008

  • Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
  • Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks
  • The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman
  • Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
  • The American Band, Kristin Laine
  • The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafan
  • Born Confused, Tanuja Desai Hidier
  • For One More Day, Mitch Albom (bumped to 2009)
  • Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Sijie Dai (bumped to 2009)

2009

  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
  • The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream by Jim Collins
  • My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing “Slow Medicine,” the
  • Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones by
  • Dennis Mccullough
  • The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  • The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett
  • The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve
  • Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
  • Digging to America by Anne Tyler
  • The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
  • Holes by Louis Sachar
  • Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a
  • Time by Greg Mortenson

2010

  • The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
  • March by Geraldine Brooks
  • The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley
  • Ship of Gold and the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder
  • Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout
  • The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
  • Mutant Message by Marlo Morgan
  • My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
  • Anthem by Ayn Rand
  • Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

2011

  • Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Bess W. Truman by Margaret Truman
  • A Year on Lady Bug Farm by Donna Ball
  • The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
  • Accordian Crimes by Annie Proulx
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  • Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
  • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
  • The Help by Kathryn Stockett
  • Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough

2012

  • Faithful Place by Tana French
  • The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCraken
  • Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
  • Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
  • Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
  • White Oleander by Janet Fitch
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
  • No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: the Homefront in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
  • Postmistress by Sarah Blake
  • Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

2013

  • Hay Fever:  how chasing a dream on a Vermont Farm . . .  by Angela Miller
  • Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
  • The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
  • One Good Dog by Susan Wilson
  • Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
  • Two Old Coots in a Canoe by David Morine
  • Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • Lit by Mary Karr
  • Still Alice by Lisa Genova

2014

  • Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  • Talk Funny Girl by Roland Merulto
  • Cup of Tea by Amy Ephron
  • Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
  • Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
  • Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan Philipp Sendker
  • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
  • Christy by Catherine Marshall
  • Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasole
  • Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup

2015

  • Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
  • The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
  • My Antonia by Willa Cather
  • They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie
  • Patty Jane’s House of Curl by Lorna Landvik
  • Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
  • Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller
  • Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast

2016

  • Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
  • Plainsong by Kent Haruf
  • Desert Queen by Janet Wallach
  • Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
  • Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss
  • The Road Unsalted by Sonja Hakala
  • Persuasion by Jane Austen
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
  • Lying Awake by Mark Salzman
  • Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan

2017

  • The Last Child by John Hart
  • Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
  • Stardust by Neil Gaiman
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisis Coates
  • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
  • Mystery on the Isles of Shoals by J. Dennis Robinson
  • The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson
  • The Road to Character by David Brooks
  • The Soloist by Steve Lopez
  • Duane’s Depressed by Larry McMurtry
  • Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

2018

  • A Trail of Heart’s Blood Where Ever We Go by Robert Olmstead
  • The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivy
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell
  • Wonder by J.L. Palacio
  • The Elephant Whisperer by Graham Spence
  • The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
  • The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
  • A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  • Left Neglected by Lisa Geneva
  • Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
  • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

2019

  • Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
  • The Hotel on Place Vendome by Tilar J. Mazzeo
  • Life in a Jar: the Irene Sendler Project by Jack Mayer
  • The Dinosaur Club by William Heffernan
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson and Susy Flory
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • Light to My Path by Lynn Austin
  • Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • Killers of the Flower Moon by David Green
  • The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

2020

  • Barkskins by Annie Proulx
  • Between the Lines by Samantha van Leer & Jodi Picoult
  • Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian
  • Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
  •  Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
  • Educated: a Memoir by Tara Westover
  • LaRose by Louise Erdrich
  • Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

2021

  • Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
  • The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  • To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
  • Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
  • Sourdough by Robin Sloan
  • The World to Come by Dara Horn
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  • The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes AND The Bookwomen of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson
  • Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
  • The Orphan Tale by Pam Jenoff
  •  The Lost Man by Jane Harper

2022

  • The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
  • The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart
  • Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley
  • The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
  • The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
  • The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
  • The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
  • One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

2023

      • They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
      • Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
      • Beartown by Fredrik Backman
      • 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
      • For Who the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
      • The Last Traverse: Tragedy and Resilience in the Winter Whites by Ty Gagne
      • The 2nd Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore
      • The Girls of August by Ann Rivers Siddon
      • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmish
      • Horse by Geraldine Brooks
      • Skipping Christmas by John Grisham