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