Books We’ve Read

2025

  • James by Percival Everett
  • The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
  • Orbital by Samantha Harvey
  • Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
  • Martyr! by Kaveh Akhbar
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  • So Far Gone by Jess Walter
  • Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
  • All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley
  • The Corn Woman Her Husband and Her Child by Annie Proulx

2024

  • Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
  • Foster by Claire Keegan
  • The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
  • Absolution by Alice McDermott
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
  • This is Happiness by Niall Williams
  • Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
  • The Bear by Julia Phillips
  • Country Girls by Edna O’Brien

missing a couple for 2024- Ruth Ozeki? Doris Kearns Goodwin?

2023

  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
  • Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
  • I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
  • The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
  • Horse by Geraldine Brooks
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
  • Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

2022

  • Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
  • The Love Songs Of W.E.B. DuBois  by Honorre Fannone Jeffers
  • Fight Night by Miriam Toewes
  • O Pioneers by Willa Cather
  • Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • Circe by Madeleine Miller
  • Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
  • The Tiger’s Wife by Tia Obrecht

2021

  • The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
  • Women Talking by Miriam Toews
  • The Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet
  • The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  • The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
  • The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi
  • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Sinking Islands by Cai Emmons
  • Wayward by Dana Spiotta
  • The Street by Ann Petry

2020

  • The Water Dancer by Ta Nehisi Coates
  • The Milkman by Anna Burns
  • We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Jay Fowler
  • Girl,Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
  • The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • How to Be an Anti Racist by Ibram X Kendi
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
  • The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
  • Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
  • Monogamy by Sue Miller

2019

  • I am Not Your Negro – (movie and book) James Baldwin
  • American Marriage – Tayari Jones
  • Warlight – Michael Ondaatje
  • Weather Woman – Cai Emmons
  • The Other Side of the Bridge – Mary Lawson
  • The Best We Could Do – Thi Bui
  • There There – Tommy Orange
  • Unbound – Arlene Stein
  • News of the World – Paulette Jiles
  • Go Went Gone – Jenny Erpenbeck
  • Sula – Toni Morrison

2018

  • You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me – Sherman Alexie
  • The Noise of Time – Julian Barnes
  • Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien
  • The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula LeGuin
  • Suddenly A Knock on the Door – Etgar Keret
  • The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
  • The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
  • Rabbit – Patricia Williams
  • Days Without End – Sebastian Barry
  • Grace Paley Reader – Grace Paley
  • Educated – Tara Westover

2017

  • The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
  • Lab Girl – Hope Jahren
  •  Lincoln in the Bardo –  George Saunders
  • Commonwealth – Ann Patchett
  • The Upstairs Wife – Rafia Zakaria
  •  A Manual for Cleaning Women – Lucia Berlin
  • Barkskins – Annie Proulx
  • Anything is Possible – Elizabeth Strout
  • Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
  • Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward

THE LIST. As complete as our collective memory:

  • The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
  • Ahab’s Wife – Sena Jeter Naslun
  • All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
  • Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Another Country – James Baldwin
  • Anything is Possible – Elizabeth Strout
  • Atonement – Ian McEwan
  • Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Greeley
  • Barkskins – Annie Proulx
  • Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter
  • Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Katherine Boo
  • Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
  • Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • The Burgess Boys – Elizabeth Strout
  • The Call-  Yannick Murphy
  • Commonwealth – Ann Patchett
  • Crones Don’t Whine – Jean Shinoda Bolen
  • Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
  • Dear Life: Stories – Alice Munro
  • Dept. of Speculation – Jenny Offill
  • Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
  • Dubliners – James Joyce
  • Euphoria – Lily King
  • The Fishermen – Chigioze Obiama
  • Fortress of Solitude – Jonathan Lethem
  • Fourth of July Creek – Smith Henderson
  • Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
  • A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing – Eimear Mcbride
  • The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
  • His Mothers Son – Cai Emmons
  • Homegoing  –  Yaa Gyasi
  • Housekeeping – Marilynne Robinson
  • The Interestings – Meg Wolitzer
  • Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
  • The Intuitionist – Colson Whitehead
  • Just Kids – Patti Smith
  • Lab Girl – Hope Jahren
  • La Rose – Louise Erdrich
  • Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann
  • Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
  • Lila – Marilynne Robinson
  • Lincoln in the Bardo –  George Saunders
  • The Lowland – Jhumpa Lahiri
  • M Train – Patti Smith
  • The Man Who Loved Children – Christina Stead
  • A Manual for Cleaning Women – Lucia Berlin
  • March – Geraldine Brooks
  • Mrs. Caliban – Rachel Ingalls
  • My Beloved World – Sonia Sotomayor
  • My Brilliant Friend – Elana Ferante
  • My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
  • Necessary Errors – Caleb Crain
  • Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Nine Parts of Desire – Geraldine Brooks
  • Nora Webster – Colm Toibin
  • NW: A Novel – Zadie Smith
  • Olive Kittredge – Elizabeth Strout
  • On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
  • On Such a Full Sea – Chang-Rae Lee
  • The Orchardist – Amanda Coplin
  • Out Stealing Horses – Per Petterson
  • The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters
  • People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
  • The Road – Cormac McCarthy
  • Room – Emma Donoghue
  • The Round House – Louise Erdrich
  • Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward
  • A Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes
  • The Seven Good Years – Etgar Keret
  • State of Wonder – Ann Patchett
  • The Stylist – Cai Emmons
  • The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
  • The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
  • Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Ten White Geese – Gerbrand Bakker
  • Tenth of December: Stories – George Saunders
  • They Came Like Swallows – William Maxwell
  • Thirty Girls – Susan Minot
  • This Is How You Lose Her – Junot Díaz
  • To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
  • Transatlantic – Colum McCann
  • Truth and Beauty – Ann Patchett
  • The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
  • The Unnamed – Joshua Ferris
  • The Upstairs Wife – Rafia Zakaria
  • Vacant Possession – Hilary Mantel
  • The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson
  • Water for Elephants – Sarah Gruen
  • We Are Not Ourselves – Matthew Thomas
  • What is the What – Dave Eggers
  • Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
  • Year of Wonder – Geraldine Brooks
  • The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers
  • Zeitoun – Dave Eggers