Book Club Reading List

My book club in Seattle was formed by a friend in May of 2004. Since then, members have come and gone, many babies have been born, and we've been through a lot together. The women in the club are some of my best friends, and I love our monthly meetings.

We usually read 11 books a year, and take December off for a potluck brunch and gift exchange.  We read just about equal amounts of fiction and non-fiction.  One of my favorite things about this club is that it gets me to read books I would never have picked up otherwise.

Nonfiction books are in green.
Books I picked are in blue.
Books I recommend are in bold.

Books for 2012:

• "The End of Illness" by David Agus
• "Room" by Emma Donoghue
• "The Know It All" by AJ Jacobs
• "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James
• "Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York:" by Marge Piercy
• "Alice I Have Been" by Melanie Benjamin
• "Winter Garden" by Kristin Hannah
• "The Slap" by Christos Tsiolkas

*****

Books for 2011:

• "One Day" by David Nicholls
•  "Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything" by Joshua Foer
• "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling
•  "Bossypants" by Tina Fey
• "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant
• "Madame Bovary" by Gustav Flaubert
• "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers 
• "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay
• "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton
• "The Wednesday Sisters" by Meg Waite Clayton 

*****

Books for 2010:

• "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress" by Rhoda Janzen
• "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
• "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See
• "Kitchen Literacy" by Ann Vileisus
• "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks
• "The Happiness Project" by Gretchin Rubin
• "Hypnotizing Maria" by Richard Bach
• "The Sharper the Knife, the Less You Cry" by Kathleen Flinn
• "The Colony" by John Tayman

*****

Books for 2009:

• "The Year of Yes" by Maria Dahvana Headley
• "Escape" by Carolyn Jessup
• "Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold
• "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon
• "Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver
• "The Zookeepers Wife" by Diane Ackerman
• "Under the Sea-Wind" by Rachel Carson
• "The Lost Girls" by Laurie Fox
• "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity: Why Everything You Know is Wrong" by John Stossel
• "Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain" by Chris Stewart
• "Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honeybee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis" by Rowan Jacobson.

*****

Books for 2008:

• "The Kid" by Dan Savage
• "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer
• "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
• "The Omnivore's Dilemna" by Michael Pollan
• "Letters from the Earth" by Mark Twain
• "Personal History" by Katherine Graham
• "Secret Lives of the Sushi Club" by Christy Yorke
• "Life Laughs: The Naked Truth About Motherhood, Marriage and Moving On" by Jenny McCarthy
• "The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars" by Glenn-Brenner
• "Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless" by Susan Jane Gilman

*****

Books for 2007:

• "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
• "My French Whore" by Gene Wilder
• "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
• "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
• "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert
• "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama
• "Ines of My Soul" by Isabel Allende
• "Winkie" by Clifford Chase
• "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi
• "No Hurry To Get Home" by Emily Hahn
• "Everything Bad Is Good For You" by Steven Johnson

*****

Books for 2006:

• "Bold Spirit : Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America" by Linda Lawrence Hunt
• 9-11 Commission Report
• "If I Live to Be 100 : Lessons from the Centenarians" by Neenah Ellis
• "The Emperor of Scent : A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses"by Chandler Burr
• "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
• "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman
• "The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd
• "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell
• "Before You Know Kindness" by Chris Bohjalian
• "The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate" by Gary Chapman

*****

Books for 2005:

• "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova (over 2 months)
• "Secret Lives of the First Ladies: What Your Teachers Never Told You About the Women of the White House," by Cormac O’Brien & Monika Suteski
• "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
• "The Position" by Meg Wolitzer
• "Honeymoon" by James Patterson
• "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer
• "Bloodsucking Fiends" by Christopher Moore
• "In Her Shoes" by Jennifer Weiner
• "Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman's Survival Under Saddam Hussein" by Jean Sasson
• "Set This House in Order : A Romance of the Souls" by Matt Ruff

*****

Books for 2004:

• "Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• "Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love" by Betsy Prioleau
• "The Bonesetter's Daughter" by Amy Tan
• "Tales of a Female Nomad" by Rita Golden Gelman
• "Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell
• "Mary, called Magdalene" by Margaret George (over 2 months)
• "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland