What we’re about
Welcome! This is a group for those who enjoy a good book coupled with a calming cup of tea. (Book selections are listed below.) Books will run the gamut of literary novels, classics, award winners, fun, popular reads, as well as nonfiction. We usually meet online around the second Wednesday of the month at 7 PM to discuss our book. At the end of the year, members nominate and select the upcoming year's books, three or more are nonfiction.
A personal profile photo is required. As a courtesy, RSVPs should be updated as soon as one knows their plans have changed. This is a fun and engaging group where many members attend regularly. We welcome new participants.
Members Selections for 2024:
Jan 10 - Piranesi by Susanna Clark 272 pgs
Feb 21 - Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy 506 pgs
Mar 20 - “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character 356 pgs
Apr 24 - Heartburn by Nora Ephron 194 pgs
May 15 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 308 pgs
June 26 - The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer by Jennet Conant 397 pgs
July 17 - The 40 Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi 368 pgs
Aug 21 - Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee by Shannon Lee 240 pgs
Sep 18 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 363 pgs
Oct 16- On Writing by Stephen King 288 pgs
Nov 20 - The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See 383 pgs
Dec 18 - The Mysteries by Bill Watterson 72 pgs
Members’ Selection for 2023:
Jan 29 - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 608 pgs
Feb 26 - Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, 288 pgs
Mar 26 - The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia, translated by Simon Bruno, 476 pg
Apr 30 - The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, 368 pgs
May 21 - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, 357 pgs
June 25 - The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin, 366 pgs
July 30 - A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk, 593 pgs
Sep 9 - Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox, 380
Oct 4- West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, 371 pgs
Nov 15 - The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, 347 pgs
Dec 13 - Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood by Lana Wood, 256 pgs
Members’ Selections for 2022:
Jan 30 - The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, 450 pgs
Feb 27 - The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre, 368 pgs
Mar 27 - My Life in France by Julia Child w/Alex Prud, 333 pgs
Apr 24 - The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Tean Eng, 354 pgs
May 22 - The Premonition by Michael Lewis, 319 pgs
June 26 - Infinite Home, by Kathleen Alcott, 336 pgs
July 24 - Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 282 pgs, 304 pgs
Aug 28 - The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister, 289 pgs
Sep 25 - Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee, 256 pgs
Oct 30 - The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, 588 pgs
Nov 20 - Life As We Made It by Beth Shapiro, 366 pgs
Members selected the following books for 2021:
Jan 31 - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, 283 pgs
Feb 28 - Personal History by Katharine Graham, 642 pgs
Mar 28 - A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson, 397 pgs
April 25 - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, 404 pgs
May 23 - Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Tale of Love, Loss, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller, 240 pgs
June 27 - Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen, 512 pgs
Jul 25 - American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard, 386 pgs
Aug 29 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, 384 pgs
Sep 26 - Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, 464 pgs
Oct 24 - Deacon King Kong by James McBride, 384 pgs
Nov 21 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear, 320 pgs
Members selected the following books for 2020:
Jan 26 - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, 332 pgs
Feb 23 - How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan, 477 pgs
Mar 29 - Where the Crawdads Sing by Dalia Owens, 384 pgs
Apr 26 - Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, 320 pgs
May 31 - The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, pgs 418, Mirra Ginsburg editing
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 112 or 256 pgs
June 28 - Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, 496 pgs
July 26 - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, pgs 416
Aug 30 - The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel by Julie Satow, 384 pgs
Sep 27 - This Child Will be Great by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 376 pgs
Oct 25 - Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcom Gladwell, 400 pgs
Nov 22 - Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, 370 pgs
Members selected the following books for 2019:
Feb 24 The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde, 379 pgs
Mar 31 Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence By Max Tegmark, 384 pgs
Apr 28 Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge, 320 pgs
May 19 Washington Square by Henry James, 98 pgs
June 30 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, 545 pgs
July 27 The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, 384 pgs
Aug 25 The Brightest Sun by Adrienne Benson, 336 pgs
Sep 29 The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto, 416 pgs
Oct 27 The Library Book by Susan Orlean, 337 pgs
Nov 24 Circe by Madeline Miller, 353 pgs
Jan 26 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, 332 pgs
Feb 23 How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan, 477 pgs
Members selected the following books for 2018:
Sun, Jan 28th The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 487 pgs
Sun, Feb 25th Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant, 320 pgs
Sun, Mar 25th Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier, 448 pgs
Sun, Apr 29th Fiction Ruined My Family by Jeanne Darst, 320 pgs
Sun, May 20th Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, 278 pgs
Sun, Jun 24th The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 245 pgs
Sun, Jul 29th Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan, 528 pgs
Sun, Aug 26th A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace, 368 pgs
Sun, Sep 30th The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, 271 pgs
Sun, Oct 28th The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See, 384 pgs
Sun, Nov 18th When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi, 256 pgs
Sun, Dec 16th Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, 192 pgs
Members selected the following books for 2017:
Sun, Jan 29 Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote, 127 pages
Sun, Feb 26 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande, 304 pgs
Sun, Mar 26 Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde, 362 pgs
Sun, Apr 30 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 455 pgs
Sun, May 21 Wright Brothers by David McCollough, 336 pgs
Sat, June 24. The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis, 304 pgs
Sun, July 30 Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit and Sexy by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, 330 pgs
Sun, Aug 27 A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman, 337 pgs
Sun, Sep 24 The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, 368 pgs
Sun, Oct 29 Small Great Things: A Novel by Jodi Picoult, 480 pgs
Sun, Nov 26 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, 464 pgs
Sun, Dec 17 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 480 pgs
Members selected the following books for 2016:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (160 pages) - Sat, Feb 27th
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis (291 pages) - Sun, April 3rd
Avenue of Mysteries - John Irving (480 pages) - Sat, April 30th
The Husband’s Secret – Liane Moriarty (464 pages) - Sun, May 20th
Somewhere in Time - Richard Matheson (320 pages) - Sun, June 26th
The Fall – Albert Camus (147 pages) - Sun, July 24th
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba (320 pages) - Sat, Aug 27th
Becoming Jane Austen - Jon Spence (312 pages) - Sun, Sep 25th
Modern Romance – Aziz Ansari (288 pages) - Sun, Oct 30th
The Secret Chord - Geraldine Brooks (320 pages) - Sun, Nov 27th
The Japanese Lover - Isabel Allende (336 pages) - Sun, Dec 18th
Members selected the following books for 2015:
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (944 p) - Sat, Jan 31
The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara (216 p) - Sat, Feb 28
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (336 p) - Sun, Mar 29
Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure by Admiral Richard E. Byrd (310 p) - Sun, Apr 26
The Gulag Archipelago By Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn (528 p) - Sun, May 31
The Moon is Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (384 p) - Sun, June 28
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (290 p) - Sun, Jul 26
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (416 p) - Sun, Aug 30
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (72 p) - Sat, Sep 26
Dante’s Divine Comedy (798 p) (I have John Ciardi translation) - 798 Sun, Nov 1
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (368 p) - Sun, Nov 29
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (381 p) - Sun, Dec 27
Members selected the following books for 2014:
January - Americanah
March - Don Quixote
April - The Goldfinch
May - The Orphan Master's Son
June- The Luminaries
July - Outliers: The Story of Success
August - Of Human Bondage
September - Life After Life
October - The End of Your Life Book Club
November - Bluebeard
