Book Club Reading Lists

Bevy of Bookish Broads

I started this book club in the summer of 2019. I have been missing the connection with other women and the monthly ritual, as well as reading books that I wouldn't have read. I created a Facebook group and we were off! We meet once a month to share snacks, life, and our thoughts about the books we choose.

My goal in this book club was a bit more intentional, I am particularly interested in having discussions with my friends about feminism, body image, womanhood, social justice, and those types of issues. I am looking forward to the next decade with my 2nd group of book-loving women!

Fiction books are in green.
Books I suggested are in blue.
Books I recommend are in bold.

Books for 2019:
  • "Meaty" by Samantha Irby
  • "Landwhale" by Jes Baker
  • "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen

OG Book Club

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, there have been adventures, travels, divorces, new jobs, most anything you can think of.  We've been through a lot together. The women in the club have been some of my best friends, and I loved our monthly meetings.

We usually read 11 books a year, and took 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 was that it got me to read books I would never have picked up otherwise.

From 2004 to 2015 we read 119 books together. 50 of those were non-fiction, and 69 were fiction.  Unfortunately, things change, and people change, and in 2015 after 11 years together, book club disbanded.  It was a really difficult thing to lose, and I still miss it.  I'm happy to have had this time together.

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

Books for 2015:
  • "Choose Your Own Autobiography" by Neil Patrick Harris
  • "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
  • "172 Hours on the Moon" by John Harstad
  • "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown
  • "The Cellar" by Natasha Preston
  • "The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances" by Ellen Cooney
  • "George Washington's Secret Six" by Brian Kilmeade
  • "The Autobiography of Red" by Anne Carson
  • "Taste What You're Missing" by Barb Stuckey
*****

Books for 2014: TEN YEARS!
  • "The Girls of Atomic City" by Denise Kiernan
  • "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce
  • "Cleopatra: A Life" by Stacy Schiff
  • "Someday, Someday, Maybe" by Lauren Graham 
  • "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" by Stephen Greenblatt
  • "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson 
  • "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Wolf
  • "Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion
  • "Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver 
  • "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman" by Nora Ephron 
*****

Books for 2013:
  • "Neccessary Lies" by Diane Chamberlain
  • "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese
  • "How to Be a Woman" by Caitlin Moran
  • "Lady in the Mist" by Laurie Alice Eakes
  • "The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Asperger's Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband" by David Finch
  • "Every Day" by David Levithan
  • "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
  • "Saving Cee Cee Honeycut" by Beth Hoffman
  • "America Again : Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't" by Stephen Colbert
  • "The Hobbit" by J.R. Tolkien
  • "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
*****

Books for 2012:
  • "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail" by Cheryl Strayed.
  • "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell
  • "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