Writers and Editors

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Great books to read, book club or not.

I assembled this list for book groups or book lovers looking for something new to read and discuss — with an emphasis on the books being both well-written and discussable. You might enjoy "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith, for example, but it doesn't make for a great discussion. The titles are alphabetized by the first letter of the MAIN first word of the title, so you will find “A Fine Balance” in the F section, for example.

I've provided links below to other good lists from which to find book club selections. There's a particular emphasis in this list on fiction, although some nonfiction is included. (At a "summit" of book groups at Politics & Prose, we noticed that men's groups tended to read more nonfiction than women's groups do; one men's group alternated nonfiction books one month with sports events the next.) Your group might decide on a specialty--for example, science fiction, spiritual titles, history or current events and issues, classics, mostly fiction, maybe books you might tend not to read on your own but would read if you have a deadline and a group to discuss the book with).

Sometimes the "bad" or not-universally-favorite books provide the liveliest discussions, but I've tried to list books here that book clubs enjoyed reading and discussing. Let me know if I've left out any favorites of your book group.

Links below take you to the amazon.com database, which is very helpful for telling you what the book is about and how some readers have reacted to it (and if you purchase something, this website gets a small commission). But do frequent your local booksellers, so we can keep bookstores alive. Here is also as good a place as any to thank the American library system, which allows us all to read more books than we can afford to buy. Many libraries also provide excellent general and specialized recommended reading lists and invite authors to speak. Save the American library system!

~Pat McNees
www.patmcnees.com
www.writersandeditors.com

Great books for book clubs
Asterisks indicate books that have been particular favorites for discussion. Clicking on the title will take you to Amazon.com comments on a book. Buy a book from Amazon after first clicking on a link here to get to Amazon and we get an 2% to 6% referral fee. This helps cover fees for site hosting and link-checking.

• Accidental Tourist, The, by Anne Tyler
• After Long Silence, by Helen Fremont
• Alchemist, The, by Paulo Coelho
• All That Matters by Jan Goldstein
• All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
• All Passion Spent, by Vita Sackville-West
• All Over But the Shouting and Ava's Man, southern memoirs by Rick Bragg
• All the Names, by Josι Saramago
• Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The, by Michael Chabon
• American Pastoral, by Philip Roth**
• Amy and Isabelle, by Elizabeth Strout
• Anagrams, by Lorrie Moore
• An Equal Music, by Vikram Seth (wonderful in the audio version, in which you hear the music)
• Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt
• Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner**
• Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, by Lorna Landvik
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• Armadillo, by William Boyd
• Art of Mending, The, by Elizabeth Berg
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• Assault, The, by Harry Mulisch
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Matthiessen
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, The, by Barack Obama
• Autobiography of My Mother, by Jamaica Kincaid
• Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell
• Back When We Were Grownups, by Anne Tyler
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
• Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
• Barn at the End of the World, by Mary Rose O’Reilly
• Beautiful Children: A Novel by Charles Bock
• Bed of Red Flowers--In Search of My Afghanistian, A, by Nelofer Pazira
• Be My Knife by David Grossman
• Bean Trees, The, by Barbara Kingsolver
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg **
• Beet Queen, The, by Louise Erdrich
• Beginner's Luck by Laura Pedersen
• Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain by Michael Farquhar
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett**
• Bell for Adano, A, by John Hersey
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison
• Bend in the River, A, by V. S. Naipaul
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place, by Aron Ralson (the Colorado climber who had to cut off his arm to survive)
• Big Russ and Me: Father and Son--Lessons of Life, by Tim Russert
• Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott
• Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
• Black Boy by Richard Wright
• Black Rain, by Masuji Ibuse
• Blessing Stone, The, by Barbara Wood
• Blind Assassin, The, by Margaret Atwood
• Blindness by Jose Saramago (listen to Myla Goldberg's comments--she read it three times--on All Things Considered)
• Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy (but it's hard going)
• Blue Angel, by Francine Prose
• Blue Blood by Edward Conlon
• Blue Flower, by Penelope Fitzgerald
• Bluest Eye, The, by Toni Morrison
• Bone People, The, by Keri Hulme **
• Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
• Book of Ruth, The, by Jane Hamilton
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt
• Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
• Bridge of San Luis Rey, The, by Thornton Wilder
• Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene
• Brothers K, The, by David James Duncan
• Bucking the Sun by Ivan Doig
• Buddha of Suburbia, The, Hanif Kureishi
• Buffalo Soldier, The, by Chris Bohjalian
• Burnt-Out Case, A, by Graham Greene
• Cane River by Lalita Tademy
• Carry Me Across the Water by Ethan Canin
• Catcher in the Rye, The, by J.D. Salinger
• Cat's Eye, by Margaret Atwood
• Centaur in the Garden, The, by Moacyr Scliar
• Center of Everything, The by Laura Moriarty
• Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
• Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott
• Cider House Rules, The, by John Irving
• Cities of the Plain, by Cormac McCarthy (part of the Border Trilogy, which includes All the Pretty Horses
• Clearing, The, by Tim Gautreaux
• Cloudsplitter, by Russell Banks
• Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
• Color of Water , The, by James McBride
• Color Purple, The, by Alice Walker
• Complete Stories, The by Flannery O'Connor
• Confessions of Nat Turner, The, by William Styron
• Continental Drift, by Russell Banks
• Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernieres
• Corrections, The, by Jonathan Franzen
• Crashing Through: The Extraordinary True Story of the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson (about Mike May)
• Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner **
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
• Crucible, The, by Arthur Miller
• Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
• Crying of Lot 49, The, by Thomas Pynchon
• Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The, by Mark Haddon
• Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton
• Cutting for Stone (a novel) by Abraham Verghese. (Here's an explanation of the title, Cutting for Stone .)

• Damascus Gate, by Robert Stone
• Dancing at the Rascal Fair, by Ivan Doig
• Danish Girl, The, by David Ebershoff
• Da Vinci Code, The, by Dan Brown
• Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende
• Day of the Locust, by Nathaniel West
• Dead Man Walking, by Sister Helen Prejean
• Death Be Not Proud, by John Gunther
• Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller**
• Death of Vishnu, The, by Manil Suri **
• Deep End of the Ocean, The, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
• Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
• Devil in the White City, The, by Erik Larson
• Dew Breaker, The, by Edwidge Danticat
• Dewey Defeats Truman, by Thomas Mallon
• Digging Out by Katherine Leiner
• Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler
• Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee**
• Distinguished Guest, The, by Sue Miller
• Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
• Doc, by Mary Doria Russell, a novel about Doc Holliday, best known for his friendship with Wyatt Earp
• Dogs of Babel, The, by Carolyn Parkhurst
• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller
• Dream of Scipio, The, by Ian Pears
• Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama
• Drowning Ruth, by Christina Schwarz
• Dry (or Running with Scissors) by Augusten Burroughs
• East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Elegant Gathering of White Snows, The, by Kris Radish
• Elizabeth Costello, by J. Coetzee
• Emperor of Ocean Park, The, by Stephen L. Carter
• Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
• End of the Affair, The, by Graham Greene
• Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan
• English Patient, The, Michael Ondaatje
• Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
• Eventide, by Kent Haruf
• Everyman, by Philip Roth
• Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Foer
• Eye Contact, by Cammie McGovern
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
• Fair and Tender Ladies, by Lee Smith
• Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald
• Family History, by Dani Shapiro
• Famished Road, The, by Ben Okri
• Fan's Notes, A, by Frederick Exley
• Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
• Fasting, Feasting, by Anita Desai
• Felicia’s Journey, by William Trevor
• Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies
• Fine Balance, A, by Rohinton Mistry**
• For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, by Nathan Englander
• Founding Brothers, by Joseph J. Ellis
• Freedom, a novel by Jonathan Franzen
• Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee
• French Lieutenant’s Woman, The, by John Fowles
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Annie Flagg
• Full Cupboard of Life, The, by Alexander McCall Smith

• Gesture Life, A, by Chang-Rae Lee
• Giants in the Earth, by O.E. Rφlvaag
• Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
• Ginger Tree, The, by Oswald Wynd
• Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
• Girl with a Pearl Earring, The, by Tracy Chevalier
• Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen
• Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith. (Melissa Shook's review might be useful to discussion).
• Glass Castle, The: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls
• Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
• God of Small Things, The, by Arundhati Roy
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
• Good Earth, The, by Pearl S. Buck
• Good Faith, by Jane Smiley
• Good German, The, by Joseph Kanon
• Good Husband, by Gail Godwin
• Grapes of Wrath, The, by John Steinbeck
• Grass Is Singing, The, by Doris Lessing
• Great Fire, The, by Shirley Hazzard
• Great Gatsby, The, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Great Santini, The, by Pat Conroy
• Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond
• Handmaid's Tale, The, by Margaret Atwood
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
• Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, by Alice Munro (short stories)
• Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The, by Carson McCullers
• Heart of a Woman, The, by Maya Angelou
• Heart of the Matter, The, by Graham Greene
• Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, A, by Dave Eggers (discussable because self-indulgent)
• Heat and Dust, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
• Here on Earth, by Alice Hoffman
• History of Love, The, by Nicole Krauss
• Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America, by Eddie Joe Cotton
• Hopscotch, by Julio Cortazar
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• Hours, The, by Michael Cunningham
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• House for Mr. Biswas, A, by V. S. Naipaul
• House of Mirth, The by Edith Wharton
• House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III**
• House of the Spirits, The, by Isabel Allende
• House of Women, by Lynn Freed
• Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
• How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez
• How To Be Good, by Nick Hornby
• Human Stain, The, by Philip Roth
• I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
• I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Icy Sparks, by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
• Independent People, by Halldor Laxness
• Inheritance of Loss, The, by Kerai Desai
• Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain
• In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim O’Brien
• In the Memory of the Forest, by Charles Powers
• Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
• Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer
• Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
• Intuition, by Allegra Goodman (about politics in science labs)
• Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson
• Jazz, by Toni Morrison
• Jesus’ Son, stories by Denis Johnson
• John Adams, by David McCullough
• Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
• Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, by Deborah Rodriguez, Kristin Ohlson
• Killer Angels, The, by Michael Shaara (classic Civil War novel)
• Kite Runner, The, by Khaled Hosseini**
• Known World, The, by Edward P. Jones

• Ladder of Years, by Anne Tyler
• Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, ed. Michael Lief (great closing arguments examine core issues in America)
• Larry’s Party, by Carol Shields
• Last Life, The, by Claire Messud
• Last Orders, by Graham Swift
• The Last Station by Jay Parini (a novel about the last year of Leo Tolstoy's life, inspired by diaries etc. from members of the household and his circle--with one thread about his fight with his wife about copyright on his works, which he wanted to give to "the people")
• Last Thing He Wanted, The, by Joan Didion
• Le Divorce by Diane Johnson
• Leap of Faith by Queen Noor
• Lesson Before Dying, A, by Ernest J. Gaines**
• Liar’s Club, The, by Mary Karr
• Libra, by Don DeLillo (fictional life of Lee Harvey Oswald)
• Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
• Life of Pi, by Yann Martel**
• Light in August, by William Faulkner
• Little Bee , a novel by Chris Cleave
• Little Big Man, by Thomas Berger
• Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
• Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry (a great read)
• Long Way Down, A, by Nick Hornby
• Loon Lake, by E.L. Doctorow
• Loop, The, by Joe Coomer
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
• Louisiana Power and Light, by John Dufresne
• Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich
• Love Wife, The, by Gish Jen
• Lovely Bones, The, by Alice Sebold
• Lucia, Lucia, by Adriana Trigiani
• Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis
• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Scott Chessman
• Magic Mountain, The, by Thomas Mann`
• Map of the World, A, by Jane Hamilton
• March, by Geraldine Brooks
• March, The, by E. L. Doctorow
• Mariette in Ecstasy, by Ron Hansen
• Master Georgie, by Beryl Bainbridge
• Master Butchers Singing Club, The, by Louise Erdrich
• Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden
• Memory Keeper’s Daughter, The, by Kim Edwards
• Middlemarch, by George Eliot
• Middle Passage, by Charles Johnson
• Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides**
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt,
• Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
• Mistress of Spices, The, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• Month in the Country, A, by J. L. Carr
• Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
• Mrs. Ted Bliss, by Stanley Elkin
• My Antonia, by Willa Cather
• My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin
• My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok
• My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult (issue-driven novels)
• My Year of Meats, by Ruth L. Ozeki**
• Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane
• Namesake, The, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Next Step in the Dance, The, by Tim Gautreaux
• New and Selected Poems, by Mary Oliver
• New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, A, by Eckhart Tolle
• Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Night, by Elie Wiesel
• Nobody’s Fool, by Richard Russo
• No Great Mischief, by Alistair Macleod (setting Cape Breton)
• North China Lover, by Marguerite Duras
• No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, The, by A. McCall Smith (set in Botswana)
• Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
• Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout (interrelated stories about secrets and small-town Maine)
• Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, The, by Michael Pollan
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcνa Mαrquez
• One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen
• One Writer's Beginnings, by Eudora Welty
• Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, by Anne Lamott
• Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean
• Original Sin, by P.D. James
• Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
• Oscar and Lucinda, by Peter Carey
• Pact, The, by Jodi Picoult
• Palace Walk, by Naguib Mafouz
• Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
• Paradise, by Toni Morrison
• Passage to India, A, by E.M. Forster
• Patchwork Planet, A, by Anne Tyler
• Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
• Pearl, The, by John Steinbeck
• Perfect Storm, The, by Sebastian Junger
• Perfume, by Patrick Suskind
• Persistence of Memory, The, by Tony Eprile
• Persuasion, by Jane Austen
• Photograph, The, by Penelope Lively
• Pianist, The, by Wladyslaw Szpilman
• Piano Tuner, The, by Daniel Mason
• Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver
• Pilot's Wife, The, by Anita Shreve
• Plainsong, by Kent Haruf
• Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov
• Plot Against America, The, by Philip Roth
• Poisonwood Bible, The, by Barbara Kingsolver**
• Possession, by A.S. Byatt
• Prayer for Owen Meany, A, by John Irving
• Praying for Sheetrock, by Melissa Fay Greene
• The Prince of Frogtown, part of Rick Bragg's memoir series
• Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
• Professor and the Madman, The, Simon Winchester
• Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Quiet American, The, by Graham Green

• Rabbit, Run, by John Updike (and its sequels, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, and Rabbit At Rest)
• Rainbow, The, by D.H. Lawrence
• Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
• Rapture of Canaan, The, by Sheri Reynolds
• Razor’s Edge, The, by W. Somerset Maugham
• Reader, The, by Bernhard Schlink
• Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi
• Red Dust, Gillian Slovo
• Red Hat Club, The, by Haywood Smith
• Red Tent, The, by Anita Diamant
• Regeneration, by Pat Barker
• Reading in the Dark, by Seamus Deane
• Remains of the Day, The, by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Remembering Babylon, by David Malouf
• Republic, The, by Plato
• Reservation Blues, by Sherman Alexie
• Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, by Elizabeth Buchan
• Risk Pool, The, by Richard Russo
• Road, The, by Cormack McCarthy
• Road from Coorain, by Jill Ker Conway
• Road Through the Mountains, A, by Elizabeth McGregor
Room, a novel by Emma Donoghue ("fantastically evocative"), possibly for comparison with A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard (the memoir)
• Rule of Four, The, by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
• Runaway, by Alice Munro (short stories about women)
• Sam's Letters to Jennifer, by James Patterson
• Samurai's Garden, The, by Gail Tsukiyama
• Saturday, by Ian McEwan
• Saving Fish From Drowning, by Amy Tan
• Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan
• Screwtape Letters, The, by C.S. Lewis
• Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand
• Second Coming, The, Walker Percy
• Secret History, by Donna Tartt
• Secret Life of Bees, The, by Sue Monk Kidd
• 1776, by David McCullough
• Shadow of the Wind, The, by Carlos Ruiz Zafσn
• Sharyn McCrumb mysteries (any)
• She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
• Shipping News, The, by Annie Proulx
• Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, A, by Marina Lewycka
• Skeleton Key, by Jane Haddam
• Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
• Snow, by Orhan Pamuk
• Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
• Soldier of the Great War, A, by Mark Helprin
• So long, see you tomorrow, by William Maxwell
• Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
• Space Between Us, The, by Thrity Umrigar
• Sparrow, The, by Mary Doria Russell
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• Stick, by Elmore Leonard
• Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, by Malika Oufkir
• Stone Diaries, The, by Carol Shields
• Stones for Ibarra by Harriett Doerr
• Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi
• Story of Edgar Sawtelle, The, by David Wroblewski (good storytelling, but the terrible ending is infuriating)
• Straight Man, by Richard Russo (satire of academic life)
• Student of Weather, A, by Elizabeth Hay
• The Submission: A Novel by Amy Waldman
• Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth
• Suite Franηaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
• Sula, by Toni Morrison
• Summons to Memphis, A, by Peter Taylor
• Sun Also Rises, The, Ernest Hemingway
• Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, by Gil Courtemanche (Rwande’s 1994 genocide)
• Sweet Hereafter, The, by Russell Banks
• Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy
• Tattooed Girl, The, by Joyce Carol Oates
• Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Thank You for Smoking, by Christopher Buckley
• Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
• Them, by Joyce Carol Oates
• Therapy, by David Lodge
• They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan, by Benson Deng, A. Deng, and B. Ajah, with Judy Bernstein
• Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. (Be sure to read Bearing Witness, With Words (Dwight Garner, NY Times Books, 3-22-13)
• Things They Carried, The, by Tim O'Brien
• Thousand Acres, A, by Jane Smiley
• Thousand Splendid Suns, A, by Khaled Hosseini
• Three Junes, by Julia Glass
• Time and Again, by Jack Finney
• Time of Our Singing, The, by Richard Powers
• Time to Be Born, A, by Dawn Powell
• Time Traveler's Wife, The, by Audrey Niffenegger
• Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell
• To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (in at least one case together with Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields
• To Know a Woman, by Amos Oz
• Tortilla Curtain, The, by T. Coraghessen Boyle
• Transit of Venus, The, by Shirley Hazzard
• Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A, by Betty Smith
• Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, by David Von Drehle
• Tricking of Freya, The, by Christina Sunley
• Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, by Ann Patchett (the friend: Lucy Grealey)
• Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom
• Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante
• Unbearable Lightness of Being, The, by Milan Kundera
• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
• Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer
• Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
• Underworld, by Don DeLillo
• Usual Rules, The, by Joyce Maynard
• Very Long Engagement, A, by Sebastien Japrisot**
• Virgin Blue, The, by Tracy Chevalier
• Waiting for the Barbarians, by J. M. Coetzee
• Waiting to Exhale, by Terry MacMillan
• Waiting, by Ha Jin
• War Trash, by Ha Jin
• Washington:The Making of the American Capital, by Fergus M. Bordewich
• Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
• Way the Crow Flies, The by Ann Marie McDonald
• We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals that Changed Their Lives Forever by Benjamin Mee
• We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
• We Were The Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates
• Wedding, The, by Dorothy West
• Weight of All Things, The, by Sandra Benitez
• What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, by Pearl Cleage
• When the Lion Feeds, by Wilbur Smith
• Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts
• While I Was Gone, by Sue Miller
• White Bone, The, by Barbara Gowdy
• White Ghost Girls, by Alice Greenway
• White Noise, by Don DeLillo
• White Oleander, by Janet Fitch
• White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
• White Tiger, The, by Aravind Adiga
• Widow of the South, The, by Robert Hicks
• Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
• Wife, The, by Meg Wolitzer
• Wild Ginger, by Anchee Min
• Wild Sheep Chase, A, Haruki Murakami
• Wild Swans, by Jung Chang
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, The, by Haruki Murakami
• Winter's Tale, by Mark Halprin
• Wizard of Earthsea, A, by Ursula LeGuin
• Wizard of Oz, The, by L. Frank Baum
• Wolf Hall: A Novel , by Hilary Mantel ("a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII," volume 1 of a trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, the second volume of which is Bring Up the Bodies. Long but a quick read.
• Woman in the Dunes, The, by Kobo Abe
• Work of Wolves, The, by Kent Myers
• Wrinkle in Time, A, by Madeleine L'Engle
• Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
• Year of Magical Thinking, The, by Joan Didion
• Year of Wonders: Novel of the Plague, The, by Geraldine Brooks
• Yellow Raft in Blue Water, by Michael Dorris
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig

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[Go Top]

American Writers Museum Reveals List of Literary Works Named by Writers and Readers as Providing a Better Understanding of America. Topping the list, tying for first place: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.
Tying for second place: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.
Tied for third: Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, and Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Other popular suggestions (in random order): A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, Native Son by Richard Wright, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Around the World in Fiction (Politics & Prose's excellent list of novels set in various countries and in various parts of the United States)

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Book cataloging and readers' social media:
• GoodReads (a popular site for rating and commenting on books)
• Shelfari (another popular site for rating and commenting on books)
• LibraryThing (enter what you're reading, or your whole library--and connect with people who read what you read--free up to 200 books)
• BookCrossing (a popular book sharing site, with some paid features, including book tagging: You physically tag books and keep track of who has a book, what they write in journal, where it has traveled)
• BookMooch (Give books away. Get books you want.)
• PaperBack Swap (a paperback book sharing service and community)
• Revish (a book rating community)
• CrimeSpace (a place for readers and writers of crime fiction to meet)
• Book Movement (a wonderful site where book groups can share their favorites and see how other book clubs and members rated various books -- very helpful for finding your book group's next title)
• Reviews of these and other niche social networking sites (Kevin Palmer, Social Media Answers)
• Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing? Or something else? (a poll on Goodreads 10-28-11, of why readers prefer one site over another, with interesting comments, such as: Goodreads good on stats, diversity of members, quality of reviews, quality of comments--cluttered by good on updates; Library Thing good on quality of reviews, comments, and groups, has clean classy look; Shelfari good for diversity of members, book tagging--looks good but limited options)

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The Book-Club Snub (Katherine Rosman, Wall Street Journal 3-4-05). "The selective groups say they need to be picky about admitting new members, because a mistake can disrupt fragile dynamics and because they want the groups to be a manageable size."

Books Set In (fill in the blank -- geographic places)

Books that influenced high achievers. The Academy of Achievement asked its awardees, "What book did you read when you were young that most influenced your life?" Those books are listed here, with explanations.

The Desert Island Golf Library. The delightful Tom Bedell's list of golf books he'd want on hand if stranded on a desert island. Could be subtitled "gifts for golfers."

Does anyone want to be "well-read? by Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times 4-16-11) on changing ideas of "must reads." Which leads to The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything (Linda Holmes, NPR, 4-18-11), on how, with so much music and literature out there, we can't get to it all, so we must "cull" (sort what is or isn't worth our time) or "surrender" (this goes on the list of what I won't get to).

Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). Austen fans, note: 'New' Jane Austen portrait unearthed by British author Paula Byrne (BBC News 12-5-11))

JBC Twitter Book Club (the Jewish Book Council's twitter book club lets twitter users engage in real-time conversation with the author of a particular, predetermined book. And those who don't participate can read the archived twitter-discussion, on this site.). See also Jewish Book Council on book clubs.

Let's Talk About It (American Library Association). This reading and discussion guide for libraries is excellent, and not just for libraries. Click on any of the many past discussion themes and you'll get a list of titles and a downloadable program guide.

Let's Talk About It, the Idaho Libraries reading and discussion program, provides similar material on various themes: Reading and Discussion Themes (theme essays, book descriptions, author information, discussion questions and lists for further reading are available for download). Here's a link to one theme: Growing Older, Growing Wiser Book List, for which the books to be read are:
• Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner (1987)
• Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (1993)
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (1997)
• Balsamroot: A Memoir by Mary Clearman Blew (1994)
• The Stone Angel by Margaret Lau
• The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry (1974).

Memories of a Bedtime Book Club (Dwight Garner, NY Times, 4-24-13, packing up the last, best books in his children’s picture book library). A good gift list for new parents and their kids.

Tony Morrison's reading list of favorite works by unsung writers:
• Bloodshed and Three Novellas by Cynthia Ozick. Provocative parables of the Jewish faith.
• The Good Negress by A.J. Verdelle. A 12-year-old girl goes to Detroit to care for her pregnant mother.
• Modern Baptists by James Wilcox (Buccaneer Books, $22). Hilarious tale of a salesman who takes in his paroled brother.

Most Influential Fiction of the 20th Century (Library Journal's list)

MYSTERIES
• Mysteries by Topic (SLDirectory.com, Resources for School Librarians)
• Mysteries by Location (SLD)
• Looking for a Mystery? (SLD)
• Lists of "Best" Mysteries and Mystery Awards
• Mystery Reviews and Aids to Mystery Novel Selection (SLD)
• American Mysteries Since 1990 (SLD)
• The best mysteries of all time (Reader's Digest)
• Best Crime & Mystery Books (GoodReads)

The New Yorker Group: A book club for the on-the-go Washingtonian (Dan Kois, WashPost, 4-20-11, on a book club that figured out a way to get through those magazines sitting on their nightstands--50,000 copies a week to the DC area)

Oprah's Book Club #1 (the complete list). Here's the that list on Wikipedia (easier to print and see all at once -- and it also puts the club in perspective, writing ABOUT it and about Oprah's market power). For example, it quotes Scott Stossel, an editor at The Atlantic, writing, "There is something so relentlessly therapeutic, so consciously self-improving about the book club that it seems antithetical to discussions of serious literature. Literature should disturb the mind and derange the senses; it can be palliative, but it is not meant to be the easy, soothing one that Oprah would make it.
Oprah's Book Club 2.0 (with notes on how to access Oprah's favorite passages and notes on your e-reader).

The Pulpwood Queen's Book Club -- and here's Kathy L. Patrick's story, as captured by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Cynsations). Rejected by one "snooty" bookclub, she started a MUCH bigger one.

Reading Group Guides (an online community for reading groups) offers various helpful pages for book groups. Reading group discussion guides can be found by title, by author, or by genre, for example. You can check out the most requested guides, you can read interviews with a long list of book groups, or look at the lists of ongoing favorites.

Reading Meetup Groups (face-to-face book discussions, around the world)

Ten Tips for Starting and Running a Successful Book Club by Rachel Jacobsohn, author of The Reading Group Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Start Your Own Book Club

The Top 10 Most Depressing Books (Bleak Books, Scott Laming, AbeBooks.com) to which D.G. Meyers (A Commonplace Blog) adds some essential titles for the bitter and pessimistic

Top 10 Most Read Books in the World (Jared Fanning, Visual News, based on 10 Most Read Books in the World list compiled by freelance writer James Chapman

Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books (NPR's list) and How to Choose Your Favorite of NPR’s Top 100 SFF Books (a flow chart--if you like this, then...).

21 Novels You Need to Read (Jacquelyn Mitchard, AARP)

25 Best True Crime Books as selected by Todd Jensen, whose forensicColleges.net blog provides advice to those considering becoming forensic scientists.

ViewChange.org Stories Powering Progress.Watch videos about various developing countries."Using the power of video to tell stories about real people and progress in global development." Reading about a developing country such as Nigeria (Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, for example)? Learn more about the country here. Funded by the Gates Foundation.

Whodunnit Book Club (Ning) "It's a crime to read anything but mysteries."

Winners of Children's Book Awards (Calgary site)

WNBA's 25th Anniversary book list (Women's National Book Association). One of my books -- Dying -- is on it!

Women's Words: 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World (Women's National Book Association)

Writers' Top 10 from The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books by Peter Zane

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FREE DIGITAL LIBRARIES

Many books and references are available free online now, through such digital libraries as the following:

Google Book Search

Internet Archive (moving images, live music, audio, and texts)

Internet Public Library

Kidspace (Internet Public Library)

Making of America (Cornell University Library’s digital library of primary sources in American social history)

Project Gutenberg

Project Libellus (free Latin and Greek texts, with restrictions on redistribution)

Teenspace (Internet Public Library)

Top 100 downloads from the Project Gutenberg library

Wayback Machine (find web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago)

Early English Books online (a restricted database)

Let me know if there are other good digital libraries to be added to this list.

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