2024 - Book list

For official purposes here is the books we read in 2024

 

Magnificent Rebels

The Bee Sting, Paul Murray

Know My Name: A Memoir, Chanel Miller

Day, A Novel (voted least favorite book)

James  Percival Everett(voted favorite book)

An Immense World

Martin Marten

Sharp: The Women Who Made An Art of Having an Opinion

Orbital

Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Comments made during the discussion:

Day was "a let down", "forgettable", and "deeply disappointing from Michael Cunningham".   "Oh, Michael, why did you do this to me?, I trusted you."

Know My Name: A Memoir "I didn't want to read this, but it says with me."  "I think about her experience as I watch what's going on in the world.".  This book was so impactful.  "How can you NOT vote for this as book of the year!?"

Sharp: The Women Who Made An Art of Having an Opinion:  "This book should have been so much more."  "I thought I was going to learn something, or be inspired."

James: So clever, I read parts out loud to my partner,

An Immense World:  "What was that one about?"  (Thomas Goetz takes readers on a captivating journey into the sensory realms of the animal kingdom, offering a fascinating exploration of how different creatures perceive and interact) "Oh yeah, that was good. 

Heaven & Earth Grocery Store;  "Did we read that in 2024"  "yes, we discussed it in February", "Really..." 

Our favorite read of 2024

2023 Books and votes for favorite

Books from 2023

The Magician, Colm Toibin
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
Dinners with Ruth, A memoir on the power of friendship, Nina Totenberg
The Invention of Nature, Alexander Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams
Forbidden Notebook, Alba de Cespedes
Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams
Magnificent Rebels, Andrea Wulf

Refuge and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow were top votes for best book.

Dinners with Ruth was the least favorite 

Book of the year 2021 and other things...

 Our end of year wrap up ended up returning to the zoom format because a few of us had close calls with exposures.  In spite of not being together in person, this was a fun, joyous and energetic gathering. 

Mid-meeting wine run

We started the gathering with a great discussion of our final book for 2021, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland.   A book of short stories can be hard to discuss because of the lack of a through plot and common characters, but not this one.  Ms. Howland created rich details that brought you into the space where her characters were.  Dark and not uplifting was one comment but others found interest in the planning of a funeral, the frustration of obligatory time with family and other 'every day' life events.  Certainly a worthwhile read. 

We turned our attention to the discussion of our favorite and least favorite (never "worst") book of the year.  I am still living in constant fear that the author of a "worst" book will again google themselves to find that our group of seven readers has mortally wounded their pride and that we may be invited to a duel.  I don't like conflict and as I only dabble in sarcasm I am afraid of those who have mastered the art of prose.  Therefore we will refrain evermore from the use of the word worst to describe our least favorite book of the year.

HOWEVER, with a solid majority and very little surprise or argument from the minority the clear winner of our least favorite was "50 words for rain".   This book should have been a beautiful novel of love, loss, grace, forgiveness, finding one's purpose under the epic backdrop of post WWII for the ages, but it was not.  Imagine the fan fiction journal of a millennial 15 year old who has never been kissed or left their hometown of Springfield, wherever writing about the complexities of racism in a country, culture and era never explored beyond watching an anime movie or two.  Then throw in some plot twists like sexual assault that is almost instantly forgiven without any trauma, grief, blame and heck, let's just make the main character fall in love with that guy because he is of course, beautiful, rich and charming.  👀.  Of course he is.  Anywho...this was a literal car crash that needed an editor.  Acknowledging that storytelling is hard, we are hopeful that as the author matures better content will come.  

The discussion for the favorite book of the year was far more varied.  The field of books that we loved was many in 2021.  With the bonus reading titles off the table for consideration, the much appreciated "A Children's Bible" and "The Cold Millions" made room for the primary books.

Hidden Valley Road, No No Boy, Hamnet and Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage all received ardent votes for favorite.  

Damnation Springs and Unbound each were noted as "very good".  

It's a good problem to have that we loved most of what we read in 2021.  We decided to let our 'favorite' be a three-way-tie:

Hidden Valley Road, Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

 No-No Boy John Okada

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Each was completely different and wonderful.   HVR, is an exploration of mental illness in one family and a frustrating study in the pharmaceutical industry exploring that it is profits that drive innovation and not need. 

No-No Boy explored the often ignored history of the American Japanese experience of  the aftermath of the war and those who would not or could not join in to fight with the US in the land of their ancestors. 

Hamnet is a fanciful dip into the household of William Shakespeare and the family he left behind to be a poet and play writer.  He's not the main character of this story and it is marvelous.   

Book of the year 2020

 Our list of books in 2020:

 

Fierce Attachments, Vivian Gornick

Extra credit: Belonging, Nora Krug

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier

Small Fry, Lisa Brennan Jobs

The Book of Delights, Ross Gay

Fascism, Madeline Albright

What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty

Hot Milk, Deborah Levy

The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabelle Wilkerson

Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi

Amateur, A Reckoning with Gender, Identity and Masculinity

Deacon King Kong, James McBride

It's a rare year where we have twelve (eleven if we remove the extra credit book) books to choose from.   Many of these titles were loved and there was a lot of discussion about possibly choosing a favorite fiction and non-fiction this year.  

We tried to each list our favorite two titles, and it went south pretty quickly.  

H: 1) Deacon King Kong
2) Warmth of other Suns

B: 1) Warmth of other Suns (woos)

    2 a) Amateur

        b) Rebecca

       c) Fascism

        d) Deacon King Kong

M 1) WOOS

     2) a) Rebecca

         b) Amateur

A: 1) WOOS

     2) Rebecca

T) Transcendent Kingdom

     Fascism

D) WOOS

      Fascism / Rebecca

Clearly the Warmth of Other Suns wins hands down as the favorite read for 2020, but then the debate about number two evolved into a great discussion about how Deacon King Kong, Fascism and Rebecca were superb reads.  That brought up the love for the Book of Delights.

We agreed that there were no stinkers this year, but that there were a couple that might not have been worth the time during this crazy busy year.  One was described as a "written for the planned Netflix adaptation."   2022 edit:  What Alice Forgot (still not a Netflix movie.)

Then we did something that we've never done, we discussed our favorite "worst" character.  We decided that descriptions of real people disqualify as they might have been just terrible people.  The overwhelming love was for the dastardly evil and malicious housekeeper at Manderley,  Mrs. Danvers.  

Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson, actress)

So behind...

I updated the book list with the books I can find that we've read.  The order is wrong and some are missing, so I'll get with our unofficial historian for her lists and make the updates.

We had a vote for our favorite books for 2019 and The Overstory came out on top with Half of a Yellow Sun a close second.   We were all impacted by the brutality of Friday Black as well.

The Testimates didn't sit well with us, which was disappointing because The Handmaids Tale felt so relevant.   One comment was that this followup novel felt like a way for Ms. Atwood to get some creative control over the television series and move the narrative in a direction that she wanted. 

We're still going strong, but...

who has time to blog anymore?

We've read some great books in the last year and are currently reading two for our meeting this Wednesday.  

Our favorite book for 2018 was "Pachinko" with the "Late Homecomer" and "Sing Unburied Sing" coming in strong.

A horse walks into a bar and The Gathering did not resonate with us.

Other titles in 2018 included "The Power", "Less", "Musicophelia" and "The house of broken Angels"

So far in 2019, we've read "An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones and "Leadership" by Doris Kern Goodwin.

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye is on deck as well as "The Fucks you give".   

2014 Booklist

2014 Book List

Goldfinch
Sense of an ending
American Wife
House in the sky
Orphan Master's Son
The Painter
Transatlantic
Americanah 

Book of the Year:

Orphan Master's Son

2012 Wrap up: Book of the Year

2012 Books
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Luka and the Fire of Life: A Novel , by Salman Rushdie
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
To the end of the land, by David Grossman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov


We didn't read as many books in 2012 as in previous years, but the year end discussion was as lively as ever.

In the end The Round House earned the most votes (through a process of elimination votes) to beat out The Master and Margarita for book of the year.  The Night Circus and To the End of the Land had very strong support.

Our least favorite book was Luka and the Fire of Life.  Sorry Mr. Rushdie.

We think we'll try doing a secret ballot next year.  Our plan is to set those votes aside, do a discussion, then a live vote and see where the differences are.  However, we believe the live voting will be the deciding vote.  All this will be worked out before we discuss.

2011 Book of the Year

(Oh my goodness, aren't my graphics AMAZING?)

Our Book list for 2011

Freedom

So Much for That

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Cleopatra, a life

The Light of Evening

Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

Slaughterhouse Five

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

War and Peace

This year instead of debating openly about our favorites and potentially tainting each other's opinions with our own adamant love for our standouts, we conducted a paper vote.  It was surprisingly fast and efficient, but I would say that I personally missed the debate about the merits of the books, especially the one's we read earlier in the year.  Perhaps next year we'll talk about the books then do the paper vote.  It is very interesting to see what sticks with people.  

The votes were reasonably split between The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Unbroken, but it was really no contest.  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hildebrand hands down earns our 2011 book of the year title.  (You'll not find a write up for Unbroken (yet) as I had a work event that pulled me away from the meeting and I unfortunately didn't start reading it until this last weekend.  I will say, once I started I regretted my delay. It is quite engaging.)

Our members were also taken with War & Peace and of course Henrietta Lacks, Cleopatra got a nod for being an excellent, and interesting read, but the votes were for Unbroken.

As for what we use to call our "worst book of the year" this title has been renamed "least favorite".  We were called on the carpet by the author of our 'least favorite' last year and we stand by our rights to rank our reading list and yet we intend no disrespect to the talented authors who have published works.   This "least favorite" title is nothing but that, it is the book that we least liked out of our list.  It doesn't mean the book wasn't impactful or important, but we simply didn't like it better than anything else on our list this year.

So, after all that, which of the above titles failed to touch us?  The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis.   Sorry Ms. Davis, we've done short stories and liked them, but these did not work their way into our hearts.  

We're looking forward to 2012 and sharing our finds with you.  Thank you for checking in.   Next up, the recap and (maybe) recipes from our annual spousal dinner.

2010 Book of the Year

The vote was close this year.  There was a lot of  support for our second favorite "Let the Great World Spin" but "Cutting for Stone" won the most votes for book of the year.  We really loved this book and recommend it without reservation.

In the stinker category the vote was again close (4 to 3) for "The Little Book" as the worst book we read over "Netherland".  We recommend neither.   Someone commented that in other years The Piano Teacher would have taken a beating at year end, but with these two books in our midst, TPT eked out a (lower) middle of the pack placement.

Book of the Year 2009

It was a lively discussion regarding book of the year. We had lots of debate around the three graphic novels as our favorite book group discussion, but opted to split the three books and have them stand alone for voting.

There were votes for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, but in the end, Savage Beauty: the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford emerged as our top pick in 2009.

It was also a book club first that all seven of us selected the same book as "least favorite" - can you guess? Sorry Mr. Poiter, we think your book is terrible. All the Oprah fans may try to track us down for disagreeing with Ms. Winfrey, but the fact that he may be a good man doesn't translate into a great book.

So, skip Measure of a Man and pick up Savage Beauty!

( Hey Kristen! Happy 2010 )

2008 Year in Review

The 2008 Reading List

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
The Hummingbird's Daughter, Luis Alberto Urrea
The Nine, Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Toobin
The Highest Tide, Jim Lynch
Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
Travels with My Aunt, Graham Greene
An Unquiet Mind, a Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marsha Pessl

Book of the Year

The Nine, Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Jeffrey Toobin , which was closely followed by The Things They Carried.









Least Favorite(s)
Please note the intended departure from the language implying "stinker", "worst" or "don't bother." We each had a 'least favorite' but no one had an adamant "I HATED THIS BOOK" opinion about any of the titles we read this year. We still had loud and strong feelings (negative) about last years selection.

Travels with My Aunt and The Hummingbird's Daughter both earned two votes for least favorite, thus leaving us in agony over what to document for 2008.

None of the books on our 2008 reading list are remotely bad, and most were flat out great - so there!

2007 Favorites & Least Liked

The discussion for 2007 Book of the Year was not a simple one. It took a long time to vote and it was clear we were torn. Even the title of Worst Book of the year wasn't a violent decision for some. For others there were emphatic reminders to the undecided about the most ridiculous plot points in an effort to sway the vote.

2007 Book of the year went to Omnivore's Dilemma (with a close second to Team of Rivals.)

Snow and The Worst Hard Time had some strong backers for least liked, but in the end Peony in Love garnered the least favorite title.

Book List 1992 - 2005

1992
August 4 Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley (Christine) (First meeting)
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fanny Flagg (Jennifer)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Christine)
Yellow Raft on A Blue River, Michael Dorris


1993
Ask the Dust, John Fante
Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller (cindy)
The Plague, Albert Camus (lisa)
The Age of Innocence, Edith Warton (cindy)
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley


1994
January – Jennifer pick???
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy (lisa)
Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron (Christine)
Man and Superman, Bernard Shaw (brigid)
Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver (terri)
Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Zora Neale Hurston (cindy)
The Living, Annie Dillard (jennifer)
I, Rigoberta Menchu, Rigoberta Menchu (christine)
The Gate to Women’s Country, Sheri S. Tepper (bridgit)


1995
The Road from Coraine, Jill Ker Conway
Shipping News, Annie Proulx
The Crossing
The book of Ruth
This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolfe
Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima (terri)


1996
Runaway Horses, Yukio Mishima -- Christine
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen -- Paula
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez (Kristen)
English Patient, Michael Ondaatje – Cindy
Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson (terri)
Autobiography of Alice B. Tolkas, Gertrude Stein (Christine) (Tea Party)
Regeneration, Pat Barker (Kristin)
Razor’s Edge, Somerset Maugham (cindy)

1997
A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines (paula)
Hotel Du Lac, Anita Brookner (terri)
April 6 -- West with the night, Beryl Markham (Heather) – Deborah’s first book club
May You be the Mother of a 1000 Sons, Elizabeth Buhmiller (Christine)
Correlli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres (Kristin)
Martin Dressler, Steven Millhauser (paula)
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner (Cindy)
To The Wedding (terri)
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn (Deborah)


1998
January16 -- Love in the Time of the Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (heather) Whidbey get away
Temple of my Familiar, Alice Walker (Christine)
The God of Small Things, Aryundati Roy (laura)
Last Orders, Graham Swift (cindy)
Stones from the River, Ursula Hegi (Terri)
She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb (Deborah)
The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie (heather)
No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin (Christine)


1999
The Lover, Marguerite Duras (laura)
Charming Billy, Alice McDermott (cindy)
Memoirs of a Geisha (terri)
The Reader, Bernard Schlink (Deborah)
As I lay Dying William Faulkner (heather)
The Beach, Alex Garland (Christine)
Pale View of the Hills, Kazuo Ishiguro (laura)
Frankenstein, Mary Shelly (cindy)
The Bone People, Keri Hulme (terri)


2000
Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin (Deborah)
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman (heather)
Personal History, Katherine Graham (christine) *2nd best of pick of the year
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital, Lorrie Moore (laura)
Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (Rebecca)* Best pick of the year
King Leopold’s Ghost, Adam Hochschild (cindy)
The Hours, Michael Cunningham and Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Wolfe (teri)


2001

The Red Tent, Anita Diamant (Deborah)
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (Heather) * Best pick of the Year
Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond (Christine)
A Quiet Life, Kenzaburo Oe (Laura)
Kate Vaiden, Reynolds Price (Melinda)
The Patron St. of Liars, Ann Patchett (Cindy)
Blindness, Jose Seramago (Terri)
Becoming Madame Mao, Anchee Min * 2nd Best Pick of the Year (Deborah)


2002
A Border Passage, Leila Ahmed (Heather) Beth’s first book club
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry (Christine)* Best pick of the Year
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Laura)
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates (Melinda)
Empire Falls, Richard Russo (beth) *2nd Choice Best Pick of the Year
Evensong, Gail Goodwin (Terri)
How to be Good, Nick Hornby (Deborah, after “killing” Killing Dr. Watson)
Honeymoon in Purda, Alison Wearing


2003
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Her Life, Susan Hertog (Christine) *2nd Choice Best Pick of the Year
Timbuktu, Paul Aster (Melinda)
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand – (Deborah)
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (Terri)*Best Pick of the Year
The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown
Moral Animal (Beth)
The Book of Illusions, Paul Auster (Melinda)

2004
Professor and the Madman (Beth)
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (Terri)
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, Doris Kearns Goodwin – (Deborah) * Best Pick of the Year
Power of the Dog – Thomas Savage (Heather)
The Farming of Bones, Edwidge Danticat
Old Griot, Honore De Balzac (Christine)

2005
Three Junes, Julia Glass (Melinda?)
Time Travelers Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (Terri)
The Magician’s Assistant, Anne Patchett (Deborah)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (Michelle)
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder (Heather)
The Working Poor, David Shipler (Christine)
The Book Borrower, Alice Mattison (Melinda?)
The Kite Runner, Khaled Husseini (Whose pick was this??)
The Cave, Jose Seramago (Terri)

Votes:
Best Fiction: Time Traveler (4) and Kite Runner (3)
Best Non Fiction: Mountains Beyond Mountains (4)
Worst: Book Borrower (6)
Best Overall: Time Traveler #1 and Mountains Beyond Mountains #2

2006 Favorites & Least Liked

2006 SGBG Book of the Year:

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami





















2006 Stinker / Overrated Book of the Year:
Herzog by Saul Bellow