Previous Book Club Selections

Previous Book Club Selections

Novel Ideas Book Club

2022-2023

During 2022-2023, this discussion group met in a hybrid format, zoom and in person and they discussed:

• September: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
• October: Anxious People: a novel by Fredrik Backman
• November: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• December:  People we meet on vacation by Emily Henry
• January:  How high we go in the dark: a novel by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• February:  The last thing he told me: a novel by Laura Dave
• March:  The guest list: a novel by Lucy Foley
• April:  The Lincoln highway by Amor Towles
• May:  Crying in H Mart: a memoir by Michelle Zauner
• June:  The Good sister by Sally Hepworth

 

2021-2022

During 2021-2022, this discussion group met in a hybrid format, zoom and in person and they discussed:

• September:  The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• October:  The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
• November:  The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• December:  Weather: a novel by Jenny Offill
• January:  A Burning by Megha Majumdar
• February:  Long Bright River by Liz Moore
• March:  Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
• April:  Hamnet: a novel of the plague by Maggie O’Farrell
• May:  The Searcher by Tana French
• June:  White Ivy: a novel by Susie Yang

 

2020-2021

During 2020-2021, this discussion group met in a hybrid format, zoom and in person and they discussed:

• Africaville  by Jeffrey Colvin
• All Adults Here by Emma Straub
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The Woman In The Window by AJ Finn
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
• You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
• Sold On A Monday  by Kristina McMorris

 

2017 – 2018

• September: The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner
• October: You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott
• November: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
• December:The Widower’s Wife by Cate Holahan
• January: LaRose by Louise Erdrich
• February: The Loved Ones by Sonya Chung
• March: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
• April: The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
• May: Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
• June: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan 

 

Iris Book Club – An LGBTQ+ Book Club for Teens

The Iris Book Club for LGBTQ+ teens & allies that meets on the last Monday of the month to discuss queer YA novels, anthologies, & graphic novels covering a variety of identities. We have read the following: 

2024

• January: Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anne-Marie McLemore
• February: The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
• March: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

2023

• January: Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• February: Be Gay, Do Comics!: Queer History, Memoir, & Satire from The Nib by Various Authors
• March: She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlan
• April: All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by Various Authors
• May: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
• June: Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
• July: I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee
• August: Before We Disappear by Shaun David Hutchinson
• September: Dreadnought by April Daniels
• October: Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• November: Pumpkin by Julie Murphy
• December: Bring Your Own Book

2022

• January: The Mermaid, the Witch, & the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• February: Hani & Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Abida Jaigirdar
• March: The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
• April: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice & Virtue by Makenzi Lee
• May: Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
• June: Camp by L.C. Rosen
• July: Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens
• August: Wilder Girls by Rory Powers
• September: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki
• October: Cemetery Boys by Aidan Thomas
• November: Loveless by Alice Oseman
• December: Bring Your Own Book

 

Social Justice Book Club

2019 – 2020

During 2019- 2020 the Social Justice Book Club met to discuss both fiction and non-fiction books that explore ideas around race, gender, immigration and criminal justice.  (Visit our Social justice podcast club on our facebook page)

• Some of My Friends Are … by Deborah Plummer, Ph.D.
• They Take Our Jobs: And Other Myths… by Aviva Chomsky
• American Prison: A Reporters Undercover Journey…by Shane Bauer
• Meet the Candidates – EBook Series by Scott Dworkin
• The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan J. Douglas
• Tomorrow Will Be Different-Love, Loss & the Fight for Transequality by Sarah McBride

 

2018 – 2019

During 2018 and 2019 the Novel Ideas: Fiction Book Club for Adults met to discuss the following books.  To accommodate as many users as they could, this club met at two different times to discuss the same book, daytimes and evenings.

• Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
• Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
• Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Grace by Paul Lynch

 

2017 – 2018

• September 7 – There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration by Ali Noorani
• November 2 – Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
• January 4 – Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• March 1 – Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• May 3 – The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

 

Social Justice Book Club: For Adults and Teens

2018

During 2018 the Social Justice Book club met to discuss both fiction and nonfiction books that explore the ideas around race, gender, immigration, poverty and criminal justice.

• Scarlet A by Katie Watson
• The Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham
• Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness by Peter Earley
• The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter by Daniel Patinkin
• Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

 

Q(ueer) & A(llies) Book Club for Teens Grades 9-12

2017 – 2018

This book club typically meets the 4th Thursday of every other month to discuss novels that feature main characters who consider themselves part of the LGBTQIA (queer) community.  Books are selected by the attendees (culled from a wider list generated by Assistant Director, Rebecca Meehan). It’s not essential that attendees read the book in order to attend the program.  Many great discussions are inspired by the book, but then naturally evolve into other related topics.

• May 24 – Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan
• July 26 – The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
• September 27 – Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

 

BookEaters (4th & 5th Graders) Club

During 2018 the BookEaters (4th & 5th Graders) club met to discuss:

• Sophia’s War: a Tale of the Revolution by Avi
• Front Desk by Kelly Yang

 

Middle School Book Club

During 2018 the Middle School book club met to discuss these books:

• Brave by Svetlana Chmakova
• Crunch by Leslie Conner
• The Night Diary by V