Monday

NPR Best books for 2020 list

https://apps.npr.org/best-books/?fbclid=IwAR2bn_PMlKcn-VeBtgxzApsXnU_EMldhX2mG1cl8vu7UwUZw20i2YlQfWnE#view=list&year=2020

Covers List

Selected books (383)

Possible Books for 2021

It is that time again to vote on our next season of books. Here are the nominations. What a wonderful list, it was hard to select 8!

Afterlife- Julia Alvarez

American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins

Anxious People - Fredrik Backman

Apeirogon- Colum McCann

Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver

Beartown- Fredrik Backman

Caste - Isabel Wilkerson

Deacon King Kong- James McBride

Death of Vivek Oji - Akwaeke Emezi

Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence - Doris Pilkington

Ghost Boys - Jewell Parker Rhodes

Girl with the Louding Voice -Abi Dare

Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes

How to be an Antiracist - Ibram Kendi

How we Fight For Our Lives - Saeed Jones

Interior Chinatown- Charles Yu

Invisible life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab

Life she was GIven - Ellen Wiseman

Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa

Mexican Gothic- Silvia Moreno Garcia

Midlight Library - Matt Haig

Mrs Everything - Jennifer Weiner

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

Only Harmless Great Things -

Pale Faced Lie - David Crow

Sold on a Monday- Kristina McMorris

Bluest Eyes - Toni Morrison

Vanishing Half- Bret Bennett

This is how it always is - Laurie Frankel

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

When we were Colored - Eva Rutland

Why we Swim - Bonnie Tsui

Year of Wonder - Geraldine Brooks

Because of COVID and the health restrictions we were unable to have our annual Holiday cookie exchange and dinner. We set up a recipe exchange to share favorites but we all missed the joyfulness of face to face visiting and laughing. Our year wraps up with a Zoom discussion of our December book choice was interesting and engaging. This Alternative History novel by Ben H. Winters gave us a lot to talk about.

Below is a brief part of the book review from NPR 2016:

"Underground Airlines" imagines that the Civil War never happened. Rather, Lincoln was assassinated before he took office. And in an act of compromise, some states were allowed to maintain slavery. Those slave states, known as the Hard Four, consist in the present day of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the reunited Carolinas. They're demarcated from the rest of the U.S. by heavily patrolled borders.

The other states in the Union have agreed that any slave or person bound to labor, as they're called, must be returned to the corporate plantation from which they've escaped. That's where Victor, the anti-hero of this noir-ish novel, comes in. Victor is a bounty hunter working for the U.S. Marshals Service. He's adept at infiltrating abolitionist groups and retrieving runaways because he's black himself. Or rather, as Victor precisely tells us, he's moderate charcoal with brass highlights, which is one of the 172 varietals of African-American skin tone delineated in the U.S. Marshals Service field guide.

When the novel opens, Victor is sitting in a diner in Indianapolis with a Catholic priest who's suspected of running a rescue cell of what's called the Underground Airlines..."

The link to our Recipe exchange

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MKgxfP8Bi-xygIrG7aBx0hfKqsbD197lER8rAhPdPEI/edit#heading=h.dp0tsojjrvjr

Jane Hastings

Sour Cream Fudge 1984 Better Homes and Gardens

1 1/2 C sugar

2/3 C dairy sour cream

1/2 C butter

8 ounces white chocolate (approx. 1 1/3 C)

1 tsp vanilla

Walnuts or Pecans optional

Butter 8x8x2 baking pan and set aside

Butter sides of heavy 2 Quart saucepan

In saucepan combine sugar, sour cream and butter

Cook over medium high heat to boiling stirring with

a wooden spoon constantly.

Clip candy thermometer to side of pan

( you don’t have to use a candy thermometer)

Reduce heat to medium stir occasionally.

Mixture should boil at a moderate rate over the entire surface.

Set syrup to 238 degrees or softball stage

-if you are not using a candy thermometer you test the syrup by
dropping small amounts into cool water,
when it forms a softball shape it is ready.

When ready, remove from heat and stir in white chocolate and vanilla,

add nuts or top with nuts

(nuts optional)

stir until smooth and creamy.

Pour into prepared pan

(I like to keep this pan a little warm to add the mixture)

Score the candy while still warm.

After it cools store tightly covered.

Suzi Byrd

Scotch Shortbread

½ lb. butter

½ cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

¼ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and gradually add sugar. Set aside.
Mix flour and salt together and add to the first mixture. Combine well.
Turn dough out onto a lightly greased or lined cookie sheet.
Pat down or roll to ¼ inch thickness. Prick across the dough with a fork.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.
While still hot, cut shortbread into squares with a sharp knife,
then remove cookies to a rack to cool completely.

This dough can also be rolled out and cut into shapes prior to baking.

It can also be used as a tart crust.

Molly McClure

Holiday Puppy Chow

Ingredients Needed:

9 cups of Chex (any kind)

1 bag of chocolate chips (11.5 oz.)

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Large Paper bag

M&M’s (any variety)

Directions:

Start by measuring out the cereal and place it in a large

brown paper bag (grocery store bag). In a medium, microwave safe bowl,

add chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter and vanilla extract.

Begin by heating on high for 1 minute. Take out and stir.

Repeat in 30 second increments until the mixture is melted and smooth.

This is the fun part. Dump in the brown paper bag that contains the cereal.

Go ahead, I promise, it will be OK! Dump in the chocolate mixture and shake it!

Shake, shake, shake!

Next open the bag and add the powdered sugar. Shake it again.

Next lay out on a sheet pan to cool.

Molly McClure

Fabulous Five-Minute Fudge Wreath

Ingredients

1 bag semisweet chocolate morsels (12 ounces) or peanut butter morsels

9 ounces butterscotch morsels (3/4 of a 12 ounce bag) or white chocolate morsels

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 can or package of walnut halves (8 ounces) or pecans, almonds, peanuts

1/2 cup currants (a couple handfuls) or raisins

8-inch cake pan, lightly greased with softened butter

Candied red and green cherries, for garnish (optional)

Serves 32 (2 pounds)

Preparation

Place a heavy pot on the stove and pre-heat it over low heat.

Add chocolate and butterscotch morsels and milk and stir until morsels

are melted and milk is combined. Save the empty condensed milk can.

Stir in the vanilla and remove the fudge from heat.

Add the nuts and currants and stir in immediately.

Cover the empty condensed milk can with plastic wrap

and center it in the greased cake pan.

Spoon fudge into pan around can, making sure to center the can if it drifts.

The fudge will set up almost immediately. Garnish can only be added in the

first minute or two that the fudge is in the pan, so work quickly.

Decorate your wreath with "holly" made from

cut candied red and green cherries.

A wreath left plain can be garnished with a pretty fabric bow when serving.

Chill covered in the refrigerator.

Slice the fudge very thin when ready to serve – a little goes a long way!

Alayna MooreWeathers

Italian Panettone

1) Put on a warm outer layer, grab your purse, and head to Trader Joe’s.

You’ll be glad you bundled up because it’s likely you’ll be waiting in a line outside.

2) Once inside, head toward the main incap facing the double doors

(the one nearest the fruit).

3) There will be plenty of panettone from which to choose.

Selecting one to your liking will be easy.

4) Pay the friendly clerk then be on your way.

5) In the event of a ridiculously long line to enter the store (you be the judge)

don’t even bother parking.

Steer your vehicle in an easterly direction along Folsom Blvd.

6) Drive to Corti Brothers.

7) Repeat steps two through four.

8) When you arrive home with your Italian treat, warn your husband

against tearing into it. Inform him that this one is being shared with your book club pals.

Beth Kennedy

Not a cookie but it’s still good :)

Cranberry Orange Bread

For the bread:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar

Zest of 1 large orange

¾ cup buttermilk

½ cup canola or vegetable oil

2 large eggs slightly beaten

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh cranberries roughly chopped

For the orange glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 ½ tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon orange zest

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a 8 ½ x 4 ½ loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In a small bowl,

combine sugar and orange zest. Rub together with your fingers until fragrant.

Whisk into the flour mixture. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, orange juice, and vanilla.

Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Fold in the cranberries.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 70-75 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. If your loaf starts to get too brown

drape a piece of foil over the top to finish baking.

I did this during the last 10 minutes of the baking time.

Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes.

Loosen the sides of the bread with a knife. Carefully remove loaf from pan.

Let cool completely on wire rack.

While the bread is cooling, make the orange glaze. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar,

orange juice, and orange zest. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the bread.

Cut and serve

Friday

October/November Book Choice 2020

This lush novel took two months to complete but was well worth the journey. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield provided us with a lengthy discussion and lots of wonderful moments. Here is a part of the Washington Post 2018 book review...

" Diane Setterfield haunts familiar ground in “Once Upon a River,” an eerily mystic tale of a mute child who captivates the local townspeople after she’s seemingly brought back from the dead.

The author of “The Thirteenth Tale” and “Bellman & Black” begins this account on a winter solstice more than a hundred years ago. A near-drowned stranger arrives at a rural inn, grievously injured and carrying a young girl who, to all appearances, has already died. Despite the child’s corpse-like state,
however, the local nurse, Rita, discovers a pulse.

At different points the narrative emphasizes the powers of oral tradition, photography and performance, using stories that straddle fiction and fact to reveal essential truths to the speaker and the audience.

The river acts as both setting and character, a force in the everyday lives of its neighbors. Though Setterfield writes emotions with marvelous truth and subtlety, her most stunning prose is reserved for evocative descriptions of the natural world, creating an immersive experience made of light, texture, scent and sensation."

A perfect Tale to carry you into Winter!

Tuesday

August 2020 Book Choice

And here we are still in lockdown, slowly opening up with masks and social distancing. Our August selection is " The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules" by Catharina Igelman-Sundberg

Here is part of the San Francisco book review:

Martha Andersson and her friends aren’t happy about the recent cost-cutting that’s been going on in Diamond House, their retirement home. Determined to continue living life to the fullest, the group hatches a plan to commit a crime and go to prison, where the living conditions are surely better. But being criminals is more complicated than they thought, and the situation quickly grows beyond anything they’d imagined.

Readers are sure to love Martha, Brains, Christina, Rake, and Anna-Greta, the delightful group of retirees that star in The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules. Author Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg has written a truly fun and enjoyable novel here, with spunky main characters, a cunning plot, great supporting characters, and even a little bit of romance. The story is funny and easy to read; readers will want to make it all the way to the end to see if the oldies manage to pull off their perfect crime in the end and get the ultimate retirement they dream of.

July 2020 Book Choice

Happy Anniversary 11 years of Beehive book reading and over 100 book too!.Moving into summer with a delightful novel, the Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee. This young readers novel was a perfect choice for this very odd summer. We continue to meet on Zoom and share our thoughts, updates and discoveries. Here is part of the NPR Review from August 2019:

As a Chinese girl living in late 19th century Atlanta, Ga., Jo Kuan constantly struggles to remain invisible. She was born in America but can't be a citizen or even rent a proper apartment, so she lives in a former abolitionist's hidden tunnels, secreted away underneath a newspaper office. Her job is in the back room of a hat shop where everyone wants her beautiful decorative knotwork — but not the comments of the opinionated girl who makes it. And when she loses that job, she must go work for the Payne family as a maid for their snotty daughter, who does everything she can to make Jo miserable.

But one night, Jo overhears her upstairs neighbors bemoaning low subscription numbers and wondering if the newspaper will make it. Afraid of what new neighbors might mean for her living situation, Jo begins writing an advice column, "Dear Miss Sweetie," and submits it anonymously to the paper. Suddenly, all the opinions that she's struggled to keep under wraps come pouring out, and her column burns with radical thoughts on everything from gender equality to segregation. It's just what the newspaper needed, and soon, her writing is the talk of Atlanta. But not all the talk is good, and even as she yearns for acknowledgement, invisibility becomes more important than ever.

I honestly didn't know it was possible for a work of historical fiction to seriously take on the racism and sexism of the 19th century South while still being such a joyful read. I almost want to dare readers to not be delighted by its newspaper office shenanigans, clandestine assignations in cemeteries, and bicycle-riding adventures, but there's honestly no point. The Downstairs Girl, for all its serious and timely content, is a jolly good time.

June 2020 Book Choice

And still in lockdown masks and social distancing to flatten the curve. The school year is coming to an end and book group is continuing with Zoom meetings. Nice to see everyone's face and connect. Our May book choice was "Love and Other Consolation Prizes" by Jamie Ford. This was our 3rd book by Jamie Ford that we have selected-the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and The Songs of Willow Frost.

Here is part of the review posted by Kirkus review Oct 2017:

Ernest has already lived a lifetime of surprises and indignities. After his starving Chinese mother secured her only son a spot on a freighter to America, Ernest, only 5 years old, had to learn swiftly how to navigate a world that denigrated him not only for being an orphan, but also, and perhaps worse, for being of mixed blood. Ernest never knew his white father, but his youth and mixed heritage enabled him to make friends with both the Chinese girls on the ship and the lone Japanese girl, Fahn. Once Ernest survived a month captive in the hold of the ship, not to mention a near drowning, he became a ward of the state in Seattle and eventually attracted a wealthy sponsor, who sent him to an exclusive boarding school, where he endured racism and discrimination, and then, when he has the temerity to tell her he would rather go to another school, she has him raffled off at the World's Fair. Surprisingly, life in the bordello is exciting, not least because there Ernest meets Madame Flora’s tomboyishly charming daughter, Maisie, and reunites with Fahn. Falling in love with both, however, can only lead to heartache, since life in a brothel exacts certain prices.

Alternating between Ernest’s past and present, Ford captures the thrill of first kisses and the shock of revealing long-hidden affairs.

A lively history of romance in the dens of iniquity, love despite vice.

May 2020 Book Choice

No April choice this year. As we continue in Lockdown and keeping safe distances the Beehive is continuing with Zoom book group discussions. What has been fun is that now out of town and out of state members can join. This will be a feature we will continue with into the New post COVID world...The April book choice was the very popular "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens.

Here is part of the book review from Krikus August 2018

“The Marsh Girl,” “swamp trash”—Catherine “Kya” Clark is a figure of mystery and prejudice in the remote North Carolina coastal community of Barkley Cove in the 1950s and '60s. Abandoned by a mother no longer able to endure her drunken husband’s beatings and then by her four siblings, Kya grows up in the careless, sometimes-savage company of her father, who eventually disappears, too. Alone, virtually or actually, from age 6, Kya learns both to be self-sufficient and to find solace and company in her fertile natural surroundings. Owens (Secrets of the Savanna, 2006, etc.), the accomplished co-author of several nonfiction books on wildlife, is at her best reflecting Kya’s fascination with the birds, insects, dappled light, and shifting tides of the marshes. The girl’s collections of shells and feathers, her communion with the gulls, her exploration of the wetlands are evoked in lyrical phrasing which only occasionally tips into excess. But as the child turns teenager and is befriended by local boy Tate Walker, who teaches her to read, the novel settles into a less magical, more predictable pattern. Interspersed with Kya’s coming-of-age is the 1969 murder investigation arising from the discovery of a man’s body in the marsh. The victim is Chase Andrews, “star quarterback and town hot shot,” who was once Kya’s lover. In the eyes of a pair of semicomic local police officers, Kya will eventually become the chief suspect and must stand trial.

March 2020 Book Choice

What's next for Tommy Orange? He talks about 'There There' sequel ...

March was a month of change and tension. As COVID-19 became more widespread and a national shutdown unfolded we all try to figure out how to adjust our lives. This was our first Zoom Book Club meeting. Our March book of Choice was There, There by Tommy Orange.

Here is part of the book review by NPR June 2018

Here's the thing about There There, the debut novel by Native American author Tommy Orange
Even if the rest of its story were just so-so — and it's much more than that — the novel's prologue would make this book worth reading.

In that 10-page prologue, Orange wittily and witheringly riffs on some 500 years of native people's history, a history of genocide and dislocation presented mostly through the image of heads. He begins with a description of the "Indian Head test pattern," a graphic that closed out America's television programming every night during the age of black-and-white TV. He then catapults backwards to 1621 and the first Thanksgiving, then bebops through a litany of Indian massacres in American history.

There There is distinguished not only by Orange's crackling style, but by its unusual subject. This is a novel about urban Indians, about native peoples who know, as he says, "the sound of the freeway better than [they] do rivers ... the smell of gas and freshly wet concrete and burned rubber better than [they] do the smell of cedar or sage..."

Orange's story takes place in Oakland, Calif., and his title comes from the famous pronouncement about rootlessness that Gertrude Stein made when, as an adult, she revisited Oakland, her childhood home. "There is no there there," Stein said.

Orange knows the feeling and the terrain: He also grew up in Oakland and is enrolled in the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma. But in There There, Orange wanted to do something more than fictionalize his own experience. Instead, his novel is composed of the stories of a bunch of Native and mixed-race characters, all of them eventually converging in a climactic scene at a big powwow in the Oakland Coliseum.

In a satiric aside, Orange says that one thing that unites the diverse powwow participants is the type of bumper stickers they've slapped on their cars: They all sport Indian pride messages like "My Other Vehicle Is a War Pony" and "Fighting Terrorism Since 1492."

Like those bumper stickers, There There is pithy and pointed. With a literary authority rare in a debut novel, it places Native American voices front and center before readers'

Wednesday

February 2020 Book Choice

Moving into the year with a dynamic and moving selection by the one and and only Toni Morrison: Song of Solomon.

Kirkus Review
1977

And the scribbled no-name "Macon Dead," given to a newly freed black man by a drunken Union Army officer, has stained out a family's real name for three generations, and then we meet the third "Macon Dead," called "Milkman." Raised among the sour hatreds of the richest black family in a Michigan town, Milkman learns not to love or make commitments, learns to turn away from his father's hard, tight greed, his mother's unloved passivity, his sisters' sterile virginity. He stands apart from his outcast aunt Pilate (a figure reminiscent of Sula, living beyond all reason), a "raggedy bootlegger" who keeps her name in a box threaded to one ear. And he stands above the wild untidy adoration of his cousin Hagar, above the atrocities against blacks in the 1950s, even while his friend organizes a black execution squad. However, when Milkman's father opens the door to a family past of murder and flight, Milkman—in order to steal what he believes is gold—begins the cleansing Odyssean journey. His wanderings will take him through a wilderness of rich and wonderful landscapes murmuring with old tales, those real names becoming closer and more familiar. He beholds eerie appearances (an ancient Circe ringed with fight-eyed dogs)—and hears the electric singing of children, which holds within it the pulse of truth. Like other black Americans, Milkman's retrieval of identity from obliteration helps him to shake off the "Dead" no-name state of his forebears. And, like all people, his examination of the past gives him a perspective that liberates the capacity for love. Morrison's narration, accomplished with such patient delicacy, is both darkly tense and exuberant; fantastic events and symbolic embellishments simply extend and deepen the validity and grace of speech and character.

When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you die."

Molly hosted the dinner at her lovely home filled with friendship and deep conversation.

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2023 Reading List

2022 reading list

Nov/Dec 2022 Faithful by Alice Hoffman Fiction
October 2022 While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams Fiction/Mystery
Aug/Sept 2022 You’re leaving When? By Annabelle Gurwitch Biography/essays
July 2022 Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
June 2022 the Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Darel
May 2022 the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
March/April 2022 The Giver of Starts by Jojo Moyes
February 2022 Interior Chinatown by CharlesYu
January 2022 Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Archival Reading list 2009-21

November/December 2021 Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

October 2021-Mexican Gothic by Silva Moreno-Garcia

August/September 2021-Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

July 2021-Circe by Madeline Miller

June 2021-Why we swim by Bonnie Tsui

May 2021- Midnight Library by Matt Haig

April 2021 - The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

February/March 2021 - The Life She was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman

January 2021- The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee

December 2020-Underground Airport by Ben H. Winters

October/Nov 2020-Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

August 2020- The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

July 2020- the Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

June 2020- Love and other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford

May 2020- Where to Crawdads sing by Delia Owens

March 2020- There, There by Tommy Orange

February 2020- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

January 2020-Dear Mrs. Bird by PJ Pearce

December 2019-One Amazing Thing

November 2019-My Year of Rest and Relaxation-Ottessa Moshfegh

October 2019-History of Bees-Maja Lunde

September 2019-Little-Edward Carey

July 2019-Behold the Dreamers-Imbolo Mbue

June 2019- Becoming by Michelle Obama

May 2019-Sourdough-Robin Sloan

April 2019-Educated- Tara Westover

March 2019- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

February 2019- White Teeth by Zadie Smith

January 2019 -Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

November December 2018- Before we Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

October 2018- Radium Girls by Kate Moore

September 2018- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

August 2018-Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

June 2018 - Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

May 2018- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

April 2018-Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

March 2018- Keeper of Lost things by Ruth Hogan

January 2018

Slade House by David Mitchell

December 2017-I am America (and so can you) by Stephen Colbert

November 2017-A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

October 2017 - Commonwealth by Ann Patchet

September 2017 - A man called Ove by Fredrick Backman

June/July 2017 -Thomas Jefferson’s Crème Brulee by Thomas Craughwell

May 2017- Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer

April 2017-Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

March 2017-The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

January 2017

Signs preceding the end of the world by Yuri Herrera

December Cookie Exchange -

All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

October 2016-

Shakespeare Saved my life by Laura Bates

September 2016-

Rocket Girl: The story of Mary Sherman by George D. Morgan

August 2016-The Girl with all the gifts by
M.R. Carey

June 2016- My Grandmother Said to tell you she's sorry

by Fredrik Backman

May 2016-Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz

March/April- Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Feb 2016-Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Jan 2016 - the Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Lagenski

Nov/Dec 2015- The Pecan Man by Cassie Dandridge Selleck

October 2015-The Magician Lie by Greer Macallister

September 2015-Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius

August 2015-Where'd you go Bernadette? by

July 2015- Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

May/June 2015 - Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

March/April 2015- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Mara

February/March 2015- Destiny of the Republic: A tale of Madness...by Candice Millard

January 2015- The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

November/December 2014- The First Fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North

October/November 2014- I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

September 2014 -And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

July August 2014- Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
May June 2014 - Mr Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
April 2014- Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
March 2014- March by Geraldine Brooks
February 2014 - The Holy or the Unbroken by Alan Light
January 2014 - Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D.James

Nov/Dec 2013-Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
October 2013- Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
August/September 2013: Quiet by Susan Cain
July/August 2013: Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
May/June 2013: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

March/April: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert
February/March 2013: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
January 2013: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

November/December 2012: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald October 2012: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness September 2012: The World to Come by Dara Horn

July/August 2012:The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

June 2012:Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

May 2012: Swaplandia by Karen Russel

April 2012: Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

March 2012:Room by Emma Donoghue
February 2012: I Feel Bad About my Neck by Nora Ephron January 2012: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

November/December 2011: A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote.

October 2011: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde September 2011: The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine MD.

July/August 2011: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

June 2011: The Zookeeper' wife by Diane Ackerman

May 2011: The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

April 2011: Without Reservations the travels of an independent woman by Alice Steinbach

March 2011: The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle

February 2011: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

January 2011: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Holiday 2010: Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg

October 2010: the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman September 2010: the Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman July/August 2010: the Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton May 2010: 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith April 2010: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

March 2010: The Given Day by Dennise Lehane

February 2010: The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

December/January 2010: the 13th Tale by Diane Setterfield

November/December 2009: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

October 2009: Pride & Prejudice & the Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith

September 2009: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows

August 2009: Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See July 2009: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell