Great Book Plus Reading List 2002-2010

Almost two years ago, I shared my book group’s reading list. This post attracted lots of traffic from people searching for book group suggestions. If you’re one of those folks, browse this list and also check out Kathleen’s Parker’s new blog, Marian’s Library for reading recommendations for all ages.

Before you dig into the lengthy book group list below, check out a great book that came out last month.

Photo caption: Kathleen Parker, Barbara Rozgonyi [me!] and Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been, a book Publisher’s Weekly calls book group gold. [Disclosure: I’ve know Melanie and her family for many years. I was thrilled to be invited to her book publishing party and share in the celebration with complimentary refreshments for all. Thanks Melanie and Dennis and to Kathleen for driving in for the event!]

Melanie tells the story of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who was the inspiration for “Alice in Wonderland,” and her relationship with Charles Dodgson, who wrote the book under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Read the reviews of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. Where is my review? My book went out on loan to friends before I had a chance to read it. Now I’m ordering a back up copy for me and as a second loaner. Judging from the reviews and knowing Melanie, this is a book that you’ll be happy to read, recommend and give to friends who love historical fiction.

Looking for more good reads? Here’s the list from my book group. What books would you add?

Update February 28, 2008
A few qualifiers: credit for the title selections goes to the book group; members collectively recommend titles and make final selections. Our leader is a very organized and dedicated person. She gets credit for keeping track of the list. 🙂

2002 Book Group Selections

All Over But the Shoutin’ Bragg
Palace Walk
Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Five Quarters of the Orange Harris
Bel Canto Patchett
Nickel and Dimed Enrenhreich
Things Fall Apart Achebe

2003 Book Group Selections

Niagara Falls all Over Again McCracken
The Secret History Tartt
The Hatbox Baby C. Brown
The Secret Life of Bees Kidd
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Sijie Dai
Atonement
The Life of Pi
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

2004 Book Group Selections

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
Year of Wonders: a novel of the Plague Geraldine Brookes
The Nine Parts of Desire Geraldine Brookes
Cry the Beloved Country Paton
Patron Saint of Liars Ann Patchett
The Devil in the White City Eric Larson
The Other Boleyn Girl Philippa Gregory
The Rich Part of Life Jim Kokoris

2005 Book Group Selections

The Kite Runner by Hosseini
The Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund
Dubliners by James Joyce
Interpreter of the Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Purple Hibiscus by Adichie
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Wings of the Dove by Henry James
Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

2006 Book Group Selections

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
A Curious Incident of A Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
The Dress Lodger by Shari Holman
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
March by Geraldine Brooks
Prairie Nocturne by Ivan Doig
The Wild Girl: the Notebooks of Ned Giles by Jim Fergus

2007 Book Group Selections

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Retrospective of Jon Cleary books
The World Below by Sue Miller
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Poetry ideas from Marion
Them: a Memior of Parents by Francine du Plessix Gray
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Female of the Species (short stories) by Joyce Carol Oates

2008 Book Group Selections

Saving the World by Julia Alvarez
Echomaker by Richard Powers
The March by E.L. Doctorow
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Miss Lonelyhearts by
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

2009 Book Group Selections

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Seeing by Jose Saramago
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy by John Updike
The Girl Who Loved Anne Frank
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini
The Ha Ha: a novel by Dave King
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

2010 Book Group Selections

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff
Little Bee by Chris Cleve