American Pastoral, 421 pages
The good life collapses when a highly successful businessman’s teenage daughter becomes radicalized and commits and act of terror. Idyll unravels in what is often described as an ‘epic’ novel of the 20th century—a modern Book of Job.
Additional discussion themes: love (self, family, country); passion; terrorism; radical cults & sects; acceptance and change; success.
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The Bluest Eye, 215 pages
In the 1940’s, an 11 year-old black girl covets the ‘blue eyes’ of her white schoolmates believing that having them would ‘rescue’ her from the poor family and home that keep her separate from the acceptance of more prosperous friends and society – both black and white.
Additional discussion themes: identity; conventions and standards of beauty; perception; race and culture; narrative style.
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Bread Givers, 297 pages
New York’s Lower East Side is home to the Torah reading Reb Smolinsky, his wife and three daughters. Written in 1925, this a straightforward engaging tale of the Jewish immigrant experience of that period.
Additional discussion themes: class and culture; parental power and control; immigrant experience; tenacity; independence.
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Brooklyn, 262 pages
Brooklyn and Ireland in the 1950's. A young woman goes abroad to make a new life for herself and eventually has to ask, 'Can you ever go home again?'
Additional discussion themes: self-realization, immigration, obligation, storytelling and narrative
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Cellist of Sarajevo, 235 pages
The intertwining stories of four individuals struggling to survive in war-torn Sarajevo
Additional discussion themes: war; loss; loss of innocence; fear and couragae; the redemptive power of art
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Crow Lake, 293 pages
An accident orphans 4 siblings who are first scattered with relative and then gathered by the eldest. The setting, an Ontario farm community, takes on a character and influence of its own.
Additional discussion themes: sibling rivalry; duty; gratitude; family; isolation |
Digging to America, 291 pages
Two families in Baltimore – one American and one Iranian – meet when adopting infants from Korea. As they raise their daughters and join in ‘family celebrations’, they feel the push and pull of culture, friendship, and identity in both foreign and native lands.
Additional discussion themes: ‘home’ and ‘family’; childrearing/parenting styles; culture; international adoption.
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Driftless, 429 pages
The title refers literally to geologic features of an area in Wisconsin and figuratively to the home and community of July Montgomery who had spent decades without roots. Actions often speak louder than Words (the town in this book). Rich writing unfolds a tale of secrets, legal and emotional battles, sharp characterizations, and issues of how what makes and maintains communities.
Additional discussion themes: courage; character; unexpected consequences; unseen kindness; community.
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The Elegance of the Hedghog, 325 pages
Both the prosaic and the intellectual are explored as two narrators, a widowed concierge and a precocious 12 year-old, observe and comment on their worlds.
Additional discussion themes: French intellectual culture, coming of age, teen angst, lonliness and loss
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Ella Minnow Pea, 208 pages
A novel in letters is also a novel about the lack of letters which become banned from public and private discourse as they fall off a beloved municipal statue. A creative, clever satire that appeals to ‘wordies’ and addresses the larger allegorical issues of power and friendship in a totalitarian state.
Additional discussion themes: thought and mind control; governmental power; freedom of speech; originality.
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Gilead, 247 pages
A dying pastor writes letters to his son about family, community, history, philosophy and religion as well as his hopes for his son and his family. Topics and themes weave in and out as if in casual conversation. 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winner
Additional discussion themes: courage; character; meaning of life; narrative style.
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 274 pages
Isolated on Guernsey during the German occupation the intellectual and emotional life of the community is revealed in this novel of letters.
Additional discussion themes: isolation; resistance; collaboration; community.
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Half of a Yellow Sun, 540 pages
Ordinary Nigerians, farmers, servants, and university professors, are caught in the sweep of issues, horror, and everyday choices during the late 60’s struggle over Biafra.
Additional discussion themes: civil war; class war; community; family trust and betrayal.
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The Handmaid’s Tale, 311 pages
Powerful allegorical tale involving a future American state in which politics, pollution, fundamental Christianity, and authority force certain women to be the official breeders.
Additional discussion themes: dystopias; power (political, sexual, religious); complicity.
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The History of Love, 252 pages
Loss and love in many forms are captured in 3 stories lines which bob and weave and are eventually linked. Explores the stories we tell ourselves and others. Original style and storytelling allows readers (like some of the characters) to laugh and cry at the same time.
Additional discussion themes: loss; love; family; identity; coming of age; friendship; trust; “honest lying.”
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The Housekeeper and the Professor, 180 pages
A brilliant mathematician loses all but his short term memory and becomes dependent on a creative and caring housekeeper and her young son. The Japanese setting adds some cultural layering but the kindness and what we learn from spending time with others is universal.
Additional discussion themes: virtual families, mathematics memory, intuition, patience practical guile
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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, 290 pages
Forty years after the end of WWII, the personal possessions of Japanese families are found in the basement of a Seattle hotel; memories of old promises are unleashed and a search for both people and truth ensues.
Additional discussion themes: prejudice; internment; wartime on the home front; loyalty; narrative technique.
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The Hours, 231 pages
Spanning 80 years, three generations of women are depicted in snapshot stories that mirror aspects of Virginia Woolf’s classic day-in-the-life novel Mrs. Dalloway.
Pulitzer and Pen/Faulkner Winner
Additional discussion themes: character; ordinary life; loneliness; identity; attachment; literary homage.
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I Heard the Owl Call My Name, 159 pages
A first novel written by a 69 year-old. A young minister is assigned to a remote Kwakiutl (British Columbia) village and makes testament to a vanishing way of life and the native traditions being destroyed through the influence of white men.
Additional discussion themes: native culture; dynamics of change; preserving identities and traditions; personal journeys.
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Inheritance of Loss, 357 pages
In rural India in the foothills of the Himalayas a grandfather, his granddaughter, and their cook each struggle to find their balance and independence in the push and pull of the modern and greater world as well as in their connection and need of one another. Rich, exotic setting and strong, yet vulnerable characters.
Additional discussion themes: modernization; culture; connections; exile; colonialism and its aftermath; haves and have-nots.
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Interpreter of Maladies, 198 pages
A short story collection that builds on themes of culture, barriers, love and understanding of Indians living in Asia, Europe and the U.S. 2000 Pulitzer Prize.
Additional discussion themes: family; identity; integrity; cultures.
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The Lake Shore Limited 322 pages
Family, friends, fiancés loss and truth after 9/11 through their own narratives as well as in their reaction to a play that portends a similar catastrophe. Illuminates the public and personal expectations and roles of survivors.
Additional discussion themes: grief, play-within-a-novel, narrative technique.
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The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, 355 pages
Spanning 1912-1996 it depicts a priest and medicine man and the community they serve, the secrets they know, and history they make. One in Erdrich’s Love Medicine series - can be read independently of the others.
Additional discussion themes: faith; healing; miracles; gender; Indian reservations and culture.
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The Lemon Tree, 264 pages
Exploration and perspective on the Paletinian—Israeli conflict from he lives and 35 year friendship of an Arab and a Jew.
Additional discussion themes: repatriation, refugees, justice and human right.
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A Lesson Before Dying, 256 pages
In rural Louisiana, 1948, an innocent and barely literate black man is condemned to death. His grandmother recognizes there is no other recourse but to enable him to die with dignity and she hires a tutor and coach to make that possible.
Additional discussion themes: justice; dignity.
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Let the Great World Spin 349 pages
Two events that stunned New Yorkers frame this elaborate, entwined tale that "focuses" on a dozen fictional characters: in 1974 a Frenchman walked a tightrope shot between the World Trade Center tower. Twenty-seven yearts later the Towers fell. National Book Award winner.
Additional discussion themes: friendship, grief, justice, urban life, coincidence.
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Little Bee 266 pages
A shocking, chance event on a Nigerian beach results years later in an encounter in an English suburb. Two strong women must find the resources for acceptance, understanding, and a future.
Additional discussion themes: immigration, detention, charity, safety, forgiveness.
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Loving Frank, 362 pages
Early 20th century personalities and values are explored in this portrayal of Frank Lloyd Wright and his paramour and the resulting public scandal and domestic chaos they caused. Promises a spirited book group discussion as readers are never ambivalent about this book!
Additional discussion themes: definitions of marriage; parenting; creative personalities.
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Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, 358 pages
Warm, wise tale of tradition and change in an out-of-the-way English village. How do old customs and traditional notions of class and propriety hold up against change and progress?
Additional discussion themes: obligation, generations, values, outsiders, love, loyalty
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March, 280 pages
Developing the back story of the missing father in Little Women, Brooks imagines a Mr. March who enlists as an army chaplain and spends a year ‘imbedded’ with Union troops.
Additional discussion themes: U.S. Civil War; historical fiction,; post traumatic stress syndrome (in an earlier age); assuming characters from other fiction
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Memory Keeper’s Daughter, 401 pages
In 1964, a doctor makes a practical decision for himself after delivering his twin children. He also asks his nurse to never reveal the truth and she makes a decision of her own. For more than 25 years, two families are linked in ways visible and invisible.
Additional discussion themes: ethics; custody; secrets; Down Syndrome
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Montana 1948, 169 pages
A 12 year-old narrates the story of his uncle and father (the revered local doctor and the sheriff), and the events following accusations of molestation of Indian patients.
Additional discussion themes: coming of age; native Americans; justice; family; community
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Out Stealing Horses, 238 pages
In a remote riverside setting in Norway, a retiree confronts memories of his youth during World War II, especially summers with his father when the area was controlled by Germans. Rich, terse prose in a tale with Dickensian scope, yet with an immediate feel and great mystery.
Additional discussion themes: memory, choronology, youth family landscape. labor
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Peace Like A River, 313 pages
1960’s
Montana finds two siblings and a father trying to track an older
brother who flees jail after murdering two threatening marauders. A
federal agent trails the family hoping to recapture the fugitive.
Additional discussion themes: hardship; truth; justice; kindness of strangers; belief
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The Remains of the Day, 245 pages
A decade after WWII, a ‘proper’ English Butler drives through the English countryside on a trip to understanding (perhaps) what really happened in the physical and emotional world that he thought he controlled so well. 1989 Booker Prize
Additional discussion themes: conduct; dignity; role; memory and the re-examined life
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Sarah’s Key, 293 pages
A Jewish family becomes separated in occupied Paris and the truth and lasting repercussions are explored by a 21st century American journalist. Based in part on the roundup of French Jews in July of 1942.
Additional discussion themes: Jewish experiences in occupied France; culpability; collaborators
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Sex Wars, 411 pages
Well-researched historical fiction of New York's Guilded Age brings together a cast including poor immigrants, prostitites. leaders of the suffrage movement, other activists, and certain captains of industry.
Additional discussion themes: passion, sexuality, post Civil War culture
and society.
The Siege of Salt Cove, 380 pages
The beloved old wooden bridge in a seaside New England community is scheduled to be replaced with a large concrete eyesore. After protests fail, the villagers, a diverse group of characters, resort to succession.
Additional discussion themes: change, civil action, community, big government.
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The Shadow of the Wind, 486 pages
Mystery abounds in this Barcelona based saga that combines a wondrous world of intrigue, treachery, madness, murder, and lost love. Booksellers, book savers, book destroyers and much, much more are interwoven in this elaborate adventure.
Additional discussion themes: authors; preservation of literature; mind and imagining; modern Spanish history; literary mysteries
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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, 269 pages
In rural China of the 1800’s, two young girls are bound for life when they become “old sames” and are introduced to secret codes in order to communicate their joys, challenges and sadness and hopefully temper the isolation of being sent from their families when they marry. Fascinating period of Chinese culture and history.
Additional discussion themes: culture and women; footbinding; definitions of friendship; loyalty; truth; misunderstanding
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The Things We Once Held Dear, 396 pages
Recently widowed, Neil Sadler returns to his Ohio hometown and takes on physical and emotional projects to reconnect with friends and family and explore his obligations and choices.
Additional discussion themes: going home again; grief and loss
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This Side of Paradise, 282 pages
Not just a coming of age of a Princeton undergraduate, but also an illuminating look at class, aspiration, urges, disillusion, and enlightenment of a generation of men and women.
Additional discussion themes: post WWI generation and ethos; character
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A Thousand Splendid Suns, 420 pages
Thirty years of Afghan history are background to the family stories that link two women and their fates. Within compound walls and households, on the streets outside and the roads between large and small cities, timeless journeys are made.
Additional discussion themes: meaning of family; safety; women’s rights and history; Afghan culture; destiny
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To Kill a Mockingbird, 323 pages
An undisputed American classic—Scout Finch narrates her coming of age in a story of 1930’s Alabama that unwraps the literal and figurative trials and tribulations of community and family.
Additional discussion themes: justice; tolerance; empathy; courage; race relations
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The Tortilla Curtain, 355 pages
Illegal Mexicans set up camp in the canyon area outside LA and run afoul of man, animals and the elements. Contrasting lives, ideals, opportunities, and threats embroil a wealthy community as individual paths and personal borders cross. A provocative tale that puts very contemporary issues front and center.
Additional discussion themes: immigration policy and law; racism; individual and collective responsibility; California living
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 493 pages
A coming of age classic set in the early 1900’s. Francie and her sister find ways to survive and thrive amidst the inner-city poverty and class and culture divisions that throw challenges in all directions.
Additional discussion themes: ambition; alcoholism; escape; maturity
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The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, 304 pages
Creative twists put classic characters in a modern, historical conflict. Jewish parents hide their children deep in the Polish woods to protect them during the German occupation. A witch provides wisdom and safety for them as best she can.
Additional discussion themes: folklore; superstition; survival; ordinary lives; collaboration; resistance
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Water for Elephants, 350 pages
A young vet finds himself part of a traveling circus in the 1930’s and he takes on an amazing array of both human and non-human animals in an amazing story based on historical train circuses of the period. Clever narrative combines the 90 year old protagonist now in a nursing home and waiting for his son to take him to the circus that was in town that day.
Additional discussion themes: 1930’s and the Depression; love; memory; survival; hope; family
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The Whistling Season, 345 pages
Rich, evocative tale of time and place in 1910’s Montana where kids rode horses to school and a widow father hired a housekeeper who advertised “can’t cook but doesn’t bite”. A brother and sister ‘tranform’a community and even themselves, a bit, in the process of making a new life. Deft prose, that is quiet and unassuming and draws the reader deep into character and place.
Additional discussion themes: change and chance, community, the West on the cusp of major changes, slight of hand
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White Noise, 310 pages
A classic written in 1984—before so much of the ‘noise’ in our contemporary life--describes all that pulses in our lives and environment and what it does to our individual and collective psyche. Raises issues still raw and timely. Winner of the American Book Award
Additional discussion themes: marriage, family definition and life, consumerism, man-made disasters, academics, death and dying
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