Before we blogged
Once upon a time, we were entirely pen and paper. This list, while no doubt incomplete, captures some of the volumes we have read, discussed, and drunk wine to while discussing.
A Death in the Family, by James Agee
Forty years after its original publication, James Agee's last novel seems, more than ever, an American classic. For in his lyrical, sorrowful account of a man's death and its impact on his family, Agee painstakingly created a small world of domestic happiness and then showed how quickly and casually it could be destroyed.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Skloot brilliantly weaves together the story of Henrietta Lacks--a woman whose cells have been unwittingly used for scientific research since the 1950s--with the birth of bioethics, and the dark history of experimentation on African Americans.
The Secret Life of Emily Dickenson: A Novel, by Jerome Cheryn
Homer and Langley, by E.L. Doctorow
Moon Tiger, by Penelope Lively
Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson
Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
The Master, by Colm Tobin
Daisey Miller, by Henry James
Olive Kitteredge, by Elizabeth Strout
A novel in short stories, the book features the title character, a plainspoken, often difficult seventh grade math teacher, through her retirement years. Lives of townspeople are interwoven and the reader sees the complexity therein.
Lit: A Memoir, by Mary Karr
With her typical biting hilarity, author Mary Karr writes of her drinking life, attempts to get sober, and resultant religious conversion. More, it is the story of her marriage and motherhood, both damaged by her painful history.
The Plague of Doves: A Novel, by Louise Erdrich
Stories of tangled lives among Indians and whites, emanating from the murder of a white family and lynching of innocent Indians in North Dakota as told by the young Evelina, whose adolescent crushes are linked to painful history.
Home, by Marilynne Robinson
Glory and Jack, daughter and son of the Rev. Robert Broughton (Robinson’s book, Gilead), come home to their dying father, revisiting family and personal history in a search for redemption of sorts, giving new meaning to the concept of “home.”
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
A smart, cultured “super” of a Parisian apartment building takes perverse pleasure in pretending to be ordinary. She forms a bond with another “outsider,” the adolescent daughter of one of her families. Another kindred soul, an artistic Japanese man, brings new complexity to the mix.
The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers
A young man, Mark, suffers brain trauma in a truck accident, leaving him with Capgras syndrome, so he doesn’t recognize his sister or other parts of his former life, seeing all as imposters.
Somewhere Towards the End, by Diana Athill
Diana Athill, on the cusp of her 90th birthday, writes her memoir about getting old, including frank stories of her attitudes on sex, religion and death.
The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Debra Dean
Preparing for a family wedding, but with failing memory, Marina, a Russian émigré, recalls helping to pack up the art at The Hermitage Museum where she was a docent in her youth when the siege of Leningrad began.
A Mercy, by Toni Morrison
Set at the close of the 17th century, the book depicts a brutal society on a relatively humane northern farm. A new slave, Florens, given in payment of a debt, brings new disquiet to the women on the farm. But the owner’s illness causes even more alarm.
Dreams of My Father, by Barack Obama
Obama writes about his unusual life as the son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father he never knew. His search for himself travels from Hawaii, where he grew up, to Kenya. He writes about racism, poverty and corruption.
A Gate at the Stairs, By Lorrie Moore
A coming-of-age story in a midwestern college town where a naïve student from the country, Tassie, is hired as nanny for a mixed-race adopted toddler.
A Short History of Women, by Kate Walbert
The 20th century through the eyes of several generations of women in the Townsend family. The women struggle to find meaning through historical events from pre-WWI Britain to feminist consciousness-raising in the '70s and the Internet age.
