What we might read, depending on our mood
This is our list of possibles -- suggestions for future reads. We have a tendency to regenerate this list every meeting, usually after somebody says "what should we read next time?" and then somebody else says "gosh, what's on our list? Didn't we have a list? Who's got the list?" So here it is.
The Great River by Madelon Sprengnether
A memoir that takes the reader on a metaphorical journey of traumatic events cast in a psychological trajectory that begins with questions of death and ends in emotional consolation.
I Refuse by Per Petterson
In his signature spare style, Petterson weaves a tale of two men whose accidental meeting one morning recalls their boyhood thirty-five years ago.
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kieman
An incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.
An ordinary life -- its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion -- lived by an ordinary woman.
The Patagonian Hare by Claude Lanzmann
The French writer and filmmaker recalls a full, multifaceted life: a teenage member of the wartime Resistance; a friend to Jean-Paul Sartre and a lover to Simon de Beauvoir, and the director of "Shoah." 'Poetically intense.'
May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Holmes
Winner of the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction. An unnerving, funny tale of unexpected intimacies and of how one deeply fractured family might begin to put itself back together.
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one family. Captured here in 12 luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother's monumental courage and the journey of a nation.
When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won' look at them until after I'm gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams's mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that the three shelves of journals were blank. In 54 short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the question of what it means to have a voice.
Where the Bodies Are Buried by Christopher Brookmyre
The latest work from a Scottish crime writer best known for his comic crime novels. His latest book is just as richly Scottish as his earlier work, but it is his grittiest and most realistic novel yet.
The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
A coming-of-age tale that asks whether it's worth coming of age at all in a world that might end at any minute.
All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang
At the renowned writing school in Bonneville, every student is simultaneously terrified of an attracted to the charismatic and mysterious poet and professor Miranda Sturgis. As two students, Roman and Bernard, strive to win her admiration, the lines between mentorship, friendship, and love are blurred. This is a brilliant evocation of the demands of ambition and vocation, personal loyalty, and poetic truth.
One Day I Will Write About this Place, by Binyavanga Wainaina
In this vivid and compelling debut memoir, Wainaina takes us through his school days in Kenya, his mother's religious period, his failed attempt to study in South Africa as a computer programmer, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels.
The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides
Recommended by: Joanne
The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman
Recommended by: Joanne
Stone Arabia, by Dana Spiotta
Recommended by: We don't remember
Townie, by Andre Dubus III
Recommended by: Lois
The Women, by T.C. Boyle
Recommended by: Linda
The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
Recommended by: Margy
