Lost in Books for 15 Years

A 15-year Compendium of What We've Read

After 15 years of coming together in each other's homes or at Open Book to choose, recommend, digest, and discuss books, we thought it best to list our achievement so we could all sit back and admire it. Our Chief Research Fellow Margy Ligon accepted the task of poring through the annals and created this list. Being an over-achiever, she also added the publication year and, where relevant, major prizes won.

2023

January:  Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (2021)

February:  Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993)

 

March, April, May:  War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869)

 

June:  Small Things Like These (2021) and Foster (2010) both by Claire Keegan

 

July:  Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession (2020)

 

September: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (2023)

 

October:  The English Experience by Julie Schumacher (2023). Julie attended the session.

November: All is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang (2010)

 

2022

January:  The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (2021) Women’s Prize

February:  The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (2021)

 

March:  Bewilderment by Richard Powers (2021)

 

April:  The All of It by Jeannette Haien (1986, republished 2011)

 

May:  The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson (Milkweed, 2021) Minnesota Book Award

 

June:  The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell (2020)

 

July:  2AM in Little America by Ken Kalfus (Milkweed, 2022)

 

Aug & Sept:  The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (2021)

 

October:  So Big by Edna Ferber (1925) Pulitzer Prize

 

November:  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1951)

 

2021

March:  The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter (2020)

 

April:  Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Takarczak (2009) translated from Polish in 2019 after she won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature)

 

May:  Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin (2018, translated from French 2020)

 

July:  After Francesco by Brian Malloy (2021) Brian led the discussion.

 

August:  Turbulence by David Szalay (2018)

 

September:  Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong (2020) MN Book Award

 

November:  Matrix by Lauren Groff (2021) National Book Award

 

 

2020

April:  Weather by Jenny Offill (2020) COVID! Started meeting via Zoom

 

May:  The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2020) Pulitzer Prize

 

June:  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (trans from Spanish 1988)

 

July:  The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020)

 

August:  Writers and Lovers by Lily King (2020)

 

Sept:  The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1984) American Book Award

 

 

2019

April:  The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich (1999) 

 

May:  Virgil Wander by Leif Enger (2018)

 

June:  My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love by Dessa (2018)

 

July:  Circe by Madeline Miller (2018) NEA Big Read

 

October:  Ruby and Roland by Faith Sullivan (2019) attended the book launch at Open Book and Faith led our discussion

 

November:  Gratitude by Oliver Sacks (2015)

 

2018

January: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) Pulitzer Prize

 

February:  The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (2017)

 

March:  The Wife by Meg Wolitzer (2003)

 

April/May:  Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2017) Pulitzer Prize

 

June:  Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (2018)

 

August:  The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018) Pulitzer Prize

 

Oct.: Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926), The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (1982)

November:  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) 150^th anniversary

 

2017 (dates are approximate)

January: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wacker (2013)

 

March: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (translated from Swedish 2013)

 

February: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (2013)

 

April: Wintering by Peter Geye (2016) Minnesota Book Award

 

May: Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (2017) The Story Prize

 

August: The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (1995)

 

September: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017) Man Booker Prize

 

2016

February:  The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (2015)

 

March:  The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (2015)

 

April:  Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (2015) National Book Award, NBCC Award

 

May:  Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold by Anne Tyler (2016)

 

June:  We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (2013)

 

September:  When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016)

 

October:  Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (2016)

 

November: The Underground Rail Road by Colson Whitehead (2016) National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal, etc. etc. etc.

 

2015

January:  Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford (2014)

 

February:  A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (2013)

 

March:  The Waves by Virginia Woolf (1931)

 

April:  Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar (2015)

 

May:  Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014) NBCC Award

 

June:   Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania  by Erik Larson (2015)

 

July:  Old Filth by Jane Gardam (2006)

 

August:  H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (2014) attended her talk at Open Book

 

September:  On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks (2015)

 

October:  To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) OR Go Set a Watchman (2015) by Harper Lee, OR The Mockingbird Nextdoor: Life with Harper Lee by Marja Mills (2014)

 

November: Good Night, Mr Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan (2015) Faith Sullivan led the discussion.

 

2014

January:  Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (2012)

 

February:  Dear Life: Short Stories by Alice Munro (2012) Read when Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature

 

March:  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013) Pulitzer Prize

 

April:  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861)

 

May:  Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose (2014)

 

June:  Dancing Fish and Ammonites by Penelope Lively (2014)

 

July & Aug:  Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871-2)

 

September:  My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead (2014)

 

October:  Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich (2011)

 

November:  Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (2014)

 

2013

January:  The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (2012) National Book Critics Circle Award (NCCB)

February:  Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009) Man Booker Prize and NCCB Award

 

March:  The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (2012)

 

April:  A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy (2012)

 

May:  Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel (Graywolf, 2013)

 

June:  Odessa: Poems by Patricia Kirkpatrick (Milkweed, 2012) Minnesota Book Award, Patricia led our discussion.

 

July:  Transatlantic by Colum McCann (2013) attended his talk at MPL

 

August:  Jewelweed by David Rhodes (Milkweed, 2013)

 

September:  In Times of Fading Light by Eugen Ruge (Graywolf, 2013)

 

October:  On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman (Graywolf, 2013) with Ru via Skype

November:  Tumbledown by Robert Boswell (Graywolf, 2013)

2012

January:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2011)

February:  Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James (2011)

 

March:  How It All Began by Penelope Lively (2011)

 

April:  The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2012)

 

May:  A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton (1934)

 

June:  Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie (2011)

 

July:  A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1964)

 

August:  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (2011)

 

September:  The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (2003)

 

October:  Canada by Richard Ford (2012) Andrew Carnegie Medal

 

November:  The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012) National Book Award

2011

What We Read, our book blog, goes live in July.

February: The End by Salvatore Scibona (2011)

March: Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (1987) Man Booker Prize

April:  Invisible Strings: Poems by Jim Moore (Graywolf, 2011) Jim led the discussion.

July:  Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009) National Book Award and Dublin Award

August:  The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (2010)

September:  The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (2009)

October:  In Caddis Wood by Mary Rockcastle (Graywolf, 2011) Mary was to lead our discussion but had to cancel.

November:  The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (2011) Man Booker Prize

 

So, What Can We Learn From This List?

+ Apparently, we can't get enough of Louise Erdrich.

 

+ We like to invite the authors of our books when we can. We should do it more often.

 

+ There are many more books on this list than there are blog posts as there was a period of time during which the blog was sleeping.

+ Fiction is our thing. The occasional non-fiction title sneaks in but is not made to feel very welcome. Poetry would love to be included but is rarely invited to the party.

+ Occasionally, we like to read a classic. As long as it's not War and Peace.

A Big-hearted Warm Bath of a Book

Title: Doorman Wanted

Author: Glenn R. Miller

From the publisher:

"Henry Franken has a problem with money--he has too much of it. When his unprincipled father dies, thirty-three-year-old Henry inherits a massive estate, including an Upper East Side residential building. He must confront the reality of his new financial status, directly conflicting with his well-honed identity as a "progressive liberal." When he shows up to collect the keys to his father's building, he notices a sign: "Doorman Wanted." Seeing a chance to stave off the complexities of his inheritance, Henry applies for the position under a pseudonym . . . and gets it. Now, no one in the building knows that Doorman "Franklin Hanratty" is the building's new mysterious owner.

 

Through interactions with residents and the homeless outside his door, Henry develops from an idealistic young person avoiding the demands of his fortune, into a man who accepts the opportunity to direct that wealth toward a broader good."

 

A Special Event with the Author

We are inveterate lovers of books. For 16 years, we've been reading and meeting, chatting and eating, arguing and agreeing. But our favorite moments are those times when we have the actual author of our book choice in our clutches. This gives us the happy task of grilling said author about inspiration, the creative process, and the ins and outs of launching a book into the world. 

With Glenn R. Miller, the author of the soon-to-be-bestseller Doorman Wanted in our midst, our session took a different form -- part socializing, part milling around, part congratulating, and part Q and A. (Note: your blog writer has made up some of these questions so they are a match for Miller's comments).

Q: How long did it take you to write this book?

A: I started the first draft in 2010. But with my writing process, I need three or four days together to work. In the thick of a career and raising two teen boys, I didn't often have those chunks of time. The pandemic gave me that time, and I was able to finish it, polish it, and edit it.

Q: This book gives such a detailed sense of New York City. Did you live there?

A: No. I did graduate from high school in New Jersey, and I would go to New York City all the time, just walking around and exploring. I'd heard of the Upper East Side and was curious, so I spent a lot of time there. But it's not meant to be a travelogue of the Upper East Side. I use it as shorthand to let the reader know that it's actually about wealth.

Q: The book is so knowledgeable about the daily life and tasks of a doorman. Did you talk to doormen to gain this knowledge?

A: The closest I came was that I knew someone who has the title of concierge. I spent time in the lobby of his building and just observed the rhythm and the conversations. But that really came from observation as well as research. There is a book named Doorman that explains in great detail what doormen are exposed to in their work days.

Two rapt participants

Q: Where did this story in particular come from? What was your inspiration?

A: The story came from my walking one day on the Upper East Side. The street was empty except for two doormen who were talking. They were laughing, hooting and hollering early in the morning. And I thought "those guys must know so many secrets and have so many stories to share." And then I just reversed it. What if it were the doorman who had the secret? What if the doorman was extremely wealthy? What is his back story? Why would he feel guilty?

Q: Homelessness plays a strong role in this book as many of the characters are living on the street. Why was that important for you to write about?

A: I did want to explore the income disparities in our current society. And also the dirty money aspect. I knew I wanted it to be about dirty money, but I didn't know why it was dirty until the middle of the story.

Q: Franklin does such a good job of taking care of everything that comes up while he is functioning as doorman. How much of that is you?

A: Some writer somewhere said that every writer writes in some ways about themselves. Franklin is one character who shares some attributes with me but there is also a lot of me in Mr. Harrison. There's a lot of me in many of the characters.

Q: There are a lot of strong opinions about art expressed in the book. How did art become such a strong theme?

A: Mr. Harrison's love of art is pretty much my personal situation. I was never encouraged by my father to consider a career in art. He was a wonderful, successful sales person. I told him I might want to be an architect, but he pooh-poohed that. In all other ways he was incredibly supportive. It was my mom who loved art. She was very artistic herself and signed me up for all kinds of art classes. My parents entered an oil painting I'd done in the State Fair and I won first place. I won a blue ribbon at the age of six, and it became a big story on the front page of the metro section. So, when something like that happens to a kid at the age of six, you just find yourself thinking "I guess I'm an artist."

Q: One of my favorite passages is "there's no stupider creature to walk the planet than a 14-year-old boy's father." Franklin also remembers "he told me to watch for the sparks of life and build something." So, at the core, his father seemed supportive even though his son couldn't see it.

A: I wanted the father to be a sympathetic character. And I think Franklin expresses a lot of regret about the things he said to his father. Many of the father/son issues in the book are based on literature rather than my own experience. I wanted us to see the father through the eyes of a teenager. There was no demon here.

Glenn Miller holding everyone's attention.

Q: Did some of your characters surprise you as you got going?

A: I had so carefully outlined the book and so carefully populated it and it was all so schematically diagrammed that nobody really surprised me. But then I did realize that I had made one character funnier than I was expecting, so I did need to figure out how to bring him in more.

Q: I listened to you read the book on Audible, which was wonderful, You inhabited all of the characters so well. When it's the author doing the reading, you know it's right. It just felt right.

A: I've been recording books for years as a volunteer, but they are books of facts, without characters. So reading my own book was really challenging. I gave two characters raspy voices and, after an hour or so, my voice was shot. It took me a long time to finish it.

Selected Comments by Our Readers

Margy: All of the characters -- none of them were mean-spirited. It was a very generous portrayal of all of them and something I really appreciated about it.

Faith: A friend of mine said "I'm so tired of reading apocalyptic novels" and I said "Have I got the book for you!" It's like getting into the best warm bath. It's intelligent and fun.

Larry: It's almost like it's alive and it wants to continue.

Linda: Two of the things I loved: We learn that doormen open doors and that doors need to be opened.

Steve: It's not  travelogue I know, but you get into the heart of New York City really so well.

Faith: When I read a book, without being conscious of it, I'm always looking for the mistakes because there are always mistakes. But there aren't any. (Here Glenn issued a great sigh of relief). 

Liz: The phrase "mysterious female jangling" is one of my favorite phrases of all time. It says so much in so few words.

Shirley: I'm really impressed by all of the small stories about the people who live in this building.

Not only did he have to write the book, but he had to make this cheesecake.

Much to Glenn's horror, we made him pose for this.

In Support of Our Friends

+ Linda is gathering contributions to send from our book club to Marly Rusoff to honor Marly's late husband. You can send a check to Linda or directly to the Pat Conroy Literary Center in honor of Mihai Radulescu.

+ Jocey is gathering anecdotes and accolades about Joanne Von Blon for possible use at her upcoming memorial service. Please send any stories you'd like to share directly to Jocey. 

Our Next Read

For July, we will be reading BOTH Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and James by Percival Everett. Despite some concern about being able to finish both by the July meeting, the enthusiasts prevailed and we will be reading both.

 

 

 

 

Happiness: The Simple Truth That You Are Alive

Title: This is Happiness

Author: Niall Williams 

 

From the publisher:

"The rain is stopping. Nobody in the small, forgotten village of Faha remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard was a condition of living. Now--just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of electricity--it is stopping. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is standing outside his grandparents' house shortly after the rain has stopped when he encounters Christy for the first time. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

 

This is the story of all that was to follow: Christy's long-lost love and why he had come to Faha, Noel's own experiences falling in and out of love, and the endlessly postponed arrival of electricity--a development that, once complete, would leave behind a world that had not changed for centuries." 

 

Insights and Opinions

Margy and John opened their beautiful porch and sunroom to host our festive group. In the Irish spirit of the book, we snacked on Vicky’s “just from the oven” Irish Soda Bread, meatballs, Linda’s Irish chocolate, and Chris’ homemade gingersnaps with Irish butter. Our conversation included news of book festivals in California and our approval of Minnesota banning book banning.

 

In a somber moment, we mourned the loss of another book club member. In honor of our dear Joanne, Margy read the classic Irish blessing, “May the road rise to meet you…. Until we meet again, my God hold you in the palm of his hand.” 

 

We also reflected on the beautiful service to honor Frank.

 

+ Chris appreciated that the novel provided no formula to happiness but rather, offered that life with all its small details is happiness.

 

+ Vicky told us about the three-day writing workshop with Niall Williams she attended which was focused on craft. Each morning, they would start by considering a piece of literature and then each worked on an assignment. Vicky remembered Niall Williams’ intense focus and charm.  

 

+ Steve loved the audio book with the magical Irish accent.

 

+ We discussed how the book reminded us of Foster as the children were sent to their grandparents when another child was born.

 

+ Vicky wondered how much autobiography is filtered into the novel. And Chris asked if there was a plot – as a test she tried to open random pages and discover a story. Margy thought the book was about storytelling. Lois admitted to not wanting leave the book to cook dinner. Others were also frustrated by the lack of plot. Liz reported via Italy, “I did not enjoy this book. In fact, I wound up calling it ‘This is Interminable.’ I was…too impatient to enjoy it.  Although he is a wonderful writer, the surfeit of quirky characters and the many side trips he takes to essentially wind up nowhere….well, it’s probably better that I won’t be there.” Those were fighting words to Vicky and others who defended the love story as driving the plot. (Jocey, who is the author of this blog post, could not weigh in but may have agreed with Liz. She could not get into the book.)

 

+ The ability to see the world from others’ viewpoint, as fiction writers do, is the hope for humanity. Williams believes plot comes out in habitual details. He asks the question, “What is it about this particular character that makes them unique?”

 

+ Margy was so taken with the language she littered the book with green post-it notes. Steve was drawn by the details which kept drawing him in such as, “Christy steadied me which was like leaning on a wave.” He then wanted to know what character most grabbed us. For Margy, that was Doady – a horrible cook married to an Irish dreamer. “Married into a hopeless situation.” Shirley noted Williams’ distrust of institutions.

 

The Plot Thickens

But wait, was there a plot? Chris wanted to return to this question.There were many plots, Christy’s story, Doady and her husband’s stories, and others. Steve was struck with the circularity of the language, “It started with 'it has stopped raining,'” and ended with 'it has started raining.'"

 

“To realize you are inside the story… you can bear the twists along the way.” 

 

“The story must never arrive and risk conclusion.”

 

Q: What makes plot or story happen? A: Lots of little stories.

 

+ Steve brought up the humor. The group thought the book was hilarious. “After a liquid lunch, he found the margins of the road poorly drawn.” All of us then started jumping in with funny lines. “I was early until I was late,” read Lois.

 

“Religion lasted longer in Ireland because we are an imaginative people.”  - Linda

 

+ The novel was like Ireland -- people were imaginative, and they would just talk. It took Chris a while to surrender to the pace of the book.

 

+ Vicky observed, Williams was interested in point of view. Who is watching and who is telling the story and from what perspective?

 

+ Younger people miss out when old people live isolated from them. Steve thought all the characters where pathetic but also wise. This is emblematic of the human condition. It is a book of life lessons. Margy reflected, “This is happiness …. this simple truth that you are alive.”   

 

Indeed. May the road rise to meet you dear Gail, Joanne, and Frank. 

  

Our long-lost Vicky and her soda bread.

 

The lovely themed spread.

An excellent group of smart people.