Date (location)

Author

Title

Book type

Order:    Beth, Joyce, Carol, Pat, Frann, Phyllis, Sarah, Faith, Mary Jo, Lois

Sept 2022

Lois

Aug 2022

Mary Jo

July 2022

Faith

Jun 2022

Sarah

May 2022

Phyllis

Apr 2022

Jutila?

Frann

7 Mar 2022

Zoom

Miriam Toews

Fight Night

fiction

Pat.  It took me a few days because I wanted to read the book through and make sure it was a good recommendation for now. Some may remember that we read her book as one of my choices, Women Talking I think two years ago. And, while there was a lot of praise for her style and creativity the book was just overwhelming because of the abuse portrayed.  Well, this book, while still dealing with the issue of women who have been oppressed by the Mennonite religious communities  (All her books deal with theme I believe) is far different in that it is a generation removed from the community and is told from perspective of a nine year old girl.

31 Jan 2022

Zoom

Susan Page

Madam Speaker

Biography

Carol; biography of Nancy Pelosi

12Dec2021

Lois’

Sigrid Nunez

The Friend

fiction

Joyce. The book concerns an unnamed novelist who adopts a Great Dane that belonged to a deceased friend and mentor.

15Nov2021

Faith’s

Albert Camus

The Plague

fiction

Beth; written 1947 and quite applicable to our time

4 Oct2021

Carol’s

Louise Erdrich

The Night Watchman

fiction

Lois; story of a Native American leader and his activism (Faith retires from MTU 9/1/21)

30Aug2021

(Pat's)

Lydia Millet 

A Children's Bible

fiction

Mary Jo; a climate fiction novel by Lydia Millet that documents the experience of a group of children in the face of climate change as their parents fail to respond to a climate-charged hurricane.

26July2021

(Beth's)

Elizabeth Strout

My name is Lucy Barton

fiction

Faith.  A a 2016 New York Times bestselling novel and the fifth novel by the American writer Elizabeth Strout. Longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award.

28 June 2021

Zoom

Sarah Moss

Summerwater

fiction

Sarah; Summerwater, by Sarah Moss, nominated as the best book of the year (last year) in the UK by The Guardian. 

24 May 2021

Zoom

Carson McCullers

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

fiction

Phyllis; The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the debut novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 at the time of publication. It is about a deaf man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia.

19 April 2021

Zoom

Maaza Mengiste

The Shadow King

fiction

Frann; The novel focuses on the Second Italo-Ethiopian War which resulted in the Ethiopians putting an end to Italian occupation.

15 Mar 2021

Zoom

Elizabeth Strout

Olive Again

fiction

Pat.  A follow up book about Olive Kittredge.

15 Feb 2021

Zoom

Julia Alvarez

Afterlife

fiction

Carol

18 Jan 2021

Zoom

Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes were watching God

fiction

Joyce

21 Dec 2020

Zoom

Doris Lessing

The Grass is Singing

fiction

Beth; the last time we read Lessing was 2009, Short stories

23 Nov 2020 Zoom

Marie Benedict

The Only Woman in the Room

fiction

Lois; fiction based on Hedy Lamarr

26 Oct 2020 Zoom

Andrew Sean Greer

Less

fiction

Mary Jo; on eve of ex-boyfriend's wedding Les books around-the-world travels to occupy him and take him away

21 Sept 2020

Zoom

Toni Morrison

God Help the Child

fiction

Faith.  This is Toni Morrison's last novel.

10 Aug 2020

Zoom

Jenny Offill

Weather

fiction

Sarah, new book publlished 2020

13 July 2020

Zoom

Ann Patchett

Run

fiction

Phyllis (retires from FinnU!) 

8 Jun 2020

Zoom

Laila Hietamies

Red moon over White Sea

fiction

Frann (translated from the Finnish)

11 May 2020

Zoom

Amy Meyerson

The Bookshop of Yesterdays

fiction

Pat (deliberately "light")

13 April 2020 by Zoom

Isabel Allende

A Long Petal of the Sea

fiction

Carol's choice

24 March 2020 by Zoom (covid-19)

Jeanine Cummins

American Dirt

fiction

Joyce's choice, Carol joins.  Welcome Carol!

10 February 2020

Jutila

Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

fiction

Beth ("On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam")  Also, LGBT coming of age.

6 January 2020

Jutila

Susan Orlean

The Library Book

nonfiction

Lois  ("On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more")

9 December 2019

Jutila

John Boyne

A ladder to the sky

fiction

Mary Jo ("Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent—but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own.") 

4 November 2019

Jutila

Carrie Young

Nothing to do but stay

memoir

Faith (Mary moves to l'Anse)

("In the early 1900s the twenty-five-year-old Gafkjen boarded a train from Minneapolis to claim a homestead for herself on the western North Dakota prairies. She lived alone in her claim shack, barred her door at night against the coyotes, existed on potatoes and salt, and walked five miles to the nearest creek to wash her clothes.")

7 October 2019

Jutila

Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven

fiction

Sarah

("Station Eleven is a 2014 novel by Emily St. John Mandel.[1][2][3] It is Mandel's fourth novel. The novel takes place in the Great Lakes region after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the population. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2015")

9 September 2019

Pat's place

Willa Cather

The Song of the Lark

fiction

Phyllis

5 August 2019

Lois' place

Rachel Cusk

Outline

fiction

Frann

July2019

Jutila

Miriam Toews

Women Talking

fiction

Pat

3 June 2019 (Phyllis')

Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give

fiction

Joyce; published 2017

6 May2019 (Beth's)

Peter Wohlleben

The Hidden Life if Trees

nonfiction

Beth

1 April 2019

where?

John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany

fiction

Mary

4 March 2019  Jutila

Anthony Doerr

All the light we cannot see

fiction

Lois; first scheduled date of 25Feb was snowed out due to big blizzard on the 24th Feb (Finlandia closed, as did Tech.  Tech's third snow day of spring 2019!)

28 January 2019

Jutila

Tayari Jones

An American Marriage

fiction

Mary Jo (new order of selecting)

17 December 2018

Mary's

Zadie Smith

NW

fiction

Faith; chose from https://www.nytimes.com/ 

2018/03/05/books/vanguard-books-by-women-in-21st-century.html

26 November 2018

Jutila

Twyla Tharp

The Creative Habit:  Learn it and Use it for Life

nonfiction

Phyllis (rejoins!)  book pulbished in 2006

22 October 2018

Jutila

Mary Beard

Women and Power:  A Manifesto

nonfiction

Sarah

17 September 2018

Jutila

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Shosha

fiction

Frann  (Ann Brady moved to California.  Enjoy Palo Alto Ann!)

1978

13 August2018

Lois' house

Tara Westover

Educated:  A Memoir

memoir

Pat

16 July2018 (Monday)

Jutila

George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo

fiction

Joyce rejoins!  Welcome back Joyce. at Mary's

11June 2018 (Monday)

Jennifer Ackerman

Genius of Birds

nonfiction

Beth, Juttila Center, pm

27 April 2018 (Friday)

Min Jin Lee

Pachinko

fiction

Ann; Beth's for potluck 

23 Mar 2018 (Friday)

Amor Towles

A Gentleman in Moscow

fiction

Mary Biekkola Wright; Juttila Center

18 Feb 2018 (Sunday)

Frederik Backman

A Man Called Ove

fiction 

Lois; Juttila Center

14 Jan 2018

(Sunday)

Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You

fiction 

Faith, Juttila Center

3 Dec 2017 (Sunday) 

Ali Smith

Autumn

fiction

Sarah; Juttila Center, 1pm

22 Oct 2018

(Sunday)  

Han Kang

The Vegetarian (2016)

fiction

Mary Jo; Juttila Center, Hancock

18 Sept 2017 (Mary's)

Alia Malek

The home that was our country (2017)

nonfiction

Frann

17July2017 (Beth's, potluck) and 21Aug2017 (Mary's)

Ron Chernow

Hamilton

nonfiction

Pat; broke into two weeks of discussion due to length of the book

19 June 2017 (Mary's)

Kiran Desai

the Inheritance of Loss (2006)

fiction

Beth; Lois Berg joins.

8 May 2017

(Mary's)

Ann Patchett

Commonwealth (2016)

fiction

Ann

17 April 2017 (Mary's)

Andrea Wulff

The invention of nature:  Alexander von Humbolt's New World

nonfiction

Mary

20 Mar 2017

(KBC)

Kate Chopin

The Awakening

fiction

Faith (many were ill on the meeting date, including Mary.  Four met at the KBC)

13 Feb 2017

(Mary's)

Colson Whitehead

Underground Railroad

fiction

Sarah

9 Jan 2017

(Mary's)

Bryn Greenwood 

All The Ugly and Wonderful Things

fiction

Mary Jo

14 Nov 2016

(Frann's)

Cesare Pavese

The Moon and the Bonfires

fiction

Frann

3 Oct 2016

(Frann's)

Alice Munro

Dear Life

short stories

Pat

12 Sept 2016

(Mary's)

Edna O'Brien

The Little Red Chairs

fiction

Beth; Frann joins the group--welcome Frann!

1 Aug 2016

(Pat's)

Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch

fiction

Ann.  Pat Tikkanen generously invited us out to her home for a potluck and our next get-together, which we set for Monday, August 1, at 5 pm.

13 June 2016

Jeremy Massey

 The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley

fiction

Mary

16 May 2016

Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend

fiction

Mary, The first book in the Neopolitan series.

11 April 2016

Rachel Joyce

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry

fiction

Mary Jo; Booker short list

14 March 2016

Virginia Woolf

The Waves

fiction

Faith; "Virginia Woolf's most experimental work"!

22 February 2016

Kurt Vonnugut

Mother Night

fiction

Phyllis (but originally identified by Latika)

11 January 2016

David Foster Wallace

Consider the Lobster

essays

Ann

16 November 2015

Lily King

Euphoria

fiction

Sarah (but originally identified by Mary)

Mary was in a car that had an accident on 7Nov15 and broke her collarbone.  :-(

5 October 2015

Bill Clegg

Did you ever have a family

fiction

Beth; Latika Gupta Lagalo joins.

31 August 2015

John Steinbeck

Cannery Row

fiction

Mary.  For this meeting we decided that everyone should collect ideas for books to read.  Faith put them into a spreadsheet and made a PDF version and added books as they were suggested.

3 August 2015 (July meeting)

Daniel James Brown

The Boys in the Boat

fiction

Mary Jo; about the crew team that won gold for USA during the Berlin Olympics

22 June 2015

Mary MacDonald

H is for Hawk (a memoir)

nonfiction

Ann

1 June 2015

(May meeting)

Mario Vargas Llosa

Feast of the Goat

fiction

Mary; upheaval in the Dominican Republic and impact on a young girl

April 21 2015

Edna O'Brien 

The Country Girls

fiction

Faith

(Joyce has resigned from book club; needs more time for art!)

Mar 2015 Forest Park 

Jhumpa Lahiri

The Lowland

fiction

Beth

Feb 2015 Forest Park 

Marilynne Robinsson 

Lila 

fiction

Joyce

19 Jan 2015 Forest Park 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah

fiction

Phyllis

Email 18Dec2014

8 Dec 2014 Forest Park 

various

informal chat

n/a

Pat; We did not have time for a new book but we met to chat about whatever we were reading.

17 Nov 2014

Forest Park

Sue Monk Kidd

The Invention of Wings

fiction

Mary Jo

13 Oct 2014

Forest Park

Robert Grudin

Book

fiction

Sarah

8 Sept 2014

Forest Park

Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel

fiction

Mary; Sarah returns from sabbatical. Welcome back!

31 July 2014

Forest Park

Michael Chabon

Telegraph Avenue

Fiction

Faith; Mary Jo Stimac joins as of this book.  Welcome!

15 May 2014

Forest Park

Wallace Stegner

Angle of Repose 

fiction

Ann; based on the life of Mary Hallock Foote, whose biography is in the Van Pelt Library along with her novel "The Led-Horse Claim" and two volumes of short stories.  Ann and Faith have been reading these too and recommend them as well.

14 April 2014

HCMC

Nadine Gordimer

July's People

fiction

Beth 

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/01/home/gordimer-july.html

17 Mar 2014

HCMC

Lloyd Jones 

Mr. Pip (2007)

fiction

Joyce:  winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, and finalist for the Man Booker Prize.  It would help if you have read Dickens' Great Expectations,... However, it will still make sense even if you haven't.  This is a rather short book, 256 pages. Linear in structure, a beautiful narrative about "the power of stories to transform our lives." 

17 Feb 2014

HCMC

Yu Hua

To Live

fiction

Phyllis; Ann Brady joins as of this book.  Welcome!

20 Jan 2014

HCMC

Eleanor Catton

Luminaries

fiction

Mary;  Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize and Canada's Governor General's Literary Award

16 Dec 2013

HCMC

Flaubert

Sentimental Education

fiction

Faith (out of order; Faith saw NYTimes review that compared "The Flamethrowers" with "Sentimental Education" and so her suggestion jumped the queue!)

4Nov2013

HCMC

Rachel Kushner

The Flamethrowers

fiction

Mary

7Oct13

HCMC

Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist

fiction

Joyce

9 Sept 2013

308 Cooper

Ali Smith

Artful

fiction

Faith

8 Aug 2013

Beth's

Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall

fiction

Sydney?

(FAM sabbatical in NJ; no records kept!); Sydney Morris, Susanne Kilpela, Patricia Tikkanen

April 2013

Sarah

Mar 2013

Phyllis

Feb 2013

Beth

Jan 2013

Joyce

Dec 2012

Christa

8 Oct2012

Moss

Mary

Oct 8 2012

Beth's

 Molly Gloss 

The Jump-Off Creek 

Sarah leads (Faith on sabbatical 2012-13)

20 August 2012

Christa's Camp

Eudora Welty 

The Optimist's Daughter

Phyllis leads.

30 July 2012

Christa's Camp

Iris Murdoch 

The Red and the Green

Beth leads.

25 June 2012

Scott Hotel

Ingrid Hill

Ursula Under

Joyce leads.

21 May 2012

Scott Hotel

Jeanette Winterson

Sexing the Cherry

Christa leads.

23 April 2012

Scott Hotel

William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury

Mary leads.

26 March 2012

Quincy St

Edith Wharton

House of Mirth

Faith led.

20 February 2012

Quincy St

n/a

Kalevala, excerpts

Phyllis leads. The suggested versions are "the Bosley and the Kirby (1906).  The Kirby is juicier and more poetic.  I think we could each choose our own way into this epic.  The verses (Runes)  are clearly marked in all translations, so I will come with a list of suggested Runos guided by Joyce's suggestion to concentrate on the women of the Kalevala."

23 January 2012

Quincy St

Ursula Le Guin

Lavinia 

Sarah leads.  tinyurl.com/cv93k23 

19 December 2011 Quincy St 

Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse

Beth led.

14 November 2011

 Mercè Rodoreda

The Time of the Doves (La Plaza del Diamante) 

Joyce chose.

24 October 2011

Patti Smith

Just Kids

Christa led.  National book award for 2010.  Movie at Faith's on 7Nov2011.

6 Sept 2011 (Tuesday, Mary's)

J. M. G. Le Clézio

Désert (Desert)

Mary led.  Nobel prize for literature.  Sarah Green joins the group.

18 July 2011 (Monday, Christa's camp)

Ann Patchett

State of Wonder

Faith led.

7 June 2011 (Tues)

Robertson Davies

The Fifth Business

Phyllis led.  Part of the Deptford Trilogy.

18 April 2011

Wu Ch'eng-en

Monkey: Folk Novel of China

Kette led.

21 March 2011

Paul Harding

Tinkers

Mary led.

This won the Pulitzer in 2009.

An old man is dying. Time collapses into memory.

Brilliant writing and marvels of descriptions of the natural world.

21 February 2011

Don De Lillo's 

White Noise

Beth led. (Patricia departs  :-(    )

24 Jan 2011

(Quincy St)

Kathryn Stockett

The Help

Mary led; 25 Jan Mary turns 3 score 10.

13 Dec 2010

(Quincy St)

Colette

My Mother's House and Sido

Joyce led

15 Nov 2010

(Quincy St)

China Underground

Zachary Mexico

Phyllis led

18 Oct 2010

(Quincy St)

Per Petterson

I Curse the River of Time

Faith led

20 Sept 2010

(Quincy St)

Annie Dillard

The Maytrees

Christa led

23 August 2010

CW's camp

Sherman Alexei

The Absolutely True Diary of Part Time Indian

Christa led; it's the book the Tech freshmen are reading.

He'll be at Tech September 14.

Christa, Phyllis, Beth, Faith attend.

19 July 2010

(Quincy St)

Sofi Oksanen

Purge

Phyllis led;

"written by a Finnish woman and just published in English this summer. It was originally written as a play and will be performed at LaMama in NYC in the fall. It is Purge by Sofi Oksanen. Let me know what you think. I bought it in Helsinki, but think it should be available here. Hannu read it in Finnish. It is a big hit in Finland. It takes place in Estonia and is about the effect of war on women."

21 June 2010

CW's Camp

Jorge Amado, (1912-2001)

Tent of Miracles

Joyce, Christa, Faith, Kette attend.  Was selected by Patricia, I believe.  Author born in Bahia state of Brazil and best known for his 'comic' novels of the 1950s 

3 May 2010

(Quincy St)

Henning Mankell

The Man from Beijing, 2010

Christa led.

5 April 2010

(Quincy St)

Alice Munro

Too Much Happiness, 2009

Beth led; winner of the third The Man Booker International Prize, worth £60,000 to the winner, is awarded once every two years to a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage. It was first awarded to Ismail Kadaré in 2005 and then to Chinua Achebe in 2007. (from http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1226) 

1 March 2010

(Quincy St)

John Maxwell "J.M." Coetzee

Elizabeth Costelo, 2003

Christa led

1 February 2010

(Quincy St)

Willa Cather 

One of Ours, 1922

Phyllis led; Pulitzer Prize winner

December 2009

(Navy St)

Ha Jin

The Bridegroom

Kette led.  Christa joins the group.

26 October 2009 

(Quincy St)

Doris Lessing

The Grandmothers; Victoria and the Staveneys; The Reason for It; A Love Child

Faith led.

21 September 2009 (Quincy St)

Muriel Barbery 

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Patricia led.

August 2009 (Quincy St)

(postponed from July)

Marilynne Robinson

Home

book was awarded the 

Orange Prize for best English novel  of the year  written by a woman

8 June 2009 (Lily Pond Rd)

Zadie Smith

On Beauty

Faith led.

27 April 2009 (Quincy St) 

Lynn Laitala

Down from Basswood

Lynn joined us for the discussion

30 March 2009 (Quincy St)

Nuala O'Faolain

Are You Somebody?: 

The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman 

Mary led?

23 February 2009 (Quincy St)

 Leslie Marmon Silko 

Ceremony

Joyce led?

26 January 2009 (Quincy St)

Stephen Carter

Palace Council

KT joins group

18 December 2008 (Quincy St)

Per Pettersen

Out Stealing Horses

13 November 2008 (Quincy St)

Jhumpa Lahiri

Unaccustomed Earth

9 October 2008 (Navy St)

Salman Rushdie

Satanic Verses

25 August 2008 (Cooper Av)

Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway

28 July 2008 (Eagle Harbor)

Irene Nemirovski

Suite Francaise

Patricia led.

Dara Horn

The World to Come

David Eggers

What is the What

After Feb 6 2008 (Quincy Street)

Jane Smiley

Moo

Mary led.

5 June 2008 (noon)

6 April 2008

6 March 2008

10 February 2008

4 December 2007

Mohsin Hamid

Reluctant Fundamentalist

3 October 2007

Henry James

Portrait of a Lady

23 August 2007

Colm Toibin 

The Master:  A Novel

After December 2007

Azar Nafisi 

Reading Lolita in Tehran

39 Steps

FAM joins