Topic: Fresh Bookclub Picks
In-person:
Holley W – O’Neal
Michelle H – Irondale
On Zoom:
Judith W – Homewood
Maura D – Trussville
Emily M – Center Point
Shannon H – Hoover
Deidre S – Bessemer
Tamiko N – Inglenook
Reba W – Titusville
Bridget T – Homewood
Riana M – Pinson
Noelle G
Tywanna M
Pamela G
timilcir
Fifteen attendees in total.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa
Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and
pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation,
from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria
Christopher Murray.
Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan Henry
It was called "The Titanic of the South." The luxury
steamship sank in 1838 with Savannah's elite on board; through time, their
fates were forgotten--until the wreck was found, and now their story is finally
being told in this breathtaking novel from the New York Times bestselling
author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir,
cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized
consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this
collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative—and its relentless and
riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and
politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our
world.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day
Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous
third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about
children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience,
hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent
tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with
other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those
who will be here after we’re gone.
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Two families meet at the Baltimore airport while waiting for their baby girls
to arrive from Korea. The Iranian-American Sami and Ziba Yazdan, with Ziba's
elegant and reserved mother, Maryam, in tow, wait quietly while brash and
all-American Bitsy and Brad Donaldson, plus extended family, are armed with
camcorders and a fleet of balloons proclaiming "It's a girl!" After
they decide together to throw an impromptu "arrival party," a
tradition is born, and so begins a lifelong friendship between the two
families.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Garbriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth
and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the
BuendiĆ” family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with
unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical
magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains
an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells
the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you
could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life.
While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance
to go to the library and see for yourself?
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise
Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight
against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington,
D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and
gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of
a master craftsman.
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba
to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt is a kaleidoscopic
portrait of betrayals, a haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the
legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell
their stories despite those who wish to silence them. This is more than a
diaspora story; it is a story of America’s most tangled, honest, human roots.
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in
Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored
housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the
discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled
clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other
Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows
how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Quan Julie Wang
Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and
unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential
American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and
a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House is an intimate and visceral
portrayal of interconnected lives, across race and class, in a rapidly changing
resort town, told by an astonishing new author of literary fiction.
The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse,and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts
The triumphant true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the
1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New
York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The
Eighty-Dollar Champion.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational
qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of
those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She
remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the
Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through
the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental
question: what does it mean to love?
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
With candor and sympathy, debut novelist Nathan Harris creates an unforgettable
cast of characters, depicting Georgia in the violent crucible of Reconstruction.
Equal parts beauty and terror, as gripping as it is moving, The Sweetness
of Water is an epic whose grandeur locates humanity and love amid the most
harrowing circumstances.
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the
United States and rich with historical detail, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s new and
immersive novel will resonate with readers eager to understand our
present through a deep, moving, and lyrical dive into our past.
Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (middle-grade
novel)
In this powerful novel that explodes the stigma around child sexual abuse and
leavens an intense tale with compassion and humor, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
tells a story about two sisters, linked by love and trauma, who must find their
own voices before they can find their way back to each other.
Starfish by Lisa Fipps (middle-grade novel)
Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth
birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live
by the Fat Girl Rules—like "no making waves," "avoid eating in
public," and "don't move so fast that your body jiggles." And
she's found her safe space—her swimming pool—where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed
world. Her pushy mom thinks criticizing Ellie's weight will motivate her to
diet. Fortunately, Ellie has allies. With this support buoying her, Ellie might
finally be able to cast aside the Fat Girl Rules and unapologetically be her
own fabulous self.
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a
list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very
different people in a London suburb.
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
The New York Times bestseller and Read with Jenna TODAY
SHOW Book Club pick telling the story of three generations of
Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires
within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate
violence in their community.
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
It is a perfect July morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother
of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”—the family summer place which she has
visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night
Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and
had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted
away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide
between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and
the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas,
if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives.
Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a
stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in
chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her
ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to
send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an
incident with scissors. When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new
suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer,
and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to
make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot
more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a
real-life murder investigation.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
“Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life ... here
is a novel ... so gorgeously written that it transports you." —The Boston
Globe
Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by
Kate Moore
Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium
Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder”
substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost
impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing
regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of
thousands of lives...
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by
Robert Kolker
The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children,
six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in
the quest to understand the disease.
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women
making their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty,
after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies,
and K-pop mania.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he
could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the
world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory.
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, he left his son a box of books and
strange recurring dreams. Now Apollo is a father himself—and as he and his
wife, Emma, settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety
start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting
odd. At first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression. But
before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and
vanishes. Thus begins Apollo’s quest to find a wife and child who are nothing
like he’d imagined. His odyssey takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard
full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back
to a place he thought he had lost forever.
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
A major literary event: an explosive, previously unpublished novel about race
and police violence by the legendary author of Native
Son and Black Boy. Fred Daniels, a Black man, is picked up by the
police after a brutal double murder and tortured until he confesses to a crime
he did not commit. After signing a confession, he escapes from custody and
flees into the city’s sewer system. This is the devastating premise of this
scorching novel, a masterpiece that Richard Wright was unable to publish in his
lifetime. Now, for the first time, by special arrangement with the author's
estate, the full text of this incendiary novel about race and violence in
America, the work that meant more to Wright than any other (“I have never
written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer inspiration”), is
published in the form that he intended, complete with his companion essay,
“Memories of My Grandmother.” Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson,
contributes an afterword.
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and theFuture of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson
The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve
Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer
Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases,
fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one
year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows
exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey.
Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely
nothing to do with her new stepmother. Hannah and Bailey set out to discover
the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they
soon realize they’re also building a new future—one neither of them could have
anticipated. With its breakneck pacing, dizzying plot twists, and evocative
family drama, The Last Thing He Told Me is a riveting mystery,
certain to shock you with its final, heartbreaking turn.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
A dark and gripping tale with a tart edge about women struggling to survive in
a world built by men, for men. Vengeance is the only way out from under their
thumb, but when the reckoning comes no one will save women with as much heart
and heroism as other women.
A few resources shared at the meeting:
BookList Magazine - Top 10 Book-Group Books
Ingram - Reading Group Picks They Will Love
BookBub - The Best New Books for Your Book Club
The Modern Mrs. Darcy - 20 Wonderfully Discussable Books (scroll past her new book journal)
