Five Years of Reading

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will mark five years of reading with our December, 2007 meeting. I'll have some additional posts soon about that.

I thought it might be fun to share the list of books our group has read over the past five years. Our group chooses books 3 months at a time so we do the choosing 4 times a year - I think of it as a quarterly job. At times, we have tried to read 3 books around a theme such as, "gardening as metaphor", "Native American authors", "exploring India", "war is hell" etc.

I find it difficult to choose books by theme because there aren't too many on-line resources and sometimes I find books that fit the theme but won't work for us because there aren't enough copies in the library system. But ultimately themes are rewarding as we can really dig into a subject. We'll try to do more of that in our future reading. Suggestions, anyone??


Date Book Title Author
December, 2007 The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
November, 2007 The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
October, 2007 The Family Tree by Carole Cadwalladr
September, 2007 Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
August, 2007 Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
July, 2007 Drop City by T.C. Boyle
June, 2007 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
May, 2007 Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
April, 2007 Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
March, 2007 The March by E. L. Doctorow
February, 2007 Beloved by Toni Morrison
January, 2007 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
December, 2006 Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
November, 2006 The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
October, 2006 Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King
September, 2006 Any Human Heart by William Boyd
August, 2006 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
July, 2006 The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
June, 2006 The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
May, 2006 The Grace That Keeps This World by Tom Bailey
April, 2006 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
March, 2006 The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
February, 2006 Devil in the White City by Eric Larson
January, 2006 Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel
December, 2005 The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
November, 2005 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
October, 2005 The Known World by Edward P. Jones
September, 2005 Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
August, 2005 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
July, 2005 Three Junes by Julia Glass
June, 2005 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
May, 2005 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
April, 2005 Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
March, 2005 Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
February, 2005 Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
January, 2005 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
December, 2004 The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
November, 2004 Watermelon Nights by Greg Sarris
October, 2004 Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
September, 2004 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
August, 2004 The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
July, 2004 The Dive From Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer
June, 2004 Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
May, 2004 Your Mouth is Lovely by Nancy Richler
April, 2004 The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salmon Rushdie
March, 2004 Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
February, 2004 Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
January, 2004 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
December, 2003 Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
November, 2003 Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
October, 2003 Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
September, 2003 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Ann Tyler
August, 2003 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
July, 2003 The Republic of Love by Carol Shields
June, 2003 Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko
May, 2003 The Lost Garden by Helen Humphries
April, 2003 The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
March, 2003 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
February, 2003 Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
January, 2003 Peace Like a River by Leif Enger