Reading List 1991-2023
December 1991 to the present
2023 | 2022 | 2021
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016
2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011
2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
2000 |
1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996
1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991
September 12, 2023
Secret Life of Sunflowers
by Marta Molnar
October 10, 2023
Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater
by Peggy Orenstein
November 14, 2023
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
by Michelle Zauner
December 12, 2023
The Bandit Queens: A Novel
by Parini Shroff
January 9, 2024
Firekeeper’s Daughter
by Angeline Boulley
February 13, 2024
West with Giraffes: A Novel
by Lynda Rutledge
March 12, 2024
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
by Winifred Watson
April 9, 2024
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
May 14, 2024
Empress of the Nile
by Lynne Olson
June 11, 2024
Lucy by the Sea
by Elizabeth Strout
2023
Walking on Pins and Needles: A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis
by Arlene Faulk (January 2023)
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
by Balli Kaur Jaswal (February 2023)
Oh William!
by Elizabeth Strout (March 2023)
When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe
by Maureen Quilligan (April 2023)
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (May 2023)
Fresh Water for Flowers
by Valérie Perrin (June 2023)
Nine Tailors (A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
by Dorothy Sayers (January 2022)
Girl Who Wrote in Silk
by Kelli Estes (February 2022)
Free Thinker
by Kimberly A. Hamlin (March 2022)
A Long Petal of the Sea
by Isabel Allende (April 2022)
Flights
by Olga Tokarczuk (May 2022)
Girl, Woman, Other
by Bernadine Evaristo (June 2022)
Finding The Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
by Suzanne Simard (September 2022)
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (October 2022)
Having and Being Had
by Eula Biss (November 2022)
Miss Benson’s Beetle
by Rachel Joyce (December 2022)
The Optimist’s Daughter
by Eudora Welty (January 2021)
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War
by Lynne Olson (February 2021)
Whose Body?
by Dorothy L. Sayers (March 2021)
Olive Again
by Elizabeth Strout (April 2021)
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman (May 2021)
As Bright as Heaven
by Susan Meissner (June 2021)
Caste: Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson (September 2021)
A Room of One’s Own
by Virginia Woolf (October 2021)
Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey
by Kathleen Rooney (November 2021)
Any mystery by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie (December 2021)
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
by Anissa Gray (January 2020)
Where Crawdads Sing
by Dalia Owens (February 2020)
White Fragility
by Robin DiAngelo (March 2020)
The Girl With Seven Names
by Hyeonseo Lee (April 2020)
Transit
by Anna Seghers; trans. by Margot Bettauer Dembo (May 2020)
Becoming
by Michelle Obama (June 2020 and September 2020)
Grace from the Rubble
by Jeanne Bishop (October 2020)
Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes (November 2020)
An Invisible Thread
by Laura Schoff (December 2020)
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
by Kathleen Rooney (January 2019)
Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate (February 2019)
Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi (March 2019)
Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover (April 2019)
News of the World
by Paulette Jiles (May 2019)
Manhattan Beach
by Jennifer Egan (June 2019)
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee (September 2019)
So Big
by Edna Ferber (October 2019)
Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill
by Sonia Purnell (November 2019)
The Chilbury Ladies Choir
by Jennifer Ryan (December 2019)
Hidden Figures
by Margot Lee Shetterly (January 2018)
Girl in Disguise
by Greer Macallister (February 2018)
Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family
by Amy Ellis Nutt (March 2018)
The Secrets of Wishtide
by Kate Saunders (April 2018)
The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation
by Natalie Y. Moore (May 2018)
A Piece of the World
by Christina Baker Kline (June 2018)
Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
by Julia Baird (September 2018)
The Door
by Magna Szabo; translated by Len Rix (October 2018)
Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesym Ward (November 2018)
Crossing Thresholds: The Making and Remaking of a 21st Century Chaplain
by Lucy A. Forster-Smith (December 2018)
The Girl Next Door
by Ruth Rendell (January 2017)
The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
by Jenny Nordberg (February 2017)
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the
Civil War
by Karen Abbott (March 2017)
The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah (April 2017)
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
by Diane Kiernan (May 2017)
The Japanese Lover
by Isabel Allende (June 2017)
Do Not Say That We Have Nothing
by Madeleine Thien (September 2017)
The Lab Girl
by Hope Jahren (October 2018)
Small Great Things
by Jodi Picoult (November 2017)
A Fatal Grace
by Louise Penny (December 2017)
Even the Terrible Things Seem Beautiful to Me Now: The Best of Mary Schmich
by Mary Schmich (January 2016)
Euphoria
by Lily King (February 2016)
Ghost Hero
by S. J. Rozan (March 2016)
Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?
by Roz Chast (April 2016)
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee (May 2016)
The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins (June 2016)
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
by Pema Chodron (January 2015)
The Storyteller
by Jodi Picoult (February 2015)
My Beloved World
by Sonia Sotomayor (March 2015)
The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd (April 2015)
The Traitor’s Wife
by Allison Pataki (May 2015)
The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt (June 2015)
Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister’s Killer
by Jeanne Bishop (September 2015)
The Midwife of Venice
by Roberta Rich (October 2015)
Mary Coin
by Marisa Silver (November 2015)
The Grass Is Singing
by Doris Lessing (December 2015)
The Beautiful Mystery
by Louise Penny (January 2014)
Citizens of London
by Lynne Olson (February 2014)
Miles from Nowhere
by Nami Mun (March 2014)
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey (April 2014)
Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis
by Alice Yaeger Kaplan (May 2014)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness
by Michelle Alexander (June 2014)
Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed
by Judy Pasternak (January 2013)
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
by Jeannette Walls (February 2013)
Lady in Gold
by Anne-Marie O’Connor (March 2013)
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948
by Madeleine Albright (April 2013)
Still Alice
by Lisa Genova (May 2013)
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by Mary Roach (June 2013)
Bring Up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel (September 2013)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo (October 2013)
The Round House
by Louise Erdrich (November 2013)
My Antonia
by Willa Cather (December 2013)
Cleopatra: A Life
by Stacey Schiff (January 2012)
The Paperbark Shoe
by Goldie Goldbloom (February 2012)
The Weird Sisters
by Eleanor Brown (March 2012)
Paris without End: The True Story of Hemingway’s First Wife
by Gioia Diliberto (April 2012)
The Tiger’s Wife
by Tea Obreht (May 2012)
Nomad
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (June 2012)
Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
by Maya Jasanoff (September 2012)
Bent Road
by Lori Roy (October 2012)
State of Wonder
by Ann Patchett (November 2012)
Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life: Inspiration and Advice from Celebrated Women Authors Who Paved the Way
by Nava Atlas (December 2012)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot (January 2011)
A Mercy
by Toni Morrison (February 2011)
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton (March 2011)
Still Life: An Inspector Gamache Novel
by Louise Perry (April 2011)
Year of Wonders
by Geraldine Brooks (May 2011)
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present
by Gail Collins (June 2011)
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand (September 2011)
Clara and Mr. Tiffany
by Susan Vreeland (October 2011)
A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan (November 2011)
Burning Bright
by Tracy Chevalier (December 2011)
Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout (January 2010)
206 Bones
by Kathy Reichs (February 2010)
Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box
by Madeleine Albright (March 2010)
Second Blooming for Women: Growing a Life that Matters After Fifty
by Kathleen Vestal Logan and Betsy Smith, Ph.D. (April 2010)
Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See (May 2010)
Triple Time
by Anne Sanow (June 2010)
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel (September 2010)
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett (October 2010)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery (November 2010)
Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear (December 2010)
Talk Before Sleep
by Elizabeth Berg (January 2009)
A Stranger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith
by Anna-Lisa Cox (February 2009)
Sarah’s Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay (March 2009)
Not Yet Drown’d
by Peg Kingman (April 2009)
A Person of Interest
by Susan Choi (May 2009)
The Red Leather Diary
by Lily Koppel (June 2009)
The Most Famous Man in America
by Deborah Applegate (September 2009)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (October 2009)
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations
by Georgina Howell (November 2009)
People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks (December 2009)
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert (January 2008)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See (February 2008)
Gatsby’s Girl
by Caroline Preston (March 2008)
Grace (Eventually)
by Anne Lamott (April 2008)
The Country of the Pointed Firs
by Sarah Orne Jewett (May 2008)
American Bloomsbury
by Susan Cheever (June 2008)
Loving Frank
by Nancy Horan (September 2008)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
by Kim Edwards (October 2008)
The Soldier's Heart
by Elizabeth Samet (November 2008)
The Friday Night Knitting Club
by Kate Jacobs (December 2008)
Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City
by Anna Quindlen (January 2007)
Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant (February 2007)
March
by Geraldine Brooks (March 2007)
How to be Lost
by Amanda Eyre Ward (April 2007)
Holy Fools
by Joanne Harris (May 2007)
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls (June 2007)
Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell
by Janet Wallach (September 2007)
The Madonnas of Leningrad
by Debra Dean (October 2007)
Suite Francaise
by Irene Nemirovsky (November 2007)
Water for Elephants: A Novel
by Sara Gruen (December 2007)
Blackbird House
by Alice Hoffman (January 2006)
Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
by Sarah Turnbull (February 2006)
Light on Snow
by Anita Shreve (March 2006)
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson (April 2006)
Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi (May 2006)
The Lost Garden
by Helen Humphreys (June 2006)
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
by Queen Noor (September 2006)
Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri (One Book, One Chicago) (October 2006)
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott (November 2006)
Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope
by Joan Chittister (December 2006)
My Dream of You
by Nuala O’Faolain (January 2005)
The Good Earth
by Pearl Buck (February 2005)
Girl in Hyacinth Blue
by Susan Vreeland (March 2005)
My Sister’s Keeper
by Jodi Picoult (April 2005)
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
by Cokie Roberts (May 2005)
Truth and Beauty
by Ann Patchett (June 2005)
Mrs. Kimble
by Jennifer Haigh (September 2005)
The Dogs of Babel
by Carolyn Parkhurst (October 2005)
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen (One Book, One Chicago) (November 2005)
In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden
by Kathleen Cambor (December 2005)
The Bean Trees
by Barbara Kingsolver (January 2004)
The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd (February 2004)
Three Junes
by Julia Glass (March 2004)
Durable Goods
by Elizabeth Berg (April 2004)
Think of England
by Alice Elliot Dark (May 2004)
Traveling Mercies
by Anne Lamott (June 2004)
The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory (September 2004)
A Round-Heeled Woman
by Jane Juska (October 2004)
In the Time of the Butterflies
by Julia Alvarez (November 2004)
The Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger (December 2004)
Good Harbor
by Anita Diamant (January 2003)
Falling Angels
by Tracy Chevalier (February 2003)
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett (March 2003)
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry (April 2003)
Sister of My Heart
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (May 2003)
Weight of Water
by Anita Shreve (June 2003)
Ahab’s Wife: Or, The Star-Gazer
by Sena Jeter Naslund (September 2003)
Unless
by Carol Shields (October 2003)
Blessings
by Anna Quindlen (November 2003)
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women
by Geraldine Brooks (December 2003)
Love, Again
by Doris Lessing (December 2002)
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich (November 2002)
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith (October 2002)
The Bay of Angels
by Anita Brookner (September 2002)
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
by Louise Erdrich (August 2002)
The Ponder Heart
by Eudora Welty (July 2002)
Martyr’s Crossing
by Amy Wilentz (June 2002)
Seneca Falls Inheritance
by Miriam Grace Monfredo (May 2002)
Night
by Elie Wiesel (April 2002)
Prodigal Summer
by Barbara Kingsolver (March 2002)
Daughter of Persia
by Sattareh Farman (February 2002)
Off Keck Road
by Mona Simpson (January 2002)
Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood (January 2001)
Chocolat
by Joanne Harris (February 2001)
House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton (March 2001)
Galileo’s Daughter
by Dava Sobel (April 2001)
Girl With a Pearl Earring
by Tracey Chevalier (May 2001)
The House on the Strand
by Daphne du Maurier (June 2001)
Under the Tuscan Sun
by Frances Mayes (July 2001)
The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing
by Melissa Bank (August 2001)
Fortune’s Rocks
by Anita Shreve (September 2001)
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee (October 2001)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers (November 2001)
Saving Grace
by Lee Smith (December 2001)
Breath, Eyes, Memory
by Edwidge Danticant (January 2000)
The Pleasing Hour
by Lily King (February 2000)
Spending
by Mary Gordon (March 2000)
City of Light
by Lauren Belfer (April 2000)
The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
by Linda Gordon (May 2000)
The Red Tent
by Anita Diamont (June 2000)
Angels on Toast
by Dawn Powell (July 2000)
The Country Girls
by Edna O’Brien (August 2000)
Birds of America
by Lorrie Moore (September 2000)
Middlemarch
by George Eliot (October 2000)
Sacred Country
by Rose Tremain (November 2000)
Bee Season
by Myla Goldberg (December 2000)
Hotel du Lac
by Anita Brookner (January 1999)
The Love of a Good Woman
by Alice Monroe (February 1999)
Charming Billy
by Alice McDermott (March 1999)
While I Was Gone
by Sue Miller (April 1999)
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver (May 1999)
Durable Goods
by Elizabeth Berg (June 1999)
Tara Road
by Maeve Binchy (July 1999)
Cat’s Eye
by Margaret Atwood (August 1999)
My Year of Meats
by Ruth L. Ozeki (September 1999)
Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen (October 1999)
Evening
by Susan Minot (November 1999)
Anywhere But Here
by Mona Simpson (December 1999)
The Giant’s House
by Elizabeth McCracken (January 1998)
The Underpainter
by Jane Urquhart (February 1998)
Alive Together
by Lisel Mueller (March 1998)
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls
by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (April 1998)
Babel Tower
by A.S. Byatt (May 1998)
The Healing
by Gayl Jones (June 1998)
Le Divorce
by Dianne Johnson (July 1998)
Two Women in One
by N. El Saadawi (August 1998)
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
by Flannery O’Connor (October 1998)
The Green Knight
by Iris Murdoch (November 1998)
Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf (December 1998)
Longitude
by Diwa Sobel (January 1997)
The Mill on the Floss
by George Elliot (February 1997)
In A Different Voice
by Carol Gilligan (March 1997)
Regeneration
by Pat Barker (April 1997)
Fugitive Pieces
by Anne Michaels (May 1997)
The Blue Flower
by Penelope Fitzgerald (June 1997)
Stones From the River
by Ursula Hegi (July 1997)
Before Women Had Wings
by Connie May Fowler (September 1997)
A Change of Climate
by Hillary Mantel (October 1997)
Down By the River
by Edna O’Brien (November 1997)
Alias Grace
by Margaret Atwood (December 1997)
The Book of Ruth
by Jane Hamilton (January 1996)
The Chalice and the Blade
by Riane Eisler (February 1996)
True North: A Memoir
by Jill Ker Conway (March 1996)
House of Splendid Isolation
by Edna O’Brien (April 1996)
Liar’s Club
by Mary Karr (May 1996)
Rosie
by Anne Lamott (June 1996)
My Antonia
by Willa Cather (July 1996)
Cloister Walk
by Kathleen Norris (August 1996)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe (September 1996)
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (October 1996)
Frankenstein
by Mary Wdlestonecraft Shelley (November 1996)
Aquamarine
by Carol Anshaw (December 1996)
Adam Bede
by George Eliot (January 1995)
The Good Husband
by Gail Godwin (February 1995)
The Shipping News
by E. Annie Proulx (March 1995)
A Map of the World
by Jane Hamilton (April 1995)
Susan B. Anthony: A Biography
by Kathleen Barry (May 1995)
Maiden Voyages
edited by Mary Morris (June 1995)
The Longings of Women
by Marge Piercy (July 1995)
Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier
by Joanna Stratton (August 1995)
Villette by Chalotte Bronte (September 1995)
Ancestral Truths
by Sara Maitland (October 1995)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte (November 1995)
Long Fatal Love Chase
by Louisa Mae Alcott (December 1995)
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte (January 1994)
The Fountain of Age
by Betty Friedan (February 1994)
The Robber Bride
by Margaret Atwood (March 1994)
Happenstance
by Carol Shields (April 1994)
Consider This, Senora
by Hariett Doerr (May 1994)
Vindication
by Frances Sherwood (June 1994)
Moon Tiger
by Penelope Lively (July 1994)
I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots
by Susan Straight (August 1994)
Emma
by Jane Austen (September 1994)
Red Azalea
by Anchee Min (October 1994)
Certain Women
by Madeline L’Engle (November 1994)
Jazz
by Toni Morrison (December 1994)
The Perez Family
by Christine Bell (January 1993)
Union Street
by Pat Barker (February 1993)
Animal Dreams
by Barbara Kingsolver (March 1993)
The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing (April 1993)
Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
by Blanche Wiesen Cook (May 1993)
I Rigoberto Menchu, An Indian Woman in Guatamala
by Rigoberto Menchu (June 1993)
Possession
by A. S. Byatt (July 1993)
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton (August 1993)
Blackwater
by Joyce Carol Oates (September 1993)
A River Sutra
by Gita Mehta (October 1993)
A Room of One’s Own
by Virginia Woolf (November 1993)
The Emperor’s Last Island
by Julia Blackburn (December 1993)
An American Childhood
by Annie Dillard (January 1992)
Jump
by Nadine Gordimer (February 1992)
You Just Don’t Understand
by Deborah Tannen (March 1992)
A Thousand Acres
by Jane Smiley (April 1992)
Women Hollering Creek
by Sandra Cisneros (May 1992)
How to Make an American Quilt
by Whitney Otto (June 1992)
The Kitchen God’s Wife
by Amy Tan (July 1992)
Revolution from Within
by Gloria Steinem (September 1992)
Saint Maybe
by Anne Tyler (October 1992)
The Female Experiences: An American Documentary
edited by Gerda Lerner (November 1992)
Their Eyes are Watching God
by Zora Neal Hurston (December 1992)
The Temple of My Familiar
by Alice Walker (December 1991)
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