MONTHLY BOOK CLUBS

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Started in 1998, this long-running book group boasts a truly dedicated following of readers who welcome actual discussions of the monthly selection. The group selects a mix of fiction and non-fiction by both contemporary and vintage authors. Topics range from current issues to simply pleasurable reads. Anyone is welcome to join in. As many members are located around the country, for convenience we offer Zoom. 

FMI email waterfordmelibrary@gmail.com

1998

Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt

Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier

A Civil Action – Jonathan Harr

The Perfect Storm – Sebastian Junger

The Color of Water – James McBride

John Irving books

Stones From the River – Ursula Hegi

God of Small Things – Roy Arundhati

Wait ‘till Next Year – Doris Kearns Goodwin

Straight Man – Richard Russo

Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer

Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood

1999

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

Two Old Women – Velma Wallis

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

Visions – Michio Kaku

A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro

A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson

The Pilot’s Wife – Anita Shreve

The Long Walk – Slavomir Rawicz

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells

Undaunted Courage – Stephen Ambrose

One Man’s Meat – E.B. White

December meeting: Group shared favorite poems

2000

Second Nature – Michael Pollan

Moonstone – Wilkie Collins

Birds of America (short stories) – Lorrie Moore

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

The Golden Spur – Dawn Powell

Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours – M. Cunningham

Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester

The Red Tent – Anita Diamant

Wit (play) – Margaret Edson

Plainsong – Kent Haruf

Waiting – Ha Jin

December meeting cancelled (snow storm)

2001

Chocolat – Joanne Harris

Wyoming Stories (short stories) – Annie Proulx

A Reason For Hope – Jane Goodall

Galileo’s Daughter – Dava Sobel

Call It Sleep – Henry Roth

Girl with the Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier

Girl in Hyacinth Blue – Susan Vreeland

We Were the Mulvaneys – Joyce Carol Oates

The Vision of Emma Blau – Ursula Hegi

Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje

Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner 

A Certain Slant of Light – Laura Whitcomb

River Horse – William Least Heat Moon 

2002

Personal History - Katherine Graham

A Maine Hamlet – Lura Beam

Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather

Driving Mr. Albert – Michael Paterniti

Rebel Angels – Robertson Davies

Empire Falls – Richard Russo

The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch

The Spirit Catches you, and You Fall Down – Ann Fadiman

Women of the Dawn – Bunny McBride

The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen

Sailing Around the Room (poems) – Billy Collins

On Writing – Stephen King

2003

Founding Brothers – Joseph Ellis 

Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks

A Prayer for the Dying – Stewart O’Nan

Nickel and Dimed in America – Barbara Ehrenreich

Atonement – Ian McEwan

The Meaning Of It All – Richard Feynman

Island (short stories) – Alistair MacLeod

Bel Canto – Ann Patchett

The Emperor of Ocean Park – Steven Carter

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter – Sue Monk Kidd

Wild Swans – Jung Chang

Proof (play) – David Auburn

Mary Oliver poems

2004

The Piano Tuner- Daniel Mason

Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Mafisi

Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee 

Abraham – Bruce Feiler

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Daisy Miller/Washington Square – Henry James

The Master Butcher’s Singing Club – Louise Erdrich

The Known World – Edward P. Jones

We Took to the Woods – Louise Dickinson Rich

The Kite Runner – Khaled Husseini

The Big House – George Colt

Delights and Shadows (poems) – Ted Kooser

2005

The Great Fire – Shirley Hazzard

Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder

Ernie’s Ark – Monica Wood

Dinner With Friends (play) – Donald Margulies

Ex Libris – Anne Fadiman

The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler

The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

The Pine Barrens – John McPhee

Hateship, Friendship, Loveship, Marriage (short stories) – Alice Munro

2006

The Birth of Venus – Sarah Dunant

Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

Suburban Safari – Hannah Holmes

The Price (play) – Arthur Miller

Washington’s Crossing – David Hackett Fischer

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon

The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls

Snowflower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

Cry The Beloved Country – Alan Paton

Tortilla Curtain – T. C. Boyle

I Saw Ramallah – Mourid Baghouti 

2007

Leap of Faith - Queen Noor 

Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively

Yeh Yeh’s House – Evelina Chao

Waiting for Snow in Havana – Carlos Eire

Augusta (Play)

Abide With Me – Elizabeth Strout 

The Solace of Leaving Early – Haven Kimmel

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards

Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky

Widow of the South – Robert Hicks

Forever – Pete Hamill

Ali and Nino – Kurban Said 

2008

On the Road – Jack Kerouac

Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

Here If You Need Me – Kate Braestrup

Doubt (play) – John Patrick Shanley

Peace Like a River – Leif Enger

Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson

Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott

Charity Girl – Michael Lowenthal

The Ministry of Special Cases – Nathan Englander

Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin (2 meetings)

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – Alexandra Fuller

2009

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name – Vendela Vida  

Loving Frank – Nancy Horan 

The Road – Cormac McCarthy  

The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai  

The Drawer Boy (play) – Michael Healey  

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte  

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer  

An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro   

Mayflower – Nathaniel Philbrick

Olive Kitteridge - by Elizabeth Strout

Run - by Ann Patchett

Too Far To Go - John Updike

2010

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery.

Push, by Sapphire.

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.

Wandering Star, by J.M.G. Le Clézio.

Bach at Leipzig, a play by Itamar Moses.by

Little Giant of Aberdeen County, by TiffanyBaker.

Little Bee, by Chris Cleeve. 

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

Old Filth, and The Man in the Wooden Hat, by Jane Gardam.

The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay.

The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien 

Tinkers, by Paul Harding  

2011    

The Places In Between, by Rory Stewart 

Cutting For Stone, by Abraham Verghese

Mockingbird, by Charles J. Shields 

Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder

The Syringa Tree, by Pamela Gien (play)

Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson.

Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens

Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls. 

Winters Bone, by Daniel Woodrell.

The Three Weissmans of Westport, by Cathleen Schine 

The Immortal life of Henriete Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.

The Tiger's Wife, by Tea Obrecht. 

2012

The Bells, by Richard Harvell.

The Hare With Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal.

Sylvia Plath poems.

Unbowed: A Memoir, by Wangari Maathai.

Marie Antoinette: the Color of Flesh; a play by Joel Gross.

Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff 

The Tennis partner, by Abraham Verghese

The Tin Ticket, by Deborah Swiss The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, by Heidi Durrow

The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough 

A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka

2013

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett

Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles

The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje

 Wittenberg, a play by David Davalos 

The Paris Wife, by Paula Mclain  

The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes

Show Me Good Land, by Shonna Milliken Humphrey  

Freud's Sister, by Goce Smilevski 

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich 

Heat and Dust, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 

When We Were the Kennedys, by Monica Wood

2014

The Elephant Whisperer, by Lawrence Anthony

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce

Quiet, by Susan Cain 

The Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

The Savannah Disputation, a play by Evan Smith

The Art Forger, by B.A. Shapiro 

The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman 

My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante  

Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier 

The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri 

Etched In Sand, by Regina Calcaterra 

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

2015

Appointment in Samarra, by John O'Hara

Americanah,  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Pecan Man, by Cassie D. Selleck

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

Papermaker, a play, by Monica Wood

Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway

Boys in the Boat, by Daniel Brown 

Silas Marner, by George Eliot 

Empress Dowager Cixi, by Jung Chiang 

The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins 

Cinnamon and Gunpowder, by Eli Brown 

A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman

2016

Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo

Bird Skinner, by Alice Greenway

 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra

Sweetland, by Michael Crummy

They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! A play by Dario Fo

Elsewhere, by Richard Russo

Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler

The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant

The Life We Bury, by Allen Eskens

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather

The Prince of Los Cocoyos: a Miami Childhood, by Richard Blanco

2017

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy 

A Passage to India, by E.M. Forester 

The Fisherman, by Chigozie Obioma

The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin

Disgraced, a play by Ayad Akhtar

The One-in-a-Million Boy, by Monica Wood.  Fiction. 

The Rent Collector, by Camron Wright; Fiction. 

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, by James McBride. NF

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Fiction. 

Hillbilly Elegy. by J.P. Vance. Non-fiction. 

Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin. Fiction. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Fiction. 

2018

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. 480 p. Fiction

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. 176 p. Non fiction

Stay With Me, by Ayobami Adebayo, Fiction, 272 pages

A Piece of the World, by Christina Baker Kline...fiction...325 pgs.

Sex and Other Disturbances, by Marisa Smith (play)

This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind, by Ivan Doig. 336 p. Autobiography.

Tangerine, by Christine Mangan. Fiction. 320 p. 

Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid.  226 pags.  Fiction

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in WW II, by Vicki Constantine Croke.  Non-fiction.  368 p.

Killers of the Flower Moon, The Osage Murders and Birth of the FBI.  David Grann;  NF

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. 320 pp. Fiction.  

The Day the World Came to Town. 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland, By Jim Defede. NF

2019

Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah. NF. 

Less, by Andrew Greer. fiction. 

The Storyteller's Secret, by Sajal Badani. Fiction

They Came Like Swallows, by William Maxwell. Fiction  

Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover. NF 

The Girl with Seven Names, by Hyeonseo Lee. NF

Normal People, by Sally Rooney. Fiction. 

The Shell Collector, by Anthony Doerr.  Short-story collection.   

The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Fiction 

Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner. Fiction. 

Our Souls at Night, by Kent Haruf. Fiction. 

2020

Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson. Fiction. 

The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Fiction.

March meeting cancelled due to Corona virus, no trip to Portland Stage in May.

On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin. Fiction.  (via Zoom)

Call Me American: A Memoir, by Abdi Nor Iftin. NF. (First via Zoom)

Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family, by Amy Ellis Nutt. NF

Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo. Fiction. 

The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead. Fiction. 

This Tender Land, by William Kurt Krueger. Fiction. 

Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin. NF

Writers & Lovers, by Lily King. Fiction.   

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman. N

2021 

The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation, by Randall Fuller. NF

Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan. Fiction

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner. Fiction

The Reluctant Fundamentalists, by Mohsin Hamid. 

Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. Fiction. 

The Vanishing Half. By Britt Bennett.  Fiction.   

Mothers and Sons, by Colm Toibin. Fiction

 Afterlife by Julia Alvarez.  Fiction.   .

Olive, Again: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout. . Fiction

The Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen. Historical Fiction, 

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: by Zora Neale Hurston. Fiction. 

Homeland Elegies: A Novel, by Ayad Akhtar Fiction. 

2022

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard. NF

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead; Fiction

Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, by Beverly Jensen.   Fiction

Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Fiction. 

The Green Road, by Anne Enright. Fiction

Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang. NF

Silverview, by John le Carré. Fiction

The Soul of America, The Battle for our Better Angels, by Jon Meacham, NF 

The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich. Fiction. 400 p.

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, Fiction, 

O, Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker. Fiction

Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America, Gigi Georges. NF

2023

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China, by Jonathan Kaufman. Nonfiction. 382p.

The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill. Fiction. 259 pages
The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles. Fiction.  592 p.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Fiction. 546 pages.
Night of the Living Rez, by Morgan Talty. Fiction. 296 p.
When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro – Fiction - 352p
Mink River, by Brian Doyle: Fiction, 319 pages. 

The Years, by Annie Ernaux. Autobiography.  200 p.

This Other Eden, by Paul Harding.  Fiction.  224 p.

Matrix, by Lauren Groff. Fiction. ‎ 272 p.

Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout, fiction, 291 p.

The Only Woman in the Room, by Marie Benedict. 272 p., Fiction

2024

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk (Author), E. Goknar . Fiction 

Alchemy of a Black Bird by Claire McMillan.  Historical Novel

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty.  Fiction

Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett. 320 p. Fiction

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt. Fiction. 

The Queen of Dirt Island,  by Donal Ryan.  Fiction. 

River Sing Me Home, by Eleanor Shearer.  Fiction. 

How To Read a Book, by Monica Wood. Fiction. 

BONUS: Monica Wood joined us live on zoom at 10am for discussion!

 James by Percival Everett. Fiction 

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie by Lisa Napoli. NF 

Clear by Carys Davies. Fiction 

The North Woods by Daniel Mason. Fiction 

2025

Jan- The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon. Historical Fiction, 432 pp

Feb- The Art of Rivalry, by Sebastion Smee. Historical Fiction 390 pp

Mar- Becoming Madam Secretary, by Stephanie Dray. Historical Fiction, 519pp

Apr- The Berry Pickers,  by Amanda Peters. Fiction  320 pp

May- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. – Fiction - 352pp

June- Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Jackson Brown. NonFiction, 432 pp

July- By Any Other Name, by Jodi Picoult.  Historical fiction 528 pp

Aug- First Ladies, by Marie Benedict / Victoria Murray. Historical Fiction 389 pp

Sept- Quartet in Autumn, by Barbara Pym. Fiction, 186 pages