Host An Unforgettable Book Club Party

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett is the first book in The Century Trilogy. The series begins with an introduction to five families of different classes and origins – America, England, Germany, Russia and Wales during the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

Francesca’s Kitchen by Peter Pezzelli

In Francesca’s Kitchen, Francesca Campanile is a widow with adult children preoccupied with their own lives. Not being able to shake this my-kids-don’t-need-me-anymore feeling, Francesca decides to apply for a nanny position to get herself get out of the house and start living her life instead of just passing the time. Through her food, Francesca wins the hearts of her newfound friends, a struggling single mom named Loretta and two young children, Penny and Will.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Girl With a Pearl Earring is a historical fiction novel about the girl in Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting by the same name.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Marriage can be a real killer.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor—these form a series of events that changes the orphaned Pip’s life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens’s haunting late novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his ‘great expectations’.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

American twins Julia and Valentina have inherited the estate of their mother’s twin sister, which includes a flat. However, a condition is attached to this inheritance. The twins’ parents, Edie and Jack, are forbidden from entering the flat.

Honolulu by Alan Brennert

Jin, whose Korean family named her Regret, leaves behind her family in 1914 to become a picture bride to a Korean man in Hawaii.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel by Jamie Ford

The Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown, is the hotel at the corner of bitter and sweet. In 1986, Henry Lee hears that the belongings of 37 Japanese families interned during WWII are found in the basement of the Panama Hotel. This event sends Henry, a Chinese-American, on a journey back to the 1940s when his best friends were a Japanese-American named Keiko Okabe and a local Jazz musician named Sheldon. Henry was 12 years old and was struggling with his relationship with his father, his feelings for Keiko and the events taking place in wartime Seattle.

Enjoy some dim sum appetizers, sticky rice and mango pudding as you discuss the friendships and loves of Henry Lee in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

How to Bake A Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal

How to Bake a Perfect Life by Barbara O’Neal is about the power of baking to get you through the rough times. Ramona owns a bakery and when absorbed in her craft she is able to forget about the rough times in her life, such as having a baby as a teenager, bitter relationships in her family, and her son-in-law in Afghanistan. When her son-in-law is injured her pregnant daughter must head overseas to care for him and leaves her 13 year old stepdaughter, Katie, with Ramona. Through the art of baking, Ramona and Katie develop a friendship.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay tells the story of young Mia, an aspiring cellist, trying to decide if she should stay after a tragic car accident. While in a coma in the intensive care unit, Mia has flashbacks and observes her family and friends trying to deal with her being on the brink of death. The thought of living seems too much to bear, but she realizes it is her choice…should she stay?

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Infidel is the story of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s upbringing in an abusive Islamic family/society and the events that led to her losing her faith.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a collection of short stories about Indian culture, both in India and the United States, as well as the joys and difficulties of relationships that someone of any culture can identify with.

Into the Free by Julie Cantrell

In Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a “nothing mama,” she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

In 1990, Chris McCandless got in his Datsun and left everything behind – his real name, his family, his possessions and ventured into the wild. He traveled through the United States for almost two years, living as a vagabond, walking and hitchhiking towards his ultimate destination, Alaska.

He walked into the wilderness of Alaska in April 1992 with a .22 caliber rifle, a camera, a ten pound bag of rice and his books. He found shelter in an abandoned bus left from the 1960′s to shelter construction workers hired to upgrade The Stampede Trail. He hunted game and foraged for food using Tanaina Plantlore for guidance.

Chris McCandless did not make it out of the Alaskan wilderness. He left behind notes written in the side bars of his books, letters to people he met along his journey, writings on the walls of the bus and a camera. His writings and photos opened a window into the life of McCandless during his two years on the road.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is the story of a young woman’s struggles to uphold her convictions despite her painful upbringing and the strictures of society and religion. Jane does not compromise, even at risk to her own happiness and health, that which she holds as truths. She is an ageless heroine for all young girls today.

Penned by Charlotte Brontë under a pseudonym in 1847, Jane Eyre, at the time, was criticized as having an anti-Christian slant. Today this semi-autobiographical novel is considered one of the top literary classics of all-time.

Jemima J by Jane Green

She is an overweight reporter who is looking for love and recognition in life. Jemima J is secretly in love with her handsome co-worker but is sure he would never give her the time of day. Persuaded by a friend to try online dating, Jemima J starts a journey to finding out what is truly important to her and what true love is.

Juliet by Anne Fortier

Juliet by Anne Fortier is the story of a grad school drop out drawn to Shakepeare summer camps who inherits a key when her aunt passes away. The key takes her on a journey to Siena, Italy where she discovers the truth about her ancestors and her own past.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

On August 7, 1974, the streets of New York City were brought to a standstill in the early morning light. A small figure was spotted a quarter of a mile up walking, running, dancing, jumping, and laying down on a high wire suspended between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Funambulist Philippe Petit’s daring and death-defying high wire performance, which he called “le coup,” took many months of training and planning to execute. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann is not, however, Petit’s story; but it is his astounding feat that threads the novel’s major characters together in most unexpected ways.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Pi, the son of a zookeeper, finds himself adrift on the open sea in a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Bengal tiger.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Tita, the youngest daughter of a family living on a ranch in Mexico, must care for her mother and is not allowed to marry. She pours her emotions into her cooking and it flows through to each person who eats her dishes.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Little Bee comes from a village in Nigeria sheltered from the world’s advancements, but not sheltered from the world’s evils. Little Bee’s journey to freedom begins when she flees her village with her sister and friend. She touches the lives of Andrew (a writer), Sarah (editor of a fashion magazine), Charlie (a batman freak), and Lawrence (Sarah’s confidant). Little Bee touched my life as well. “Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means this story teller is alive” – Little Bee

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew’s last stand is about the charming relationship between a proper Englishman and an independent Pakistani shopkeeper.

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick tells the story of the hardships of the pilgrims, from freezing weather, starvation and altercations with Natives.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The narrator in Jeffery Eugenides’ Middlesex is Cal Stephanides, who “was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

Connie Danforth, an obstetrician, recalls in 1981 as a teen, the events leading up to and surrounding the involuntary manslaughter trial of her mother, Sibyl.

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook

40 something WF seeks special group to share fun filled evening. Must love books, food and Irish music. Ah, the age of personal ad dating. Sarah Hurlihy is a barely 40 DWF, whose meddling sister, Carol, writes up an ad for Sarah and puts it in the personals. Sarah finally answers one of the ads and decides to meet John Anderson at a dog park. She borrows her brother’s dog, Mother Teresa, and looks for someone who resembles Harrison Ford. And with that the crazy new love life of Sarah Hurlihy begins.

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

My Name is Mary Sutter is a book about a well-respected midwife who dreams of being a surgeon in the Civil War era. She gets her chance at an overcrowded Union hospital where she is given the opportunity to assist with amputations when no one else with medical training was available. Her determination and skill win the respect and love of the doctors who were reluctant to believe in her.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is about the bond between three friends, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth, students at an isolated English boarding school, as they try to make sense and come to terms with their shared destiny. The novel is told through the reminisces of the now 31-year old Kathy.

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier is set in the 1960s deep in the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.
Luce, a woman traumatized as a teen chooses to isolate herself and live alone, until the twins of her murdered sister Lily are dropped at her doorstep.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

This book by Elizabeth Strout is a series of short stories primarily set in Maine with a common character, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

On Folly Beach by Karen White

A young widow who buys a bookstore in Folly Beach is taken back in time as she discovers the love and loss of a South Carolina family during WWII through notes written in the margins of books.

One Day by David Nicholls

Dexter and Emma begin a friendship that spans decades after they spend a day together after graduation. When the day ends, they decide to keep in touch. We are given a peek at what their life has become on the same day of the year – July 15th.