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Recommended by Ward: The Slip: A Novel by Lucas Schaefer

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Recommended by Ward: Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild

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Recommended by Vic: Strata: Stories from Deep Time by Laura Poppick

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Recommended by Vic: The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon

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Recommended by Valorie:  Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch

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Recommended by Valorie: There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak

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Recommended by Suzanne: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

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Recommended by Suzanne: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Paperback by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

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Recommended by Paul W.: Poetry as Enchantment and Other Essays by Dana Gioia

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Recommended by Paul W.: A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa

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Recommended by Paul P.: A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

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Recommended by Paul P.: Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 by Lynne Olson 

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Recommended by Nancy: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

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Recommended by Meg: Heartwood by Amity Gaige

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Recommended by Marie: Mona's Eyes: A Novel by Thomas Schlesser

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Recommended by Marie: My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray

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Recommended by Leslie: The Analog Sea Review edited by by Jonathan Simons

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Recommended by Leslie: Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences by Anton Jäger

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Recommended by Laura: The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault

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Recommended by Laura: The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

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Recommended by Judy: Twice: A Novel by Mitch Albom

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Recommended by Judy: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

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Recommended by Joella: An American Beauty: A Novel of the Gilded Age by Shana Abe

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Recommended by Joella: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

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Recommended by Greg: The Human Scale: A Novel by Lawrence Wright

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Recommended by Fran: Still Life by Sarah Winman

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Recommended by Fran: Into Unknown Skies: An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight Around the World by David K. Randall

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Recommended by Diana: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

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Recommended by Diana: 1984 by George Orwell .

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Recommended by Diana: The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans

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Recommended by Carol H.: Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor by Christine Kuehn

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Recommended by Bella: The German Wife: A Novel – A WWII Historical Fiction Story by Kelly Rimmer

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You can download the PDF for printing (I squeezed it onto one page).

And Judy shared this nice long list from Town and Country magazine: The 46 Must-Read Books of Summer 2026.

Plus the Guardian newspaper recently shared a fun book project: 100 Best Novels of All Time. (And here's how they created the list.)

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We'll start up again in September, when Carole Buckman will be leading our discussion of Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

This Padlet contains Book Club books plus recommended books. The books are displayed AT RANDOM, so each time the page loads, you'll see new books on top.

Please add your book recs by making a comment on this post. Or send Laura an email: laurakgibbs@gmail.com.

.... and here are our previous Book Club picks; click on the linked title to learn more:

coming in September 2026: Founding Mothers

Say Nothing

Sovietistan

An Officer and a Spy

Remember Ben Clayton

Tomb of Sand

Empire of the Summer Moon

James

Iris Origo

English Assassin

Brave Genius

Paris Without Her

Glory

Lessons in Chemistry

White Noise

Resurrection

The Caretakers

Bel Canto

Outside Lies Magic

Intimacies

Interior Chinatown

Suite Francaise

The Art of Travel

Life With Picasso

The Book of Lost Friends

News of the World

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In November 2025 we read Robert Harris's An Officer and a Spy... and we watched the first part of Polanski's film adaptation, until the technology gremlins stopped us midway. (We will reschedule a film showing at a later date with a different DVD player!) You can see a slideshow of photos taken by Nancy and Diana from the Musee d'Orsay exhibit, with more information at the museum website.

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In September 2025, we read Remember Ben Clayton by Stephen Harrigan. Suzanne shared this slideshow with some images of Coppini and his work (including the horse statue that inspired the book), Waldine Tauch and her work, Dot and Bianca Babb, and Frank Dobie.

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Laura Schroff & Alex Tresniowski, An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-year-old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny (2011)

Recommendation from Meg.

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Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures (2025) [novel. An art therapist in a mental ward comes to terms with a mysterious psychiatric patient.]

Recommendation from Meg.

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Anderson Cooper & Gloria Vanderbilt, The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss (pb 2017)

Recommendation from Diana.

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Joel Warren Barna, The See-Through Years: Creation and Destruction in Texas Architecture and Real Estate, 1981-1991 (1993)

Recommendation from William.

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Richard Cleary and Lawrence W. Speck (former dean of Architecture at UT): University of Texas: The Campus Guide (2009)

Recommendation from William.

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Ariel Lawhon, Frozen River.

Recommendation from Marie. [novel/mystery; an NPR Book of the Year, 2024. Based on the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife in New England in the 18th century.]

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Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji (2020)

Recommendation from Ward. [novel: takes place in S.E. Nigeria]

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Anastasia Piliavsky, Nobody’s People: Hierarchy as Hope in a Society of Thieves (2020).

Recommendation from Ward. [Caste structure in India]

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Greg Marshall, Leg (2023)

Recommendation from Ward. [ATX author; memoir about disability (cerebral palsy) and the author’s eventual coming out as a gay man]

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Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety (1997)

Recommendation from Judy. [novel about the enduring friendship of two couples who first meet during the Great Depression]

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Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here (1935; new Penguin edition in pb 2022) Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart (pb 2023)

Recommendation from Judy. [memoir]

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Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us (2023)

Recommendation from Suzanne. [Yong is a staff writer for The Atlantic Monthly]

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Hernan Diaz, In the Distance (pb 2024)

Recommendation from Suzanne. [historical fiction; finalist for the Pulitzer. A young Swedish boy navigates the influx of immigrants in the 19 th century]

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Charles Portis, True Grit (1968)

Recommendation from Suzanne. [Young Mattie Ross is left an orphan and seeks revenge against her father’s killer]

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Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (2009)

Recommendation from Paul P. [novel & National Book Award Winner. NYC in the 1970s; Philippe Petit and his tightrope-walk between the twin towers sets the stage]

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Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone ( orig. German,1947; trans. by Michael Hofmann, 2025)

Recommendation from Paul P. [novel (dark); the fate of an anti-fascist activist couple in Nazi Germany]

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Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (2013)

Recommendation from Fran: U of Washington rowing team comprised of “young men who were sons of loggers, shipyard workers, farmers, who excelled in sports and classes during their high school years and were admitted to the U of Washington in October 1933, each trying out for the varsity rowing teams. .. Brown paints a picture of the socio-economic era of the time – The Depression, The Dust Bowl, the poverty…. This is set against what is happening in Germany with the rise of Hitler, the persecution of the Jewish people, the preparations for the 1936 Olympics, the propaganda films”

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Katherine Sharp Landdeck, The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII (2020)

Recommendation from Fran

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James Joyce, Ulysses (orig. pub. 1922)

Recommendation from Frank.

Plus:

Guide to Ulysses

Patrick Hasting, The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses (2022)

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Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Recommendation from Vic. [history; National Book Critics Circle Award. An account of the “The Troubles” in Ireland. Note: a 9-part series based on the book was released on HULU, Nov. 2024]

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Daniel Kehlmann, The Director (orig. German, 2023; trans. by Ross Benjamin, 2025)

Recommendation from Nancy. [novel based on the life of Austrian film director G.W. Pabst; rev. in NYT 5.6.25]

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Robert L. Heilbronner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (7 th edition, 1999)

Recommendation from Vic.

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William W. Freehling, The South vs. the South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War (OUP, 2001)

Frank seconds this recommendation!

Recommendation from Paul W. along with these other Civil War books:

Howell Raines, Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta-- and then Got Written out of History (OUP, 2023)

Margaret M. Storey, Loyalty and Loss: Alabama’s Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction (2014)

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Drew Gilpin Faust, Necessary Trouble: Growing up at Midcentury (pb 2024)

Recommendation from Margaret F. memoir. American historian &amp; former president of Harvard describes growing up in Virginia “and her very early civil rights activism at odds with her family’s assumptions and those of her location”

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Adam Becker, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity (2025)

Recommendation from Laura.

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Robert Harris, Precipice (2024)

Recommendation from Laura. [novel. Based in part on the actual correspondence between PM H.H. Asquith and Venetia Stanley in 1914, with English on the brink of war with Germany.]

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Alba de Céspedes, Forbidden Notebook (original Italian, 1952; new trans. by Ann Goldstein, 2023)

Recommendation from Leslie. [Cuban-Italian writer; anti-fascist; a novel about how a housewife in Italy in the 1930s and ‘40’s faces and reacts to the fascist regime]

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Lauren Markham, Immemorial (2025)

Recommendation from Leslie. [essays. How do we memorialize loss?]

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An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures and A Breath of Life, both by Clarice Lispector.

Recommendation from Leslie.

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The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Recommendation from Leslie.

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Trilogy by Jon Fosse

Recommendation from Leslie.

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Keats Odes: A Lover’s Discourse by Anahid Nersessian

Recommendation from Leslie.

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Eros the Bittersweat by Anne Carson.

Recommendation from Leslie. This is a long essay based on her PhD dissertation. This short book made me fall in love with her writing.

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The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

Recommendation from Leslie. This is a book by the latest winner of the Novel Prize on literature, the korean writer Han Kang. Not an easy read but I believe good art has to be somewhat challenging.

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Don't Let Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

Recommendation from Paul W.

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We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Recommendation from Paul W.

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Notes from the Hyena's Belly by Nega Mezlekia

Recommendation from Paul W.

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Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije

Recommendation from Paul W.

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The Utopian Generation by Pepetela

Recommendation from Paul W.

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The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov

Recommendation from Paul W.

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Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker.

Recommendation from Paul P.

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After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America's Stolen Lands

Margaret D. Jacobs

Highly recommended by Laura :-)

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From Ward: Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell. Available as an audiobook from Audible; lots of used copies at BookFinder.com.

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This is a list of book recommendations that Paul Putnam prepared after his wonderful talk last month, all on different aspects of mental health and mental illness, with some helpful notes about each book. (Thank you, Paul!)

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From Laura: Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone is a brilliant take on Gone with the Wind from the perspective of Cynara, who is Mammy's daughter. You can find out more at Wikipedia, including information about the lawsuit filed by Margaret Mitchell's estate attempting to get the book "unpublished" after it came out.

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You can find out more about James by Percival Everett at Wikipedia.

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From Diana's email:

Nancy Durling has offered us a biography for our September read, Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d'Orcia by Caroline Moorehead. You may read the New York Times review here. It concludes: "Caroline Moorehead supplies, diligently, the details of the life of this enchanting person. With Iris Origo's verve and insight and humor also evident, we glimpse a spectacular human being."

Iris Origo was a writer and philanthropist, among many other things. Nancy suggests a very satisfying companion read would be War in Val d'Orcia, which is Iris Origo's WWII memoir in diary form, set in Tuscany.

For future travels to Tuscany, you may visit the gorgeous garden at the Origo estate "La Foce."

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from Linda Kumin:

Empire of the Summer Moon

by S.G. Gwynne

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The English Assassin

by Daniel Silva

from Diana's email: "For our May meeting, Ed will present Daniel Silva's The English Assassin. I'm a big fan of Silva's spy novels because he weaves a lot of history into the tales--the backdrop for this one is Switzerland's collaboration with the Nazis. "

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from Suzanne:

Shadow of the Wind

by Carlos Ruiz Zafön.

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From Fran:

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

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from Laura:

The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate over Its Authenticity

by Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau

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from Laura

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

by R. F Kuang

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Intimacies

by Katie Kitamura

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From Nancy:

Normal Rules Don't Apply

by Kate Atkinson

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From Nancy:

Words without Music

by Philip Glass

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From Paul:

Homeland Elegies

by Ayad Akhtar

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From Carol Headrick:

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

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from Suzanne:

The Whichway Tree

by Elizabeth Crook

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[suggestion received, but no indication from whom: mystery!]

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour

by Lynne Olson

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From Meg:

The Personal Librarian

by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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From Meg:

The Guncle

by Steven Rowley

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From Meg:

Girl, Forgotten

by Karin Slaughter

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From Meg:

West with Giraffes

by Lynda Rutledge