Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan by Erika Fatland

Paris Without Her: A Memoir

by our own Greg Curtis.

Greg Lipscomb selected the book, and Greg Curtis will discuss it.

by Paulette Jiles

Jack also recommends this book!

by Charles Yu

by Lisa Wingate

by Françoise Gilot

by Alain De Botton

by Irene Nemirovsky

by John R. Stilgoe

by Ann Patchett

by Amanda Bestor-Siegal

by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

In addition, some people got together to read Dom Casmurro by the same author.

by Don DeLillo

by Bonnie Garmus

by NoViolet Bulawayo

Laura prepared this Padlet of Glory Resources.

Watergate, a New History

by Garrett Graff

In the Cafe of Lost Youth

by Patrick Modiano.

"He is French and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2014. He’s under appreciated in this country, so let’s not let that happen in the Cambridge Tower."

Demon Copperfield

by Barbara Kingsolver

by Sean B. Carroll

from Diana's email: Paul Putman and Frances Cushing have joined forces to present our March selection, Brave Genius by Sean B. Carroll. It comes in at 592 pages, so get started sooner than later!

Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism

by Larry Siedentop

Susan Ryeland series:

Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders

by Anthony Horowitz

Also: House of Silk and Moriarty by the same author.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

by Shelby Van Pelt

Miss Benson's Beetle

by Rachel Joyce

The Library of Lost Things

by Laura Taylor Namey

The Maid

by Nita Prose

West with Giraffes

by Lynda Rutledge

Girl, Forgotten

by Karin Slaughter

The Guncle

by Steven Rowley

The Personal Librarian

by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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

by Lynne Olson

The Whichway Tree

by Elizabeth Crook

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

by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Homeland Elegies

by Ayad Akhtar

Words without Music

by Philip Glass

Normal Rules Don't Apply

by Kate Atkinson

by Katie Kitamura

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

by R. F Kuang

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

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

Shadow of the Wind

by Carlos Ruiz Zafön.

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. "

Empire of the Summer Moon

by S.G. Gwynne

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."

Margaret D. Jacobs

Highly recommended by Laura :-)

Recommendation from Paul P.

Recommendation from Paul W.

Recommendation from Paul W.

Recommendation from Paul W.

Recommendation from Paul W.

Recommendation from Paul W.

Recommendation from Paul W.

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.

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

Recommendation from Leslie.

Recommendation from Leslie.

Recommendation from Leslie.

Recommendation from Leslie.

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

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]

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.]

Recommendation from Laura.

Recommendation from Margaret F. memoir. American historian & 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”

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)

Recommendation from Vic.

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

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]

Recommendation from Frank.

Plus:

Guide to Ulysses

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

Recommendation from Fran

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”

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

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]

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

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

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

Recommendation from Judy. [memoir]

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

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

Recommendation from Ward. [Caste structure in India]

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

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.]

Recommendation from William.

Recommendation from William.

Recommendation from Diana.

Recommendation from Meg.

Recommendation from Meg.

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

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.)