Book Group Genre List

Memoir: interesting people write the stories of their lives.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Addie by Mary Lee Settle

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coats

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

Confessions of a Molly Mormon: Trading Perfectionism for Peace, Fear for Faith, Judging for Joy by Elona K. Shelley

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tezmach Lemmon

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

A Fine and Pleasant Misery by Patrick F. McManus

I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Stewart

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch

The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

My Dream of Stars by Anousheh Ansari

My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Remen

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall

Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Inspirational Nonfiction: true stories that will help you think about life from different perspectives.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

The Color of Water by James McBride

Confessions of a Molly Mormon: Trading Perfectionism for Peace, Fear for Faith, Judging for Joy by Elona K. Shelley

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tezmach Lemmon

A Fine and Pleasant Misery by Patrick F. McManus

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Remen

My Dream of Stars by Anousheh Ansari

Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Green

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall

Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

Childhood Classics: books that never grow old…no matter how old we readers grow!

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

The River Between Us by Richard Peck

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Watsons go to Birmingham by Christopher Curtis

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Classics: well-written books that have stood the test of time.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Persuasion by Jane Austen

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Nonfiction – History: books that help us remember the past.

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

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

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

No Ordinary Life: An Autobiography of Helen Mar Carter Monson by Helen Mar Carter Johnson

Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen by Bob Greene

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The Speckled Monster by Jennifer Lee Carrell

What Would Cleopatra Do? Life Lessons from Fifty of History’s Most Extraordinary Women edited by Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

Nonfiction – Science and Medicine: fascinating true stories about how the world works.

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

My Dream of Stars by Anousheh Ansari

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Time and Place by Terry Tempest Williams

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

The Speckled Monster by Jennifer Lee Carrell

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

Short Story and Essay Collections: a bunch of tiny books all under one cover.

Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

Father Brown: The Essential Tales by G.K. Chesterton

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Phillpot

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Leaving Home by Garrison Keillor

What Would Cleopatra Do? Life Lessons from Fifty of History’s Most Extraordinary Women edited by Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates

Contemporary Fiction: novels set after the 1970s that tell something about how we live now.

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Drenched in Light by Lisa Wingate

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marissa de los Santos

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Medicine River by Thomas King

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

My Real Children by Jo Walton

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

Peace like a River by Leif Enger

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

The Quilter’s Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg

The Running Dream by Wendelin van Draanen

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Summerlost by Ally Condy

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

We were Liars by E. Lockhart

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

Historical Fiction: novels that imagine how life used to be.

After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb

The Butterfly and The Violin by Kristy Cambron

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Caroline: Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

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

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Light of the Candle by Carol Pratt Brady

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

My Name is Resolute by Nancy Turner

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

Oral History by Lee Smith

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

The River Between Us by Richard Peck

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Someone by Alice McDermott

The Summer of My German Soldier by Betty Greene

They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

The Whole Town’s Talking by Fannie Flagg

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Speculative Fiction: from science fiction to fantasy, retold fairytales to imagined worlds, these books ask and answer some startling “what if” questions.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

My Real Children by Jo Walton

Oona out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Shadow Behind the Stars by Rebecca Hahan

Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Global Fiction: books set all around the world.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

An Irish County Wedding by Patrick Taylor

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

Light of the Candle by Carol Pratt Brady

The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Small Town Stories: fiction set in small towns is an enduring literary motif.

The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

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

An Irish County Wedding by Patrick Taylor

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

Medicine River by Thomas King

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

The Quilter’s Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini

Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg

Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Summerlost by Ally Condie

They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell

Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

Frontier Stories: people living on different types of frontiers bring these books to life.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Stewart

Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman

My Antonia by Willa Cather

My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner

Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

These is My Words: the Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner

True Grit by Charles Portis

Stories of Suspense: books that lead you through a series of mysteries or surprises.

The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb

Father Brown: The Essential Tales by G. K. Chesterton

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

True Grit by Charles Portis

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

We were Liars by E. Lockhart

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

Reimagined Classics: authors revisit old stories with new perspectives.

Bellfield Hall, or, the Observations of Miss Dido Kent by Anna Dean

The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain

March by Geraldine Brooks

Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Romance Novels: novels that explore the vagaries of love.

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

The Buried Giant by Kashugo Ishiguro*

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron

Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos

An Irish Country Wedding by Patrick Taylor

Jane Eyre by Charolotte Bronte

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Oona out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Epistolary Works: stories told partly or completely in letters.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

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

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Stewart

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

Books for Bibliophiles: books about reading, writing, book stores, book clubs, and everything else that book lovers love.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

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

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman

Women’s Studies: books that explore a variety of women’s lives and experiences.

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Confessions of a Molly Mormon: Trading Perfectionism for Peace, Fear for Faith, Judging for Joy by Elona K. Shelley

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tezmach Lemmon

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Far from the Tree by Robin

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Guests of the Sheik by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays  by Mary Laura Phillpot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

My Name is Resolute by Nancy Turner

My Real Children by Jo Walton

Oral History by Lee Smith

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams

Someone by Alice McDermott

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

What Would Cleopatra Do? Life Lessons from Fifty of History’s Most Extraordinary Women edited by Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates

Young Adult Books: who says these books are only for teenagers?

After the Dancing Days by Margaret Rostkowski

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

Bog Child by Siobhann Dowd

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

The Shadow Behind the Stars by Rebecca Hahn

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Summer of My German Soldier by Betty Greene

Summerlost by Ally Condie

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Diverse Lives: books that examine the many different ways people live their lives, including the effects of race, gender, nationality, and sexual identity.

Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

Guests of the Sheik by Elizabeth Warnock Ferrnea

The Help by Katheryn Stocket

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

Medicine River by Thomas King

My Dream of Stars by Anousheh Ansari

My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Remen

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Curtis