Notes from the Austin College Book Club.
April 2024: The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Here are Christina’s latest “ Top 10” reads:
1. Hild—Nicola Griffith (for June discussion)
2. Priory of the Orange Tree—Samantha Shannon
3. A Memory Called Empire—Arkady Martine
4. Circe—Madeline Miller
5. The Bone Shard Daughter—Andrea Stewart
6. The Witches Heart—Genevieve Gornichec
7. The Great Circle—Maggie Shipstead
8. Fates and Furies—Lauren Groff
9. Matrix—Lauren Geoff
10. Starter Gillian— John Scalzi.
March 2024: The Measure—Nicki Erich
Rene’s latest top 10:
1. Everything Sad is Untrue—Daniel Nayeri
2. Will the Cat Eat my Eyeballs?—Caitlin Doughty
3. The Disappearing Spoon—Sam Keen
4. This Perfect Day—Ira Levin
5. Never Let Me Go—Kazuo Ishiguro
6. The One—John Marrs
7. The Measure—Nicki Erich
8. Dawn—Octavia Butler
9. Just Like Home—Sara Bailey
10. The Mercer Girls—Libby Hawkes
February 2024: The Deep End by Julie Mulhern
Becky’s top 10 13:
- Any Julie Mulhern (Country Club Murders, Fields’ Guide)
- The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
- Fairy Tale, by Steven King
- All of the Thursday Murder Club books by Richard Osman
- The Fourth Wing, Iron Flame (Empyrean Books) by Rebecca Yarros
- The Lincoln Highway by Amore Towles
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs
- Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
- Tom Lake by Ann Patchet, read by Meryl Streep (Her voice makes it better)
- The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith (suggested by Elanor)
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (books 1-3 good, losing interest at 4)
January 2024: ‘The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store’ by James McBride.
November 2023: ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Jessica’s top 10:
1. The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
2. Artemis by Andy Weir
3. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
4. The Aeronauts Windlass by Jim Butcher
5. This is How You Lose The Time War by Max Gladstone
6. The Waterknife by Paulo Bacigalupi
7. Things In Jars by Jess Kidd
8. The House in The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Kline
9. Just One Damn Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor.
October 2023: A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Scary suggestions:
- Misery by Steven King
- Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- When Things Get Dark- short story collection
- The Little Stranger- by Sarah Waters
- The Book of Cold Cases- by Simone St. James
- The Picture of Dorian Grey- by Oscar Wilde
- Interview With a Vampire-by Anne Rice
- The Sherwood Ring-by Elizabeth Maria Pope (?) not sure if Igot this name correctly
- Under the Whispering Door-by T J Kline.
- The Measure-by Nikki Erlick
September 2023: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
- Lessons in Chemistry—Bonnie Garman
- The Invisible Hour—Alice Hoffman
- Under the Whispering Door—T.J. Kline
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow—Gabrielle Zevin
July/August 2023: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
September 2022: ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin
August 2022: ‘A Study in Scarlet Women’ by Sherry Thomas
July 2022: ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Karann’s list:
P.D. James: Mysteries
Gregory McGuire: Cottage industry of reworking fairy tales and classic fantasy: Wicked, Son of a Witch, Confessions of an Ugly Step-sister …
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899) turn-of-the-century South, power and powerlessness
Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge (1944) making sense of the world after WW I: wealth vd poverty and working poor, East vs West, education vs lack of it
Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus (1990) a tale ostensibly pieced together from notes; a carillonneur, Viet Nam vet, teacher at small dysfunctional college, at prison, inmate in prison
Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow (1996) sci fi (many awards); Earthlings travel to a planet on the basis of hearing music from it, their experiences there; engages religious ideas, at times quite dark (author has doctorate in biological anthropology)
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (1997, Booker prize) intimate look at a family in southern India in the 1960s and “Love Laws” – social boundaries and transgressing them
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (2013, shortlisted for Booker) back and forth between journal writer and person who finds the journal, kind of mystery, kind of an investigation into what makes life worthwhile
Julia Alvarez, Afterlife (2021) woman is widowed on the day of retiring from work as a professor, finds herself thrown into situation dealing with undocumented workers
April 2022: Cece’s 10 favorite mystery series authors:
1. Louise Penny
2. Deborah Crombie
3. Dorothy Sayers
4. Deanna Rayburn
5. Amanda Cross
6. Charlotte MacLeod
7. Janet Neel
8. Anne Perry
9. Sherry Thomas
10. Ariana Franklin.
April 2022: Our book will be ‘The Plot’ by Jean Hanff Korelitz
March 2022: ‘The Secret Book and Scone Society’ by Ellery Adams
December 2021: Poems and that list is just gone.
November 2021: ‘How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals’ by Sy Montgomery
October 2021: ‘Klara and the Sun’ by Kazuo Ishiguro
September 2021: ‘Calling Me Home’ by Julie Kibler. Other suggested reads:
- ‘The Gods of Jade and Shadow’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ by Richard Osman.
August 2021: The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Other suggestions:
- The Things We Lost To the Water
- This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
- The Mercer Girls
- Pizza Girl
- Mexian Gothic
- Broken Girls and/or Sundown Motel by Simone St. James
- The Hour of the Witch
- Transcendent Kingdom
- Opium and Absinthe
- The Plot
July 2021: A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn.
May 2021: Book suggestions:
- The Secret to Super Human Strength
- Hamnet
- A Memory Called Empire
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaVoux
- America’s First Daughter
- A Longer Fall
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- The Glass Hotel
- Wintering
- Tanna French – The Trespasser *
- Tanna French – The Searcher
March 2021: Books of Interest
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- Vela Chronicles
- The Magpie Mystery
- The Travelling Cat Chronicles
- The Evening and the Morning – Ken Follett
- The Hamnet
- Outlawed – Anna North
- The Testament – Margaret Atwood
- Strange Practice
- Me and Sister Bobbie
February 2021: Suggested reads:
- A long way to a small angry planet
- Mexican Gothic
- Small Great Things
- The Sun Down Motel
- The Broken Girls
- The Magpie Murders
- The Midnight Library – Book for March
- The Scythe Trilogy
- The Lost and Found Bookshop
January 2021: Here are the books from last month and this month that were suggested (not a complete list for sure):
- Welcome to the Monkey House – short stories
- The Vanishing Half – Book for Feb*
- The Midnight Library – Goodreads choice award
- 9 Perfect Strangers
- A Nearly Normal Family
- The City We Became
- Galapagos
- Magpie Murders (Book 1)
- Moonflower Murders (Book 2)
- How to be Successful without Hurting a Man’s Feelings
July 2020: Next book: Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. Other books suggested: The Guest List; Girl, Woman, Other; Testament; The Family Fang; The Dutch House; Commonwealth; Make Your Home Among Strangers; The Plague; and other books by Charlaine Harris (especially the Sookie Stackhouse novels).
Click here to open a Partial List of the books we’ve read since March 2014.
April 2020: Next book: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. ‘Comfort book’ suggestions: Harry Potter series, The Book of Ivy, Flat Broke with 2 Goats, Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Just One Damned Thing After Another, the Narnia series, and anything by Alice Hoffman. Less comforting but good: The Stand by Stephen King.
Light Reads for Quarantines – March 26, 2020
Recommendations from Anna Laura and Cece – December 2019
July 2019: two books recommended by Amanda are ‘Inheritance ‘ by Dani Shapiro and ‘The Age of Light’ by Whitney Schafer.
Group Suggestions – November 2019
Piece O Cake Blog 