Book Club Titles

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. +
Set in China during the Cultural Revolution, Sijie's book tells the story of two privileged friends sent from city to country, forced into a life of backbreaking labor. After the boys find a box of contraband Western literature in Chinese translation, they begin discussing the stories with an unschooled seamstress and transform her into a woman of sophisticated taste.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
A young girl growing up in Nazi Germany has book-stealing and story-telling talents that help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding. Zusak has written an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz


Crashing Through by Robert Kurson
Blinded in an accident at the age of three, Michael May defied all expectations and became a champion skier, CIA analyst, inventor, and family man. But his biggest challenge was deciding whether to go through with an operation that could restore his sight. This is a remarkable true story of courage and endurance.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. +
The four Morrison children struggle to stay together and cope with their difficult lives after their parents are killed in an accident. As adults, the Morrisons face challenges that force them to reexamine their painful pasts. The characters and the rural landscape are integral to this compelling story.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson. *
The Devil in the White City interweaves the fascinating story of Daniel Burnham and the building of Chicago's 1893 World's Fair with the grisly tale of serial killer H. H. Holmes, who preyed upon young women drawn to life in the big city. This work of nonfiction reads like a novel and provides fascinating insights into Chicago history.

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
From the author of Midwives comes a literary thriller that echoes The Great Gatsby. Laurel, Estabrook, a caseworker in a Vermont homeless shelter, struggles with the psychological aftermath of an assault. When a resident of the shelter dies and leaves behind a collection of incriminating photographs, Laurel's ensuing investigation turns to obsession.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Gilbert writes with insight and humor about her healing travels to Italy, India, and Indonesia.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A crusading journalist joins forces with a 24-year-old pierced and tattooed genius computer hacker to investigate the decades-old disappearance of a young woman from one of Sweden's wealthiest families. With fascinating characters, this is a gritty, intelligent thriller.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Walls recalls her nomadic childhood with heartbreaking candor and surprising affection for her parents who believed that "homelessness is an adventure."

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo Gursky fell in love and wrote a book. Unbeknownst to Leo, that book survived the destruction of World War II, crossed oceans, and changed lives. The mysteries of Leo’s past and the history of the book unfold when a 14-year-old girl begins a search for the book’s heroine, after whom she is named.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel.*
En route from India to North America with his zookeeping family, a storm leaves sixteen-year-old Pi and a Bengal tiger alone on a lifeboat. Armed with extensive knowledge of animal behavior and faith in three religions, Pi coexists with the tiger, surviving for seven months at sea in this imaginative story of survival and faith.

Little Heathens by Mildred Kalish
Named a top-ten book of the year by The New York Times, this surprisingly joyful memoir recounts Kalish’s upbringing on an Iowa farm during the throes of the Great Depression.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
In the early 1900's, architect Frank Lloyd Wright began a clandestine affair with client Mamah Cheney, devastating their families and scandalizing Oak Park society. Fact and fiction blend in this captivating account.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.
When a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, one of his children is born with unanticipated Down’s Syndrome. In a split-second decision, he directs the nurse to place the infant girl in an institution and never to reveal the secret.

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert.
As a child in Honolulu during the 1890’s, Rachel Kalama contracts leprosy and is deported to the island of Moloka’i, where she grows to adulthood in a quarantined settlement. Drawing on historical accounts of the leper colony at Kalaupapa, Brennert tells the uplifting story of a community struggling against illness and injustice.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.
To understand life beyond affluent America, Barbara Ehrenreich spent several months in 1998 laboring as a cleaning woman, a waitress, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. Her revelations about these hard, supposedly unskilled jobs and the difficulty of making ends meet in the U. S. give this book a powerful, personal edge.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
In the aftermath of a school shooting, events are examined from the perspective of students, a judge, the gunman, and his parents.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Set on the coast of Maine, 13 stories are linked by one character--Olive Kitteridge, a retired math teacher who deplores change. Although Olive is often abrasive, she also connects and empathizes with those around her. In this 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner, Strout explores guilt, aging, parent-child relationships, and the universal need to be understood.

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
A solitary Norwegian widower reflects on a transformative summer in his youth when an adventure to steal horses leads to the tragic death of his friend. Innocence is lost, and traditional ways of life disappear. Petterson's minimalist prose is haunting in this multi-award winning novel.

Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld.
At fourteen, Lee Fiora leaves her family in South Bend, Indiana to attend the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. Lee’s quest to fit in with her privileged classmates is both a recognizable portrait of adolescence and a reflection on race and class in America.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah in the Old Testament, tells the stories and traditions of her family, and of her calling to midwifery in the red tent, where ancient women spent time during illness, monthly cycles, and birthing.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. +
In a tender, enthralling, voice fourteen-year-old Lily tells how she and her African-American nanny, Rosaleen, escape unjust harshness and racism to find new lives among three bee-keeping sisters. Set in the volatile South of 1964, this coming of age story addresses issues of loss, betrayal, justice, and the power of women to create home and family.

Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. *
Two Calcutta cousins raised like sisters—Sudha, sweet and beautiful, and Anju, intellectual and determined—reluctantly discard their girlhood dreams in favor of arranged marriages that will improve their family’s standing. Though Anju eagerly moves to America and Sudha begins a promising life in India, both girls face conditions that challenge and strengthen their sisterly bond.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.
In nineteenth-century China, when women were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, Lily and Snow Flower are forever linked when they become laotongs or “old sames” at the age of seven. Their friendship matures over the years as they correspond in the secret writing of women, nu shu, until a misunderstanding threatens to sever their loving friendship.

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
An extraordinary novel of life under Nazi occupation--found sixty-four years after the author's death at Auschwitz.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations—One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson.
Mortenson’s unlikely and inspiring journey begins with a failed attempt to climb K2, the world’s second highest mountain, and leads to the successful creation of schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
In this poignant and curious love story, Henry and Clare passionately strive to preserve their relationship as Henry involuntarily travels through time, visiting his past and his future. Set partly in Chicago, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a uniquely charming novel.

Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen.
Ninety-year-old Jacob Jankowski is haunted by memories of his days with the Benzini Brothers, a traveling circus he joined during the desperation of the Great Depression.

While I Was Gone by Sue Miller.
In the summer of 1968, Jo Becker's youthful innocence was shattered when she found her best friend brutally murdered in the communal house they shared in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now, 30 years later, Jo's perfect life is threatened when Eli Mayhew, a former housemate from her bohemian days, settles in her small town.

The White Tiger by Adiga Aravind
India's class struggles are cleverly presented in this darkly humorous novel about a racist chauffer who murders his wealthy employer. This prize winning novel leads readers on an unexpected journey into a new India.

* Funding for these kits was provided by the Friends of the Barrington Area Library.

+ Funding for these kits was provided by a grant from the Illinois State Library (ISL), a Division of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).