The Monday Night Book Group was started by staff at the Chapel Hill Public Library about 2010. Below is a list of books chosen by the group for discussion at its ten meetings a year.
2023 CLASSIC PersuasionBy Jane Austen FICTION The Maidby Nita Prose How to stop Timeby Matt Haig The Authenticity Projectby Clare Pooley Orphan Trainby Christina Baker Kline Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi NON FICTION A Bookshop in Berlinby Françoise Frenkel Between the World and Meby Ta-Nehisi-Coates These Precious Days: EssaysBy Ann Patchett The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, lethal Oceans and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen 2022 The Husband’s Secretby Liane Moriarty The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell Mrs. Dallowayby Virginia Wolf American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins The tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel 44 Scotland Street Series by Alexander McCall Smith Born a Crimeby Trevor Noah The Family Upstairsby Lisa Jewel Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty Mink River by Brian Doyle 2021 The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham Caste: the origins of our discontent by Isabel Wilkerson Real American: A memoir by Julie Lythcott-Haims Wilmington’s Lie: The murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White SupremacyBy David Zucchino One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder by Brian Doyle The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka The Dutch House by Ann Patchett Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng The Storyteller’s Secret by Brian Doyle The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
2020 The Overstory By Richard Powers My Sister, the Serial Killer By Oyinkan Braithwa The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison The Good Lord Bird By James McBride Educated By Tara Westover The Girl with Seven Names By Hyeonseo Unsheltered By Barbara Kingsolver Where the Crawdads Sing By Delia Owens
2019 The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition by Donald A. Norman A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles The Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, by S.C. Gwynne Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings: A Novel by Stephen O'Connor I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad, by Souad Mekhennet The Children Act, by Ian McEwan, 2015 The Ambassadors. by Henry James. 1903. TheJoy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate
2018 The Fire Next Time. By James Baldwin. Soaring with Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond by David Gessner. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. By J. D. Vance All Strangers Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World, By Zora O'Neill The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Underground Railroad. By Colson Whitehead La Rose. By Louise Erdrich Never Let Me Go by Kasuo Ishiguro.
2017 Capital Dames; The Civil War and the Women of Washington 1848-1868. By Cokie Roberts. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchel March: Book One, by John Lewis It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis Little Red Chairs, by Edna O'Brien Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande Dimestore, by Lee Smith
2016 The Boys in the Boat; Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. By Daniel James Brown. The Aftermath. By Rhidian Brook In the Garden of the Beasts: Love Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. By Eric Larson My Brilliant Friend. By Elena Ferrante. The Sound and Fury. By William Faulkner. H is for Hawk. By Helen Macdonald. The Rosie Project. By Greame Simsion. Nothing to Envy; Ordinary Lives in North Korea. By Barbara Demick A God in Ruins. By Kate Atkinson
2015 Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, Katy Butler The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Franny and Zooey by J D Salinger Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and OpenHeart by Carol Wall The Round House by Louise Erdrich The Good, Good Pig by Sy Montgomery Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in DifficultTimes by Studs Terkel
2014 The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X Quiet, Susan Cain The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor Tenth of December, George Saunders Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell The Unwinding, George Packer The Bookman’s Tale, Charlie Lovett The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
2013 Arcadia, Lauren Groff The Uprooted, Oscar Handlin Into the Beautiful North, Luis Urrea Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt Last Crossing, Guy Vanderhaeghe Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes Two Lives—Aunt Henny and Uncle Dhanti, Vikram Seth American Dervish, Ayad Akhtar A primate’s Memoir, Robert Sapolsky
2012 Half the Sky, N. D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese Conversations with Myself, Nelson Mandela Private lives, Jane Smiley Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Michael Lewis Caleb’s Crossing, Geraldine Brooks The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson Years of Discord: American Politics and Society 1961-1974, John Morton Blum Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff State of Wonder, Ann Patchett The Siege of Krishnapur, J. G. Farrell