Book Club Kits by Author

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Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
An Iraqi-American is the chef at a small Los Angeles café, where Arab-Americans come to feel at home. A folkloric family story is interwoven with this contemporary tale of love, food and home. Book Discussion Questions from W. W. Norton

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
The story of Jan Zabinsky, the director of the Warsaw zoo, and his wife Antonina, who sheltered 300 Jews and Polish resisters in the zoo's cages and sheds during WWII. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
When she visits her liberated and loving aunt, life dramatically changes for a 15-year old Nigerian girl who has grown up in sheltered privilege with a wealthy father who is politically courageous but religiously fanatic. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar
This coming-of-age story centers on young Hayat Shah, a Pakistani-American living in Milwaukee. His family's dynamics, and their various levels of engagement with Islam, are at the center of the novel. Book Discussion Questions from Book Browse

For One More Day by Mitch Albom
Albom explores the idea of having one more day to relive with someone you love in this novel. Here, alcoholic ex-baseball star Chick encounters his dead mother after his attempted suicide. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices

The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Civil rights advocate and legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that a new permanent under-class has been created by the war on drugs and the denial of equal access to employment, housing, public benefits and education to ex-prisoners. Book Discussion Questions from ISO-Madison

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
A humorous, gritty, autobiographical novel of a budding cartoonist, who leaves his troubled school on a Spokane Indian reservation to attend an all-white town school. Book Discussion Questions from Sherman Alexie

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
An orphan raised in Valparaiso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and meets a Chinese herbalist, who becomes her soul mate, on the journey. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Interwoven stories of four Latina sisters chronicling their assimilation into the United States and their visits back to the Dominican Republic. Book Discussion Questions from Tacoma PL

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
Intertwined stories of four people devastated by the war in Afghanistan: a British doctor mourning the loss of his Afghan wife and daughter; a former CIA officer; the sister of a missing Russian soldier; and an orphan raised into a Taliban madrassa. Book Discussion Questions from Barnes and Noble

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Ruby Lennox gives an account of family life above a petshop in England, revealing the lives of the women in her family, from her great-grandmother's affair with a French photographer to her mother's unfulfilled dreams of Hollywood glamour. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Private detective Jackson Brodie investigates three cases: two disappearances from long ago and a search for a witness to a murder. In typical fashion for this series, however, Brodie's personal life shares center stage with the detective work. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
In this multi-layered novel, a dying octogenarian recalls her past, including her forced marriage, her sister's suicide, and the publication of her sister's science fiction novel, The Blind Assassin. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Please Don't Come Back from the Moon by Dean Bakopoulos
In suburban Detroit the lives of teenage sons are dramatically altered after the fathers in their neighborhood disappear. Book Discussion Questions from Marshall Cook, UW

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
54 year-old Renée and 12 year-old Paloma come from very different backgrounds, but both have a deep emotional life that they shield from the world. An unlikely friendship forms as they share their journeys and perspectives on everyday life. Book Discussion Questions from Europa Editions

Regeneration by Pat Barker
Patients and the doctors that treat them for shell-shock are the focus of this World War I novel based on actual people and events. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
This Booker Prize winner is suspenseful tale of memory and self-knowledge. When Tony receives a classmate's diary from 40+ years before, it leads to a re-examination of his younger years and what he thought was true. Book Discussion Questions from Princeton Book Review

Winter Study by Nevada Barr
Anna Pigeon returns to Isle Royale, this time in winter, to participate in a wolf study. Strange happenings and enormous pawprints fuel the anxiety of she and her cabin-mates. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Borderline by Nevada Barr
National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is on vacation in Texas's Big Bend National Park when a guided rafting trip meets with multiple tragedies and Anna must care for a newborn baby. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
A self-confessed unreliable narrator relates this mystery set in modern day Salem, Mass. The novel is filled with eccentric characters, historic details, and women's issues. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg
In this work of fiction, a popular and prolific novelist faces the death of her husband, writer's block, and conflict with her daughter. Book Discussio Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Scent of God by Beryl Bissell
A former nun recounts her cloistered life as well as her romance with a priest 25 years her senior that culminated in marriage. Joys and sorrows follow as she has two children, yet loses her husband to cancer and one daughter to murder. Book Discussion Questions from the author

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Interwoven stories of three American women at the start of World War II: a single 40-year old postmistress in a small town on Cape Cod, a newlywed new to the town, and a reporter in London working under Edward R. Morrow. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Away by Amy Bloom
Lillian Leyb, survivor of a Russian massacre, immigrates to New York in 1924. Upon learning her 3-year-old daughter may still be alive, she journeys across North America through the Yukon wilderness and over the Bering Strait to find her. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse

Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian
Vermont environmentalists seeking to preserve a mountainous wildlife habitat confront developers of a ski resort promising new jobs. Book Discussion Questions from Simon and Schuster

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
A literary thriller with a tricky, intriguing premise and a fictional backdrop from The Great Gatsby begins with the attempted rape and murder of a young woman bicyclist on a rural Vermont road and involves the mysterious past of a homeless man. Book Discussion Questions from the author

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
Memoir by the celebrity chef of Les Halles in New York City gives eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant business. Bookd Discussion Questions from MPL

The Women by T. C. Boyle
Frank Lloyd Wright’s life is explored through his relationships with four women in this novel narrated by his fictional Japanese apprentice. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
Two couples, an undocumented Mexican husband and wife camping in a canyon and well-heeled Americans living in a gated community, cross paths repeatedly and usually unknowingly in this novel set in Southern California. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Three sisters, all named after Shakespearean characters by their English professor father, reunite in an Ohio college town when their mother is stricken with cancer. Drama ensues, but with a light comedic touch. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Bryson's own childhood in 1950s America is the focus this time. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
After living 20 years in England, Bryson reacquaints himself with America by walking the Appalachian Trail and shares his comic insight into the trail's people, politics and history. The full title is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Bill recounts his travels in Australia, home of deadly plants and animals, lots of empty space, and an atonishing variety of cities and towns, each unique. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

At Home: A Short History of a Private Life by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson relates the history of a household by touring his own home, a Church of England rectory built in the nineteenth century, and relating stories of everyday objects and how they transformed the way people lived. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
The devastation caused by hurricane Katrina is the backdrop for this novel of the investigation into the shooting of two looters in a wealthy neighborhood and the search for the third. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
A humorous and loving look at small town life at the beginning of the 20th century. Young Will Tweedy narrates the tale of his grandfather's romance with a younger woman, his purchase of the first automobile in the county, and life at the general store owned by his family. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Ghost Mountain Boys by James Campbell
In Ghost Mountain Boys : Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea, the Forgotten War of the South Pacific, Campbell follows in the footsteps of the WWII soldiers known as the Ghost Mountain Boys across New Guinea’s mountainous jungles, a journey that historians describe as "one of the cruelest in military history." Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
In this memoir, Carpenter describes how she became an urban farmer after moving to an inner-city neighborhood in Oakland, California. Starting with a garden in an abandoned lot, she expands into animal husbandry with frustrating, comical and delicious results. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

My Antonia by Willa Cather
Written in 1918, this enduring classic tells the story of a Bohemian immigrant to Nebraska, Antonia, through the eyes of her orphaned friend Jim. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
In an intricate, alternate reality noir detective novel set Alaska where 2 million displaced Jews settled after World War II. Book Discussion Questions from HarperCollins

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Chang tells the story of three generations of women in her family who survived the political upheaval of China during the 20th century, beginning with her grandmother, a concubine to a warlord in feudal China, her mother, who rose to a prominent position in the Communist Party, to the author, raised during the Cultural Revolution until she was sent to study in England in 1978, giving a history of China from a personal perspective. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
A maid in the house of the artist Vermeer inspires the painter to do a portrait of her wearing his wife's pearl earring, causing a scandal that changes the young woman's life. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
An honest and controversial memoir of a Chinese-American mother who parents her two high achieving daughters in a strict, authoritarian way. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Educating Esme by Esme Codell
Your first year teaching at a poor urban school can really be tough. Esme, however, has energy, wit, big ideas and a touch of cynicism. Written in diary form, we read about her successes and failures as a teacher as she experiences them over the course of a year. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of Collins’ violent trilogy, stands in for her sister in the Hunger Games, where teenagers must fight each other to the death for the entertainment of people living in a darkly envisioned near-future US. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

South of Broad by Pat Conroy
A diverse group of high school seniors in Charleston, S.C. are close friends in 1969 and reunite 20 years later. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Chatham School Affair by Thomas Cook
Young Henry was fascinated with his new school teacher, who was unconventional by the local standards of their seaside town. The adult Henry harbors a secret-- and it involves a murder in Chatham long ago. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

Love Walked In by Marisa De los Santos
A young single woman falls in love with a seeming prince charming, then ends up more committed to his delightful daughter than he. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin

Belong to Me by Marisa De los Santos
The intertwined stories of three women in suburban Philadelphia: newly arrived Cornelia searching for a new life; judgmental, perfectionist Piper struggling with her best friend's cancer; and elusive, free-spirited Lake. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

A Discovery of Witches by Harkness Deborah
In this mix of history, mythology and magic Diana Bishop, a young scholar and descendant of witches, discovers a long lost manuscript on alchemy in the Bodleian Library, summoning a fantastical underworld which she explores with vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Winner of the Booker Prize, this novel has two story threads: a granddaughter in the Himalayan foothills fall in love with her tutor, and an immigrant from the same place tries to make it in NYC. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse

The Silenced by James DeVita
Young adult Sophie Scholl's anti-Nazi White Rose movement of the early 1940s is the inspiration for contemporary dystopian novel. Book Discussion Questions from Tyne Turner

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
Diamond spans the globe and millenniums to determine the reasons for the demise of ancient civilizations like the Anasazi and the Mayans. Examining the past provides lessons for the future so that we may avoid another devastating collapse.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Sweet ghetto nerd Oscar dreams of being a famous writer… and of falling in love. He may not get either wish, due to a curse that’s dominated his Dominican family for generations. A Pulitzer Prize winner. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin

Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig
Part immigrant saga, part Western, part romance, the McCaskill family trilogy begins with the arrival of the Scotsman Angus McCaskill to Montana in 1889. Book Discussion Questions from Ivan Doig

Room by Emma Donoghue
5-year old Jack narrates the story of his life from the 11 by 11 foot room where he and his mother are confined by Old Nick. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
Set on an Indian reservation in Montana, this saga of three generations of Indian women is told from each of their viewpoints and depicts the hardships they encounter both on and off the reservation. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
Dumas chronicles her life in America with a collection of zany-but-true family stories. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
A story of how the actions taken by a father, done with good intentions, can lead to the destruction of his family. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Look at Me by Jennifer Egan
Questions of identity and reality in contemporary American society are explored in this novel with three intersecting main characters: a New York model who's face is destroyed in a traffic accident; an aspiring internet magnate; and a Middle-Eastern terrorist living in NYC. Published the week before 9/11, the novel strikes some reviewers as having remarkable prescience. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
The story of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is told through the experiences of Zeitoun, a Syrian-American and Muslim who stays in New Orleans to watch over his home and business. He helps rescue his neighbors, but is later arrested and imprisoned. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
A candid, wry, amusing collection of essays on women getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests---and life itself. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
A love triangle between Brown University students Madeleine, an English major writing her senior thesis; Leonard, a brilliant student with bipolar disorder; and Mitchell, a religious studies major, is the backdrop for this novel set in the 1980s. Book Discussion Questions ReadingGroupGuides

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
A young girl discovers she's actually a hermaphrodite in her teen years. This is a story of her family's history beginning with their escape from Greece as well as her own experiences growing up in Detroit in the 1960's. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
In chapters that alternate between the history of the Hmong and a highly personal story of a young Hmong girl who is severly ill with seizures, we learn about Hmong culture and the dramatic clash between it and American medicine in the early 1990s. The full title is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.

Bossypants by Tina Fey
A comic memoir by the former Saturday Night Live writer, actress and star of the sitcom “30 Rock”. Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
The novel on which the popular movie was base, this account of four women's lives in the Depression-era South is humorous, while also threaded with the more serious themes of racism, feminism, and domestic violence. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
A chance discovery of items left behind by Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II causes Henry Lee, a Chinese-American and recent widower, to reflect on his first romance with Keiko, which ended when her family was evacuated. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
A group of six (including one man) meet monthly to discuss Jane Austen's novels. As the reader listens in on their discussions we hear not just about the books, but their lives and loves as well. Book Discussion Guide from Penguin Putnam

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The personal dynamics and moral compromises of a married Midwestern couple, their son Joey, and their rock star friend Richard Katz are explored against a backdrop of contemporary American issues including ecological degradation and war profiteering. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
An Indian-American researcher arrives in a remote area of India to study the freshwater dolphins and meets two very different men, each important to her work and life there. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
A memoir of a year-long journey of soul searching and self discovery through the sensual delight in Italy; meditation in India; and love in Indonesia. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert
The author of Eat, Pray, Love examines her decision to marry and broadens her book to include interviews with married people from a variety of cultures as well as Western research on marriage. Book Discussion Questions from MPL and Penguin Press

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell uses real-life examples to investigate the concept of “thin-slicing,” the way in which one’s unconscious makes instantaneous decisions. Book Discussion Guide from the author

Three Junes by Julia Glass
A rich, layered family saga triptych that spreads over Greece, Scotland, New York City and Long Island during three summers. The family patriarch and his son are the focus of this 2002 National Book Award winner. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
A gothic tale set in 1907 Wisconsin told from two viewpoints: Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for a wife for practical reasons, and Catherine Land, a beauty hungry for riches, posing as a dowdy daughter of a missionary. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
Private investigator Kinsey Milhone confronts identity theft and elder abuse in this 20th novel in the series. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
90+ year-old Jacob Jankowski reminisces in a nursing home about his days caring for animals in a travelling circus during the Great Depression. Book Discussion Guide from OneBookTwoVillages

Ape House by Sara Gruen
In this novel of drama and satire, the bombing of the Great Ape Language Lab and the subsequent removal of their bonobo apes to a new life on reality TV brings together married reporter John Thigpen and primate-loving scientist Isabel Duncan. Book Discussion Questions from Oprah

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
In this darkly comic novel, the family patriarch mistakenly believes he is dying of cancer (it’s really eczema) while his wife and grown children swirl around him getting ready for a wedding. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
An autistic teen narrates this story of his adventure trying to solve a mystery surrounding the discovery of the murdered corpse of his neighbor’s pet poodle. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton
After his young wife suffers brain damage and is left with the mind of a 6-year old, Aaron Maciver quietly divorces her and marries her nurse, and the two raise her as their child along with their daughter and son in this chronicle of an unusual family. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Blood, Bones and Butter: the Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
A memoir of the owner and chef of Prune, a famous NYC restaurant. Hamilton writes 'the whole truth' of her life and work, including her happy young childhood, the petty crime and drug abuse of her teen years, her grueling early restaurant jobs, unconventional marriage and success as a restauranteur and chef. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The classic hard-boiled detective novel in which Sam Spade searches for a rare statue and Hammett introduces a new style of mystery novel. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Art of Fielding : a novel by Chad Harbach
Hank Skirmshander looks to be a rising baseball star, but his talents take a serious dive while playing for Westish College. His one errant throw impacts the lives of five people in unexpected ways. Book Discussion Questions from Book Browse

Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Set in a small town in the plains of Colorado, this novel tells the interrelated stories of eight characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Yes it's true-- a biography of a horse! Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion due to his physical proportion, but the cast of human characters (from owner to trainer to jockey) that believed in him produced a winner. Not just for 'horse people', this quick paced, exciting and much-admired book has been turned into an Academy Award (TM) nominated movie! Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Louis Zamperini, a champion runner in the 1930s, joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1941. As a bombardier in World War II, he crash-landed in the Pacific, surviving forty-seven days on a raft and two years of abuse in Japanese POW camps. His post-war life was a happy and productive one, a relief to the reader that Hillenbrand recounts in the final quarter of the book. Book Discussion Questions from Laura Hillenbrand

Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg
When a six-year-old boy falls to his death from the top of his Copenhagen apartment building, his death is pronounced accidental. His neighbor, Smilla Jasperson, becomes an amateur sleuth and embarks on her own investigation of the murder, leading her to a corrupt Danish company. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
A fictionalized portrayal of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, her love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright, and the scandal it created. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Through three decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, two wives of the same man become the closest of friends, and the reader gets a view into difficult lives they live. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin Putnam

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A boy named Amir, born in pre-Soviet Afghanistan, befriends a servant’s son. Long after emigrating to California, Amir returns to Afghanistan to reconnect with his past and perhaps correct some of his childhood wrongs. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Biography of the creative entrepreneur and head of Apple, Inc. who was a complex, driven, perfectionist as well as a bully. Isaacson was granted extensive access to Jobs himself as well as his family, friends, colleagues, and competitors. Book Discussion Questions from Simon and Schuster

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
In this sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, set six years after Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage, the domestic tranquility of their estate at Pemberley is disrupted when a visitor is found murdered in the woods. Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers

A Stolen Life by Dugard Jaycee
Kidnapped and held captive for 18 years by a man and woman in their backyard, Dugard shares the details of her life in captivity, the birth of her children while there, and how she was finally discovered and freed. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

Sing You Home by Picoult Jodi
A music therapist whose marriage falls apart after a miscarriage subsequently finds love with another woman and wants to start a family with her new partner. At the same time, her ex-husband, a recovering alcoholic, joins an anti-gay church. Book Discussion Questions Simon & Schuster

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
A septuagenarian invites a young woman to live in her mansion while both heal from their troubled pasts.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Small-town Georgia in 1964 is the setting for this novel of beekeeping, civil rights, and a girl's yearning for her deceased mother. Despite the difficult subjects, this novel is sad but warm and, ultimately, uplifting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
Escaping from civil war and genocide in his home country of Burundi, Deogratias, a young medical student, comes to New York city with $200. Despite facing many obstacles, Deo becomes an Ivy League student and eventually goes back to Burundi to found a public health clinic. Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver and her family eat only local food for a year, including home-raised turkeys and chickens and garden grown and canned veggies. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Young, independent Taylor heads west from Kentucky to Tucson, seeking a life change. Young, independent Taylor heads west from Kentucky to Tucson, seeking a life change. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Summer in a corner of southern Appalachia serves as the setting for the adventures and struggles of three free-spirited women, who have intimate ties to the natural world. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Harrison William Shephard, whose father is American and mother is Mexican, lives in Mexico in the 1930s with Diego Rivera, his wife Frida Kahlo, and their houseguest Leon Trotsky. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Two Pulitzer Prize winning authors issue a call to arms against the oppression of women in the developing world. The book highlights individuals working to effect change -- covering topics such as sex slavery, maternal mortality, and gender-based violence. Book Discussion Questions from Book Browse

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Nine short stories set in India and the United States which find Indians and Indian-Americans adapting to new circumstances and relationships, as well as different cultures. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Gogol is an American with Bengali parents and a deep dislike of his name. As he moves away from home (and in with various girlfriends), he also distances himself from his former identity. Book Discussion Guide from Houghton Mifflin

Welcome to the Great Mysterious by Lorna Landvik
A Broadway actress returns home to small town Minnesota to care for her Down's syndrome nephew. This larger-than-life woman learns how far she's drifted from her core values, but with trademark Landvik humor. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson
An account of the 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas and killed 6,000 people. Larson uses personal papers, letters, newspapers and government archives as the source material for this engrossing tale. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Two events focused attention on Chicago in 1893: the World’s Fair with it’s hundreds of newly built structures (all white), and the investigation into the crimes of Dr. Henry Holmes, reputedly the first American serial killer. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

In the Garden of Beasts: love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
This non-fiction page turner, set in Berlin during the rise of Adolph Hitler, tells the story of the American ambassador and his daughter, whose many love affairs blinded her to the increasing menace of the new Germany. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
Lisbeth Salander, a pierced and tattooed genius hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist, investigate the disappearance and perhaps murder of Harriet Vanger, young scion of one one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. Book Discussion Questions from Bookbrowse

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
The second novel in Larsson's Millennium Triology. This time computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, who is evolving as a character as the series progresses, takes center stage in a plot involving sex trafficking in Sweden. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
The final installment of the Millennium Trilogy. Here Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist are joined by a couple of secondary female characters that are strong and appealing, and this third book returns to earlier story threads to tie up loose ends. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

Let's Pretend This Never Happened : (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson
Jenny Lawson’s first and funny novel following the immense popularity of her blog “The Bloggess”. Topics range from anxiety disorder to a zombie apocalypse, as described or imagined in Lawson’s quirky voice. Book Discussion Questions from Penguin

Black Out by John Lawton
Set in WWII London, Scotland Yard detective Troy initially thinks a severed arm is part of a war casualty. Soon enough he’s involved in a labyrinthine coverup of something darker. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Still Alice by Genova Lisa
Written by a neuroscientist, this novel explores early onset Alzheimer's as experienced by Alice Howland, an esteemed Harvard professor of psychology, happily married with grown children. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

The Soloist by Steve Lopez
Journalist Lopez befriends a schizophrenic former Juilliard student playing a battered violin beside a shopping cart of belongings in L.A. Chosen by Porchlight as their Madison Cares community read. The full title is The Soloist: a Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music. Book Discussion Questions from Porchlight

Heat by Mike Lupica
Michael Arroyo, a recent immigrant from Cuba, loves to play baseball, but some of his rivals think he may be lying about his age. Will he be able to find his missing birth certificate in time? Book Discussion Questions from Common Sense

They Marched Into Sunlight by David Maraniss
The dramas unfolding in Saigon and Madison in October 1967 are woven together in this work by Washington Post reporter Maraniss. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
An Indian boy, Piscine Patel (aka ‘Pi’) and his zookeeping family are emigrating to Canada. While on a container ship enroute to their new life, an accident at sea leaves Pi and a tiger in a lifeboat floating on the Pacific Ocean. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Crossing Over: a Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail by Ruben Martinez
Martinez investigates the deaths of three migrant workers, the Chavez brothers. Martinez spends a year with the brothers’ extended family as they work their way across the U.S., including a stint at a Wisconsin meat packing plant. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
A California professor and her partner buy and renovate an abandoned farmhouse in Tuscany, Italy. Part travelogue, part memoir, part renovation guide with recipes, this book has enchanted readers with its poetic descriptions and enchanting setting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Color of Water by James McBride
This memoir combines accounts of McBride’s childhood in a mixed-race family and his mother’s life history, and is a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant hymn from a son to his mother. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
The further adventures of Precious Ramotswe, the cunning, insightful head of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
This is the first in a series of gentle mysteries. Precious Ramotswe operates in Botswana, running an agency where the solving of the ‘mystery’ is often secondary to the exploration of family, customs and alternate methods of justice. Book Discussion Guide from Random House

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
New York City in the early 1970s is portrayed in this set of connected stories including a street priest, a judge, heroin addicts, mothers of sons killed in Vietnam, and a man who walks on a cable between the World Trade Center towers in August, 1974. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A post-apocalyptic journey of a father and a son through a ravaged landscape. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Saturday by Ian McEwan
Although Henry Perowne is content with his personal life, he remains disturbed by the state of the world since the 9/11 attacks. When he drives through Central London and encounters a throng of anti-war protestors, a confrontation changes his life. Book Discussion Guide from Random House

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Hadley Richardson’s marriage to Ernest Hemingway, then a young reporter, took her from small-town St. Louis to the glamour of Paris in the 1920’s. Based on letters, biographies, and memoirs, this is a fictional account of their marriage, told from Hadley's point of view. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
In a sleepy Washington town, high school students Bella and Edward fall hard for each other. But Edward is a centuries-old vampire, and being with merely-human Bella brings danger and heartache for both. Around the country, Twilight is being used as a shared reading opportunity for mothers and daughters to talk about love and relationships. We’ve made a guide-within-a-guide to help you if you’re interested. Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers

The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller
Intersecting stories of two next door neighbors: Delia, married to Tom Naughton, a philanderer and former senator; and Meri, recently married to an academic and struggling with her new role, pregnancy, and parenthood. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
In this pre- and post-9/11 novel Tassie, a student at thinly veiled UW-Madison, hires on as a nanny for the owner of a pricey French restaurant who adopts a mixed-race child. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Le Cirque des Reves (The Dream Circus) appears unexpectedly on the outskirts of towns and treats its audiences to dazzling illusions. Danger lurks behind the scenes, however, as two powerful teachers have set up a duel-to-the-death between their two magician proteges. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty
Evelyn, the daughter of a warm, loving, but immature and impetuous single mother in precarious financial circumstances, faces the trials of adolescence. Book Discussion Questions from Hyperion

A Mercy by Toni Morrison
The personal costs of slavery are explored in this novel of 4 abandoned women together on a farm in upstate New York. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupChoices

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
During a 1993 mountain-climbing venture, author Greg Mortenson is aided by rural Pakistani villagers, then promises to help build a school there. Over the next decade, this initial promise results in his building fifty-five schools in the region. The full title is Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations-- One School at a Time.

Dewey: the Small Town Library Cat by Vicki Myron
A cat found in the book return at a small town Iowa library became a library resident and enchanted customers for nearly 20 years with his winsome personality. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
A Honduran young man rides the tops of trains through Mexico to the U.S. to reunite with his mother as chronicled by Pulitzer Prize winning author Nazario. From his family’s life of poverty in Honduras to life-risking attempts to cross the border to political realities in Mexico and the U.S., this highly engaging work is sure to challenge some of our beliefs about immigration. Chosen as UW's 2011 Go Big Read selection. Book Discussion Questions from MPL & UW Madison

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The first two parts of an epic drama of the Nazi occupation of France written by a Russian Jewish refugee who lived in France and died in Auschwitz in 1942. This novel was rediscovered and published over 60 years after her death. Book Discussion Questions from BookBrowse

One Day by David Nicholls
In a friendship of complete opposites Emma and Dexter meet once a year on the anniversary of their meeting in a humorous and moving story chronicling their relationships, families and careers. Book Discussion Questions from Lit Lovers

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
A gothic ghost story and tale of sibling rivalry begins with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat bordering on historic Highgate Cemetery to the twin daughters of her long estranged twin sister in Chicago. Book Discussion Questions from Regal Literary

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
Set in the Balkans, this novel blends contemporary storytelling and myth by combining the difficulties of a present day war-torn place with a grandfather's recollections of the past and the folktales of the region. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
A college-aged woman is faced with difficult decisions when her boyfriend dives off a pier and becomes a quadriplegic. Set in Madison, with many small details local readers will love. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Snow by Orhan Pamuk
After twelve years of political exile in Germany, Turkish poet Ka returns to Turkey, in part looking for his childhood friend, in part to report on a recent rash of suicides, and witnesses firsthand the clash between radical Islam and Western ideals. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Heat of the Moon by Sandra Parshall
This psychological mystery and romance set in suburban Washington, D.C. focuses on a veterinarian, her sister and mother, and the death of her father in an automobile accident when she was a child. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Run by Ann Patchett
Adoption, race, class, and family are explored in this novel about three brothers and their widowed father. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Deep in the Amazon, a medical researcher making incredible discoveries is keeping them secret from the company funding her work. When the first colleague dispatched to get answers goes missing, another is sent, and readers follow along on a perilous journey full of ethical quandaries. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

Still Life by Louise Penny
This traditional mystery begins with the finding of the body of Jane Neal, a retired school teacher and talented amateur artist in the woods near a small Quebec village, the apparent victim of a tragic hunting accident. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry
The author chronicles a year spent restoring an old pickup, gardening, and falling in love. This memoir is filled with eccentric characters, keen observation, and humorous storytelling. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry
EMT and former nurse Perry moves back to his hometown - New Auburn, WI - after years away. His stories about his emergency calls are compelling and his ruminations on small town life unique. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry
Funny, humble and pensive—Michael’s life is changing as he’s pulled in different directions all at once. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

House Rules : a novel by Jodi Piccoult
Jacob Hunt, a teen with Asperger’s syndrome, becomes a suspect in a terrible murder which shines the spotlight on his family. This medical courtroom drama deals with issues of what it means to be different, how autism affects the family, and how the legal system can fail people who cannot communicate well. Book Discussion Questions from Simon & Schuster

The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard
The discovery of the naked frozen body of a beautiful teenage girl during a 1987 Kansas blizzard and the subsequent disappearance of the son of a judge begin this novel with surprising twists and a convincing portrait of small town life. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
A daughter born with a severe bone disease is the central focus of the family, to the detriment of her older sister and her parents’ marriage. When her mother pursues a suit against her obstetrician best friend, the family implodes. Book Discussion Questions from Barnes and Noble

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
Death row prisoner seeks atonement through donation of his heart to his victim's sister. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald has already donated blood, bone marrow, and stem cells to save her sister’s life, but when her family asks her to donate a kidney, Anna takes legal action to regain control of her body. Book Discussion Guide from Simon & Schuster

Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
While wolf exper Luke Warren lies in a coma, his estranged gay son Edward and his daughter Cara have conflicting views on end of life care. Book Discussion Questions from Simon and Schuster

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
A tough, witty discourse on why food is more than the sum of its nutritional parts. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
While her mic is accidentally on, morning talk show host Meghan calls a guest a vulgar name on national television. Her entire world changes, including her career and relationships with her husband, grown son and social worker sister. Book Discussion Guide from Random House

Blessings by Anna Quindlen
Found in a box on the doorstep of the richest woman in town, a newborn baby brings the parallel worlds of 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' together.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
A suburban mother raising three teenage children and running a landscaping business has an ordinary life with ordinary problems until the family is engulfed in a violent tragedy. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Choices

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: a Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
Radioactive is an an innovative type of book: a graphic biography that adeptly combines the author’s vibrant cyanotype prints with a narrative story of Marie and Pierre Curie and their discovery of radioactivity and its applications in the last century. Weaving her own narrative and images together with historical documents, photographs, and artwork, Redniss has created a reading and viewing experience that uniquely blends art and science. Book Discussion Questions from MPL & UW

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
This memoir of family, friends and food by the former restaurant critic for The New York Times and current editor of Gourmet Magazine focuses on the early childhood and adulthood of the author, and shows what led to her love of food.

Driftless by David Rhodes
Narrated with humor, suspense, and empathy, a diverse cast of characters in small town in Wisconsin get entangled in family secrets, legal battles with a corrupt milk cooperative, gambling, dogfighting, and a miracle cure, amongst other things. Book Discussion Questions from ICB

Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth
Designed to be discussed, this self-help book proposes that a woman’s problems with food, in the form of overeating and perpetual dieting, stem from her relationship to herself, her family and her life and can only change when the roots of the problems are faced. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
This circuitous and suspenseful novel is set in 1960s India against a background of political unrest and social taboos deals with a family shattered by tragedy. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Happiness Project: or, the Way I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right... by Gretchen Rubin
A chronicle of the author's year long quest to find happiness through testing ideas from age old wisdom, popular culture, and current scientific research. Book Discussion Questions from Oprah

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
A thirteen-year-old girl tries to save her family’s rundown alligator-themed Florida park after the death of her mother. A novel of magical realism, with a strong heroine, yet in a credible, believable world. Book Discussion Questions Random House

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
A slumping small town in upstate New York is the setting of this novel, chronicling three very different families over 50 years. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
Cape Cod is the home of memories good and bad for Jack Griffin. When he returns there post-divorce for his daughter’s wedding, comedy and pathos join forces to create a memorable event. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi
Marjane continues her graphic novel memoir. As a teen she leaves war torn Iran for Vienna where she tries dating and recreational drugs. Readjustment to a patriarchal, fundamentalist society follows, as she returns to her homeland. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Marijane’s years as a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution are the focus of this graphic novel. Satrapi’s style is minimalist; her young self is charming and defiant. Book Discussion Questions from Random House

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
In this collection of humorous essays, David Sedaris discusseschildhood, family and relationships, revealing that "normal" is truly arelative term. Book Discussion Questions From Madison Public Library

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Sedaris returns with comic essays employing keen observation, absurdity and hilarity to explore everyday life from smoking to family dysfunction and death. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The story of Lily Yi and Snow Flower, intimate friends who used a secret written language to correspond, and how they were brought together and torn apart by their letters in 19th century rural China. Book Discussion Guide from Random House

Shanghai Girls by Shanghai See
Threatened by bankruptcy, May and Pearl, two beautiful girls living in Shanghai in the 1930s, are placed in arranged marriages to Chinese men living in Los Angeles where the girls struggle to form a new life. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
A western reporter shares what she learned as a burka wearing woman living with a bookseller's family in Afghanistan. Life after the fall of the Taliban includes stories both horrifying and uplifting. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

When We Get There by Shauna Seliy
An Eastern European family and friend network is rocked by the death of 13 year old Lucas’s father and the fleeing of his mother. And on the broader stage, this Pennsylvania coal mining town is dying, as is their way of life. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
An aging author, after creating many varying life histories for herself over the years, summons a young biographer to write her story in this gothic tale combining mystery, ghost story and family drama. Book Discussion Questions from Bookbrowse

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann and Annie Barrows Shaffer
A novel in letters about the WWII German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands between France and England. An often sweet and funny book, with tinges of sadness. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Unless by Carol Shields
A daughter flees the family and begins sitting on a street corner in Toronto with a sign around her neck. Her mother confronts her own emotions and the place of women in society both through her daughter’s situation and her own struggles as a writer. Book Discussion Questions from LitLovers

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Daisy Goodwill attempts to understand her place in the world as she nears the end of her life. She narrates her own biography, from her birth in Manitoba in 1905 when she loses her mother to childbirth, through her college years, her marriages and her work as a newspaper columnist. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Testimony by Anita Shreve
A sex video made at a boarding school is at the center of this morality tale. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dal Sijie
Two boys are sent to the countryside to be re-educated in this fable set during China's Cultural Revolution. They discover hope through forbidden western literature, but find hope can be cruel and corrupting. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American cancer patient, wife and mother, and of her cells, known as HeLa cells. HeLa cells are used daily in labs worldwide, yet Lacks' family was unaware of their use until more than 20 years after her death. Book Discussion Questions from MPL and UW

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
A lighthouse keeper and his wife, who live on a remote island off Western Australia, are desperate to have children. When they find a baby miraculously washed up on shore, they adopt her-- a decision that leads to ethical dilemmas for everyone involved. Book Discussion Questions from Simon & Schuster

The Turk and My Mother by Mary Helen Stefaniak
A down-to-earth multigenerational tale of a Croatian family who journey from their Balkan village to Siberia and ultimately to Milwaukee, WI. Book Discussion Guide from W. W. Norton

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
This deceptively simple story traces the lives and hopes of two couples who met as young parents in Madison, Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century. This deceptively simple story traces the lives and hopes of two couples who met as young parents in Madison, Wisconsin in the early part of the 20th century. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
A tale of love, loyalty, child custody, death and betrayal with parallels to the sport of auto racing... narrated by a dog. Book Discussion Questions from HarperCollins

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
In 1960s Jackson, Mississippi aspiring author Skeeter, who is white, gains the trust of some of the town's black maids and departs from her newspaper advice column assignment to secretly write a book from their point of view about being 'the help.' Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
This ‘novel in stories,’ set in small town Maine, centers on Olive Kitteridge, a difficult-to-like retired teacher and her friends and acquaintances. Together they reveal their follies, foibles, difficulties and capacity for change. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Ginseng Hunter by Jeff Talarigo
A subsistence farmer supplementing his living by hunting ginseng on the Chinese side of the Chinese-North Korean border befriends a North Korean prostitute and learns about the plight of the refugees around him. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
In 1950s Ireland, when Ellis Lacey is unable to find a job in her home country, she leaves reluctantly for Brooklyn, NY. After a period of isolation she begins to find happiness, yet when a tragedy takes her back to Ireland the limitations of her old life conflict with her newfound possibilities in America. Book Discussion Questions from Barnes & Noble

Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is traced through the personal histories of two who occupied the same house at separate times: Dalia, a woman whose family of Bulgarian Jews immigrated to Israel in 1948, and Bashir, a man whose family was driven out of Palestine. Book Discussion Questions from BloomsburyUSA

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
A slap of an obnoxious toddler at a backyard party results in an arrest and court case, and leads to an exploration of the diverse lives of the partygoers. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
Sold into a life of slavery at the Chinese silk factory in the early part of the 20th century, Pei finds friendship and independence amongst the women there despite the horrible conditions. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Glass Devil by Helene Tursten
A police procedural mystery set in Sweden, where Inspector Huss solves violent crimes, yet manages a happy home life including teenage twin daughters and a husband. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Digging to America by Anne Tyler
A humorous exploration of personal relations and cultural clashes between two families. The traditional American Donaldsons and the Iranian-American Yazdans adopt Korean girls at the same time, with different plans and parenting styles. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
The daily life of women in Afghanistan is documented in the true story of Kamila Sidiqi who, trained as a teacher, was confined to her house when the Taliban seized control of Kabul. After her father and brothers were forced to flee she supported her family by creating a thriving business, staffed by women. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas
In this detective novel/biothriller French medievalist and archaeologist author Fred Vargas combines historical cryptology, the history of the plague and street life in modern day Paris. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Twins born in Ethiopia to an Indian nun who dies in childbirth are raised by two Indian doctors in Ethiopia on the brink of revolution. A novel of love, betrayal, compassion and redemption spanning five decades in India, Ethiopia, and America. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
Walls recalls growing up in a dysfunctional yet creative family with a brilliant, charismatic father, who was destructive and dishonest when he drank, and a free-spirited artist mother, who hated domesticity and the responsibility of raising a family. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
A fictionalized biography of the author's grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who was a mustang breaker, school teacher, bootlegger, poker player, racehorse rider, bush pilot, ranch wife and mother. Book Discussion Questions from Simon & Schuster

Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson
Following a mysterious accident, a woman suffers amnesia and cannot remember her past or form new memories. She desperately tries to uncover the truth in this psychological thriller concerned with questions of memory and identity. Book Discussion Questions from Reading Group Guides

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
A ‘fantasy’ nonfiction book by a science writer that explores what would happen to the earth’s flora and fauna, as well as our built environment, if suddenly all humans disappeared. Book Discussion Questions from MPL

You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen
A UW student involved in an unrewarding love affair with a married TA takes a job as a caretaker for a 36-year-old stylish and accomplished woman who is almost completely paralyzed by ALS. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Between World War I and 1970, six million black Americans left the South for the East Coast, West Coast, or Midwest. This non-fiction book tells the story of this “Great Migration” by focusing on the lives of three of the people who made the move. Book Discussion Questions from Isabel Wilkerson

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
A paranoid schizophrenic, incarcerated in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum for murder, Dr. W.C. Minor provided tens of thousands of quotations for use in the Oxford English Dictionary for its first publication in the nineteenth century.

The Lottery by Patricia Wood
Perry Crandall (IQ 76) narrates his life after the death of his Gran, who raised him after his parents abandoned him. When he wins a $12 million lottery, his avaricious family schemes to appropriate his prize. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow
The true story of a 40-year friendship among 11 childhood friends through college, careers, marriage, motherhood, divorce, illness, and the mysterious death of one. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Narrated by Death, this novel for adults and teens tells the story of Liesl Memeinger, a German girl living through the Holocaust who finds strength and wisdom in the books she steals. Book Discussion Questions from ReadingGroupGuides