Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. The real-life story of a husband and wife and their relationship with a homeless man touched each of us in a lasting way. Our only regret is that the book didn’t have a “Do not read in public” label―most of us were brought to tears as we read, usually in inconvenient places, like an airplane seat or the deck of a pool.
Tracie Cross
Frisco, Colorado

 

A great read for the book club doesn’t necessarily mean I will like it on a personal level. Little Heathens, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish, won’t make my top 10 anytime soon, but the author’s simple, sometimes harsh, sometimes humorous descriptions provoked deep discussions in our group. We’ve learned to value books that engage us on emotional levels, not just books that find a place on our bedside tables.
Katie Olson
Ankeny, Iowa

 

Ghost Story, by Peter Straub. I couldn’t put it down. Read it in one day. Told my husband, “No dinner tonight―help yourself to whatever. I’m busy. And could you please take care of our daughter until I climb out of this book?”
Candace Drimmer
Chicago, Illinois

 

The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. It wasn’t that everyone loved the book (in fact, some people had a hard time with it and others didn’t quite understand it), but everyone had something to say. And by the end we had all discovered something new that we hadn’t necessarily “caught” while reading it ourselves. Even those who didn’t particularly care for it admitted that they were still thinking about it days after.
Jeanne Cooke
Appleton, Wisconsin

 

None of us knew what we were getting into when we read Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, but we all experienced the insanity together and are better for it. There’s nothing like incestuous carnies to get the conversations rolling.
Paige Westberg
Phoenix, Arizona

 

A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn. It’s a book about everything we thought we already knew regarding U.S. history―and the shocking truths and findings that we were not taught in school.
Tanya Palazzo
North Kingstown, Rhode Island

 

The Quality of Life Report, by Meghan Daum. For anyone who has ever wanted to slow things down (waaay down) from fast-paced city life and has wondered what things would be like in Middle America, without rush-hour traffic commutes and shark hunting for parking spaces, this is the book. It’s also great for those living in small-town America to see just how appealing their life can be to city women.
Jennifer Besso
Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. My friends from book club and I were all living in New York at the time, and the book, which is about a little boy who lost his father on September 11, opened up an avenue for us to talk and reflect on an event that had forever changed our lives.
Elizabeth Dunn
Brooklyn, New York

 

My book club has been meeting once a week for four years―and we’ve been reading the same book. It’s full of murder, mystery, lust, hate, love, trust, jealousy, power struggles, hope, forgiveness, and advice on life and death. Our book? The Bible.
Becky Gassaway
The Woodlands, Texas