A chronological guide to our monthly selections (plus all the runners-up).
For more information on Real Simple’s No Obligation Book Club itself, click here.
September 2008
Winner: I Feel Bad About My Neck, by Nora Ephron
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
October 2008
Winner: Run, by Ann Patchett
Brother, I’m Dying, by Edwidge Danticat
The Book of Other People, edited by Zadie Smith
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
November 2008
Winner: Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates
The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani
Mrs. Bridge, by Evan S. Connell
Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
December 2008
Winner: I Was Told There’d Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley
American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfeld
The House at Sugar Beach, by Helene Cooper
The Position, by Meg Wolitzer
January 2009
Winner: Dear American Airlines, by Jonathan Miles
Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia
The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga
February 2009
Winner: Testimony, by Anita Shreve
Night of the Gun, by David Carr
Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
March 2009
Winner: December, by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop
Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley
April 2009
Winner: My Abandonment, by Peter Rock
Angels of Destruction, by Keith Donohue
The Believers, by Zoe Heller
The Survivor’s Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life, by Ben Sherwood
May 2009
Winner: Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot DÃaz
June 2009
Winner: Busy Woman Seeks Wife, by Annie Sanders
Blithe Spirit, by Noel Coward
The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield
The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
July 2009
Winner: Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead
Flight, by Sherman Alexie
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot DÃaz
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie
August 2009
Winner: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult
September 2009
Winner: The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
I See You Everywhere, by Julia Glass
The Scenic Route, by Binnie Kirshenbaum
October 2009
Winner: A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb
Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner
Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
November 2009
Winner: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson
The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
December 2009
Winner: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Ten-Year Nap, by Meg Wolitzer
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme
January 2010
Winner: My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme
This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
My Father’s Tears and Other Stories, by John Updike
February 2010
Winner: The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
The Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiquro
March 2010
Winner: Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, by Ann Patchett
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
A Good Fall: Stories, by Ha Jin
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
April 2010
Winner: A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
An Education, by Lynn Barber
The Believers, by Zoe Heller
Some Things That Meant the World to Me, by Joshua Mohr
May 2010
Winner: House Rules, by Jodi Picoult
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, by Melissa Bank
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage, by Elizabeth Gilbert
June 2010
Winner: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
Nine Stories, by J.D. Salinger
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
July 2010
Winner: Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon
South of Broad, by Pat Conroy
Jackdaws, by Ken Follett
Guernica, by Dave Boling
August 2010
Winner: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender
Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Big Love, by Sarah Dunn
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, by Syrie James
September 2010
Winner: 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, by Jane Ziegelman
Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, by Rhoda Janzen
The Big Love, by Sarah Dunn
October 2010
Winner: When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead
A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President, by Josh Lieb
November 2010
Winner: The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake
Kapitoil, by Teddy Wayne
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
Long for This World, by Sonya Chung
December 2010
Winner: I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Best of Everything, by Rona Jaffe
Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder
January 2011
Winner: One Day, by David Nicholls
Ellington Boulevard, by Adam Langer
Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn, by Alice Mattison
Family Planning, by Karan Mahajan
February 2011
Winner: Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls
Born Round, by Frank Bruni
Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan
Closing the Food Gap, by Mark Winne
March 2011
Winner: Room: A Novel, by Emma Donoghue
I Don’t Know How She Does It, by Allison Pearson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, by Kazuo Ishiguro
April 2011
Winner: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer
Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
May 2011
Winner: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
June 2011
Winner: Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, by Rob Sheffield
Look Me in the Eye, by John Elder Robison
Making Toast, by Roger Rosenblatt
The Middle Place, by Kelly Corrigan
July 2011
Winner: The Space Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
A Short History of Women, by Kate Walbert
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu
August 2011
Winner: The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Just Kids, by Patti Smith
Your Voice in My Head, by Emma Forrest
September 2011
Winner: Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
Bossypants, by Tina Fey
This Must Be the Place, by Kate Racculia
I Don’t Know How She Does It, by Allison Pearson
October 2011
Winner: The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
The Heights, by Peter Hedges
An Invisible Sign of My Own, by Aimee Bender
We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates
November 2011
Winner: The Heights, by Peter Hedges
The Hare With Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal
Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather
Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
December 2011
Winner: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
January 2012
Winner: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling
Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by Greg Lawrence
Ava’s Man, by Rick Bragg
Then Again, by Diane Keaton
February 2012
Winner: Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst
Snobs, by Julian Fellowes
March 2012
Winner: Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons
Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford
A Room With a View, by E.M. Forster
The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
April 2012
Winner: Bossypants, by Tina Fey
Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
How Did You Get This Number, by Sloane Crosley
Bond Girl, by Erin Duffy
May 2012
Winner: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
Moloka’i, by Alan Brennert
Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford
Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethe
June 2012
Winner: I Totally Meant to Do That, by Jane Borden
The Love of My Youth, by Mary Gordon
You Know When the Men Are Gone, by Siobhan Fallon
Trapped, by Michael Northrop
July 2012
Winner: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley
A Walk Across the Sun, by Corban Addison
The Lifeboat, by Charlotte Rogan
August 2012
Winner: The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
My New American Life, by Francine Prose
Seven Years, by Peter Stamm
Stone Arabia, by Dana Spiotta
September 2012
Winner: The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman
The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
The Empty Glass, by J.I. Baker
The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
October 2012
Winner: In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
An Object of Beauty, by Steve Martin
State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
Maine, by J. Courtney Sullivan
November 2012
Winner: The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
December 2012
Winner: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan
The Chaperone, by Laura Moriarty
The Cove, by Ron Rash
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
January 2013
Winner: Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple
The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom
My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store, by Ben Ryder Howe
The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
February 2013
Winner: The End of Your Life Book Club, by Will Schwalbe
Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
March 2013
Winner: Maine, by J. Courtney Sullivan
The Heavy: A Mother, A Daughter, A Diet—A Memoir, by Dara-Lynn Weiss
Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
April 2013
Winner: What Alice Forgot, by Liane Moriarty
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
The Suitors, by Cécile David-Weill
Defending Jacob, by William Landay
May 2013
Winner: The Burgess Boys, by Elizabeth Strout
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948, by Madeleine Albright
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin
June 2013
Winner: Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
Vampires in the Lemon Grove, by Karen Russell
Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
July 2013
Winner: Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos
Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
August 2013
Winner: The Silver Star, by Jeannette Walls
The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy
The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Forgotten Country, by Catherine Chung
September 2013
Winner: The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith
Blue Plate Special, by Kate Christensen
And Sons, by David Gilbert
October 2013
Winner: Visitation Street, by Ivy Pochoda
Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers
The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
November 2013
Winner: Orange Is the New Black, by Piper Kerman
Enon, by Paul Harding
TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann
The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes
December 2013
Winner: The Partner Track, by Helen Wan
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Someone, by Alice McDermott
The Husband’s Secret, by Liane Moriarty
January 2014
Winner: Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., by Adelle Waldman
The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, by Anatole Broyard
February 2014
Winner: Embers, by Sandor Marai
Gourmet Rhapsody, by Muriel Barbery
Talking With My Mouth Full, by Gail Simmons
Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
March 2014
Winner: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, by Michael Chabon
Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
April 2014
Winner: The Liars’ Club, by Mary Karr
Blood Will Out, by Walter Kirn
Little Failure, by Gary Shteyngart
Still Points North, by Leigh Newman
May 2014
Winner: Blame, by Michelle Huneven
The Wives of Los Alamos, by TaraShea Nesbit
The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman
Casebook, by Mona Simpson
June 2014
Winner: Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
July 2014
Winner: Under the Wide and Starry Sky, by Nancy Horan
A Dual Inheritance, by Joanna Hershon
Euphoria, by Lily King
The Master’s Muse, by Varley O’Connor
September 2014
Winner: Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty
The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd
Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes
A Dual Inheritance, by Joanna Hershon
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