Here is a complete list of the books read by the club since its founding in 1992.

 

History List

Title

Author

1992-93

  
Iron John Robert Bly
What Do You Care What Other People Think Richard P. Feynman
Plagues and Peoples William H. McNeil
Living in Sin? Bishop John S. Spong
Rising Sun Michael Crichton
The Thanatos Syndrome Walker Percy
Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? Molly Ivins
An Estate of Memory Ilona Karmel
A Soldier of the Great War Mark Helprin
Outerbridge Reach Robert Stone
You Just Don't Understand Deborah Tannen
The Big Sky A B Guthrie, Jr.
Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll
Truman David McCullough
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yukio Mishima
All the Pretty Horses(National Book Award) Cormac McCarthy
Talking God Tony Hillerman

1994

  
Earth in the Balance Al Gore
 The Devils of Loudun Aldous Huxley
The Rstrongains of the Day(Booker Prize) Kazuo Ishiguro
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez(Nobel)
The Sword of San Jacinto Marshall De Bruhl
In a Narrow Grave Larry McMurtry
Clear Pictures Reynolds Price
Legs, Ironweed*, and Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (a trilogy)(*Pulitzer) William Kennedy
Race Matters Cornel West
The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver

1995

  
Man's Search for Meaning Viktor E. Frankel
The Shipping News(Pulitzer & National Book Award) E. Annie Proulx
A Way Out of No Way Andrew Young
The Other America Michael Harrington
Further Along the Road Less Traveled Scott Peck
The Mystery of Swordfish Reef Arthur W. Upfield
The Courage to Raise Good Men Olga Silverstein and Beth Rashbaum
The Chamber John Grisham
The Death of Common Sense Philip K. Howard
The River Why David James Duncan
The Hot Zone Richard Preston

1996

  
Balkan Ghosts Robert D. Kaplan
 A Secret History Donna Tartt
Coyote Wind Peter Bowen
Jesus, a New Vision Marcus J. Borg
Peaceaking Among Primates Frans De Waal
The Cunning Man Robertson Davies
Jessie, A Novel John Killinger
In the Beauty of the Lilies John Updike
The Future of Capitalism Lester Thurow
Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian
Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
Messengers of God Elie Wiesel

1997

  
Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernieres
How The Irish Saved Civilization Thomas Cahill
Angle of Repose(Pulitzer) Wallace Stegner
The First Man Albert Camus(Nobel)
Undaunted Courage Stephen E Ambrose
Under the Beetle's Cellar Mary Willis Walker
Horse Whisperer N Evans
Longitude Dana Sobel
Regeneration Pat Barker
Sons of Laughter Frederick Buechner
Kate Vaiden Reynolds Price

1998

  
Cold Mountain(National Book Award) Charles Frazier
The Longest Winter Julie Harris
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey
The Rape of Nanking Iris Chang
Basin and Range John McPhee
Specimen Song Peter Bowen
Dakota Kathleen Norris
Death of a Naturalist Seamus Heaney
Surviving Death Chuck Meyer
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden

1999

  
Barbara Jordan Mary Beth Rogers
High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never Barbara Kingsolver
In the Memory of the Forest Charles T. Powers
Tuesdays with Morrie; Charming Billy Mitch Albom; Alice McDermott
Unexpected News Robert McAfee Brown
Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt
The Lost Continent Bill Bryson
Systems of Survival Jane Jacobs
Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer
North Toward Home Willy Morris

2000

  
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond
The Greatest Generation Tom Brokaw
The Cider House Rules John Irving
The Lexus and the Olive Tree Thomas Friedman
The Gospel According to the Son Norman Mailer
The Crossing Cormac McCarthy
Beowulf Seamus Heaney, transl(Nobel)
A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway(Nobel)

2001

  
King Lear William Shakespeare
The Big Rock Candy Mountain Wallace Stegner
On Beulah Height Reginald Hill
Galileo's Daughter Dava Sobel
The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner(Nobel)
The Odyssey Homer
In the American Grain William Carlos Williams
Life is  So Good George Dawson
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

2002

  
The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi Edward Cohen
City of God : A Novel E. L. Doctorow
The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology Simon Winchester
The Color Purple Alice Walker
Golf in the Kingdom Michael Murphy
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order  Samuel P. Huntington
The Killer Angels(Pulitzer)  Michael Shaara
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal Eric Schlosser

2003

  
Moby Dick Herman Melville
Roscoe William Kennedy
The Undertaking Thomas Lynch
Letter to an Man in the Fire Reynolds Price
The Rising Sun Douglas Galbraith
Death by Journalism Jerry Bledsoe
Lost in the Cosmos Walker Percy
Prodigal Summer Barbara Kingsolver
Seabiscuit: an American Legend Laura Hillenbrand
Gates of the Alamo Stephen Harrigan
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown

2004

  
Life of Pi(Booker Prize) Yann Martel
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game Michael Lewis
Bel Canto Ann Patchett
The Emigrants W. B. Sebald
Polar T. R. Pearson
Cloudsplitter Russel Banks
The Life and Times of Michael K(Booker Prize) J. M. Coetzee(Nobel)
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis Leon R. Cass
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life Queen Noor

2005

  
Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Finding Darwin’s God Kenneth Miller
The Pleasure of My Company Steve Martin
Crossing  to Safety Wallace Stegner
Charlie Wilson's War George Crile
The Plot Against America Philip Roth
The Gay Place Billy Lee Brammer
Watt Samuel Beckett(Nobel)
Citizen Soldiers Stephen Ambrose
Seldom Disappointed Tony Hillerrman

2006

  
The Assassin's Gate George Packer
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture John Battelle
See No Evil; The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism Robert Baer
The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion
Coming of Age in the Milky Way Timothy Ferris
Carry Me Across the Water Ethan Canin
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Azar Nafisi
Ester and Ruzya : How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace Masha Gessen
Snow Orhan Pamuk(Nobel)

2007

  
Nobody's Fool Richard Russo
Polio: An American Story(Pulitzer) David Oshinsky
Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday John Steinbeck(Nobel)
The Coffee Trader David Liss
The Book Thief Markus Zusak
The Places In Between Rory Stewart
The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien
Hummingbird’s Daughter Luis Alberto Urrea
The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright

2008

  
Saturday Ian McEwan
A General Theory of Love T. Lewis, F. Amini & R. Lannon
The God Delusion Richard Dawkins
The Road Cormac McCarthy
The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing? Leszek & Agneiszka Kolakowska
Crime and Punishment Fyordor Dostoyevsky
Three Cups of Tea:One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Rein
Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky
2009
  
Audacity of Hope Barack Obama
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism David Bacevick
Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China Peter Hessler
Water for Elephants Sara Gruen
The English Major Jim Harrison
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran Hooman Majd
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Oliver Sacks
Songs for the Butcher's Daughter Peter Manseau
Traitor to his Class: The Privileges of Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Rossevelt H. W. Brand
The Post American World Fareed Zakaria
2010
  
Rising Tide John M. Barry
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintance Robert Pirsig
The Fifth Woman Henning Mankell
Dear Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches From America's Class War Joe Bageant
Birds Without Wings Louis de Bernieres
Team of Rival Doris Kearns Goodwin
1491 Charles Mann
A Zoo Keeper's Wife Diane Ackerman
2011
  
Dark Star Alan Furst
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History S. C. Gwynne
The Finkler Question: A Novel Howard Jacobson
Season of the Migration to the North Tayeb Salih
East of Eden John Steinbeck
The Account: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion Martin A. Favata and Jose B. Fernandez
The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession Andrea Wulf
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History John M. Barry
2012
  
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, A Novel David Wroblewski
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America Erick Larson
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Siddarthan Mukherjee
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghee
Homo Ludens, A Study of the Play-Element in Culture Johan Huizinga
Not All of us Are Saints: A Doctor's Journey with the Poor David Hilfiker
Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism George Akerlof and Robert Shiller
2013
This Is How You Lose Her Junot Dias
Nothing to be Frightened of Julian Barnes
The Time It Never Rained Elmer Kelton
Behind the Beautiful Forevers; Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity Katherine Boo
Grendel John Gardner
Kokoro Natsume Soseki
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Charles C. Mann
Speak Memory Vladimir Nabokov
Straight Man: a Novel Robert Russo
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell
2014
Nightwoods Charles Frazier
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations Georgina Howell;
The Wordy Shipmates (essays) Sarah Vowell
Atonement Ewan McEwan
Tenth of Decmber George Saunders
Let the People In Reid
Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World Jack Weatherford
Ready Player One: a Novel Ernest Cline
2015
The Meaning of Human Existence Edmund O. Wilson
A Peace to End all Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman strongpire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East David Fromkin
Zoo Station (John Russell series, Book I) David Downing
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Atul Gwandi
Poetry at the Lake with the Women's Book Club Bring your own.
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Anthony Doerr
The Iceman Cometh Eugene O'Neill
Telegraph Avenue Michael Chabon
My Life as a Foreign Country Brian Turner
Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book that Inspired the Film “The Imitation Game Andrew Hodges
2016
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World Andrea Wulf
Gilead: A novel Marilynne Robinson
On the Move Oliver Sacks
The Big Short Michael Lewis
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A novel Mark Haddon
SPQR, A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard
Red Sparrow Jason Matthews
Another Man’s Moccasins: A Walt Longmire Mystery
(Walt Longmire Series, Book 4)		 Craig Johnson
Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence Jonathan Sacks
2017
Palace of Treason (The Red Sparrow Trilogy, Book 2 Jason Mathews
News of the World: A Novel Paulette Jiles
The Gene: An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis J. D. Vance
The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself Sean Carroll
Olive Kittridege: Fiction Elizabeth Strout
The Vanquished: Why the First World War Was Failed to End Robert Gerwarth
Moonglow Michael Chabon
The Underground Railroad: A Novel Colson Whitehead
2018
A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters Julian Barnes
Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders
The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World Laura Snyder
The Buried Giant Kazuo Ishiguro
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and others Sarah Bakewell
A Rule Against Murder: A Chief Inspector Gamache Louise Penny
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes Adam Rutheford
Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt
2019
Leonardo Da Vinci Walter Isaacson
The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border Francisco Cantu
The Souls of Black Folk W.E.B. duBois
There There Tommy Orange
Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist Luis W. Alvarez
Circe Madeline Miller
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge Thomas M. Nichols
The History of White People Nell Irvin Painter
Educated Tara Westover
2020
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer Sarah Bakewell
Muck: A Novel Dror Burstein
The Overstory: A Novel Richard Powers
Lakota America:  A New History of Indigenous Power (The Lamar Series in Western History)   Pekka Hamalainen
Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow
Death is Now My Neighbor (Inspector Morse Book 12)

Colin Dexter
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Hariri
Exhalation: Stories Ted Chiang  
Nothing Like It in The World:  The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 Stephen Ambrose
The Reckoning: A Novel John Grisham
2021
Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson
A Promised Land Barack Obama
Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy Wolfram Ellenberger
Simon the Fiddler:A Novel   Paulette Jiles
The Warmth of Other Suns Isabelle Wilkerson
Hamnet

Maggie O'Farrell
Einstein and the Rabbi Naomi Levy
The Heather Blazing Colm Tobin  
The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander
2022
A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles
Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr
Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafyette in the Age of Revolution Mike Duncan
The Night Watchman Louise Erdrich
Termination Shock: A Novel Neal Stephenson
BewildermentRichard Powers
Project Hail Mary Andy Weir
Shuggie BainDouglas Stuart
And There Was Light Jacques Lusseyran
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy who Helped win World War IISonia Purnell
City Clifford D. Simak
2023
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story Nicole Hannah Jones
The Song of the Cell Siddhartha Mukerjee
Indigenous Continent Pekka Hamalainen
Tomorrow's People - the Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers Paul Morland
Clear Pictures Reynolds Price
The Last of the Karankawas Kimberly Garza
How to Change Your Mind Michael Pollan
The Cedar Choppers Ken Roberts
Democracy in Chains Nancy MacLean
And There Was Light: Lincoln and the American Struggle Jon Meacham
2024
Arthur and George Julian Barnes
Gunship: Spectre of Death Henry Zeybel
The Which Way Tree Elizabeth Crook
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma Mustafa Suleyman
Harlem Shuffle: A Novel Colson Whitehead
Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self Andrea Wulf
Raven Black

Ann Cleeves
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder David Granns 
Killers of the Flower Moon David Grann
Blood Memory Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns
Four Winds Kristin Hannahy
The Covenant of Water Abraham Verghese
2025
The Vietnam War: A Concise International History Mark Atwood Lawrence
Elon Musk Walter Isaacson
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, 2020 Rashid Khalidi
Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver
James Perceval Everett
Nexus Yuval Noah Harari
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern Stephen Greenblatt 
The Women: A Novel Kristin Hannah
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store James McBride
The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order Doshi Rush
Precipice Robert Harris

 

Masterpieces of Short Fiction
by Professor Michael Krasny
San Francisco State University and
The Great Courses’ Company
1. Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado"
2. Hawthorne's “Goodman Brown"
3. Gogol's "Overcoat"
4. Maupassant's "The Necklace"
5. Chekhov, "The Lady with the Dog"
6. James, "The Real Thing"
7. Joyce's “Araby"
8. Babel's "My First Goose"
9. Hemingway's "The Killers"
10. Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist"
11. Lawrence's “Rocking-Horse Winner"
12. Mansfield's "Party"
13. Jackson's "The Lottery"
14. O`Conner‘s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find“
15. Paley's "An Interest in Life"
16. Garcia Márquez's The “Enormous Wings"
17. Malamud's "The Jewbird"
18. Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"
19. Updike's “A & P"
20. Kingston's "No Name Woman"
21. Atwood's "Happy Endings"
22. Gordimer's “Moment Before"
23. Carver's “Cathedral"
A Day’s Read
by Professors Arnold Weinstein(Brown U),
Grant L. Voth(Monterey Peninsula College)
and strongily Allen(Purdue U.)
  Course Available from
The Great Courses’ Company
Kafka, “A Country Doctor”
Prévost, "Manon Lescaut"
Flaubert, “A Simple Heart”
Faulkner, “Pantaloon in Black”
Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths" & "Emma Zunz"
Hemingway, "The Old Man and the Sea"
O’Connor, "The River" & "Judgement Day"
Lagerkvist, "The Sybil"
Vesaas, "The Ice Palace"
Calvino, "Invisible Cities"
Duras, "The Lover"
Coetzee, "Disgrace"
Rhys, "Wide Sargasso Sea"
Austen, "Lady Susan"
Balzac, "The Girl with the Golden Eyes"
Meredith, "Modern Love"
Huysmans, "Against the Grain"
Stevenson, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
James, "The Beast in the Jungle"
Joyce, “The Dead”
Proust, "The Lemoine Affair"
Woolf, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street”
McEwan, "On Chesil Beach"
Cather, "Alexander’s Bridge"
Lu Xun, "Diary of a Madam" & Upstairs in a Wineshop"
Chopin, "The Awakening"
Melville, "Billy Budd"
McCullers, "Ballad of the Sad Café"
Chekhov, "The Party" & "The Lady with the Dog"
Hersey, "Hiroshima"
Satrapi, "Persepolis"
Jataka Story Selections
Munro, "Walker Brothers Cowboy" & "The Peace of Utrecht"
Basho, "The Narrow Road of the Interior"