2024-2025 Book Club Schedule
Meetings are held the second week of each month, September through May, in a hybrid format (in-person and on Zoom). For additional information or to join the book club email list, contact Nancy Boehm at BookClub@smithclubofcleveland.org.
September 21, Up Home: One Girl’s Journey, by R. Simmons. Moderators: Molly Downing & Joanne Mortimer
October 12, Absolution, by A. McDermott. Moderator: Eileen Gold
November 13, What the Constitution Means to Me (play) by H. Schreck. Moderator: Rachel Lerner-Ley
December 11, Home and Recitatif by T. Morrison. Moderator: J. Dalton-Robinson & Betsy Sampliner
January 8, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, by L. See. Moderator: Betsy Sampliner
February 12, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by J. McBride. Moderator: Nancy Duff-Boehm
March 13, North Woods, by D. Mason. Moderator: Susan LaPine
April 9, You Are Here, by D. Nicholls. Moderator: Jean Rhodes
May 14, Unfinished Love Story, by D. Kearns Goodwin. Moderator: Ruth Berger & Ginnie Dawson
SMITH READS BOOK CLUB – an online book club exclusively for the Smith community offering a variety of ways to discuss books, including a discussion forum and live webinars that will be announced throughout the year. To join, you simply need to register.
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2023-2024
The Three Mothers, by A. Tubbs
Lessons in Chemistry, by B. Grams
Lab Girl, by H. Jahren
Ethan Frome, by E. Wharton
Frankenstein, by M. Shelley
Entangled Life, by M. Sheldrake
Memory Wall, by A. Doerr
Why Read Moby Dick? by N. Philbrick and the first 150 pages of Moby Dick by H. Melville
The House is on Fire, by R. Beanland
The Nazi Conspiracy, by B. Meltzer
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2022-2023
The Book of Form and Emptiness, by R. Ozeki
Thomas and Beulah, by R. Dove
Horse, by G. Brooks
The Old Man and the Sea, by E. Hemingway
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by K.M. Richardson
Where the Crawdads Sing, by D. Owens
The Sweetness of Water, by N. Harris
The Satanic Verses, by S. Rushdie
Play: Becoming Dr. Ruth, by M. St. Germain
A Separate Peace, J. Knowles
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2021-2022
I Forgot to Remember: A Memoir of Amnesia by Su Meck (NF 304 pgs)
The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Que Mai
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Water Dancer by Ta‐Nehisi Coates
The Vixen by Francine Prose
Sister Noon by Karen Joy Fowler
Antigone ‐ A Play at the Cleveland Playhouse, Adapted by Emily Mann.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguri
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2020-2021
Educated by Tara Westover
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Butler
Varina by Charles Frazier
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
Come to Me by Amy Bloom
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinion of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
Crazy Brave / An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Hamnet by Maggie O-Farrell
Tough Love by Susan Rice
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2019-2020
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist by Eli Saslow
Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Elegy for Iris by John Bayley and Jackson’s Dilemma by Iris Murdoch
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell
PLAY: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (CLICK HERE TO READ ONLINE or CLICK HERE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE)
The Pioneers by David McCullough
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2018-2019
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Play: “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage (DPS acting edition); Available online HERE, on Amazon/Kindle or via the CWRU library.
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
The Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2017-18
The Book of Unknown Americans, Cristina Henriquez
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War, Paul Kinzer
When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
The Makioka Sisters, Junchiro Tanizaki
Last Orders, Graham Swift
Hillbilly Elegy, J D Vance
A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, Kelli Estes
The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson
The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2016-17
A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, Jung Chang
The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Story of America’s First Poet, Charlotte Gordon
Mothering Sunday, Graham Swift
Terrible Virtue: A Novel, Ellen Feldman
A Man Called Ove: A Novel, Fredrik Backman
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson
The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, Simon Wiesenthal
BOOKS DISCUSSED DURING 2015-16
The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future, Naomi Oreskes & Erik Conway
Absolution, Patrick Flanery
The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, Joseph Ellis
Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee
Our Souls at Night, Kent Haruf
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Atul Gawande
Some Luck, Jane Smiley
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
The Beet Queen, Louise Erdrich
BOOKS DISCUSSED during 2014-15
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Issues of Our Time), Claude Steele.
Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
Behind the Beautiful Forever, Katherine Boo
Vintage Munro: Nobel Prize Edition, Alice Munro
Absolution, Patrick Flanery
All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
Everything I Never Told You, Celeste NG
Duel With the Devil, Paul Collins
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Edward Albee
BOOKS DISCUSSED during 2013-14
My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor
Transatlantic: Wings Across Space and Time, Colum McCann
Orange is the New Black. Piper Kerman ’92
How Georgia Became O’Keefe, Karen Karbo
The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers
The Dinner, Kevin Koch
The Celestials, Karen Shepard
The Calligrapher’s Daughter, Eugenia Kim
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, Lynne Olson
BOOKS DISCUSSED during 2012-13
Destiny of the Republic, Candace Millard
Waiting for Snow in Havana, Carlos Eire
The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov or Once we Were Brothers, Ronald Balson
The Cat’s Table, Michael Ondaatje
The Greater Journey, David McCullough
Canada, Richard Ford
The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach