Ten years ago, Luke was an infant, we were new to Athens and I was looking for a community of friends in my similar stage of life…girls who loved to read, talk and laugh (maybe with a glass of wine in hand!)
I count myself lucky that I said yes to an invitation on a cold night in February, and although the group has ebbed and flowed in membership, through the last decade we have read 100 books together.
Now most of our kids are in middle school and high school, but our friendships remain strong and our love of books and reading even stronger. With their permission, I’ve listed all of the books we’ve read over the past 10 years. (My favorites are in bold.)
Thank you, Jordan Mixon, for being our historian! I hope to read hundreds more with you special ladies.
2008-2018
2008
Away by Amy Bloom
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen & David Oliver Relin
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
First Ladies by Margaret Truman
2009
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
People of the Whale by Linday Hogan
Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee
Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2010
The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
2011
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison
Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind
Room by Emma Donoghue
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
2012
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
2013
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
Divergent by Veronica Roth
12 Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Driving the Saudis by Jayne Amelia Larson
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
The Woman Who Wasn’t There by Robin Fisher
Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
Where’d you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
2014
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth’s Children, Book 1) by Jean M. Auel
Mandela’s Way by Richard Stengel and Nelson Mandela
Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
The Pecan Man by Cassie Selleck
Robert Galbraith’s Cuckoo’s Calling (JK Rowling)
The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain
The House Girl by Tara Conklin
The Orphan Master’s Son: A novel by Adam Johnson
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2015
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B by Sandra Gulland
The Runner by Patrick Lee
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Wakter
The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers
Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
2016
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
2017
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray
Rules of Civilty by Amor Towles
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
2018
Beneath the Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Hideaway by Lauren Denton
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Katherine of Aragon by Alison Weir
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine
Out of our Comfort Zone to Explore the World 