The SLO Library Book Club is open to any interested adult. During the pandemic we are meeting on Zoom from 10:30 a.m. to noon on the second Thursday of each month. For information on joining the Zoom meeting, please email us at bookclub@slofol.org. Each year we try to include some contemporary fiction, a classic, some nonfiction, and the Book of the Year for Cuesta College. We make certain that all the books on the list are available through our library system, where they can be requested, or available in paperback at Amazon or a local bookstore.
A different volunteer chairs each meeting. Usually about twenty people attend; some come every month and some come only occasionally. Some like to comment on the books and others like to listen to the discussion without speaking. Often people attend who have not read the book but are considering reading it and would like to hear the discussion.
To see the 2021 Reading list, click here.
Reading Lists from recent years
2020
January: Fire Lover – Joseph Wambaugh
February: Exit West – Mohsin Hamid
March: The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
April: The Honey Bus: A memoir of Loss, Courage, and a Girl Saved by Bees – Meredith May
May: What the Eyes Don’t See – Mona Hanna-Attisha
June: The Glass Palace – Amit Ghosh
July: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup – John Carreyrou
August: Beloved – Toni Morrison
September: Becoming – Michele Obama
October: The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century – Kirk Wallace Johnson
November: The Other Americans – Laila Lalami
2019
January: News of the World: A Novel – Paulette Jiles
February: Black Dove: Mama, Mi’jo, and Me – Ana Castillo
March: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: A Novel – Gail Honeyman
April: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI – David Grann
May: The Perfect Nanny – Leila Slimani
June: Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic – Sam Quinones
July: The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
August: There There: A Novel – Tommy Orange
September: An American Marriage: A Novel – Tayari Jones
October: Transcription: A Novel – Kate Atkinson
November: Educated: A Memoir – Tara Westover
2018
January: The Lost City of the Monkey God: a true story – Douglas Preston
February: A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
March: Life Animated, A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism – Ron Suskind
April: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats – Jan-Philipp Sendker
May: The Wind is Not a River – Brian Payton
June: The Last Days of Night – Graham Moore
July: A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel – Amor Towles
August: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey – Candace Millard
September: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End – Atul Gawande
October: Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
November: All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel – Anthony Doerr
2017
January: A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman
February: The Last Bus to Wisdom – Ivan Doig
March 9: American Pastoral – Philip Roth
April: A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past – Patrick Kennedy
May: The Life We Bury – Allen Eskens
June: My Name is Lucy Barten: A Novel – Elizabeth Strout
July: The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Hamid Mohsin
August: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania – Erik Larson
September: The Sympathizer – Nguyen Viet Thanh
October: Take Me with You – Catherine Ryan Hyde
November: Did You Ever Have a Family – Bill Clegg