Header
How to use this Site and ClosingsPrint Page and Text Size
Home Catalog Ask A Librarian Contact Us Search Kids Teens Adults News and Events About the Library Home print page Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Elmhurst Public Library Facebook PageElmhurst Public Library Twitter Page Review us on Yelp! EPL on Pinterest Elmhurst Public Library Flickr
 

Past Book Discussion Titles:

We encourage local book discussion groups to check out these books for their discussions. The library has approximately 8–15 copies of each of the titles on this list. If more are needed, we would be happy to request them from other libraries. We hope you find these books as enjoyable as we did.

 

The Zookeeper's Wife
by Diane Ackerman

In the Time of the Butterflies
by Julia Alvarez

Pegasus Bridge: June 6 1944
by Stephen Ambrose

In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu
by Tony Ardizzone

Alias Grace
by Margaret Atwood

Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen

Voyage of the Narwhal
by Andrea Barrett

Elegy for Iris
by John Bayley

Alice I Have Been
by Melanie Benjamin

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
by John Berendt

Postville
by Stephen G. Bloom

Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain

The Tortilla Curtain
 
by T. C. Boyle

Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks

A Walk in the Woods
by Bill Bryson

Cathedral
by Raymond Carver

A Lost Lady
by Willa Cather

My Antonia
by Willa Cather

And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie

Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke

Little Bee
by Chris Cleave

The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

Disgrace
by J. M. Coetzee

Dispatches From the Edge
by Anderson Cooper

Levi's Will
by W. Dale Cramer

The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane

Sleeping Arrangements
by Laura Shaine Cunningham

The Hours
by Michael Cunningham

Mighty Queens of Freeville
by Amy Dickinson

Arranged Marriage
by Chitra Divakaruni

Stones for Ibarra
by Harriet Doerr

Dancing at the Rascal Fair
by Ivan Doig

Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig

A Northern Light 
by Jennifer Donnelly

Room
by Emma Donoghue

My Cousin Rachel
by Daphne Du Maurier

Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich

Lost City
by Alan Ehrenhalt

The Plague of Doves
by Louise Erdrich

The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde

The Journey
by Ida Fink

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
by Fannie Flagg

Headlong
by Michael Frayn

Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier

Ellen Foster
by Kaye Gibbons

Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Seductio of Water
by Carol Goodman

July's People
by Nadine Gordimer

Shadow of Ashland
by Terence M. Green

Elegant Universe
by Brian Greene

The Quiet American
by Graham Greene

Skipping Christmas
by John Grisham

Water for Elephants
  by Sara Gruen

Snow Falling on Cedars
by David Guterson

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
by Mark Haddon

Five Quarters of the Orange
by Joanne Harris

Into the Forest
by Jean Hegland

The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway

Siddhartha
by Herman Hesse

Seabiscuit: An American Legend
by Laura Hillenbrand

Smilla's Sense of Snow
by Peter Hoeg

The Dress Lodger
by Sheri Holman

Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

Brave new world
by Aldous Huxley

The Fourth Hand
by John Irving

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Mister Pip
by Lloyd Jones

Little Heathens
by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

Travels with Herodotus
by Ryszard Kapuscinski

Animal Dreams
by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bear Went Over the Mountain
by William Kotzwinkle

Under the Banner of Heaven
 
by Jon Krakauer

Shadow Divers
by Robert Kurson

Girl in Translation
by Jean Kwok

Left Behind
by Tim LaHaye

The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Finding George Orwell in Burma
by Emma Larkin

The Devil in the White City
by Erik Larson

Native Speaker
by Chang Rae Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

Einstein's Dreams
by Alan Lightman

Last Child in the Woods
by Richard Louv

No Great Mischief
by Alistair MacLeod

Strange Fruit
by David Margolick

Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

Under the Tuscan
Sun by Frances Mayes

Jacob's Ladder
by Donald McCaig

Faith of My Fathers
by John McCain

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall-Smith

All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy

Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt

Teacher Man
by Frank McCourt

Atonement
by Ian McEwan

Celia a Slave
by Melton A. McLaurin

I Was Amelia Earhart
by Jane Mendelsohn

Lies of Silence
by Brian Moore

The Magician's Wife
by Brian Moore

The Statement
by Brian Moore

Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi

Ice Bound
by Jerri Nielsen

The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger

The Gravedigger's Daughter
by Joyce Carol Oates

The Museum of Dr. Moses
by Joyce Carol Oates

Dreams from My Father
by Barack Obama

Everything that Rises Must Converge
by Flannery O'Connor

The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje

My Year of Meats
by Ruth L. Ozeki

Dive From Clausen's Pier
by Ann Packer

Indemnity Only
by Sara Paretsky

The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan

The Shipping News
by E. Annie Proulx

Tender at the Bone
by Ruth Reichl

The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine
by Steve Rinella

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach

Kabul Beauty School
by Deborah Rodriguez

Sarah's Key
 
by Tatiana de Rosnay

Everyman
by Philip Roth

Straight Man
by Richard Russo

Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi

Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser

The Handyman
by Carolyn See

On Gold Mountain
by Lisa See

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer

Ceremony
by Leslie Marmon Silko

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot

I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith

Five Finger Discount
by Helene Stapinski

Angle of Repose
by Wallace Stegner

Places In Between
by Rory Stewart

The Help
by Kathryn Stockett

The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey

The Invention of Curried Sausage
by Uwe Timm

Big Stone Gap
by Adriana Trigiani

Digging to America
by Anne Tyler

Morality Play
by Barry Unsworth

Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
by Sloan Wilson

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

Honeymoon With My Brother
by Franz Wisner

Endurance
by Frank Worsley

Bread Givers
by Anzia Yezierska

Marriage Bureau for Rich People
by Farahad Zama

I Am the Messenger
by Markus Zusak

 

Reading Lolita in TehranI am the messangerThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societysarah's keyStiffDigging to AmericaDevil in the White CityDispatches from the edgeHoneymoon With My Brothermidnight in the garden of good and evil

 

Updated 2011