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Island Books Open Book Club

We like to discuss books with you over the counter, but even better is getting together to rehash a good title. In the spirit of enhancing a great read, we host an open book club that typically meets at Island Books the last Thursday of each month at 7:30 pm (if that Thursday coincides with a holiday, the meeting date will be adjusted). Our staff facilitator chooses both fiction and nonfiction titles. Everyone is welcome to attend even if you haven't read the book, and if you purchase your copy from Island Books you'll always get a 10% discount.

Join our Facebook group, browse below for selections, and check our events calendar for further information!

 

 

2024

Four Thousand Weeks: time management for mortals by Oliver Burkeman (25 January)

Love Marriage by Monica Ali (29 February)

Master Slave Husband Wife: an epic journey from slavery to freedom by Ilyon Woo (28 March)

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (25 April)

 

 

2023

2022 

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

  • Old School by Tobias Wolff
  • Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill
  • The Known World by Edward P. Jones
  • Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
  • My Invented Country by Isabella Allende
  • Washington Square by Henry James
  • Dancer by Colum Mcann
  • Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
  • As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel by Rudy Rucker
  • The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World by Jenny Uglow
  • The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

2003

  • Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
  • The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  • Bad Blood by Lorna Sage
  • The Translator by John Crowley
  • Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  • Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt
  • Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
  • Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt
  • Atonement by Ian McEwan
  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  • Wine & War: The French, The Nazis & the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure by Don & Petie Kladstrup
  • Embers by Sandor Marai

2002

  • Folly by Laurie R. King
  • Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
  • Holes by Lois Sachar
  • Secrets of the Tsil Cafe by Thomas Fox Averill
  • Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis
  • Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
  • The Family Orchard by Naomi Eve
  • Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
  • The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
  • The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
  • Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
  • White Teeth by Zadie Smith

2001

  • Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz
  • Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
  • Anil's Ghost by Michel Ondaatje
  • The Human Stain by Philip Roth
  • Tulipomania by Mike Dash
  • The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman
  • Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
  • Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic by Martha Beck
  • Pilgrim by Timothy Findley
  • A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
  • The Lexus and the Olive Tree; Understanding Globalization by Thomas L. Friedman
  • Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

2000

  • The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
  • Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham
  • Headlong by Michael Frayn
  • The Late Mr. Shakespeare by Robert Nye
  • Lenin's Embalmers by Ilya Zbarsky
  • The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
  • King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero by David Remnick
  • The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat

1999

  • The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
  • The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
  • The American by Henry James
  • The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine
  • When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
  • Last Day by Glenn Kleier
  • The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
  • The Witch of Exmoor by Margaret Drabble

1998

  • The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
  • Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
  • Straight Man by Richard Russo
  • Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
  • Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski
  • Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane
  • Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
  • Desert Places by Robyn Davidson
  • Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel

1997

  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
  • An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
  • Audrey Hepburn's Neck by Alan Brown
  • Ishmael by David Quinn
  • Paula by Isabel Allende
  • Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

1996

  • Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington
  • Saving Grace by Lee Smith
  • The Riders by Tim Winton
  • An Imaginary Life by David Malouf
  • A Very Long Engagement by Sebastian Japrisot
  • The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir
  • Independence Day by Richard Ford
  • Bombardiers by Po Bronson
  • Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
  • Rocking the Babies by Linda Raymond
  • Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
  • Daisy Bates in the Desert by Julia Blackburn
  • Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher

1995

  • Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
  • Daughter of the Samurai by Etsu Sugimoto
  • The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge
  • Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
  • A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Cochio
  • A Lesson before Dying by Ernest Gaines
  • The Republic of Love by Carol Shields
  • A History of God by Karen Armstrong
  • The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

1994

  • The All of It by Jeanette Haien
  • A River Sutra by Gita Mehta
  • Theory of War by Joan Brady
  • The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
  • Fraud by Anita Brookner
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Love Marriage: A Novel By Monica Ali Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781982181482
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - April 4th, 2023

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom By Ilyon Woo Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781501191060
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Simon & Schuster - January 16th, 2024