Alden Book Group
Book Ideas for Future Meetings
Includes books brought to Holiday Swap Party
Christmas 2024 Book Swap (Santa's name in parentheses)
1. That Wild Country by Jennifer Mark Kenyon (Robyn)
2. An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Kathy) [I didn't keep track, but this was probably the most swapped book.]
3. This Strange Eventful History by Clair Massud (Shelley)
4. Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell (Mary)
5. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Pat F.)
6. Bear by Julia Phillips (Nancy)
7. Day by Michael Cunningham (Katie)
8. The Universe in Verse by Maria Popova (Ann Marie)
9. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Roberta)
10. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marian Kamali (Margaret)
11. Liza's Secrets by Iris Glazner Leigh (Ceci)
12. By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult (Chryso)
13. Slow Noodles by Chantha Nguon (Pat B.)
Christmas 2023 Book Swap
1. What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman
2. Absolution by Alice McDermott
3. The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl
4. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
5. Absolution by Alice McDermott
6. The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl
7. North Woods by Daniel Mason
8. A Promised Land by Barack Obama
9. A General Theory of Love by Louis, Amini, & Lannon
10. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
11. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Christmas 2022 Book Swap
1. The hottest book in the room was this one - Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
2. Magnificent Rebels by Andrea Wulf
3. Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
4. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
5. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
6. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
7. The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukharjee
8. After Lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
9. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozecki
10. The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
11. Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg
12. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
13. The Boston Italians by Stephen Puleo
14. Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout
Christmas 2021 Book Swap
- Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
- Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
- Travels with George by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
- The Home Place by J. Drew Lanham
- Beautiful World Where are You by Sally Rooney
- While Justice Slept by Stacey Abrams
- The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
- Travels with George by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams
Mentioned as an alternate selection by Pat B.: The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Secret Santa Books 2020*
- The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
- The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
- The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
- Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
- Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval
- The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
- What It's Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley
- Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy
- Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon
- No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox
- Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
- Grant by Ron Chernow
- How to be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery, Ill by Rebecca Green
- His Truth Is Marching On by Jon Meacham
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
- The Door by Magda Szabo
- American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
*Because of the COVID pandemic, we could not meet in person. So we did Secret Santa instead. We were assigned names via an app called DrawNames. We purchased a book for the person we drew and shipped it/dropped it off to her. We met by video chat and opened our gifts.
Yankee Swap Books 2019
-
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
-
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
-
Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
-
The Overstory (2 copies) by Richard Powers
-
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
-
American Eden by Victoria Johnson
-
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
-
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahesi Coates
-
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
-
Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict
-
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
Books mentioned in conversation, inspired/related to our gifts:
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers (Shelley highly recommends)
The Other Einstein and The Only Woman in the Room (I think these are both by Marie Benedict)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holiday Swap Books 2018
Title Author Brought by
Forged in Crisis Editors Mary G
Warlight Michael Ondaatje Katie
Becoming Michelle Obama Shelley
Code Girls Liza Mundy Kathy D
To Obama, with love, joy,anger. Editor Roberta
Pepper, A History Marjorie Shaffer Nasrin
Circe Madeline Miller Chryso
Pachinko Min Jin Lee Pat B
Winter Stroll Elin Hildebrand Pat F
Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens Nancy
The Fifth Season N.K. Jemisin Ann Marie
The Nightingale Kristin Hannah Ceci
HOLIDAY SWAP BOOKS 2017
Book ideas that Hannah collected and called The Alden Bookshelf, our very own Goodreads list
As of 11/21/17
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande -- Chryso recommends
The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez -- Maggie wants to read
The Children by David Halberstam -- Beth, Ceci recommend
Die Empty by Todd Henry --Beth wants to read
The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle -- Maggie wants to read
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -- Ceci, Hannah recommend (many of us have read)
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen -- Shelley recommends
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows -- Maggie wants to read
Wonder by R. J. Palacio -- Beth wants to read
HOLIDAY BOOK GROUP YANKEE SWAP 2016
HOLIDAY BOOK GROUP YANKEE SWAP 2015
- Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
- Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
- Soldier’s Heart by Elizabeth Semat
- 1491 by Charles C. Mann (Nasrin)
- Purity by Jonathan Frazen
- Gloria Steinem My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
- The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
- At Home by Bill Bryson
- The Call by Yannick Murphy
- Hand to Mouth by Linda Tribago
- In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed MD (Pat B.)
- Hillary Rodham Clinton Presidential Playset (Ceci)
Yankee Swap 2014
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Above the East China Sea by Sarah Bird
Conversations with God by James Washington
Absolution by Patrick Flannery
The Life and Opinion of Jane Franklin - Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks
I Am Malala by Malala Yosafzai
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
Yankee Swap 2013!!
I am malala (malala) (roberta)
Casual vacancy (jk Rowling) (katie)
40 Chances (Howard Buffett) (margaret)
A House in the sky (amanda Lindhout) (Chryso)
Dear Life (Alice Munroe) (Megan)
The most of Nora ephron (Nora) (Susan)
House of Earth (Woodie Guthrie) (Ann Marie)
The Whores Child and Other Stories (Richard Russo) (pat f)
Orphan Train (Christina Kline) (Kathy)
The Sal Mal Lane (ru freeman) (Shelley)
Molokai (Alan brennert) (pam)
David and Goliath (malcolm Gladwell) (Pat B)
what the dog saw (also malcolm!) (ceci)
In defense of food (Michael Polan) (Nasrin)
When we were the Kennedys (Monica wood)(Nancy)
Alden Book Swap 2012
Marmee and Louisa By Eve LaPlante
Chronicles of Downton Abbey
Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
The Fear Index by Robert Harris
Hundred Year Old Man – It’s Never Too Late to Start Over by Jonas Jonasson
Kurt Vonnegut – Letters Edited by Dan Wakefield
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
The Paris Wife by Paula MacClain
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Best American Short Stories Edited by Geraldine Brooks
Alden Book Group Yankee Swap, 2011
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Looking for Teddy Williams by Howard Frank Mosher
Pilgrimage by Annie Leibovitz
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Then Again by Diane Keaton
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin by Calvin Trillin
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
O Henry Awards (stories)
How to Discuss Books You Haven’t Read
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Alden Book Group Yankee Swap, 2010
 |
"The Girl Sleuth" by Bobbie Ann Mason (about Nancy Drew and other girl mysteries of old) |
|
"Little Bee" by Chris Cleave, a novel about a Nigerian refugee. |
|
"Four Perfect Pebbles" by Lila Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan (this book and Bee were together). Four Pebbles was written by a Holocaust survivor who visited the Middle School and signed books. Katie will try to get a couple more copies for January because there was so much interest in it. |
|
"Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese |
|
"The Masque of Africa"- V.S. Naipaul |
|
"La's Orchestra Saves the World" - Alexander McCall Smith |
|
"Extraordinary Ordinary People" - Condoleeza Rice about her family and life |
|
"Sunset Park" by Paul Auster |
|
"Just Kids" by Patti Smith |
|
"As Always, Julia - the Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto" |
|
"Half the Sky" by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryly WuDunn |
|
"Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton |
|
"Nothing is Impossible" by Christopher Reeve |
Alden Book Group Yankee Swap, 2009
|
Stitches: A Memoir, David Small |
|
A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore |
|
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri |
|
The Lacuna: A Novel, Barbara Kingsolver |
|
The Weight of Water, Anita Shreve |
|
The Help, Kathryn Stockett (2) |
|
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami |
|
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery |
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson |
|
Living History, H. R. Clinton |
|
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout |
|
The Onion, The Onion and Brian Williams |
|
The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton |
2008 Swap Books
|
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks |
|
Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins |
|
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by D. Mangestu |
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by S. Larsson |
|
The Known World by Edward P. Jones |
|
What is the What by Dave Eggers |
|
A Long Way Gone--Memoir of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah |
|
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (brought by two members) by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows |
|
The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett |
|
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd |
|
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever |
|
The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith |
2007 December Book Swap books:
|
My Latest Grievance - Elinor Lipman |
|
Between Two Worlds - Zainab Salbi |
|
Stone by Stone - Robert Thorson |
|
The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud |
|
The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perrotta |
|
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion |
|
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Pelin |
|
The Female Brain - Luann Brizendine |
|
Outlander - Diana Gabaldan |
|
Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo |
|
The Complete Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi |
|
The Collected Stories of Grace Paley - Grace Paley |
|
Book |
Author/Editor |
| 13 Moons |
Charles Frazier |
| Eat, Pray, Love | Elizabeth Gilbert |
| Mockingbird, A Portrait of Harper Lee | Charles Shields |
| Case Histories | Kate Atkinson |
| Good Poems | Garrison Keillor |
| The Memory Keeper's Daughter | Kim Edwards |
| Saving Fish from Drowning | Amy Tan |
| Before You Know Kindness | Chris Bohjalian |
| Teacher Man | Frank McCourt |
| History of Love | Nicole Krauss |
| Best American Short Stories | Ann Patchett, editor |
| The Secrets of Jin-shei | Alma Alexander |
| The Glass Castle | Jeanette Walls |
2004 Holiday Swap books
Here are some of the books (just titles) brought to the Holiday swap: Time Traveller's Wife, The Known World, Celestine Prophecy, At Home in Mitford, Peace Like a River, Interpreter of Maladies, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, Falling Angels, The Gardens of Kyoto, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Book Club Cook Book.
Click here for "Other Book Ideas."