Check out Goodreads for information on the following suggestions. We will decide at the AGM in June!
A Secret History Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of
thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to
corruption and betrayal, and at last - inexorably - into evil
Hedy's Folly Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a remarkable story of science history: how a ravishing film star and an avant-garde composer invented
spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible.
The Alice Network In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in
France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But
when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay (Canadian) The theme of this book is the schisms that divide us and sometimes bring us together. Jim is an
American boy who is torn between his Canadian mother's love if eastern Ontario and his dour father George's desire to remain in New York City.
Little French Bistro Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After forty-one years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to
take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as the end of the world.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip,
sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is
getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
The Summer Before the War The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love and war that reaches far beyond the small
English town in which it is set.East Sussex, 1914. The dying days of Edwardian England.
Why Dissent matters by William Kaplan
Frances Kelsey was a quiet Canadian doctor and scientist who stood up to a huge pharmaceutical company wanting to market a new drug - thalidomide - and prevented an American tragedy. The
nature writer Rachel Carson identified an emerging environmental disaster and pulled the fire alarm.
Rage Becomes Her: the Power of Women's Anger by Soraya Chemaly A transformative book urging twenty-first century-women to embrace their anger and
harness it as a tool for lasting personal and societal change.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this
was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens,
returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods
Educated Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by
stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag".
Becoming by Michelle Obama (non-fiction)
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and
mesmerizing storytelling, she invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive
balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address.
The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put
to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born. When his master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his
manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is certain await him. But Christopher Wilde, or "Titch," is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor, and abolitionist.
The Boy Crisis by Warren Farrell and John Gray (non-fiction)
We are failing our boys. This is a comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers and policy- makers can do to renew our sons' sense of purpose to help them become men, fathers, and
leaders worthy of our respect.
Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents by Mark Sakamoto (non-fiction, Canadian Author)
When the Second World War broke out, Mark’s maternal grandfather, Ralph MacLean volunteered. He would spend the war in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Meanwhile, in Vancouver,
Mitsue Sakamoto, Mark’s paternal grandmother, and her family were expelled from their home by the government and forced to spend years eking out an existence working other people’s
land in rural Alberta for $1 per day. Although the war toyed with Ralph's and Mitsue's lives and threatened to erase their humanity, these two brave individuals somehow surmounted enormous
transgressions and learned to forgive.
1984 by George Orwell (classic)
Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality.
An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11 Year Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura
Schroff (non-fiction) This inspirational New York Times bestseller chronicles the lifelong friendship between a busy sales executive and a disadvantaged young boy, and how both of
their lives were changed by what began as one small gesture of kindness.
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
Philomena meets Orphan Train in this suspenseful, provocative novel filled with love, secrets, and deceit—the story of a young unwed mother who is forcibly separated from her
daughter at birth and the lengths to which they go to find each other.