Books & Cooks

Some of the books from Books & Cooks

A good book has no ending.  ~R.D. Cumming


Seven years ago Paul and I started a book/dinner club we aptly named Books & Cooks. Once a month we get together with a diverse group of friends and family to discuss our recent pick over dinner. This time together has become very special to me as we agree, disagree, debate, laugh (a lot!), cry (a little), and share our perspectives with each other. As is often the case with great conversations, one subject leads to another and sometimes we end the night with barely a nod to the book we’ve read. Other times we could go on for days discussing the book, never running out of things to say.

I thought it would be fun to share the books we’ve read with you. I know I’ve forgotten a few, but here are the ones I remember.

Please feel free to suggest ones we should add to our list!

1.    A Drinking Life by Peter Hamil

2.    All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remaque

3.    American Assassin by Vince Flynn

4.    An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski

5.    Away by Amy Bloom

6.    Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

7.    Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn

8.    Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

9.    Defending Jacob by William Landay

10.Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

11.Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

12.Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

13.Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo

14.Inferno by Dan Brown

15.Ireland by Frank Delaney

16.Life of Pi by Yann Martel

17.Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

18.Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

19.Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

20.Manhunt The Search for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson

21.Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

22.Mephisto by Tess Gerritson

23.Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

24.My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme

25.My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult

26.Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

27.Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

28.Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

29.The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

30.The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness by Joel Ben Izzy

31.The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

32.The Cave by Jose Saramago

33.The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

34.The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jeremy Leggatt

35.The Gilder by Kathryn Kay

36.The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow

37.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

38.The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

39.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by

40.The Help by Kathryn Stockett

41.The Keeper’s Son by Homer Hickam

42.The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

43.The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

44.The Measure of a Man by Sydney Poitier

45.The Naked Now by Fr. Richard Rohr

46.The Places in Between by Rory Stewart

47.The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

48.The Road by Cormac McCarthy

49.The Secret Life of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

50.The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

51.The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

52.The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

53.The Time of our Lives by Tom Brokaw

54.The Widow’s War by Sally Gunning

55.Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

56.Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

57.Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut

58.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig