T&D Bookclub

We give each book a score out of 5. Any book that gets 4+ is recommended. Books with a 5 are in bold. Any book that falls short of that isn’t on our overall recommended list but may be recommended as an “airplane read” (AR) which means that it’s engaging, with intrigue enough to keep a reader’s attention without making them work too hard.

2023: Books We’ve Read

• The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland (2022) 5/5
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer (2003) 5/5
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (1996) 4.5/5
• Look Closer by David Ellis (2022) 5/5 AR
• Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic by Eric Eyre (2020) 5/5
• They Never Learn by Layne Fargo (2020) 3.5/4 AR
• The Great Stewardess Rebellion by Nell McShane Wulfhart (2022) 5/5
• Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (2015) 5/5
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (1997) 5/5 AR
• Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney (2021) 4/5 AR
• The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle (2016) 3.5/5 AR
• Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (2021) 5/5
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2023) 4.5/5
• Violeta by Isabel Allende (2022) 3.5/5
• Breathless by Amy McCulloch (2022) 4/5 AR
• The Drift by C.J. Tudor (2023) 4/5 AR
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (2022) 4/5 AR
• Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon (2002) 4/5
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King (2022) 4/5
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (2019) 4.5/5
• When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (2022) 4/5

2022: Books We’ve Read

• A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum (2019) 4/5
• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (2022) 4.5/5
• His & Hers by Alice Feeney (2020) 4.5/5 AR
• Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett (2017) 4/5
• Haven by Emma Donaghue (2022) 4/5
• A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson (2021) 4.5/5
• Women Talking by Marian Toews (2019) 4/5
• Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (2022) 4.5/5
• Come with Me by Ronald Malfi (2021) 4/5 AR
• A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (2022) 4/5 AR
• No Exit by Taylor Adams (2019) 4/5 AR
• The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray (2022) 3.5/5
• The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker (2021) 4/5
• Faithful Place by Tana French (2010) 4.5/5
• The Change by Kirsten Miller (2022) 4.5/5 AR
• Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (2022) 4.5/5
• Trust by Hernan Diaz (2022) 4/5
• The It Girl by Ruth Ware (2022) 4/5 AR
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000) 5/5
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (2021) 5/5 [selected as our 2022 Top Read]
• The Promise by Damon Galgut (2021) 4.5/5
• The Martian by Andy Weir (2014) DNF (a big yawn with an annoying protagonist)
• Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (2022) 4/5 AR
• The End of Men by Christina Baird-Sweeney (2022) 3.5/5 AR
• The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (2021) 4/5
• The Stand by Stephen King (1990 version with the additional pages not in the original 1978 version) 4/5
• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (2015) 3.5/5
• Recursion by Blake Crouch (2021) 4/5 AR
• Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) 3.5/5
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (2022) 4/5 AR
• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (2016) 4/5 AR
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021) 4.5/5 AR
• Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976) 3.5/5 (far superior to the movie)
• Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (1999) 4/5
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (2013) 5/5 AR
• Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten (2020) (largest discrepency between our two assessments so far, so we don’t have a collective assessment: D 4.2/5, T 3/5)
• The Shining by Stephen King (1980) 5/5 AR
• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (2011) 4/5 AR
• The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly (2022) 4/5 AR
• Build Your House Around My Body by Valerie Kupersmith (2021) 4/5
• Revival by Stephen King (2014) 4/5 AR
• The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (2020) 5/5
• Hostage by Clare Mackintosh (2021) 4.5/5 AR (but not if you’re a nervous flyer)
• Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon (1987) 5/5 AR

2021: Books We’ve Read

• The Women of Troy by Pat Barker (2021) 4/5
• The Push by Ashley Audrain (2021) 4/5 AR
• Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton (2021) 5/5
• The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri (2004) 3.5/5
• Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (2020) 4/5
• The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (2020) 4/5 AR
• The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (2010) 5/5
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007) 4.5/5
• Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (2021) 4/5
• Money: The True Story of a Made Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein (2020) 4/5
• Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (2021) 5/5
• Who is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews (2021) 3.5/5 AR
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (2020) 4/5
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2021) 4.5/5
• The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (2015) 5/5 [tied with A Gentleman in Moscow for Top Read of 2021]
• White Ivy by Susie Yang (2020) 3.5/5
• The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer (2019) 4/5
• The Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (2005) 4/5
• Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown (2017) 4/5 AR
• Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (2013) 4.5/5
• Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian (2021) 4.5/5
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2020) 4.5/5
• The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (2012) 4.5/5
• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2021) 3.5/5 AR
• The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson (2020) 3.5/5
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012) 4/5
• When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (2000) 4/5
• Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (2021) 4.5/5
• Master Class by Christina Dalcher (2020) 3.5/5
• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner (2020) 4/5 AR
• Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon (1991) 4.5/5
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) 4.5/5
• The Mothers by Brit Bennett (2016) 4/5
• Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce (2020) 4/5
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020) 2/5
• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (2018) 4/5
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2019) 5/5 [tied with The Story of the Lost Child for Top Read of 2021]
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2005) 4/5
• The Minders by John Marrs (2020) 3.5/5 AR
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (2016) 4.5/5
• The Searcher by Tana French (2020) 4/5
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (2020) 4.5/5
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017) 3/5
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (2013) 4/5
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011) 5/5
• Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud (2020) 4/5
• The Trespasser by Tana French (2017) 4/5
• Songs for the End of the World by Saleema Nawaz (2020) 3/5
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (2020) 4/5
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (2020) 5/5
• The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (2019) 4.5/5
• The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (2020) 4.5/5
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (2018) 5/5
• Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger (2020) 4/5 AR
• Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie (2020) 3/5
• Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood (2020) 3.5./5

2020: Books We’ve Read

• The One by John Marrs (2018) 3.5/5 AR
• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (2019) 3.5/5
• The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard (2018) 4/5 AR
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn (2019) 4/5
• The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup (translator Caroline Waight) (2019) 4/5 AR
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (2019) 4.5/5
• One by One by Ruth Ware (2020) 4/5 AR
• Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay (2020) 4/5 AR
• If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha (2020) 4/5
• The Likeness by Tana French (2008) 4/5
• The Last Flight by Julie Clark (2020) 3/5
• The Passengers by John Marrs (2019) 4/5 AR
• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See (2017) 5/5 [Tied with Do Not Say We Have Nothing for Top Read of 2020]
• The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins (2017) 4/5 AR
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) 3.5/5
• The Guest List by Lucy Foley (2020) 4/5 AR
• Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline Thien (2016) 5/5 [Tied with The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane for Top Read of 2020]
• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware (2019) 4/5 AR
• Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins (2020) 3.5/5 AR
• Followers by Megan Angelo (2020) 3.5/5
• My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (2020) 5/5