Fantastic Books and Where to Find Them

Like to share books you read or discover new ones? Join the fun! Participants meet online to discuss whatever they are currently reading or just to get suggestions from what others are reading. Join us monthly on the second Wednesday at 2 pm.

Fall 2025 Schedule:

• September 10, 2025

• October 8, 2025

• November 12, 2025

• December 10, 2025

Books discussed at the May 14, 2025 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Westering Women by Sandra Dallas

• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

• Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton and Robert K. Oermann

• The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

• The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia, translated by Simon Bruni

• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones 

  • The NPC Library has a DVD of the movie based on Howl's Moving Castle.

• Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones

• Beyond Desire: A Novel Based on the Life of Felix and Cecile Mendelssohn by Pierre La Mure 

• The Islands of the Blessed by Nancy Farmer

• Standing Flower by Robert Black

Books discussed at the April 9, 2025 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

• Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

• One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

• Tell Me You’re Sorry by Kevin O’Brien

• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

• Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

Books discussed at the February 12, 2025 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

• Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

• A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

• Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

• Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate

• The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• James by Percival Everett

• American Psycho by Bret Eastman Ellison

• Oneself as Another by Paul Ricoeur

Books discussed at the January 8, 2025 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

• Agatha Christie books - Some examples available at the NPC Library:

  • Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie

  • Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

• None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

• The Greatest Battles of World War II by Alexander L. Sheppard

• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

• Skipping Christmas by John Grisham - or the movie is called Christmas with the Kranks

Books discussed at the December 11, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

• Dido and Pa by Joan Aiken

• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen 

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

• Honey, Baby, Mine by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd

• Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck 

• The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

• Lost Birds: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman 

• Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn by Anne Hillerman with photos by Don Strel

• Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by David McGowan and Nick Bryant

Books discussed at the November 13, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements

• Big Tree by Brian Selznick

• Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

• The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

• Silver Spire: A Nero Wolfe Mystery by Robert Goldsborough

• Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K. Dick

• The Stranger by Albert Camus

• Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville

• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

• The Guest List by Lucy Foley

• Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

• Hank the Cowdog series by John R. Erickson

Books discussed at the October 9, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila

• Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac

• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

• All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor by Donald Stratton and Ken Gire

• Didn't my Skin Used to Fit by Martha Bolton

• The Kind Librarian: Cultivating a Culture of Kindness and Wellbeing in Libraries by Helen Rimmer 

• The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek

• Eric: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett

• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

• The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann with Chris Mooney

• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Books discussed at the September 11, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The It Girl by Ruth Ware

• The Great Gatsy by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry

• It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

• Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey to America by Ruth Gruener

• Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

• One Life: The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton

• A Brief History of Italy by Jeremy Black

• Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

• The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

• VANITY FAIR ARTICLE - Exclusive: Embedding With America’s Top Hostage Negotiator by Adam Ciralsky

• Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

• Being Henry : the Fonz . . . and Beyond by Henry Winkler

• Pride: The Charley Pride Story by Charley Pride and Jim Henderson

• NY TIMES ARTICLE - The Day the Music Burned by Jody Rosen

Books discussed at the May 16, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

• The Trespassers by Stephanie Black

• Skye Fall (Pressley-Coombes #4) by Paige Edwards

• The Women by Kristin Hannah

• A Garden of Eden in Hell: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer by Melissa Müller and Reinhard Piechocki

• Rhythm of War (Stormlight Archive Book Four) by Brandon Sanderson

• The Old Buzzard Had It Coming (Alafair Tucker Mysteries Book 1) by Donis Casey

• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Books discussed at the April 18, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. We also have a DVD of the production produced by BBC and Time-Life Films.

• The Vatican Pimpernel: The World War II Exploits of the Monsignor Who Saved Over 6,500 Lives by Brian Fleming

• Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery

• Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

• They're Cows, We're Pigs by Carmen Boullosa 

• Cartographies of Youth Resistance: Hip-Hop, Punk, and Urban Autonomy in Mexico by Maurice Rafael Magaña

• Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson

• Trinity: A Novel of Ireland by Leon Uris

• Financing Community Colleges: Where We Are, Where We're Going by Richard M. Romano and James C. Palmer

• A Council of Dolls: A Novel by Mona Susan Power

• Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

• Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities by Claudia Kalb

• Standing Flower by Robert Black

• Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder by Kent Nerburn

• Tony Hillerman's Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn by Anne Hillerman

• Iguana and the Glue-Eater by Michael Broyles (click the link and navigate to page 16 to read the story!)

Books discussed at the February 8, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Big by Vashti Harrison

• The Book of Turtles by Sy Montgomery and Matt Patterson

• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

• Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

• Friday by Robert Heinlein

• People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

• The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

• The Stand by Stephen King

• The Green Mile by Stephen King

• IT by Stephen King

• The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

• Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

• The Golden Bough by James George Frazer

• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

• Contenders by Traci Sorell

•  Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Books discussed at the January 11, 2024 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1) by Tana French

• Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose

• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

• Tutored in Love by Barbara J. Adamson

• Elm Creek Quilt Series by Jennifer Chiaverini

• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

• Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

• Secretariat: The Making of a Champion by William Nack

• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

• The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1) by Robert Jordan

Books discussed at the December 14, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

• They Call Us Enemy by George Takei – graphic novel 

• My Lost Freedom by George Takei 

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 

• Watership Down by Richard Adams 

• Watership Down: The Graphic Novel by Richard Adams ; adapted and illustrated by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin

• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson - audiobook

• Redemption by Meghan March 

• The Big Kahuna (Fox and O'Hare, #6) by Janet Evanovich – audiobook 

• The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray 

• Out to Canaan (Mitford Years, 4) by Jan Karon 

• A New Song (Mitford Years, 5) by Jan Karon 

• Fireside book of Christmas Stories 

• Witch Wood by John Buchan 

• Mother Hunt (Nero Wolfe Mystery, 38) by Rex Stout 

• The Doorbell Rang (Nero Wolfe Mystery, 41) by Rex Stout 

• Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe Mystery, 1) by Rex Stout 

• Autumn: A Spiritual Biography of the Season edited by Gary D. Schmidt and Susan M. Felch

Books discussed at the November 9, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny 

• The Mitford Years Series by Jan Karon 

• Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers 

• Faust: Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

• Manfred: A Dramatic Poem by Lord Byron: "Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, and yet a third of life is passed in sleep."

• Amerika by Franz Kafka, translated by M. Douglas Morgan 

• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 

Books discussed at the October 12, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Leaphorn and Chee mysteries by Tony Hillerman - such as The Blessing Way

• The Leaphorn and Chee mysteries by his daughter Anne Hillerman - such as Spider Woman's Daughter

• Shutter by Ramona Emerson

• Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

• Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

• Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz  by Isabella Leitner

• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

• One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

• To All the Boys I Ever Loved by Jenny Han

• The Summer I Turned Beautiful by Jenny Han 

• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

• War of the Roses by Philippa Gregory

• The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Audiobooks

• The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

• The Scam by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Books discussed at the September 14, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Library of Crooked Lane (The Glass Library Series) by C. J. Archer and Marian Hussey

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

• I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

• The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

• The Quilter's Apprentice (The Elm Creek Quilts Series) by Jennifer Chiaverini

• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

• When She Was Good by Michael Robothan

• The Chosen by Chaim Potok

• My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

• The Harp by Meir Uri Gottesman

Books discussed at the May 10, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart

• The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg

• Pretending to be Normal: Living with Asperger's Syndrome by Liane Holliday Willey

• The Librarian of Crooked Lane by C.J. Archer

• Brilliant Bea by Shaina Rudolph

• Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories by Garth Nix

• Mystery at Mesa Blanca: An adventure to solve a crime that time has forgotten by Angus Curran

• The House at Dietrich Hollow by Kathy Davidson

• 8 Rules of Love by Jay Shetty

• Palace of Books by Patricia Polacco

Books discussed at the April 12, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Fairy Tale by Stephen King

• The Therapist by B. A. Paris

• Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris

• Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris

• Texas: The Great Theft by Carmen Boullosa

• History of Mexico - Captivating History

• Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young

• A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Books discussed at the March 8, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The House at Dietrich Hollow by Kathy David

• These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner

• Sarah's Quilt by Nancy E. Turner

• The Star Garden by Nancy E. Turner

• Sachiko: A Nagasaki bomb survivor's story by Caren Stelson

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

• The Quicksilver Pool by Phyllis A. Whitney

• The Gabriel Hounds by Mary Stewart

• The Chase by Janet Evanovich

• Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time series) by Robert Jordan

Books discussed at the February 8, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time series) by Robert Jordan

• Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie

• Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse and Ruth Ware

• Curtain: Poirot's Last Case by Agatha Christie

• Other Poirot books by Agatha Christie (for example: Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories)

• Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

• The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murphy

• The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

• New Hercule Poirot mystery series by Sophie Hannah

• Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie

• Mr. Dixon Disappears by Ian Sansom

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

• Classics by Victor Hugo (for example: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables)

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Books discussed at the January 11, 2023 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

Books

• All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora

• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

• Hank the Cowdog series by John R. Erickson

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

• The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murphy

• The Peripheral by William Gibson

• Neuromancer (series) by William Gibson

• MacBeth by William Shakespeare

• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (The NPC Library has this series in book format, audiobook, and the movies on DVD. The first book in the series is The Fellowship of the Ring.)

Audiobooks 

• The Chase by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Books discussed at the December 14, 2022 meeting:

Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

Books

• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

• One Hundred years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa 

• Poems for a Certain Woman by Amy Rae Pearson 

• 100 Days of Solitude by Amy Rae Pearson 

• The Dead by James Joyce 

• Dubliners by James Joyce

• Finnegans wake by James Joyce

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 

• Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education edited by Heather J. Shotton, Shelly C. Lowe, and Stephanie J. Waterman 

• The Hummingbird’s Gift by Sy Montgomery 

• Eye of the World by Robert Jordan 

• Calvin and Hobbs Collection by Bill Watterson 

Audiobooks 

• Witterkin  by W.K. Greyling, narrated by Kat Bohn 

• No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, narrated by Lisette Lecat

• The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, narrated by Scott Brick 

Books discussed at the November 9, 2022 meeting:

 Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica

• The Peripheral by William Gibson

• Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko

• Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pies by Jordan Sonnenblick

• Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda

• Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan (1st book - The Ruins of Gorlan)

  • Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger series by John Flanagan

  • Ranger's Apprentice: Early Years series by John Flanagan

  • Brotherband Chronicles series by John Flanagan

• The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

• The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

• How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

• The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale

• The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

• Here, There be Dragons by James A. Owen

• The Dragon Knight by James A. Owen

• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (The NPC Library has this series in book format, audiobook, and the movies on DVD. The first book in the series is The Fellowship of the Ring.)

• The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Books discussed at the October 12, 2022 meeting:

 Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

• Madeleine L'Engle herself: reflections on a writing life by Madeline L'Engle, compiled by Carole F. Chase

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, narrated by Hope Davis - audiobook (Link is to the book)

• The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

• Alice in Wonderland (a Romantic Comedy) by Elle Lothlorien

• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, narrated by Nathaniel Parker - audiobook

Books discussed at the September 14, 2022 meeting:

 Click links for titles available at the NPC Library.

• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean

• Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

• The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

• Nero Wolfe Prisoner's Base by Rex Stout

• Artemis Fowl series

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

• Ben Hur by Lew Wallace