Book Club
Next book club meeting (scroll down for blog of past meetings):
Date: May 8, 2024
Time: 7:30pm
Book: The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area by Malcolm Margolin
Location: Zoom. Email Karen for link.
Want to join us? Email Karen
2024 Schedule
Tue 1/9/2024
Tue 2/13/2024
Thu 3/14/2024
Tue 4/9/2024
Wed 5/8/2024
Sun 6/23/2024
Tue 7/16/2024
Wed 8/14/2024
Thu 9/12/2024
Tue 10/8/2024
Wed 11/13/2024
Thu 12/12/2024
Upcoming books:
Jun 23, 2024 Theater outing to Agatha Christie's Spider's Web
Jul 16, 2024 Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Aug 14, 2024 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Past Selections:
Free Audio and eBooks
Many local public libraries have downloadable audio and eBooks:
Oakland Public Library Overdrive Link
Berkeley Public Library Overdrive Link
Alameda Free Library Overdrive Link
Love Smithie authors?
"Books by Smithies" Website and Facebook Page
30th Anniversary Book Club Meeting, March 2024
25th Anniversary Book Club Meeting, March 2019
20th Anniversary Book Club Meeting, April 2014
10th Anniversary Book Club Meeting, March 2004 (first meeting March 30, 1994)
Discussion Notes
December 2003: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston) & The Awakening (Chopin) - Jan 06, 2010 5:54:17 PM
January 2004: Some of Us Did Not Die (Jordan) - Jan 06, 2010 7:27:55 PM
February 2004: Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Kingston) - Jan 06, 2010 7:34:17 PM
March 2004: Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi) - Jan 06, 2010 7:35:58 PM
April 2004: Lolita (Nabakov) - Jan 06, 2010 7:39:3 PM
May 2004: The Country of the Pointed Firs & Other Stories (Jewett) - Jan 06, 2010 7:46:53 PM
June 2004: Play it As it Lays (Didion) - Jan 06, 2010 7:48:35 PM
July 2004: Theater! The Good Body (Ensler) - Jan 06, 2010 7:49:39 PM
August 2004: The Kite Runner (Hosseini) - Jan 06, 2010 7:51:0 PM
September 2004: The Gangster We Are All Looking For (Thúy) - Jan 06, 2010 7:52:35 PM
October 2004: 9/11 Commission Report - Jan 06, 2010 7:56:11 PM
November 2004: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Haddon) - Jan 06, 2010 8:1:46 PM
January 2005: Live, Laugh and Learn: Tales of Tumultuous Times (McIntosh) - Jan 07, 2010 6:17:4 PM
February 2005: Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language (Hoffman) - Jan 07, 2010 6:18:0 PM
March 2005: Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You: Stories (Drummond) - Jan 07, 2010 6:18:46 PM
April 2005: White Teeth (Smith) - Jan 07, 2010 6:20:53 PM
May 2005: Don't Think of an Elephant (Lakoff) - Jan 07, 2010 6:27:17 PM
June 2005: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (Pollan) - Jan 07, 2010 6:28:44 PM
August 2005: Middlesex (Eugenides) - Jan 07, 2010 6:29:23 PM
September 2005: Kettle Bottom (Fisher) - Jan 07, 2010 6:30:10 PM
October 2005: Mountains Beyond Mountains (Kidder) - Jan 07, 2010 8:28:19 PM
December 2005: Selected "Chick Lit" - Jan 07, 2010 8:29:58 PM
January 2006: Runaway (Munro) - Jan 07, 2010 8:33:25 PM
February 2006: Bel Canto (Patchett) - Jan 07, 2010 8:34:53 PM
March 2006: Vineland (Pynchon) - Jan 07, 2010 8:36:20 PM
April 2006: Random Family (LeBlanc) - Jan 07, 2010 8:37:28 PM
May 2006: Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (Franken) - Jan 07, 2010 8:42:19 PM
June 2006: Housekeeping (Robinson) - Jan 07, 2010 8:43:47 PM
July 2006: The Tipping Point (Gladwell) - Jan 07, 2010 8:45:23 PM
August 2006 Theater Outing: Night of the Iguana (Williams) - Jan 07, 2010 8:46:42 PM
September 2006: A New Life (Malamud) - Jan 07, 2010 8:48:7 PM
October 2006: Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog From Iraq (Anonymous) - Jan 07, 2010 8:49:13 PM
November 2006: On Beauty (Smith) - Jan 07, 2010 8:50:37 PM
January 2007: Female Chauvinist Pigs (Levy) - Jan 07, 2010 8:53:45 PM
February 2007: Persepolis (Satrapi) - Jan 07, 2010 8:56:16 PM
April 2007: Written on the Body (Winterson) - Jan 07, 2010 8:57:17 PM
May 2007: Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World (Orenstein) - Jan 07, 2010 9:0:19 PM
June 2007: The Space Between Us (Umrigar) - Jan 07, 2010 9:1:56 PM
July 2007: Autobiography of a Face (Grealy) & Truth and Beauty (Patchett) - Jan 07, 2010 9:3:51 PM
August 2007 Theater Outing: Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) - Jan 07, 2010 9:6:0 PM
September 2007: The Gastronomical Me (Fisher) - Jan 07, 2010 9:7:23 PM
October 2007: The Omnivore's Dilemma (Pollan) - Jan 07, 2010 9:11:16 PM
November 2007: Emma (Austen) - Jan 07, 2010 9:13:13 PM
December 2007: Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson & Relin) - Jan 07, 2010 9:15:23 PM
January 2008: Water for Elephants (Gruen) - Jan 07, 2010 10:7:30 PM
February 2008: Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer) - Jan 07, 2010 10:9:18 PM
March 2008 Faculty Visit: The Year of Magical Thinking (Didion) - Jan 07, 2010 10:16:9 PM
April 2008: Suite Française (Némirovsky) - Jan 07, 2010 10:20:42 PM
May 2008: The Audacity of Hope (Obama) - Jan 07, 2010 10:22:45 PM
June 2008: The Hummingbird's Daughter (Urrea) - Jan 07, 2010 10:24:25 PM
July 2008 Theater Outing: An Ideal Husband (Wilde) - Jan 07, 2010 10:27:41 PM
March 2007 Faculty Visit: Stone Diaries (Shield) - Jan 07, 2010 10:27:45 PM
August 2008: Sailing Alone Around the Room (Collins) & Native Guard (Trethewey) - Jan 07, 2010 10:33:56 PM
September 2008: Infidel (Hirsi Ali) - Jan 07, 2010 10:37:23 PM
October 2008: Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris) - Jan 07, 2010 10:38:24 PM
November 2008: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Kingsolver) - Jan 07, 2010 10:41:14 PM
December 2008: Call Me By Your Name (Aciman) - Jan 07, 2010 10:43:40 PM
January 2009: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hosseini) - Jan 07, 2010 10:45:42 PM
February 2009: The Two-Income Trap (Warren & Tyagi) - Jan 07, 2010 10:47:49 PM
March 2009: Economics (assorted readings) - Jan 07, 2010 10:49:52 PM
April 2009: Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (Lewis) - Jan 07, 2010 10:54:1 PM
May 2009: The Crystal Frontier (Fuentes) - Jan 07, 2010 10:58:1 PM
June 2009 Faculty Visit: Looking Like the Enemy (Matsuda Gruenewald) - Jan 07, 2010 10:59:21 PM
July 2009: Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (Lakhous) - Jan 07, 2010 11:4:5 PM
August 2009 Theater Outing: Happy Days (Beckett) - Jan 07, 2010 11:6:22 PM
September 2009: Musicophilia (Sacks) - Jan 07, 2010 11:42:42 PM
October 2009: Phantoms in the Brain (Ramachandran and Blakeslee) - Jan 07, 2010 11:59:40 PM
November 2009: My Stroke of Insight (Taylor) - Jan 08, 2010 12:11:4 AM
December 2009: As I Lay Dying (Faulkner) - Jan 08, 2010 12:26:21 AM
January 2010: The Whole World Over (Glass) - Jan 11, 2010 5:0:14 PM
February 2010: West of Kabul, East of New York (Ansary) - Mar 03, 2010 7:45:43 PM
March 2010: Carol Christ Visit - Mar 22, 2010 7:58:28 PM
April 2010: People of the Book (Brooks) - Apr 22, 2010 5:23:1 PM
May 2010: Doubt, A Parable (Shanley) - May 20, 2010 7:16:32 PM
June 2010: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (Fuller) - Jun 17, 2010 11:44:30 PM
July 2010: Commencement (Sullivan) & The Group (McCarthy) - Jul 21, 2010 2:22:49 PM
August 2010: Half the Sky (Kristoff and WuDunn) - Aug 21, 2010 5:27:22 PM
October 2010: Nervous Conditions (Dangarembga) - Oct 23, 2010 11:49:30 AM
November 2010: Olive Kitteridge (Strout) - Nov 19, 2010 11:37:25 PM
December 2010 - Cutting for Stone (Verghese) - Dec 20, 2010 7:14:3 PM
January 2011 - Moloka'i (Brennert) - Jan 21, 2011 12:33:32 AM
February 2011: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Skloot) - Mar 08, 2011 3:32:8 AM
March 2011: The Lacuna (Kingsolver) - Mar 18, 2011 8:24:6 PM
April 2011: The Glass Castle (Walls) - Apr 20, 2011 4:20:48 PM
May 2011: Elizabeth and Her German Garden (von Arnim) - Jun 02, 2011 6:31:49 PM
June 2011: Virginia Woolf: A Botanical Perspective - Jun 19, 2011 10:29:47 PM
July 2011: Let the Great World Spin (McCann) - Jul 20, 2011 3:50:1 PM
August 2011: My Fair Lady (at Woodminster Theater) - Aug 22, 2011 4:10:14 AM
Sept 2011: The Map of Love (Soueif) - Sep 30, 2011 5:38:0 PM
Oct 2011: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Foer) - Oct 22, 2011 1:47:57 AM
Nov 2011: The Tiger's Wife (Obreht) - Nov 22, 2011 6:54:5 AM
December 2011: A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Solnit) - Dec 16, 2011 11:45:0 PM
January 2012: The Distant Land of My Father (Caldwell) - Jan 20, 2012 1:40:27 AM
February 2012: Ghost Map (Johnson) - Feb 29, 2012 3:49:7 AM
March 2012: French Cinema - Faculty Visit with Martine Gantrel-Ford - Apr 02, 2012 5:33:44 PM
April 2012: Every Man Dies Alone (Fallada) - Apr 23, 2012 4:14:58 AM
May 2012: The Buddha in the Attic (Otsuka) - May 18, 2012 1:55:56 AM
June 2012: Living Islam Out Loud (Abdul-Ghafur, ed.) - Jun 15, 2012 6:15:31 PM
July 2012: Kabul Beauty School (Rodriguez, Ohlson) - Jul 22, 2012 9:1:48 PM
August 2012: Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood (Mernissi) - Aug 18, 2012 7:33:31 PM
September 2012: A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother (Scott) - Sep 27, 2012 3:14:9 AM
October 2012: Pearl S. Buck: A Cultural Biography (Conn) - Oct 24, 2012 3:49:50 PM
November 2012: Hedy's Folly (Rhodes) - Nov 17, 2012 6:55:44 PM
December 2012: Nothing Daunted (Wickenden) - Dec 20, 2012 4:23:51 PM
January 2013: Madam Secretary : A Memoir (Albright) - Jan 28, 2013 12:28:43 AM
February 2013: State of Wonder (Patchett) - Feb 23, 2013 2:9:23 AM
March 2013: The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Worth) - Mar 25, 2013 1:46:38 AM
April 2013: Death Comes to Pemberley (James) - Apr 30, 2013 5:29:51 AM
May 2013: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Alexie) - May 29, 2013 2:34:34 AM
June 2013: Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life (Treuer) - Jun 27, 2013 5:41:30 PM
July 2013: Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America (Kroeber) - Jul 29, 2013 1:54:42 AM
September 2013: The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. (DeSanti) - Sep 26, 2013 8:52:56 PM
October 2013: My Beloved World (Sotomayor) - Oct 24, 2013 8:58:26 PM
November, 2013: Orange is the New Black (Kerman) - Nov 22, 2013 3:35:31 AM
December 2013: The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen (Ashford) - Jan 03, 2014 3:33:4 AM
January & February 2014: Far From The Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity (Solomon) - Mar 03, 2014 6:23:43 AM
March 2014: Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis (Todd) - Mar 24, 2014 2:7:34 AM
April 2014: The Moon Is Down (Steinbeck) - Apr 24, 2014 8:12:9 PM
May 2014: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Gladwell) - May 27, 2014 1:11:45 AM
June 2014: Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman) - Jun 22, 2014 11:1:29 PM
July 2014: A Time of Gifts (Fermor) - Jul 27, 2014 8:46:54 PM
August 2014: Men Explain Things to Me (Solnit) - Aug 24, 2014 10:21:25 PM
September 2014: A Midsummer Night's Dream at CalShakes - Sep 27, 2014 10:16:12 PM
October 2014: Americanah (Adichie) - Oct 25, 2014 6:14:35 PM
November 2014: Whistling Vivaldi (Steele) - Dec 02, 2014 5:3:12 AM
January 2014: The Heart of the Matter (Greene) - Jan 17, 2015 11:45:8 PM
February 2015: You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (Ivins) - Feb 16, 2015 4:46:42 PM
March/April 2015: Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) - Apr 21, 2015 3:23:27 AM
May 2015: The Invention of Wings (Kidd) - May 16, 2015 6:17:24 PM
June 2015: The Warmth of Other Suns (Wilkerson) - Jun 14, 2015 11:56:38 PM
July 2015: Detroit (Summer Theater Outing) - Aug 26, 2015 2:48:33 AM
August 2015: My Brilliant Friend (Ferrante) - Aug 26, 2015 2:58:35 AM
September 2015: The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (Oreskes & Conway) - Sep 13, 2015 8:53:49 PM
October 2015: Coconut Latitudes: Secrets, Storms and Survival in the Caribbean (Gardner) - Oct 20, 2015 3:26:18 AM
November 2015: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin (Larson) - Nov 16, 2015 4:30:45 AM
December 2015: All Our Yesterdays (Tarloff) - Dec 14, 2015 1:9:30 AM
January 2016: The Righteous Mind (Haidt) - Jan 17, 2016 10:18:41 PM
February 2016: River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze River (Hessler) - Feb 14, 2016 7:8:33 PM
March 2016: Season of Migration to the North (Salih) - Mar 13, 2016 7:19:42 PM
April 2016: Heading South, Looking North (Dorfman) - Apr 14, 2016 3:21:6 AM
May 2016: Chasing Che (Symmes) - May 28, 2016 5:7:43 PM
July 2016: A Secret History of Wonder Woman (Lepore) - Jul 24, 2016 2:27:1 PM
August 2016: Between the World and Me (Coates) plus DOJ report on Ferguson PD - Aug 21, 2016 3:38:37 AM
October 2016: The Lady in Gold (O'Connor) - Oct 25, 2016 1:1:25 AM
November, 2016: Burial Rites (Kent) - Nov 21, 2016 12:9:23 AM
December 2016: The Arab of the Future (Sattouf) - Dec 18, 2016 4:25:57 AM
January 2017: Hillbilly Elegy (Vance) - Jan 18, 2017 3:35:57 AM
February 2017: Why I Wake Early (Oliver) - Mar 26, 2017 5:59:16 AM
March 2017: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Loos) - May 08, 2017 12:50:47 AM
April 2017: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (Böll) - May 08, 2017 12:52:22 AM
May 2017: The Door (Szabo) - Jun 06, 2017 3:41:3 AM
June 2017: The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood) - Jul 07, 2017 8:17:13 PM
September 2017: The Book of Unknown Americans (Henriquez) - Oct 06, 2017 4:0:0 PM
October 2017: Homegoing (Gyasi) - Nov 03, 2017 1:2:9 AM
November 2017: Lab Girl (Jahren) - Dec 14, 2017 3:46:24 AM
January 2018: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy (Abbott) - Feb 03, 2018 9:19:11 PM
February 2018: Embers (Marai) - Mar 18, 2018 1:17:36 AM
April 2018: The Women In The Castle (Shattuck) - May 21, 2018 3:21:24 AM
June 2018: Killers of the Flower Moon (Grann) - Jul 14, 2018 4:29:11 PM
September 2018: From Krakow to Berkeley (Rabkin) - Oct 12, 2018 10:58:59 PM
December 2018: Poetry Night! - Jan 09, 2019 2:33:20 AM
January 2019: Being Mortal (Gawande) - Feb 08, 2019 6:12:35 AM
February 2019: A Pearl In The Storm (Murden McClure) - Mar 07, 2019 9:31:5 PM
March 2019: Sing, Unburied, Sing (Ward) - Apr 14, 2019 12:41:56 AM
July 2019: The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin) - Aug 10, 2019 12:56:17 AM
August 2019: Milkman (Burns) - Sep 14, 2019 11:1:51 PM
September 2019: How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (Hoffman) - Oct 07, 2019 8:37:17 PM
October 2019: Circe (Miller) - Nov 09, 2019 2:4:5 AM
February 2020: Beloved (Morrison) - Mar 21, 2020 8:51:49 PM
May 2020: The Overstory (Powers) - Jun 15, 2020 1:11:27 AM
June 2020: The Power (Alderman) - Jul 07, 2020 3:12:36 AM
July 2020: Commencement (Sullivan) - Aug 06, 2020 4:11:36 AM
August 2020: A Gentleman in Moscow (Towles) - Sep 13, 2020 12:30:25 AM
September 2020: Educated (Westover) - Oct 12, 2020 3:9:15 AM
October 2020: Black is the Body (Bernard) - Nov 22, 2020 10:37:54 PM
January 2021: Born A Crime (Noah) - Feb 15, 2021 2:20:23 AM
February 2021: Little Fires Everywhere (Ng) - Mar 15, 2021 2:52:5 AM
March 2021: When No One Is Watching (Cole) - Apr 18, 2021 10:19:21 PM
April 2021: A Woman of No Importance (Purnell) - May 14, 2021 2:57:13 AM
May 2021: Lincoln in the Bardo (Saunders) - Jun 20, 2021 1:22:56 AM