TrinityArchive 2018

Trinity
Book Club
Archive
1997 to 2018

Trinity Book Club
Archive
1997 to 2018
Books, authors and (from 2005 on) Barb's one-line summaries
for the 210 volumes we have read to date.
Long may we read!

1997 ― 1998
September Song of Solomon Tony Morrison
October Fall on Your Knees Ann-Marie MacDonald
November Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
December The Pianoman’s Daughter Timothy Findley
January Fugi ve Pieces Anne Michaels
February Away Jane Urquhart
March Le ers from Wingfield Farm Dan Needles
April
Who Has Seen the Wind?
(or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?)
W. O. Mitchell
May Such a Long Journey Rohinton Mistry
June A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley

1998 ― 1999
September The God of Small Things Arundha Roy
October A Dry Spell Susie Maloney
November Larry’s Party Carol Shields
December Barney’s Version Mordecai Richler
January The Girl at the Lion D’Or Sebas an Faulks
February Beloved Toni Morrison
March Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
April Where the Heart Is Billie Le s
May Murther and Walking Spirits Robertson Davies
June A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Be y Smith

1999 ― 2000
September
Discussing summer reading and choosing books
October The Reader Bernard Schlink
November The Pilot’s Wife Anita Shreve
December Harry Po er and the Philosopher’s Stone J. K. Rowling
January A Widow for One Year John Irving
February Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
March I Know This Much is True Wally Lamb
April The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
May Harry Po er and the Prisoner of Azkaban J. K. Rowling
June Elizabeth and A er Ma Cohen

2000 ― 2001
September Discussing summer reading and choosing books
October Death du Jour Kathy Reichs
November Pilgrim Timothy Findley
December A Recipe for Bees Gail Anderson Dargatz
January Sisters in the Wilderness Charlo e Gray
February No Great Mischief Alistair McLeod
March We Were the Mulvaneys Joyce Carol Oates
April While I Was Gone Sue Miller
May House of Sand and Fog Andre Dubus III
June The Red Tent Anita Diamant

2001 ― 2002
September Discussing summer reading and choosing books
October The Girl in the Picture Denise Chong
November
The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
(Book 1 of 3)
Sandra Gulland
December Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis de Bernieres
January The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood
February Stones from the River Ursula Hegge
March The Stone Angel Margaret Lawrence
April Fortune’s Rocks Anita Shreve
May The Stone Carvers Jane Urquhart
June Charlo e Gray Sebas en Faulks

2002 ― 2003
September A Student of Weather Elizabeth Hay
October Clara Callan Richard B. Wright
November River Thieves Michael Crummey
December Do or Die Barbara Fradkin
January Too Close to the Falls Catherine Gildiner
February The Icing on the Corpse Mary Jane Maffini
March The Ash Garden Dennis Bock
April Na on Builders: Barnardo Children in Canada Gail Corbe
May The Girl with the Pearl Earring Tracey Chevalier
June Life of Pi Yann Martel

2003 ― 2004
September The Lost Garden Helen Humphries
October Flint and Feather Charlo e Gray
November Crow Lake Mary Lawson
December The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd
January Elle Douglas Glover
February Balzac and the Li le Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie
March Atonement Ian McEwan
April The Last Crossing Guy Vanderhaeghe
May One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
June Garbo Laughs Elizabeth Hay

2004 ― 2005
September Deafening Frances Itani
October Our Lady of the Forest David Guterson
November As the Crow Flies Ann Marie McDonald
December The Five People You Meet in Heaven Mitch Albom
January I’m Not Scared Niccolò Ammani
February The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nigh me Mark Haddon
March The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
April English Passengers Ma hew Kneale
May The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
June The #1 Ladies Detec ve Agency Alexander McCall Smith

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2005 ― 2006
Cold Dark Ma er
A Morgan O’Brien mystery involving research scien sts, set in Hawaii and O awa.
The Holding
Compares the lives of a modern, back to the lander woman and a pioneer woman on same
property.
The Birth of Venus
Art and history in renaissance Florence.
Green Grass, Running Water
Humorous, current and ancient na ve culture.
Rush Home Road
Older woman takes in an abandoned girl. Set in the black communi es of southwestern
Ontario.
Shadow of the Wind
Winding tale, mystery of all copies of a novel being destroyed, set in Barcelona.
Bel Canto
Lavish birthday party in South America ends with guests being taken hostage for months.
A Million Li le Pieces
Controversial pseudo-biographical tale of one man’s stay in an addic on treatment centre.
Seduc on
Woman who murdered her husband let out of prison to solve mystery involving followers of
Freud.
S ll Life
Mystery set in small town in Quebec’s eastern townships. First of the Insp. Gamache series.
Alex Bre
Merilyn Simonds
(local author)
Sarah Dunant
Tom King
Lori Lansens
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Ann Patche
James Frey
Katherine Gildiner
Louise Penny

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
Discussing summer reading and choosing books.
2006 ― 2007
The Good Earth
Pulitzer prize winner from 60 years ago about Chinese farmer Wang Lung
The Nego ator
Mystery/thriller in which man nego ates the release of the US President’s son, a university
student in England
A Complicated Kindness
16 year old Nomi Nickel lives with dad in a small Manitoba Mennonite town, but mom and
sister are gone.
The Russlander
Katya lives in a prosperous Russian Mennonite community. Tensions arise among farm workers
during WW 1.
A Short History of Progress
Dissects the cyclical nature of humanity's development and demise, the 10,000-year old
experiment that we've unleashed, but have yet to control.
Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey
A young Canadian describes the people she and her companion meet as they travel in Iran.
The Poet
Following the murder of his twin brother, a journalist par cipates in the inves ga on .
Map of Glass
An older slightly au s c woman, Sylvia, searches out ar st Jerome in Toronto, who found the
body of her lover, Andrew. Set in Eastern Ontario.
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
The story of Pearl Tull and her now three grown children
Pearl S. Buck
Frederick Forsyth
Miriam Toews
Sandra Birdsell
Ronald Wright
Alison Wearing
Michael Connelly
Jane Urquhart
Anne Tyler

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
Discussing summer reading and choosing books.
2007 ― 2008
Sweetness in the Belly
Lilly, born to hippie parents and brought up Muslim in Ethiopia, works as a nurse in London
The Bookseller of Kabul
Life in A anistan in 2002 as witnessed by a reporter living with the family of a bookseller.
The Alchemist
Boy shepherd on a quest for his personal legend. A fable.
Gap Creek
Story opens when teenaged Julie marries Hank, works very hard and is beset by many
misfortunes.
Water for Elephants
Penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob Jankowski jumps on a passing train and
inadvertently runs away with the circus.
The Time Traveller’s Wife
A love story about Clare and Henry, her modern day me travelling husband.
A Long Way Down
A story of four people who were planning to commit suicide on New Year's Eve who then bump
into each other and make a pact not to.
Two Solitudes
Canadian classic of French and English Canada around WW 1.
Divisidero
Two intersec ng stories: one of Anna, Claire, their father and adopted farmhand Cooper in
California, and another tale set in rural France.
Camilla Gibb
Asne Seierstad
Paulo Coelho
Robert Morgan
Sara Gruen
Audrey Niffenegger
Nick Hornby
Hugh MacLennan
Michael Ondaatje

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2008 ― 2009
Late Nights on Air
Eccentric characters, all transplants from elsewhere, run a radio sta on in Yellowknife.
My Sister’s Keeper
Anna was conceived as a perfect cell donor match for her cancer-ridden older sister. Told from
points of view of family, lawyer and guardian.
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Follows four people trying to survive war-torn Sarajevo. A cellist vows to play at the point of a
mortar impact for 22 days, a day for each vic m.
The Uncommon Reader
Queen Elizabeth II discovers a mobile library and under the tutelage of a kitchen worker,
develops an unexpected passion for reading.
Infidel
Life story of Somali woman’s internal struggle with her Muslim faith, who when forced into a
marriage, seeks asylum in the Netherlands.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Esme is released from an Edinburgh asylum a er 60 years into the care of a great-niece.
The Birth House
Set in a Nova Sco an village before WWI, conflict between a midwife, and an obstetrician.
Lullabies for Li le Criminals
A 12 year old Montrealer, her drug addicted father, foster homes an d juvenile deten on.
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Owen Meany, a dwarf, accidentally kills his friend's mom, and foreseen his death in a vision.
The Power of One
An English boy’s childhood in South Africa during WW II, and the racial strife he witnessed.
Elizabeth Hay
Jodi Picoult
Steven Galloway
Alan Benne
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Maggie O’Farrell
Ami McKay
Heather O’Neill
John Irving
Bryce Courtenay

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2009 ― 2010
The Pillars of the Earth
Story set in 12 th century England, concerning the building of a cathedral.
An Equal Music
The violinist in a English quartet runs into an old girlfriend, Julia, a pianist.
The Thirteenth Tale
Daughter of an quarian bookseller recounts the life story of elderly Vida Winter, a well -loved
novelist.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Correspondance from a Society member chronicles Guernsey life during German occupa on.
The Gargoyle
A porn star suffers serious burns and recovers with the help of a schizophrenic fellow pa ent.
Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?
Interwoven stories of three Indian women, with backdrop of a fragmen ng Punjab and Canada.
The Fat Women Next Door is Pregnant
Follows the characters in a working class French Candian community over one day.
S ll Alice
First person account of a 50-year-old American university professor’s sudden desccent into
Alzheimers.
The Girl with the Dragon Ta oo
Disgraced Swedish financial journalist and young Lisbeth, superhacker, inves gate decades -
long disappearance of teen heiress.
The Lace Reader
Troubled woman returns to Salem a er her great aunt, who used to foretell the future by
reading lace, disappears.
Ken Folle
Vikram Seth
Diane Se erfield
Mary Ann Shaffer
Andrew Davidson
Anita Badami
Michel Tremblay
Lisa Genova
S eg Larsson
Brunonia Barry

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2010 ― 2011
World Without End
Sequel to Pillars of the Earth set in 14th-century Kingsbridge.
The Help
Young southern white woman, wri ng on treatment of black, domes c servants in 1962.
The Forgo en Garden
A mul genera on tale, back and forth through me in Australia and England, centred on a
toddler girl abandoned on a ship.
Eat, Pray, Love
Woman travels to Italy, India and Bali following a divorce and breakup.
The Bishop’s Man
Priest sent by Bishop to a mari me outport to inves gate possible abuse.
Day A er Night
Story of four female Holocaust survivors based on the real Bri sh Atlit internment camp for
“illegal” immigrants in 1945.
In the Land of Long Fingernails (or Random Passage by Bernice Morgan)
Summer job experiences at Toronto cemetery, 1969.
The House of All Sorts
Short stories of a Canadian ar st’s experiences running a rooming house in the 1940's.
The Hour I First Believed
Story of a couple and the 1999 Columbine shoo ng, how their lives unravel, and their family
secrets.
Let the Great World Spin
Two Irish brothers, one a priest, in New York City in the 70's .
Ken Folle
Kathryn Stocke
Kate Morton
Elizabeth Gilbert
Linden MacIntyre
Anita Diamant
Charles Wilkins
Emily Carr
Wally Lamb
Colum McCann

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2011 ― 2012
Wai ng for Time
Con nues the story told in Random Passage of Cape Random se lers, interwoven with the story
of a 20 th century descendant of Lavinia, who moves to Newfoundland
Secret Daughter
Interwoven stories of an American doctor and her Indian husband who adopt an Indian baby
girl, and the circumstances that led the birth mother to give up her baby.
Laurier in Love
Fic onalized bio of Sir Wilfred Laurier, his wife Zoe and lover Emil ie in early 20 th century O awa.
Any one of the numbered mysteries about private inves gator Stephanie Plum, such as Sizzling
Sixteen or Explosive Eighteen.
The Postmistress
WW II story linking Iris James, a postmistress in New England, and an American radio journalist.
The Cat's Table
An eleven year old boy travels alone on a ship bound for England in the early 1950's.
The Glassblower of Murano
Leonora Manin, a glassblower in Venice is linked to a glassblowing ancestor on Murano in 1600s.
People of the Book
Story of rare book expert Hanna Heath restoring the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated Jewish
religious text, and reconstruc ng the book’s long journey using the clues found within it.
My Name is Memory
A love story of Daniel and Lucy, and their past life encounters over the centuries.
The Paris Wife
Fic onal account of the early days of Ernest Hemingway’s wri ng career in the 1920's though
the eyes of the first of his four wives, Hadley Richardson., “suppor ve wife to a budding genius.”
Bernice Morgan
Shilpi Gowda
Roy MacSkimming
Janet Evanovich
Sarah Blake
Michael Ondaatje
Marina Fiorato
Geraldine Brooks
Ann Brashares
Paula McLain

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2012 ― 2013
The Dovekeepers
Four strong women help Jewish town of Masada hold out against the Romans 2000 years ago.
Requiem
Ar st Ben Okuma remembers his early life in which his Japanese Canadian family was uprooted
and interned in a camp in Bri sh Columbia during the Second World War.
The Seven Sisters
Newly divorced middle aged woman arrives in London, takes a class in Virgil, and subsequently
organizes a tour of Naples as described in The Aneid for a group of mostly unmarried females.
Solar
Michael Beard, philanderer and Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him,
half heartedly heads a government-backed ini a ve tackling global warming.
The Night Circus
A fantasy-like circus,is the backdrop for a fierce compe on between two young musicians .
Far Side of the Sky
Dr. Franz Adler, an Austrian Jew , escapes the Nazis in 1938, to Japanese-invaded Shanghai.
Shelter
Abandoned, two sisters live a troubled life un l 14-year-old Maggie searches for her mother.
Doomsday Book
Kivrin, a student, me-travels to 14 th century England, but catchs the plague and can’t return.
Joyner’s Dream
Family saga with a dubious legacy: a love of music coupled with a persistent knack for thieving.
The Light Between Oceans
Lighthouse keepers find a boat carrying a dead man and a living baby, who they claim as their
own. On their return to the mainland, they find the child’s mother and make difficult choices.
Alice Hoffman
Frances Itani
Margaret Drabble
Ian McEwan
Erin Morganstern
Daliel Kalla
Frances Greenslade
Connie Willis
Sylvia Tyson
M. L. Stedman

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2013 ― 2014
Fall of Giants
A new historical epic begins, as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of
the First World War, the Russian Revolu on, and the struggle for women’s suffrage .
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Quirky story about a nursing home escapee who takes an unexpected journey
The Last Runaway
A young, Quaker woman moves to Ohio in 1850, and is drawn into Underground Railroad ac vi es.
Buddha in the A c
Aa group of “picture brides” is brought from Japan to San Francisco nearly a century ago.
The Firebird
Paranormal and romance mix as a woman with the secret ability to hold an object and see the past
teams up with a man with even greater powers to authen cate the origin of a carved bird.
A Woman in the Polar Night
Memoirs of an Austrian woman who in 1934 joins her husband on a small, remote Norwegian island.
And the Mountains Echoed
In an Afghanistan village in 1952 an impoverished man must give up one of his children to survive.
Follows the impact on his descendants and acquaintances over the next half century.
The Winter Palace
In the treacherous Russian court, a servant girl becomes a cunning royal spy, and a naïve German
duchess becomes Catherine the Great.
Room
Story narrated by a five-year-old, who lives in a single room with his kidnapped mother.
419
Calgary man is taken in by a “419” Nigerian email scam. Intertwined with the stories of a young
woman escaping her past life, and a young man in the oil industry.
Ken Folle
Jonas
Jonasson
Tracy
Chevalier
Julie Otsuka
Susanna
Kearsley
Chris ane
Ri er
Khaled
Hossein
Eva Stachniak
Emma
Donoghue
Will Ferguson

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
(Prepare book list)
2014 ― 2015
The Ambassador’s Daughter
A love story set at a post WW1 Paris peace conference.
The Orenda or The Inconvenient Indian
The first is a work of historical fic on recrea ng the earliest contacts between na ves and
missionaries. The second relates what it has meant to be an Indian in North America.
The Rosie Project
A gene cs professor with Asperger-like tendencies designs a ques onnaire to find the perfect
partner and finds Rosie, a seemingly highly unsuitable candidate.
The Cartographer of No Man’s Land
A Nova Sco an, Angus, caught between a remote wife, a disapproving father, and a son seeking
guidance, enlists in WW1 hoping to find Ebbin, his brother-in-law and best friend.
The Orphan Train
As a young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest
with hundreds of other children, and experiences several difficult living situa ons
Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab
Set in Trinidad and Toronto. A mother who vanished from her son’s life reappears as a man.
The Book Thief
Death narrates the story of Liesl, her foster parents, and Max, the Jewish fugi ve they hid e.
A Spear of Summer Grass
Delilah is exiled to 1920's Kenya. Murder, racism, and romanc e ensue. This is a Harlequin.
Tell
A picture of a small, southern Ontario town, Deseronto, at the end of the first World War and
how the veterans and others struggled to return to a "normal" life.
Pam Jenoff
Joseph Boyden
or
Thomas King
Graeme Simsion
P. S. Duffy
Chris na Baker
Kline
Shani Mootoo
Marcus Zusak
Deanna Raybourn
Frances Itani

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2015 ― 2016
Flee, Fly, Flown
Two women break out of seniors’ home and travel cross country.
The Story of a Beau ful Girl
Ins tu onalized deaf man and developmentally-delayed woman have a child and are then
separated.
Sta on Eleven
Follows six people through 20 years a er a pandemic causes modern civilisa on to collapse.
Ru
Vigne es from a Vietnamese girl/woman who immigrates to Quebec.
Life A er Life
Inven ve novel follows Ursula, born (many mes) in 1910 England, and the different paths her
life takes a er various watershed moments and do-overs.. Reliving a life un l you get it right.
Who By Fire
The effect of a 1960's sour gas plant on a southern Alberta family.
At the Water’s Edge
A young American couple and another man go to Scotland to hunt the Loch Ness monster and
restore a father’s reputa on.
In the Unlikely Event
Follows a broad cast of characters of a 1950s American town that experience three airplane
disasters in rapid succession.
The Back of the Turtle
Scien st Gabriel returns to a na ve reserve years a er a devasta ng environmental disaster.
Far from the Madding Crowd
Set in rural Victorian England, shepherd Gabriel Oak is one of Bathsheba’s three suitors.
Janet Hepburn
Rachel Simon
Emily St. John
Mandel
Kim Thuy
Kate Atkinson
Fred Stenson
Sara Gruen
Judy Blume
Thomas King
Thomas Hardy

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2016 ― 2017
The Nest
Four adult siblings believe their joint trust fund will solve a host of self-inflicted problems.
They Le Us Everything
The author and her brothers have conflicted feelings as they empty and sell their family home.
The Nigh ngale
The story of two sisters each embarking on dangerous paths in German-occupied, WW 2 France.
The Children Act
London judge must decide a case of a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness whose parents will not
permit a lifesaving blood transfusion.
I Let You Go
Woman moves to a remote Welsh coast co age to escape the memory of a hit and run car
accident where a child is killed. Twist at the end.
All the Light We Cannot See
Blind French girl and German boy’s paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive war.
Sweetland
Moses Sweetland resists a compensa on package to rese le away from his remote
Newfoundland village, and then fakes his death in order to stay.
Life Is So Good
A slave’s grandson who learned to read at age 98 and lived to 103 shares valuable life lessons.
Lord of the Flies
Classic tale of schoolboys marooned on a coral island, who degenerate into fearsome gangs.
The Wonder
An 1850s Irish village is baffled by a girl’s self-inflicted fast. English nurse is hired to determine if
girl is a fraud.
Cynthia D’Aprix
Sweeney
Plum Johnson
Kris n Hannah
Ian McEwan
Clare Mackintosh
Anthony Doerr
Michael Crummy
George Dawson
William Golding
Emma Donoghue

September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
2017 ― 2018
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
Follows two linked families in China from late 1940s to Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
My Notorious Life
An impoverished immigrant child in 1860’s New York becomes an abor onist.
The Glass Castle
Memoir recounts the unconven onal, povertystricken upbringing Walls and her siblings had at
the hands of their dysfunc onal parents.
Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing
Essays by high functioning au s c savant polyglot explore various global languages.
The Handmaid’s Tale
Dystopian novel from 1985 set in a near-future New England, focuses on handmaid whose role
is to bear a child for a ruling class couple.
The Language of Flowers
A young woman with a gi for floral design, newly released from the foster-care system,
struggles to overcome her troubled past.
The Bonese er’s Daughter
Woman with elderly, demented mother learns the secrets of her mother’s life in China.
The Secret to Hummingbird Cake
Southern women, friends since childhood, s ck together when one is diagnosed with cancer.
Bear Town
Na onal semi-final match and the rape of a teenaged girl in a small isolated Swedish hockey
town send shockwaves through the community.
Punishment
Re ring Kingston Pen guard returning to Nova Sco a is drawn into trial over death of a local girl
when it turns out he had dealings with the suspect.
Madeleine Thien
Kate Manning
Jeanne e Walls
Daniel Tammet
Margaret Atwood
Vanessa
Diffenbaugh
Amy Tan
Celeste Fletcher
McHale
Frederick Backman
Lindon Macintyre