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VSDC Book Club
The Vegetarian Society of DC (VSDC) Book Club
meets once each month, usually the last Wednesday
at 7:30 pm at a vegetarian restaurant. See VSDC's
events calendar for our
upcoming meeting dates! We alternate between
fiction and nonfiction. VSDC members and friends
who have read at least half the book are welcome.
For the location, at least two days before the
meeting, leave a message for Beth on the vegline
(202-362-VEGY, box 2), or by email to bookclub at
vsdc dot org, or via Meetup. An RSVP is required
to attend.
In 2009, the VSDC Book Club celebrates 17 years
of great reading. See the list below for our book selections and
recommendations.
Choosing books
Book club participants vote for two upcoming
books at every other meeting: one fiction and one
nonfiction. Any book club member can nominate a
book — be prepared to participate in the
discussion if it wins! We read books that are in
paperback, in print, and under 400 pages. Plus, we
read authors we haven't read in the past five
years (or ever).
Popular meeting places
Recommend?
At the end of each meeting, participants vote
on whether they would recommend the book —
yes, no, or "other". We started asking
this question at the April 1993 meeting. Votes
before then do not include everyone who
participated in the discussion, and may include
some who didn't. Note the self-selection: People
who do not like a book may be less likely to come
to the meeting.
Book selections
Years:
1992,
1993,
1994,
1995,
1996,
1997,
1998,
1999,
2000,
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004,
2005,
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009.
1992
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| February | Organizational
Meeting | | | |
|
| March | The State of the
World | Brown | 2 | 3 |
0 |
| April | Watership Down |
Adams | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| May | Beyond Beef |
Rifkin | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| June | Vox | Baker |
0 | 6 | 0 |
| July | You Just Don't Understand:
conversations between women and men |
Tannen | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| August | Halfway Home |
Monette | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| September | The Revolution
Within | Steinem | 0 |
3 | 1 |
| October | Waiting to Exhale |
McMillan | 2 | 5 |
0 |
| November | A Turn in the
South | Naipaul | 2 |
3 | 1 |
| December | Scum |
Singer | 2 | 2 | 2 |
1993
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | How Can I Help? |
Dass | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| February | A Thousand Acres |
Smiley | 6 | 0 |
0 |
| March | A Return to Love |
Williamson | 0 | 5 |
1 |
| April | Nice Work |
Lodge | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| May | The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People | Covey | 5 |
3 | 2 |
| June | Damage |
Hart | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| July | Healing and the Mind |
Moyers | 3 | 1 |
0 |
| August | Like Water for
Chocolate | Esquival | 6 |
1 | 1 |
| September | Earth in the
Balance | Gore | 4 |
1 | 0 |
| October | Postcards |
Proulx | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| November | Your Money or Your
Life | Dominquez & Robin |
4 | 2 | 0 |
| December | Readings by
Group | | | |
|
1994
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title |
Author | Yes | No |
? |
| January | Riding the Iron
Rooster | Theroux | 5 |
1 | 0 |
| February | Love in the Time of
Cholera | Garcia Marquez | 4 |
0 | 0 |
| March | Powershift |
Toffler | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| April | Beloved |
Morrison | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| May | Enzyme Nutrition |
Howell | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| June | The Easy Way Out |
McCauley | 4 | 1 |
0 |
| July | Ageless Body, Timeless
Mind | Chopra | 3 | 1 |
1 |
| August | The Education of Little
Tree | Carter | 4 | 0 |
2 |
| September | Defending the
Devil | Nelson | 8 |
0 | 0 |
| October | The Great Gatsby |
Fitzgerald | 12 | 0 |
0 |
| November | Animal Happiness |
Hearne | 0 | 8 |
0 |
| December | The Measure of Our
Success | Edelman | 5 |
1 | 6 |
1995
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title |
Author | Yes | No |
? |
| January | Midnight's
Children | Rushdie | 0 |
1 | 3 |
| February | The Things They
Carried | O'Brien | 9 |
0 | 0 |
| March | The Shipping News |
Proulx | 6 | 2 |
2 |
| April | The Myth of Male
Power | Farrell | 2 |
5 | 4 |
| May | The Catcher in the
Rye | Salinger | 8 |
0 | 0 |
| June | The Autobiography of a
Face | Grealey | 8 |
0 | 0 |
| July | Monsignor Quixote |
Green | 2 | 3 |
2 |
| August | Midnight in the Garden
of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story |
Berendt | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| September | Crossing to
Safety | Stegner | 3 |
0 | 2 |
| October | In an Antique
Land | Ghosh | 2 | 0 |
2 |
| November | Ladder of Years |
Tyler | 2 | 3 |
1 |
| December | Readings by Group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
1996
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | My Own Country |
Verghese | 4 | 0 |
2 |
| February | The Garden of
Eden | Hemingway | 5 |
1 | 1 |
| March | Making Movies |
Lumet | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| April | The Love Letter |
Schine | 2 | 0 |
0 |
| May | Emotional
Intelligence | Goleman | 1 |
1 | 1 |
| June | Animal Dreams |
Kingsolver | 5 | 0 |
0 |
| July | Between Heaven and Earth:
A Guide to Chinese Medicine | Beinfield
& Korngold | 0 | 0 |
3 |
| August | Pride and
Prejudice | Austen | 6 |
1 | 0 |
| September | Jaguar: one man's
battle to establish the world's first jaguar
preserve | Rabinowitz | 5 |
0 | 0 |
| October | Tracks |
Erdrich | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| November | Animal
Liberation | Singer | 6 |
0 | 0 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
1997
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | The Wedding |
Dorothy West | 9 | 0 |
2 |
| February | Paula |
Isabel Allende | 5 | 0 |
0 |
| March | Paddy Clark Ha Ha
Ha | Doyle | 2 | 0 |
2 |
| April | The Saturated Self:
Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life |
Gergen | 0 | 4 |
1 |
| May | The Here and Now |
Cohen | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| June | The Jew in the Lotus: A
Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist
India | Kamenetz | 3 |
2 | 2 |
| July | Open Secrets |
Munro | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| August | Amazing Grace: The
Lives of Children and the Conscience of a
Nation | Kozol | 6 |
0 | 0 |
| September | Candida |
Shaw | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| October | The Invisible
Partners: how the male and female in each of us
affects our relationships | Sanford |
2 | 5 | 0 |
| November | I Should Have Stayed
Home: The Worst Trips of the Great American
Writers | Rapoport & Castanera,
editors | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
1998
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | None to Accompany
Me | Gordimer | 2 | 0 |
4 |
| February | The Snow Leopard |
Matthiessen | 1 | 4 |
2 |
| March | True Story: A Comedy
Novel | Maher | 4 | 3 |
0 |
| April | Spontaneous Healing |
Weil | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| May | On the Road |
Kerouac | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| June | Long Quiet Highway:
Waking Up America | Goldberg |
5 | 0 | 0 |
| July | Martha Quest |
Lessing | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| August | The Dreaded Comparison:
Human and Animal Slavery | Spiegel |
7 | 0 | 2 |
| September | Enormous Changes at
the Last Minute | Paley | 1 |
3 | 1 |
| October | The Starship and the
Canoe | Brower | 7 |
0 | 0 |
| November | Food for the
Gods | Berry | 6 | 0 |
2 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
1999
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | The God of Small
Things | Arundhati Roy | 2 |
1 | 3 |
| February | Toxic Sludge is Good
for You! Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations
Industry | John Stauber, Sheldon
Rampton | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| March | Animal Husbandry |
Laura Zigman | 6 | 0 |
0 |
| April | Cultivating the Mind of
Love | Thich Nhat Hanh | 3 |
2 | 3 |
| May | Animal Farm |
George Orwell | 13 | 0 |
0 |
| June | Desert Solitaire |
Edward Abbey | 4 | 2 |
4 |
| July | The Dispossessed |
Ursula LeGuin | 5 | 2 |
1 |
| August | The Call of Service: A
Witness to Idealism | Robert Coles |
3 | 2 | 2 |
| September | How the Garcia Girls
Lost Their Accents | Julia Alvarez |
0 | 3 | 1 |
| October | The Spirit Catches You
and You Fall Down: a Hmong child, her American
doctors, and the collision of two cultures |
Anne Fadiman | 5 | 2 |
1 |
| November | A Cry for
Self-Help | Jaqueline Girdner |
0 | 3 | 2 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
2000
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | The Rarest of the
Rare | Diane Ackerman | 5 |
0 | 0 |
| February | Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone | J. K. Rowling |
3 | 0 | 0 |
| March | Thoughts Without a
Thinker: psychotherapy from a Buddhist
perspective | Mark Epstein |
10 | 2 | 1 |
| April | Women of Sand and
Myrrh | Hanan Al-Shaykh | 1 |
1 | 1 |
| May | Stonewall | Martin
Duberman | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| June | My Year of Meats |
Ruth Ozeki | 3 | 0 |
1 |
| July | A Tribe Apart: A Journey
into the Heart of American Adolescence |
Patricia Hersch | 6 | 0 |
1 |
| August | The Hundred Secret
Senses | Amy Tan | 6 |
0 | 0 |
| September | Waiting to
Forget | Margaret Moorman | 4 |
0 | 0 |
| October | To Kill a
Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 9 |
0 | 0 |
| November | The Orchid Thief |
Susan Orlean | 4 | 1 |
0 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
2001
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | The Chosen |
Chaim Potok | 12 | 1 |
0 |
| February | Through a Window |
Jane Goodall | 6 | 0 |
0 |
| March | After the Blue |
Russel Like | 1 | 2 |
2 |
| April | Sex on the Brain: the
biological differences between men and women |
Deborah Blum | 1 | 1 |
1 |
| May | Regeneration | Pat
Barker | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| June | Rattling the Cage: Toward
Legal Rights for Animals | Steven
Wise | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| July | Waiting | Ha
Jin | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| August | Into the Wild |
Jon Krakauer | 6 | 1 |
3 |
| September | A Home at the End of
the World | Michael Cunningham |
4 | 0 | 0 |
| October | How I Became Hettie
Jones | Hettie Jones | 5 |
0 | 0 |
| November | Sunshine Rider: The
First Vegetarian Western | Ric Lynden
Hardman | | | |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
2002
| |
Recommend? |
| Month | Title | Author
| Yes | No | ? |
| January | I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings | Maya Angelou | 3 |
0 | 1 |
| February | Me Talk Pretty One
Day | David Sedaris | 4 |
1 | 0 |
| March | Girl with a Pearl
Earring | Tracy Chavalier | 1 |
0 | 1 |
| April | Living Among Meat
Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook |
Carol J. Adams | 2 | 0 |
2 |
| May | The Edible Woman |
Margaret Atwood | 2 | 2 |
1 |
| June | The Parrot's Lament: and
other true tales of animal intrigue, intelligence,
and ingenuity | Eugene Linden |
2 | 2 | 0 |
| July | Blitzcat | Robert
Westall | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| August | Fast Food Nation |
Eric Schlosser | 7 | 0 |
0 |
| September | The Jungle |
Upton Sinclair | 3 | 0 |
0 |
| October | The Battle for
God | Karen Armstrong | 0 |
0 | 3 |
| November | Ishmael |
Daniel Quinn | 4 | 3 |
0 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
| | | |
2003
|
Recommend? |
| Month | Title |
Author | Yes | No | ? |
| January | Ethics into Action:
Henry Spira and the Animal Rights Movement |
Peter Singer | 6 | 0 |
0 |
| February | Headlong: A
Novel | Michael Frayn | 1 |
0 | 1 |
| March | The Botany of Desire: A
Plant's-Eye View of the World | Michael
Pollan | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| April | Disgrace | J.M.
Coetzee | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| May | The Tao of Pooh |
Benjamin Hoff | 11 | 0 |
0 |
| June | Mrs. Dalloway |
Virginia Woolf | 5 | 1 |
1 |
| July | The Wilderness World of
John Muir | John Muir | 6 |
0 | 0 |
| August | The Nanny Diaries |
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus |
4 | 1 | 1 |
| September | All of One Peace,
Essays on Nonviolence | Colman
McCarthy | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| October | Interpreter of
Maladies | Jhumpa Lahiri | 8 |
0 | 0 |
| November | Pilgrim at Tinker
Creek | Annie Dillard | 1 |
0 | 2 |
| December | Readings by group:
Share something up to 3 minutes long |
2004
|
Recommend? |
| Month | Title |
Author | Yes | No | ? |
| January | Old Books, Rare
Friends: two literary sleuths and their shared
passion | Leona Rostenberg, Madeleine Stern |
4 | 1 | 0 |
| February | River, Cross My
Heart | Breena Clarke | 5 |
1 | 1 |
| March | Nickel and Dimed: On
(Not) Getting By in America | Barbara
Ehrenreich | 8 | 0 |
1 |
| April | The Red Pony |
John Steinbeck | 3 | 0 |
2 |
| May | Globalization and Its
Discontents | Joseph E. Stiglitz |
7 | 2 | 1 |
| June | How to be Good |
Nick Hornby | 9 | 1 |
1 |
| July | Cradle to Cradle:
Remaking the Way We Make Things | William
McDonough, Michael Braungart |
4 | 0 | 0 |
| August | Balzac and the Little
Chinese Seamstress | Sijie Dai |
5 | 1 | 0 |
| September | Strange Fruit: The
Biography of a Song | David Margolick |
5 | 2 | 2 |
| October | Tell Me a Riddle |
Tillie Olsen | 0 | 2 |
2 |
| November | Wild Health: how
animals keep themselves well and what we can learn
from them | Cindy Engel | 4 |
0 | 1 |
| December | VSDC Holiday
Party |
2005
|
Recommend? |
| Month | Title |
Author | Yes | No | ? |
| January | The Awakening |
Kate Chopin | 2 | 1 |
2 |
| February | Silent Spring |
Rachel Carson | 7 | 0 |
0 |
| March | West of the Jordan |
Laila Halaby | 2 | 2 |
1 |
| April | Dominion |
Matthew Scully | 4 | 0 |
0 |
| May | Nathan Coulter |
Wendell Berry | 0 | 2 |
0 |
| June | Red Tails in Love: A
Wildlife Drama in Central Park | Marie
Winn | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| July | The Kite Runner |
Khaled Hosseini | 8 | 0 |
0 |
| August | Among the Bears:
Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild |
Benjamin Kilham |
1 | 2 | 0 |
| September | Like Life:
Stories | Lorrie Moore | 0 |
2 | 2 |
| October | The Tipping Point: how
little things can make a big difference |
Malcolm Gladwell |
8 | 2 | 2 |
| November | The Inn at Lake
Devine | Elinor Lipman | 8 |
0 | 1 |
| December | VSDC Holiday
Party |
2006
|
Recommend? |
| Month | Title |
Author | Yes | No | ? |
| January | Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man | John Perkins |
10 | 0 | 2 |
| February | Rubyfruit Jungle |
Rita Mae Brown | 12 | 1 |
1 |
| March | The Beak of the Finch: A
Story of Evolution in Our Time | Jonathan Weiner |
5 | 0 | 2 |
| April | Lost in the City |
Edward P. Jones | 8 | 1 |
1 |
| May | Bayou Farewell: the rich
life and tragic death of Louisiana's cajun
coast | Mike Tidwell | 6 |
0 | 0 |
| June | The Curious Incident of
the Dog in the Night-Time | Mark
Haddon | 10 | 0 | 1 |
| July | Persepolis: The Story of
a Childhood | Marjane Satrapi |
7 | 0 | 0 |
| August | Extremely Loud and
Incredibly Close | Jonathan Safran
Foer | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| September | Banker to the Poor:
micro-lending and the battle against world
poverty | Muhammad Yunus | 5 |
0 | 0 |
| October | Sammy's Hill |
Kristin Gore | 2 | 0 |
2 |
| November | Reading Lolita in
Tehran: A Memoir in Books | Azar
Nafisi | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| December | VSDC Holiday
Events |
2007
| Month |
Book | Recommend? |
| Title | Author |
Yes | No | ? |
| January | The Jane Austen Book
Club | Karen Jay Fowler | 2 |
1 | 3 |
| February | For the Prevention of
Cruelty: the history and legacy of animal rights
activism in the United States | Diane L.
Beers | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| March | The Heidi Chronicles,
Uncommon Women and Others, and Isn't It
Romantic | Wendy Wasserstein |
8 | 0 | 1 |
| April | Harvest for Hope: A
Guide to Mindful Eating | Jane
Goodall | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| May | Slaughterhouse-Five |
Kurt Vonnegut | 9 | 0 |
1 |
| June | Night | Elie
Wiesel | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| July | Timbuktu | Paul
Auster | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| August | The Mating Mind: How
Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human
Nature | Geoffrey Miller | 2 |
1 | 0 |
| September | Black Beauty |
Anna Sewell | 4 | 0 |
1 |
| October | Voodoo Science: The
Road from Foolishness to Fraud | Robert
Park | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| November | Unsafe Harbor: A
Rachel Porter Mystery | Jessica
Speart | 2 | 5 | 3 |
2008
| Month |
Book | Recommend? |
| Title | Author |
Yes | No | ? |
| January | Pleasurable Kingdom |
Jonathan Balcombe | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| February | Water for
Elephants | Sara Gruen | 3 |
0 | 0 |
| March | Never Cry Wolf: Amazing
True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves |
Farley Mowat | 9 | 0 |
0 |
| April | The Tempest |
William Shakespeare | 7 | 0 |
2 |
| May | Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:
A Year of Food Life | Barbara
Kingsolver | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| June | A Long Fatal Love
Chase | Louisa May Alcott | 3 |
1 | 1 |
| July | The Travels of a T-Shirt in
the Global Economy:
An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and
Politics of World Trade | Pietra Rivoli | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| August | Tales of the City |
Armistead Maupin | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| September | How Starbucks Saved My
Life | Michael Gates Gill | 10 |
0 | 0 |
| October | Caucasia | Danzy
Senna | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| November | The World Without
Us | Alan Weisman | 8 |
0 | 0 |
2009
| Month |
Book | Recommend? |
| Title | Author |
Yes | No | ? |
| January | Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp
Who Would Be Human | Elizabeth Hess |
5 | 0 | 0 |
| February | The Beautiful Things
That Heaven Bears | Dinaw Mengestu |
9 | 0 | 1 |
| March | In Praise of Slowness:
Challenging the Cult of Speed | Carl
Honore | 7 | 3 | 1 |
| April | The Dogs of Babel |
Carolyn Parkhurst | 4 | 1 |
2 |
| May | Around the World on Two
Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary
Ride | Peter Zheutlin | 5 |
0 | 0 |
| June | Flowers for Algernon |
Daniel Keyes | 4 | 1 |
0 |
| July | Nudge: Improving Decisions
About Health, Wealth, and Happiness |
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein |
| August | Rabbit, Run | John
Updike |
| September | Three Cups of Tea: One
Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a
Time | Greg Mortenson and David Oliver
Relin |
| October | Olive Kitteridge |
Elizabeth Strout |
| November | The Vegan
Monologues | Ben Shaberman |
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