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!
VSDC Book Club meetings are also posted on
the Washington, DC Area Vegan Meetup
site
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 2010, the VSDC Book Club celebrates 18
years of great reading! Scroll down for book
selections
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
See below by year
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 |
5 |
0 |
1 |
| August |
Rabbit, Run |
John Updike |
2 |
1 |
3 |
| September |
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote
Peace... One School at a Time |
Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin |
14 |
1 |
0 |
| October |
Olive Kitteridge |
Elizabeth Strout |
5 |
0 |
3 |
| November |
The Vegan Monologues |
Ben Shaberman |
16 |
0 |
3 |
2010
| Month |
Book |
Recommend? |
| Title |
Author |
Yes |
No |
? |
| January |
The Great Man |
Kate Christensen |
10 |
0 |
3 |
| February |
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier |
Ishmael Beah |
|
|
|
| March |
Stoner |
John Williams |
|
|
|
| April |
Animals Make Us Human |
Temple Grandin |
|
|
|
| May |
The Elegance of the
Hedgehog
|
Muriel Barbery |
|
|
|
| June |
The Geography of Bliss |
Eric Weiner |
|
|
|
| July |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|