Book Group
UWRA’s book group meets on the second Friday of every month, September through June.
Meetings are currently virtual (using Zoom) most months, with in-person meetings in October and April.
In this group, everyone reads the book! Discussions are lively, with participants who retired from roles all over the University bringing a wide variety of knowledge, experience, and opinions.
All UWRA and UWFA members are welcome to join in the fun. Please email UWRA and we’ll connect you with the volunteer who leads the group. Find the books that have been selected for upcoming months on the UWRA calendar.
Summer Reading Suggestions 2022
June’s meeting of the UWRA Book Review group was Reader’s Choice. Every member was invited to share two titles they would recommend for the rest of the group. The list becomes a resource as the group makes its choices for next year’s discussions. Here is the June 2022 list (in no particular order; NF=nonfiction, F=Fiction, B=biography):
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (NF) by Stephen Greenblatt
Disappearing Earth (F) by Julia Phillips
Hamnet (F) by Maggie O’Farrell
Madame Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power (B) by Susan Page
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World (B) by Andrea Wulf
Until the Sun Falls (F) by Cecelia Holland. The 2015 edition of this historical fiction is updated.
Love Medicine (F) by Louise Erdich
All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack (NF ) by Tiya Miles
Varina (F) by Charles Frazier
Circe (F) by Madelaine Miller
The Body: A Guide for Occupants (NF) by Bill Bryson
A Short History of Nearly Everything (NF) by Bill Bryson
Harlem Shuffle (F) by Colson Whitehead
My Only Choice: Hungary 1942-1956 (NF) by Helen M. Szablya (UWRA author)
The Sea of Tranquility (F) by Emily St. John Mandel
Husband and Wife (F) by Zeruya Shalev
Love Life (F) by Zeruya Shalev
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream (NF) by Buzz Bissinger
A World of Hurt: Between Innocence and Arrogance in Vietnam (NF) by Mary Reynolds Powell
Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney
Unsheltered (F) by Barbara Kingsolver
Cloud Cuckoo Land (F) by Anthony Doerr
Dancer (B) by Colum McCann
Letters from Dachau (NF) by Clarice Wilsey and and Bob Welch
Mercy Street (F) by Jenifer Haigh
Project Hail Mary (F) by Andy Weir
My Name is Lucy Barton (F) by Elizabeth Strout
Oh, William (F) by Elizabeth Strout
Sweet Thunder (F) by Ivan Doig
All the Light We Cannot See (F) by Anthony Doerr
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (B) by Jon Meacham
The Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels (NF) by Jon Meacham
The Lions of Al-Rassan (F) by Gavriel Guy Kay
Possession (F) by A.S Byatt
The Dutch House (F) by Anne Patchett
A Gentleman in Moscow (F) by Amor Towles
Wolf Hall (F) by Hilary Mantel
Manhattan Beach (F) by Jennifer Egan
Bleak House (F) by Dickens
Insect Dreams (F) by Marc Estrin
The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters (B) by Julie Klam
The Curious Life of Krill (NF) by Steven Nicol
Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art (NF) by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty (B) by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
