Book Clubs :: SOC Sista Long List for 2018-2019

For the last several years, my book club has followed the same procedure for selecting its books for a whole year. Last year, when our picks were made, we realized we were missing out on discussing some really good books by leaving behind the books that were not selected. (That’s what happens when you take a month to research books you plan to pitch!)

So this year we’re doing something different. Instead of making new book pitches, we took the the books from our 2017 and 2018 Long Lists that weren’t selected and are using those as this year’s Long List – the list from which we’ll choose our books for the upcoming year. The only caveat is that if you were the one who pitched the book & you no longer think it is worthy of the list, you could exchange it for another pick.

With that, I present the SOC Sista’s Long List for 2018-2019.

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
The Book Thief by Markus Zysak
The Orphan’s Tale by Pan Jenoff
Ordinary Grace by William Kent
Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Dimestore: A Writer’s Life by Lee Smith
Mischling by Affinity Konar
Cane River by Lolita Lademer
Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Stoner by John Williams
The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Truth and Beauty: A Friendship Ann Patchett / Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance
My Mother’s Ring: A Holocaust Historical Novel by Dana Fitzwater Cornell
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Today Will be Different by Maria Semple
Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
I am David by Anne Holm
In the President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler
Through the Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot
Irena’s Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Family Furnishings by Alice Munro
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Umami by Laia Jufersa
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf