Literary Fiction Book Club
The Literary Fiction Book Club has been meeting at Towne since the mid-2010s and is led by longtime Towne customer Kathy. The Literary Fiction Book Club reads exclusively fiction but across a variety of subgenres and most of the club’s selections have won prestigious literary awards and some have been New York Times and Indie Bestsellers. Selections are voted on by members of the group as a whole.
Literary Fiction Book Club meets on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 7pm.
Upcoming Meetings and Selections
Thursday, October 12, 2023: Trust by Hernan Diaz
Previous Selections
Thursday, September 14, 2023: Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
Thursday, August 10, 2023: Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Thursday, July 13, 2023: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Thursday, June 8, 2023: The Promise by Damon Galgut
Thursday, May 11, 2023: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
April 2023: The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
February 2023: I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
January 2023: Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah
December 2022: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
November 2022: Saints at the River by Ron Rash
August 2022: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
September 2022: Let Him Go by Larry Watson
July 2022: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
June 2022: Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
May 2022: Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames
April 2022: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
March 2022: Close Range by Annie Proulx
February 2022: Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
November 2021: The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
October 2021: Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
September 2021: Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
August 2021: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
1996 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE
The tragic tale of a Montana family ripped apart by scandal and murder: "a significant and elegant addition to the fiction of the American West" (Washington Post).
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).
WINNER OF THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE
Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads
A New York Times bestseller and a "Best Thriller of the Year"
Winner of the Goncourt Prize and now an international phenomenon, this dizzying, whip-smart novel blends crime, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller as it plumbs the mysteries surrounding a Paris-New York flight.
* 2022 Young Lions Fiction Award, Winner.
* A BookBrowse "20 Best Books of 2022"
* VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, Longlist.
* An ABA "Indie Next List" pick for November 2021.
* "A Best Book of 2021" --New York Public Library, Cosmopolitan, Independent Book Review
From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a powerful story of exile, migration, and betrayal.
"Dazzling. . . . A hard-won love letter to readers and to booksellers, as well as a compelling story about how we cope with pain and fear, injustice and illness. One good way is to press a beloved book into another's hands. Read The Sentence and then do just that."—USA Today, Four Stars
From a major voice in Southern literature comes award-winning author Ron Rash's Saints at the River, a novel about a town divided by the aftermath of a tragic accident--and the woman caught in the middle.
Now a Major Motion Picture from Focus Features, Starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane
The celebrated author of Montana 1948 returns to the American West in this riveting tale of familial love and its unexpected consequences.
Soon to be a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Written for the Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail. Executive Producers Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, Nick Krishnamurthy, Rumaan Alam
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
The daring and magnificent novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author.
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, Esquire, Vogue, The Washington Post, The Guardian,
"Forna is a born storyteller. . . . Not since Remains of the Day has an author so skillfully revealed the way history's layers are often invisible to all but its participants. . . . Gorgeous."--John Freeman, The Boston Globe
From Calabria to Connecticut: a sweeping family saga about sisterhood, secrets, Italian immigration, the American dream, and one woman's tenacious fight against her own fate
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is “an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a poignant meditation on love and loneliness” (The Associated Press).
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short story collections of our time.
Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and wrong kinds of love.
* INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER *
"Visceral and haunting" (New York Times Book Review) · "Hopeful" (Washington Post) · "Powerful" (Los Angeles Times) · "Thrilling" (TIME) · "Tantalizingly beautiful" (Elle) · "Suspenseful, atmospheric" (Vogue) · "Aching and poignant" (Guardian) · "Gripping" (The Economist)
WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WASHINGTON POST, NPR, CBS SUNDAY MORNING, KIRKUS, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A New York Times Bestseller
“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art….A book I could not put down.” —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
WINNER OF THE 2020 PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • “A shattering and darkly comic send-up of racial stereotyping in Hollywood” (Vanity Fair) and a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.