Facilitated by former Reference Librarian Joan Ennis, the Contemporary Women Writers Book Group meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. The group primarily reads fiction by living women authors, but occasionally reads fiction and nonfiction books by living male authors.
Books are selected annually for the following year at the September meeting.
Meetings begin with background information on the writer, followed by discussion. No advance signup is required and new members are always welcome!
For more information please contact library staff at the Adult Services Desk at the Northfield Public Library, 507-645-1802.
| 2025 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | Welcome to the World, Baby Girl | Fannie Flagg |
| February | The Vaster Wilds | Lauren Groff |
| March | Akin | Emma Donoghue |
| April | Shelterwood | Lisa Wingate |
| May | The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club | Helen Simonson |
| June | Small Things Like These | Claire Keegan |
| July | The Glass Maker | Tracy Chevalier |
| August | Absolution | Alice McDermott |
| September | The Women | Hannah Kristin |
| October | James | Percival Everett |
| November | The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store | James McBride |
| 2024 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Covenant of Water | Abraham Verghese |
| February | Lucy by the Sea | Elizabeth Strout |
| March | Northernmost | Peter Geye |
| April | The Book Woman's Daughter | Kim Michele Richardson |
| May | Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver |
| June | White Ivy | Susie Yang |
| July | Braiding Sweetgrass | Robin Kimmerer |
| August | The Great Alone | Kristan Hannah |
| September | Lady Tan's Circle of Women | Lisa See |
| October | Commonwealth | Ann Patchett |
| November | Hello Beautiful | Ann Napolitano |
| 2023 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Lincoln Highway | Amor Towles |
| February | The Sentence: A Novel | Louise Erdrich |
| March | The Seed Keeper: A Novel | Diane Wilson |
| April | Black Cake: A Novel | Charmain Wilkerson |
| May | French Braid | Anne Tyler |
| June | Honor: A Novel | Thrity N. Umrigar |
| July | Matrix | Lauren Groff |
| August | Take My Hand | Domen Perkins-Valdez |
| September | The Only Woman in the Room | Marie Benedict |
| October | The Reading List: A Novel | Sara Nisha Adams |
| November | The Paris Library: A Novel | Janet Skeslien Charles |
| 2022 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Rose Code | Kate Quinn |
| February | The Women of Chateau Lafayette Promise | Stephanie Dray |
| March | News of the World | Paulette Jiles |
| April | The Girl With the Louding Voice | Abi Dare |
| May | Miss Benson's Beetle | Rachel Joyce |
| June | The Book of Longings | Sue Monk Kidd |
| July | Hamnet, A Novel of the Plague | Maggie O' Farrell |
| August | Raft of Stars | Andrew Graff |
| September | The Leavers | Lisa Ko |
| October | Call Me American | Abdi Nor Iftin |
| November | The Pull of the Stars | Emma Donoghue |
| 2021 MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Night Watchman | Louise Erdich |
| February | Promise | Minrose Gwin |
| March | A Good Neighborhood | Therese Fowler |
| April | Lost Children Archives | Valeria Luiselli |
| May | Such a Fun Age | Kiley Reid |
| June | The Friend | Sigrid Nunez |
| July | The Wife | Meg Wolitzer |
| August | Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Irin Carmon |
| September | The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett |
| October | The Dutch House | Ann Patchett |
| November | This Tender Land | William Kent Krueger |
| 2020 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | Lost Roses | Martha Hall Kelly |
| February | The Clockmaker's Daughter | Kate Morton |
| March | Homecoming | Yaa Gyasi |
| April | Becoming | Michelle Obama |
| May | The Lost Girls of Paris | Pam Jenoff |
| June | The Hate U Give | Angie Thomas |
| July | Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and a Culture in Crisis | J.D. Vance |
| August | The Huntress | Kate Quinn |
| September | The Tattooist of Auschwitz | Heather Morris |
| October | Dear Mrs. Bird | A.J. Pearce |
| November | The Woman of No Important: The Untold Story of the American Spy... | Sonia Purnell |
| 2019 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Alice Network | Kate Quinn |
| February | A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota | Sun Yung Shin |
| March | Americanah | Chimananda Adichie |
| April | Hidden Figures | Margot Lee Shetterly |
| May | Before We Were Yours | Lisa Wingate |
| June | The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley | Hannah Tinti |
| July | One in a Million Boy | Monica Wood |
| August | Left Neglected | Lisa Genova |
| September | A Gentleman in Moscow | Amor Towles |
| October | Educated | Tara Westover |
| November | Circling the Sun | Paula McClain |
| 2018 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Nightingale | Kristin Hannah |
| February | A Piece of the World | Christine Baker Kline |
| March | A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea | Melissa Fleming |
| April | Lilac Girls | Martha Hall Kelly |
| May | The History of Wolves | Emily Fridlund |
| June | Anything is Possible | Elizabeth Strout |
| July | The Optimist's Daughter | Eudora Welty |
| August | What She Knew | Gilly MacMillan |
| September | The Underground Railroad | Colson Whitehead |
| October | The Bluest Eye | Toni Morrison |
| November | The Chilbury Ladies Choir | Jennifer Ryan |
| 2017 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Signature of All Things | Elizabeth Gilbertson |
| February | The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu | Joshua Hammer |
| March | The Invention of Wings | Sue Monk Kidd |
| April | The High Mountains of Portugal | Yann Martel |
| May | A Tale for the Time Being | Ruth Ozeki |
| June | Station Eleven | Emily St. John Mandel |
| July | Dimestore: A Writer's Life | Lee Smith |
| August | Some Luck | Jane Smiley |
| September | The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father | Kao Kali Yang |
| October | The Zookeeper's Wife | Diane Ackerman |
| November | The Sleepwalker | Chris Bohjalian |
| 2016 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Warmth of Other Suns | Isabel Wilkerson |
| February | The Children Act | Ian McEwan |
| March | $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America | Kathryn Edin |
| April | A Fighting Chance | Elizabeth Warren |
| May | Go Set a Watchman | Harper Lee |
| June | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee |
| July | The Republic of Imagination: American in Three Books | Azar Nafisi |
| August | Turtle Warriors | Mary Relindes Ellis |
| September | Arsonist | Sue Miller |
| October | Hour Before Daylight | Jimmy Carter |
| November | The Turtle Catcher | Nicole Helget |
| 2015 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt |
| February | Ordinary Grace | William Kent Krueger |
| March | Enrique's Journey | Sonia Nazario |
| April | Orphan Train | Christina Baker Kline |
| May | Bohemian Flats |
Mary Ellis |
| June | The Museum of Extraordinary Things | Alice Hoffman |
| July | A Star for Mrs. Blake | April Smith |
| August | Reading Lolita in Tehran | Azar Nafisi |
| September | The Wives of Los Alamos | TaraShea Nesbit |
| October | A Man Called Ove | Fredrik Backman |
| November | All the Light We Cannot See | Anthony Doerr |
| 2014 | ||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | Unaccustomed Earth | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| February | The Book Thief | Markus Zusak |
| March | Where'd You Go, Bernadette | Marie Semple |
| April | Dew Breakers | Danticat Edwidge |
| May | Night Woods | Charles Frazier |
| June | The Light Between Oceans | M.L. Steadman |
| July | The Fault In Our Stars | John Green |
| August | Turn Here Sweet Corn | Atina Diffley |
| September | The Other | David Gutterson |
| October | Unbroken: A World War II Airman's Story of Survival | Laura Hillenbrand |
| November | Love Anthony | Lisa Genova |
|
2013 |
||
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
| January | Belong to Me | Marisa De los Santos |
| February | Paris Wife | Paula McLain |
| March | River of Doubt | Candace Millard |
| April | Behind the Beautiful Flower | Katherine Boo |
| May | Too Much Happiness | Alice Munro |
| June | Stormchasers | Jenna Blum |
| July | Horse Boy | Rupert Isaacson |
| August | Round House | Louise Erdrich |
| September | Flight Behavior | Barbara Kingsolver |
| October | The Healing | Jonathan Odell |
| November | March | Geraldine Brooks |
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