Chapter One Reading History
Chapter One has been discussing books for years, and will be tackling great literature for years to come. Below is a complete record of the works that have been officially selected for discussion during the group’s history.
The group uses a five star rating system, with the average of all member scores recorded as our final rating for each selection. Ratings are, of course, entirely subjective and can be based on style, content, entertainment value, or whatever factors are deemed appropriate by each member.
01/08
Group Founding
02/08
Tales of a Magic Monastery
by Theophane the Monk
★★★
03/08
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
★★★★
04/08
Dubliners
by James Joyce
★★★
05/08
The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again
by J.R.R. Tolkien
★★★★ ½
06/08
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
★★★★
07/08
Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer
★★★ ½
08/08
Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
★★★★
09/08
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by Anonymous
★★★ ½
10/08
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller
★★★ ½
11/08
Nineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell
★★★ ½
12/08
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by J.K. Rowling
★★★★
01/09
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
★★★ ½
02/09
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
★★★★
03/09
Slaughterhouse-Five; or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death
by Kurt Vonnegut
★★★ ½
04/09
The Soloist
by Steve Lopez
★★★
05/09
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
★★★
06/09
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
★★★ ½
07/09
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
★★★★ ½
08/09
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
★★★★ ½
09/09
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
★★★ ½
10/09
The Shining
by Stephen King
★★★ ½
11/09
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
★★★ ½
12/09
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
★★★★
01/10
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
by Stephen King
★★★ ½
02/10
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
★★★ ½
03/10
I, Claudius
by Robert Graves
★★★★
04/10
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
★★★ ½
05/10
The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
★★★★ ½
06/10
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
★★★ ½
07/10
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
★★★★ ½
08/10
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
by Ron Hansen
★★ ½
09/10
The Divine Comedy: Inferno
by Dante Alighieri
★★★★
10/10
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary Shelley
★★★★
11/10
Push
by Sapphire
★★★
12/10
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
★★★★ ½
01/11
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
★★★★
02/11
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
★★★
03/11
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
★★★
04/11
Water For Elephants
by Sara Gruen
★★★★
05/11
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
★★★
06/11
Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
by Holly Black
★ ½
07/11
The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
★★★★
08/11
Beowulf
by Anonymous
★★★★
09/11
A Game of Thrones
by George R.R. Martin
★★★★ ½
10/11
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson
★★★ ½
11/11
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare
★★★★
12/11
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
★★★★
01/12
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
★★ ½
02/12
Jaws
by Peter Benchley
★★★ ½
03/12
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson
★★ ½
04/12
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett
★★★ ½
05/12
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
★★★★ ½
06/12
Dune
by Frank Herbert
★★★
07/12
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
★★★★ ½
08/12
Bel Ami
by Guy de Maupassant
★★★
09/12
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe
by George Eliot
★★★ ½
10/12
Der Ring des Nibelungen; or, The Ring Cycle
by Richard Wagner
★★★★
11/12
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell
★★★ ½
12/12
Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft
by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
★★★
01/13
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
★★★★ ½
02/13
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
★★★
03/13
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
★★★★
04/13
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
★★ ½
05/13
Neuromancer
by William Gibson
★★★ ½
06/13
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller
★★★ ½
07/13
House of Leaves
by Mark Z. Danielewski
★★★★
08/13
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Max Brooks
★★★ ½
09/13
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
★★★★
10/13
Black Beauty
by Anna Sewell
★★★
11/13
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
★★★★
12/13
Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
★★★ ½
01/14
The Casual Vacancy
by J.K. Rowling
★★★
02/14
Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West
by Cormac McCarthy
★★ ½
03/14
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
★★★★
04/14
In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash
by Jean Shepherd
★★★★
05/14
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
★★★ ½
06/14
Dad Is Fat
by Jim Gaffigan
★★★
07/14
The Once and Future King
by T.H. White
★★★ ½
08/14
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
★★★★
09/14
The Dresden Files: Storm Front
by Jim Butcher
★★★ ½
10/14
The Strain
by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
★★ ½
11/14
Redwall
by Brian Jacques
★★★★
12/14
A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
★★★ ½
01/15
This Is Where I Leave You
by Jonathan Tropper
★★ ½
02/15
Stardust
by Neil Gaiman
★★★★
03/15
The Stranger Beside Me
by Ann Rule
★★★ ½
04/15
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
by Robin Sloan
★★★ ½
05/15
Off to Be the Wizard
by Scott Meyer
★★ ½
06/15
The Familiar, Vol. 1: One Rainy Day in May
by Mark Z. Danielewski
★★★★
07/15
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
★★★★
08/15
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
★★ ½
09/15
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle
★★★★
10/15
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
★★★★
11/15
The Martian
by Andy Weir
★★★★
12/15
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
★★★ ½
01/16
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
by George R.R. Martin
★★★★
02/16
The Man in the High Castle
by Philip K. Dick
★★
03/16
Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
★★
04/16 - 100th Meeting
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
★★★
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
by Lewis Carroll
★★★
05/16
The Secret History of Wonder Woman
by Jill Lepore
★★★
06/16
Jurassic Park
by Michael Crichton
★★★ ½
07/16
Red Velvet Underground: A Rock Memoir, with Recipes
by Freda Love Smith
★★★
08/16
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
★★★★
09/16
The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
★★★
10/16
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
★★★ ½
11/16
V for Vendetta
by Alan Moore & David Lloyd
★★★ ½
12/16
The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
★★★ ½
01/17
To Be or Not to Be: A Chooseable-Path Adventure
by Ryan North
★★ ½
02/17
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach
★★★ ½
03/17
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy
★★★★
04/17
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
★★★ ½
05/17
The Glass Castle
by Jeanette Walls
★★★★
06/17
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
★★★ ½
07/17
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
★★
08/17
Planet of the Apes
by Pierre Boulle
★★★★
09/17
Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery
★★★★
10/17
Blood of Elves
by Andrzej Sapkowski
★★★
11/17
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
★★★ ½
12/17
Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman
★★★ ½
01/18
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
by Stephen Hawking
★★★ ½
02/18
Alias Grace
by Margaret Atwood
★★★★ ½
03/18
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick
★★★ ½
04/18
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
by Tennessee Williams
★★★ ½
05/18
Papillon
by Henri Charrière
★★★
06/18
Artemis
by Andy Weir
★★★ ½
07/18
Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches
by John Hodgman
★★★ ½
08/18
Leviathan Wakes
by James S.A. Corey
★★★★
09/18
Ringworld
by Larry Niven
★★★
10/18
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
by Neil Gaiman
★★★
11/18
Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order)
by Bridget Quinn
★★★ ½
12/18
Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen
★★★
01/19
Ogura Hyakunin Isshu
by Various Authors, compiled by Fujiwara no Teika
★★★ ½
02/19
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
★★★ ½
03/19
A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. Le Guin
★★★★
04/19
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
by Michelle McNamara
★★★ ½
05/19
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
★★★★
06/19
The Devil All the Time
by Donald Ray Pollock
★★★★
07/19
An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro
★★★
08/19
The Hunt for Red October
by Tom Clancy
★★★
09/19
White Fang
by Jack London
★★★ ½
10/19
The Exorcist
by William Peter Blatty
★★★★
11/19
Starship Troopers
by Robert A. Heinlein
★★
12/19
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
★★★ ½
01/20
Future Shock
by Alvin Toffler
★★★
02/20
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
★★★★
03/20
The Great Train Robbery
by Michael Crichton
★★★ ½
04/20
The Three-Body Problem
by Liu Cixin
★★★
05/20
The Tombs of Atuan
by Ursula K. Le Guin
★★★★ ½
06/20
Salvation Day
by Kali Wallace
★★★★
07/20
Life Among the Savages
by Shirley Jackson
★★★★
08/20
If It Bleeds
by Stephen King
★★★ ½
09/20
Mrs Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf
★★★
10/20
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
★★★★
11/20
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
★★★★
12/20
Ready Player Two
by Ernest Cline
★★★
01/21
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
by J.R.R. Tolkien
★★★★ ½
02/21
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
★★★★
03/21
The Queen’s Gambit
by Walter Tevis
★★★ ½
04/21
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
★★ ½
05/21
The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
★★★★ ½
06/21
Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir
★★★★
07/21
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757
by James Fenimore Cooper
★★
08/21
Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner
★★★ ½
09/21
Sometimes a Great Notion
by Ken Kesey
★★★★
10/21
TekWar
by William Shatner
★★ ½
11/21
Travels with Charley: In Search of America
by John Steinbeck
★★★
12/21
The Farthest Shore
by Ursula K. Le Guin
★★★★
01/22
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
by J.R.R. Tolkien
★★★★ ½
02/22
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies
by Laura Esquivel
★★★ ½
03/22
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
by Mary Roach
★★★ ½
04/22
Odd Thomas
by Dean Koontz
★★★★
05/22
The House in the Cerulean Sea
by T.J. Klune
★★★★
06/22
The Rum Diary
by Hunter S. Thompson
★★
07/22
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville
★★★★
08/22
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
★★★★ ½
09/22
The Fortnight in September
by R.C. Sherriff
★★★ ½
10/22
Welcome to Dead House
by R.L. Stine
★★★ ½
11/22
Brother Odd
by Dean Koontz
★★★★
12/22
Little House in the Big Woods
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
★★★★
01/23
The Price of Salt
by Patricia Highsmith
★★★★
02/23
Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut
★★★ ½
03/23
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
by J.R.R. Tolkien
★★★★ ½
04/23
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
by Matthew Desmond
★★★★
05/23
True Grit
by Charles Portis
★★★★ ½
06/23
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The “Good Parts” Version
by William Goldman
★★★★
07/23
Tehanu
by Ursula K. Le Guin
★★★ ½
08/23
Betty
by Tiffany McDaniel
★★★★
09/23
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
★★★
10/23
Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship
by Catherine Raven
★★★
11/23
Tender is the Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
★★
12/23
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
★★★ ½
01/24
Red Mars
by Kim Stanley Robinson
★★★ ½
02/24
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
by Judy Blume
★★★ ½
03/24
The Torrents of Spring: A Romantic Novel in Honor of the Passing of a Great Race
by Ernest Hemingway
★★★ ½
04/24
The Unconsoled
by Kazuo Ishiguro
★★★
05/24
The King in Yellow
by Robert W. Chambers
★★★
06/24
Your Driver is Waiting
by Priya Guns
★ ½
07/24
The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach
★★★★
08/24
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
★★★★ ½
09/24
Wool
by Hugh Howey
★★★★ ½
10/24
The Stand
by Stephen King
★★★★
11/24
The Book of Elsewhere
by Keanu Reeves & China Miéville
12/24
Starter Villain
by John Scalzi
