VSDC BOOK CLUB
The Veg Society of DC (VSDC) Book Club meets once each month, usually the last Wednesday at 7:30 pm. Since March 2020 the group has primarily been meeting online. Our books alternate between fiction and nonfiction, and can be about any topic. VSDC members and friends who have read at least half the book are welcome.
An RSVP is required to attend. See the DC Area Vegan Meetup site for our upcoming meeting dates and to RSVP! Any questions, send Beth a message via Meetup.
THE VSDC BOOK CLUB
CELEBRATES 32 YEARS IN 2024!
BOOK SELECTIONS
At the end of each Book Club meeting, participants vote on whether they would recommend the book — yes, no, or “other.” We started asking this question at the April 1993 meeting. (Votes before then may not reflect all the participants.)
2024
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | This Is How It Always Is | Laurie Frankel | 10 | 0 | 0 | |
| February | Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest | Suzanne Simard | 7 | 0 | 1 | |
| March | West with Giraffes | Lynda Rutledge | 13 | 0 | 1 | |
| April | The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics | Daniel James Brown | 9 | 0 | 1 | |
| May | The Grammarians | Cathleen Schine | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| June | The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating | Elisabeth Tova Bailey | 14 | 1 | 0 | |
| July | Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel | Gabrielle Zevin | 8 | 2 | 2 | |
| August | Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants | Robin Wall Kimmerer | 12 | 1 | 2 | |
| September | Bewilderment | Richard Powers | 7 | 1 | 3 | |
| October | Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World | Christian Cooper | 9 | 1 | 3 | |
| November | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | Robert C. O'Brien | ||||
2023
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy | Jamie Raskin | 14 | 0 | 2 | |
| February | March | Geraldine Brooks | 2 | 2 | 3 | |
| March | Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents | Isabel Wilkerson | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| April | Stella Peabody’s Wild Librarian Bakery and Bookstore: A Novel-in-Stories | Stacy Russo | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| May | What the Constitution Means to Me | Heidi Schreck | 9 | 0 | 1 | |
| June | Trust | Hernan Diaz | 6 | 1 | 3 | |
| July | The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea | Hyeonseo Lee | 6 | 0 | 1 | |
| August | Intimacies | Katie Kitamura | 6 | 1 | 1 | |
| September | An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us | Ed Yong | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| October | The Violin Conspiracy | Brendan Slocumb | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| November | The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War | Ben Macintyre | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
2022
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Such a Fun Age | Kiley Reid | 5 | 2 | 1 | |
| February | Healthy at Last: A Plant-Based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes and Other Chronic Illnesses | Eric Adams | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| March | The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett | 8 | 1 | 3 | |
| April | The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind | William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer | 8 | 0 | 2 | |
| May | The Night Watchman | Louise Erdrich | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
| June | Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World’s Most Successful Insects | Jonathan Balcombe | 11 | 0 | 0 | |
| July | Beastly Things: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery | Donna Leon | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| August | Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future | Elizabeth Kolbert | 8 | 1 | 2 | |
| September | The Seed Keeper | Diane Wilson | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| October | Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law | Mary Roach | 6 | 2 | 3 | |
| November | Kindred | Octavia E. Butler | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
2021
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote | Elaine Weiss | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| February | Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead | Olga Tokarczuk | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| March | How Democracies Die | Steven Levitsky and Daniel Zieblatt | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| April | Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| May | The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe | Gayle Tzemach Lemmon | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
| June | All Creatures Great and Small | James Herriot | 8 | 2 | 1 | |
| July | Our Symphony with Animals: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies | Aysha Akhtar | 11 | 0 | 0 | |
| August | Hamnet | Maggie O’Farrell | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| September | The Structure of Scientific Revolutions | Thomas Kuhn | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| October | The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek | Kim Michele Richardson | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| November | Fun Home | Alison Bechdel | 6 | 0 | 1 | |
2020
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Charlotte’s Web | E.B. White | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| February | The Year of Living Biblically | A.J. Jacobs | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
| March | It Can’t Happen Here | Sinclair Lewis | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| April | Bringing Down the Colonel | Patricia Miller | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| May | The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemingway | 5 | 2 | 0 | |
| June | The Vegetarian Crusade | Adam Shprintzen | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| July | Conversations with Friends | Sally Rooney | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| August | We Are the Weather | Jonathan Safran Foer | 14 | 1 | 0 | |
| September | The Joy Luck Club | Amy Tan | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| October | How to Survive a Pandemic | Michael Greger | 11 | 2 | 0 | |
| November | Homegoing | Yaa Gyasi | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
2019
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Always Too Much and Never Enough | Jasmin Singer | 8 | 0 | 1 | |
| February | The Plot Against America | Philip Roth | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| March | Lab Girl | Hope Jahren | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
| April | The Immortalists | Chloe Benjamin | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| May | Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the World One Heart at a Time | Steve Jenkins and Derek Walter with Caprice Crane | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| June | There There | Tommy Orange | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| July | Killers of the Flower Moon | David Grann | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| August | An Unnecessary Woman | Rabih Alameddine | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| September | North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail | Scott Jurek and Jenny Jurek | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
| October | The Good Earth | Pearl S. Buck | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| November | Small Fry | Lisa Brennan-Jobs | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
2018
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | The Age of Innocence | Edith Wharton | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| February | The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds | Michael Lewis | 6 | 1 | 1 | |
| March | The Green and the Red | Armand Chauvel | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| April | How to Create a Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach | Tobias Leenaert | 11 | 0 | 1 | |
| May | The Underground Railroad | Colson Whitehead | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| June | Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady | Susan Quinn | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| July | Station Eleven | Emily St. John Mandel | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| August | Ageless Vegan: The Secret to Living a Long and Healthy Plant-Based Life | Tracye McQuirter and Mary McQuirter | 10 | 0 | 0 | |
| September | The Mayor of Casterbridge | Thomas Hardy | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| October | Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? | Frans de Waal | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| November | Less | Andrew Sean Greer | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
2017
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Meatonomics | David Robinson Simon | 5 | 0 | 2 | |
| February | The Vegetarian | Han Kang | 5 | 1 | 3 | |
| March | Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption | Bryan Stevenson | 7 | 0 | 1 | |
| April | Redeployment | Phil Klay | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| May | The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness | Sy Montgomery | 7 | 2 | 3 | |
| June | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | 10 | 0 | 2 | |
| July | What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of our Underwater Cousins | Jonathan Balcombe | 8 | 0 | 1 | |
| August | Scoop | Evelyn Waugh | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| September | The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals | Charles Darwin | 1 | 4 | 1 | |
| October | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | 8 | 1 | 0 | |
| November | Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City | Matthew Desmond | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
2016
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Off the Reservation | Glen Merzer | 4 | 1 | 4 | |
| February | Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End | Atul Gawande | 6 | 0 | 3 | |
| March | My Brilliant Friend | Elena Ferrante | 5 | 0 | 1 | |
| April | Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II | Vicki Croke | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| May | Leaving Time | Jodi Picoult | 5 | 2 | 1 | |
| June | The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History | Elizabeth Kolbert | 7 | 0 | 3 | |
| July | Jerry’s Vegan Women | Ben Shaberman | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| August | The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically | Peter Singer | 8 | 1 | 3 | |
| September | The Bear Went Over the Mountain | William Kotzwinkle | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| October | The Glass Castle | Jeannette Walls | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| November | Dietland | Sarai Walker | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
2015
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism, Animals, and the Sexual Politics of Meat | Kara Davis and Wendy Lee, eds. | 3 | 0 | 4 | |
| February | The Rosie Project: A Novel | Graeme Simsion | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| March | The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals | Jenny Brown | 10 | 0 | 1 | |
| April | Dog On It | Spencer Quinn | 3 | 4 | 3 | |
| May | A Fighting Chance | Elizabeth Warren | 8 | 1 | 0 | |
| June | The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry | Gabrielle Zevin | 5 | 0 | 1 | |
| July | The Lusty Vegan: A Cookbook and Relationship Manifesto for Vegans and Those Who Love Them | Ayinde Howell and Zoe Eisenberg | 1 | 3 | 5 | |
| August | The Adventures of Vivian Sharpe, Vegan Superhero | Marla Rose | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| September | Will Travel for Vegan Food | Kristin Lajeunesse | 8 | 1 | 3 | |
| October | Lord of the Flies | William Golding | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
| November | The Astronaut Wives Club | Lily Koppel | 4 | 1 | 4 | |
2014
| RECOMMEND? | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR | YES | NO | OTHER | |
| January | Where’d You Go, Bernadette | Maria Semple | 7 | 0 | 3 | |