From April 26^th, 2006 – May 16^th, 2018, I had the absolute honor to serve as the Group Facilitator and Program Coordinator for the Morro Bay Book Discussion Group, a free program of the Morro Bay Library.

I am grateful to the many wonderful people who have read and discussed with us through the years, as well as the incredible authors who have shared their expertise and talents with us. Most importantly, this experience wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the amazing Morro Bay Library staff (past and present) who supported us behind the scenes. I will miss you all! Thank you for an incredible ride!

I have included a comprehensive list of all the books we have read and discussed during my tenure.

* – means author present

2006

• Granny D A Memoir - You're Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell by Doris Haddock with Dennis Burke
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• Women of Sand and Myrrh by Hanan al-Shaykh
• Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
• The Third Man by Graham Greene
• The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
• Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
• Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
• Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Straight Man by Richard Russo
• The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
• The Teammates by David Halberstam
• The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
• Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
• Open Secrets Stories by Alice Munro
• Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg

2007

• *Rails Across the Ranchos by Loren Nicholson
• The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
• *The Bridge by Silvio Cadenasso
• Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
• *Images of America - Morro Bay by Roger Castle and Gary Ream
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• *World War II as Seen Through Kids' Eyes by Ralph & Cathy Brink
• Evenings at Five by Gail Godwin
• Saturday by Ian McEwan
• The Test by Dorothy Bryant
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
• Burning Bright by John Steinbeck
• All Over Creation by Ruth L. Ozeki (SLO County Reads Book Selection)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• For One More Day by Mitch Albom
• The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
• A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

2008

• *Tripping the Light Fantastic by Bud Mercer
• *The Haunting of Cambria by Richard Taylor
• Down to a Soundless Sea by Thomas Steinbeck
• *Brandon's Trail by Marvin Sossna
• About Alice by Calvin Trillin
• Swan by Frances Mayes
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle
• Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
• The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis
• Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
• Heart Songs and Other Stories by E. Annie Proulx
• A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott
• The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickford
• Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble
• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Quality of Life Report by Meghan Daum
• Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver
• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
• Limitations by Scott Turow
• Celebrate Peace - 108 Ways to Create a More Peaceful World by Louise Diamond
• The Power of Intention - Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way by Dr. Wayne Dyer
• Bowling Alone - The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
• The Faith Club - A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search for Understanding by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner
• The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• If You Love this Planet - A Plan to Heal the Earth by Helen Caldicott, M.D.
• Awareness by Anthony De Mello

2009

• *First to Kill by Andrew Peterson
• *Visioning Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams by Dr. Lucia Capacchione
• *Local Endangered Places Edited by Rosemary Wilvert
• The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• *The Adventures of Hunter and Ramona Pug Series/What About Me by Destry Ramey
• No! I don't want to Join a Book Club - Diary of a 60th Year by Virginia Ironside
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
• Resistance by Anita Shreve
• *Ordinary Aphrodite by Anne Schroeder
• Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky
• *Special Books for Special Kids Children's Book Series by Hal & Renee Belch
• *Language of the Soul Poetry Readings with Kevin Patrick Sullivan
• Dreams from My Father - A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
• The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
• *Point Piedras Blancas by Carole Adams and John Bogacki
• The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
• Giving - How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
• *To Discourage Me is No Easy Matter - The Life of California Pioneer William Goodwin Dana by Joseph L. Dana
• *Carillo's Defiant Daughters by Loren Luis Nicholson
• When the Emeror was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Morternson and David Oliver Relin
• The Final Solution: A story of Detection by Michael Chabon
• *Shedding Skins by Marion Wolff
• *Your Perfect Right - writing, editing & publishing books by Dr. Bob Alberti
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
• The Sea by John Banville
• *Simply Natural Cookbooks - Ice Cream with Cathe Olson
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Socieety by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
• Flight by Sherman Alexie
• *Kids Can Read! - Kids Can Write! by Chuck Dowdle
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
• Digging to America by Anne Tyler
• Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
• Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
• Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith

2010

• Excavating Your Authentic Self by Sarah Ban Breathnach
• *Murder in Los Lobos by Sue McGinty
• *It's the Stories you Tell that Color Your Life by Alan & Mary Lou Falstreau
• *Salmon Run by S.W. Capps
• *Dancing in the Footsteps of Eve by Heather Mendel
• The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
• *Disappearing Destinations by Kimberly Lisagor
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
• The Celestine Prophecy - An Adventure by James Redfield
• *The Castillo Legacy by Howard Eduardo Burt
• *Days Like Floating Water, A Story of Modern China by Sue McKee
• Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott
• All I Really Neded to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
• Fire in the Blood by Irene Nemirovsky
• *Norman Clyde, Legendary Mountaineer of California's Sierra Nevada by Robert C. Pavlik
• A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
• Some People say that…God is No Laughing Matter - An Artist's Observations and Objections on the Spiritual Path by Julia Cameron
• The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
• A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner
• The Difference a Day Makes by Karen M. Jones
• The Magicians by Lev Grosman
• Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
• From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konisburg
• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (Veda Freedman, Group Facilitator)
• M.C. Higgins, The Great by Virginia Hamilton
• Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
• Living Juicy by SARK
• Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
• Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones
• Best Friends Forever by Jennifer WEiner
• A Deep Breath of Life - Daily Inspiration for Heart-Centered Living by Alan Cohen
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Sister Carrie by Theodore Creiser
• Wishin' and Hopin' - A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb

2011

• You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay
• Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
• The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
• 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
• Farm City, the Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter (Cuesta Book of the Year)
• Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky
• A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
• The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
• Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way by Dan Buettner
• Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective - Book 1 by Donald J. Sobol
• Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld
• The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
• Steinbeck Country by Steve Crouch
• In the Shadow of the Cypress by Thomas Steinbeck
• *Wise Woman's Way by Berta Parrish
• The Long Fall by Walter Mosley
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Poems that Live Forever selected by Hazel Felleman
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• Parade Along the Creek San Luis Obispo Memoreies of the 1920s through 60's by Rose McKeen
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
• The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder by Rebecca Wells
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
• U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
• Night Over Water by Ken Follett
• The Bookwoman's Last Fling by John Dunning
• The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell
• Deception by Jonathan Kellerman
• 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
• *Mariner's Compass by Earlene Fowler
• Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
• The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
• The Whole Truth by David Baldacci
• The Private Patient by P.D. James

2012

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst
• The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
• Little Bee by Chris Cleave
• I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg
• In the Neighborhood - the Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time by Peter Lovenheim (Cuesta Book of the Year)
• Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith
• Night Road by Kristin Hannah
• Food Rules - An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan
• The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Outliers - The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
• Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
• The World is Flat - A Brief History of the TWenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• House Rules by Jodi Picoult
• Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
• The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
• Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
• One Good Dog by Susan Wilson
• The Warmth of Other Suns - The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler
• *Blood Daughters: A Romilia Chacon Novel by Marcos M. Villatoro
• Innocent by Scott Turow
• *Somewhere in Crime - Central Coast Mystery Writers Anthology 2012 - Sue McGinty, Editor
• The Troubled Man - A Kurt Wallender Novel by Henning Mankell
• The Silent Spirit by Margaret Coel
• Worth Dying For by Lee Child
• Edge by Jeffery Deaver
• All the Colors of Darkness by Peter Robinson
• Foreign Influence by Brad Thor
• Caught by Harlan Coben

2013

• The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
• Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
• The Leopard by Jo Nesbo
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• The Language of Flowes by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag
• In the Garden of Beasts - Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
• The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
• Bonnie by Iris Johansen
• Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
• I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron
• Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger
• Fatal Error by J. A. Jance
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• Moonwalking with Einstein - The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
• A Trick of the Light by Louisa Penny
• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
• The Age of Miracles by Kraen Thompson Walker
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Feast Day of Fools by James Lee BurkeThe Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
• Heading out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick
• The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Steadman
• V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
• The Appeal by John Grisham
• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• The Drop by Michael Connelly
• Canada by Richard Ford
• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
• Storm Prey by John Stanford
• Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray
• Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Affair by Lee Child
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
• The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler
• Gold by Chris Cleave
• Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan

2014

• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
• Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
• Broken Harbor by Tana French
• The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
• The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear
• Orange is the New Black - My Year in a Women's Prison - A Memoir by Piper Kerman (Cuesta Book of the Year)
• Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
• Defending Jacob by William Landay
• The Innocent by David Baldacci
• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
• Wild - from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
• Shadow Tag by Louise Erdich
• Gun Games by Faye Kellerman
• The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
• The Fault in our Stars by John Green
• The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood
• The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
• Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
• The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
• The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison
• Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich
• The Red Hosue by Mark Haddon
• The Last Man by Vince Flynn
• The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig
• The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (Cuesta Book of the Year 2015)
• Blind Justice: A William Monk Novel by Anne Perry
• Inferno by Dan Brown
• Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
• The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
• Private Life by Jane Smiley
• Black List by Brad Thor
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
• The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
• The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

2015

• Under the Wide & Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
• Longbourn by Jo Baker
• Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
• A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre
• The Circle by Dave Eggers
• The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
• Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
• The Hunter by John Lescroart
• Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
• the Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
• Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
• The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
• The Complaints by Ian Rankin
• The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
• all Day and A Night by Alafair Burke
• You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz
• The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
• Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus
• Lucky Us by Amy Bloom
• A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
• The Accident by Chris Pavone
• The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
• The Black-Eyed Blond - A Philip Marlowe Novel by Benjamin Black
• The Care and Management of Lies: A Novel of the Great War by Jacqueline Winspear
• China Dolls by Lisa See
• Night Film by Marisha Pessl
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• Still Foolin' Em - Where I've Been, Where I'm Going and Where the Hell are My Keys? by Billy Crystal
• The Matchmaker by Elin Hiderbrand
• Capitol Murder by Phillip Margolin
• The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
• The River Knows by Amanda Quick
• Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
• Being Mortal - Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

2016

• The Paying Guests by Sarah Water
• The Expats by Chris Pavone
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
• Cross and Burn by Val McDermid
• Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
• 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross
• Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free by Hector Tobar
• The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar (Cuesta Book of the Year)
• The Vacationers by Emma Straub
• The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
• Some Luck by Jane Smiley
• Big Magic - Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Hurricane Sisters by Dorothea Benton Frank
• Rose Gold by Walter Mosley
• At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen
• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
• Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
• The Escape by David Baldacci
• The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt
• Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy
• The Burning Room by Michael Connelly
• One Plus One by Jo Jo Moyes
• The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Dead Will Tell by Linda Castillo
• Outline by Rachel Cusk
• Wicked Prey by John Sanford
• The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
• Naughty in Nice - A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen
• Someone by Alice mcDermott
• Bel Canto by Anne Patchett
• The President's Shadow by Brad Meltzer
• Where'd you Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
• Talk Talk by T. C. Boyle
• The English Spy by Daniel Silva
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

2017

• This is Your Life Harriet Chance! by Jonathan Evison
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
• A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
• Never Go Back by Lee Child
• Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
• Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little (Veda Freedman, Group Facilitator)
• Bossypants by Tina Fey (Cindy Farrow, Group Facilitator)
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• The Widow by Fiona Barton
• The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
• What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan
• My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (Marilyn Shuklian, Group Facilitator)
• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
• All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
• My Brilliant Friend - Book One by Elena Ferrante
• The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick
• Faithful Place by Tana French
• Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
• The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman
• Find Her by Lisa Gardner
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
• The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
• A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George
• The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
• A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
• Off the Grid by C.J. Box
• Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Summer before the War by Helen Simonson
• Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear

2018

• Dead Wake-The Last Crossing of Lusitania by Erik Larson
• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler
• *Shakespeare's True Love by Helen E. Burton
• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
• Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille
• The Dinner by Herman Koch
• Life, Animated by Ron Suskind (Cuesta Book of the Year)
• The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Saffran Foer
• Dewey-The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
• Death on Blackheath by Anne Perry
• In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
• Deadline by Sandra Brown
• Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck