The Booker Tea Reading Group reads award-winning and notable novels that are demographically, geographically, and thematically diverse. Below are most of the titles that we have read since 1997, additionally collected into a downloadable Google spreadsheet by Rosemarie C. of the [former] Washington, DC Chapter. Not surprisingly, a significant number were shortlisted for or awarded The Booker Prize, for which the group is named.
This spreadsheet does not (yet) include the books that we’re currently reading nor does it include the books we’ve discussed in German, which are now included on the German Subgroup page.
| TITLE | AUTHOR | COUNTRY |
|---|---|---|
| The Accidental | Ali Smith | Scotland |
| Alias Grace | Margaret Atwood | Canada |
| Ancestor Stones | Aminatta Forna | UK/West Africa |
| And She Was | Cindy Dyson | USA |
| Animal’s People | Indra Sinha | India |
| Annabel | Kathleen Winter | Canada |
| Anthills of the Savannah | Chinua Achebe | Nigeria |
| Autobiography of My Mother | Jamaica Kincaid | Antigua/US |
| Austerlitz | W.G. Sebald | Germany |
| The Barracks Thief | Tobias Wolff | USA |
| The Bear Comes Home | Rafi Zabor | USA |
| The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears | Dinaw Mengestu | Ethiopia/USA |
| The Beginning of Spring | Penelope Fitzgerald | UK |
| Bel Canto | Ann Patchett | USA |
| Beneath the Lion’s Gaze | Maaza Mengiste | Ethiopia |
| Billy Bathgate | E.L. Doctorow | USA |
| Birds Without Wings | Louis de Bernières | UK |
| Bitter Fruit | Achmat Dangor | South Africa |
| The Blackwater Lightship | Colm Toibin | Ireland |
| Bodega Dreams | Ernesto Quinonez | USA/Puerto Rico |
| Bone | Fae Myenne Ng | USA/China |
| The Bone People | Keri Hulme | New Zealand |
| The Book of Salt | Monique Truong | Vietnam/USA |
| Born on a Tuesday | Elnathan John | Nigeria |
| The Box Man | Kobo Abe | Japan |
| Breakfast on Pluto | Patrick McCabe | Ireland |
| Brick Lane | Monica Ali | Bangladesh/UK |
| The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Diaz | Dominican Republic/USA |
| Bring Up the Bodies | Hilary Mantel | UK |
| The Buddha of Suburbia | Hanif Kureishi | UK |
| Burnt Shadows | Kamila Shamsie | Pakistan |
| Butterfly Burning | Yvonne Vera | Zimbabwe |
| Canada | Richard Ford | USA |
| Caramelo | Sandra Cisneros | USA |
| The Cave | Jose Saramago | Portugal |
| The Chaneysville Incident | David Bradley | UK |
| Company of Liars | Karen Maitland | UK |
| Chronicle in Stone | Ismail Kadare | Albania |
| The City Always Wins | Omar Robert Hamilton | UK |
| A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers | Xiaolu Guo | China |
| The Conservationist | Nadine Gordimer | South Africa |
| Crossing the River | Caryl Phillips | St. Kitts/UK |
| The Dark Bride: A Novel | Laura Restrepo | Columbia |
| Day of the Oprichnik | Vladimir Sorokin | Russia |
| The Death of Artemio Cruz | Carlos Fuentes | Mexico |
| The Death of Vishnu | Manil Suri | India/US |
| Delirium | Laura Restrepo | Columbia |
| Desirable Daughters | Bharati Mukherjee | India/US |
| The Devotion of Suspect X | Keigo Higashino | Japan |
| The Dew Breaker | Edwidge Danticat | Haiti |
| Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant | Anne Tyler | USA |
| Disgrace | J.M. Coetzee | South Africa |
| Dogeaters | Jessica Hagedorn | USA |
| Dogside Story | Patricia Grace | New Zealand |
| Douglass’ Women | Jewell Parker Rhodes | USA |
| England, England | Julian Barnes | UK |
| The English Patient | Michael Ondaatje | Sri Lanka/Canada |
| Evening is the Whole Day | Preeta Samarasan | Malaysia |
| Exit West | Mohsin Hamid | Pakistan |
| The Famished Road | Ben Okri | Nigeria |
| Fasting, Feasting | Anita Desai | India |
| Fateless | Imre Kertész | Hungary |
| The Feast of the Goat | Mario Vargas Llosa | Peru |
| The Finkler Question | Howard Jacobson | UK |
| The Fortress of Solitude | Jonathan Lethem | USA |
| The Four Books | YAN Lianke | China |
| The Free World | David Bezmozgis | Latvia |
| Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon | Jorge Amado | Brazil |
| Get A Life | Nadine Gordimer | South Africa |
| The Ghost Road | Pat Barker | UK |
| The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy | India |
| Going After Cacciato | Tim O’Brien | USA |
| A Golden Age | Tahmima Anam | Bangladesh |
| A Grain of Wheat | Ngugi Wa Thiong’o | Kenya |
| The Ground Beneath Her Feet | Salman Rushdie | UK |
| Hard Revolution | George Pelecanos | USA |
| The Harmony Silk Factory | Tash Aw | Taipei/Malaysia |
| The Hero’s Walk | Anita Rau Badami | India |
| The Hiding Place | Trezza Azzopardi | UK |
| Homegoing | Yaa Gyasi | Ghana |
| Hotel du Lac | Anita Brookner | UK |
| The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine | Alina Bronsky | Russia/Germany |
| How Late It Was, How Late | James Kelman | Scotland |
| The Hummingbird’s Daughter | Luis Alberto Urrea | Mexico |
| The Icarus Girl | Helen Oyeyemi | UK, Nigeria |
| Ilustrado | Miguel Syjuco | Phillippines |
| The Imperfectionists | Tom Rachman | Canada |
| Inglorious | Joanna Kavenna | UK |
| The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai | USA |
| In the Country of Men | Hisham Matar | Libya |
| Intuition | Allegra Goodman | USA |
| The Intuitionist | Colson Whitehead | USA |
| Island of a Thousand Mirrors | Nayomi Munaweera | Sri Lanka |
| Journey to the End of the Millennium | A.B. Yehoshua | Israel |
| Jazz | Toni Morrison | USA |
| Kintu | Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi | Uganda |
| Krik, Krak | Edwidge Danticat | Haiti |
| Ladies Coupé | Anita Nair | India/UK |
| Landesbühne | Siegfried Lenz | Germany |
| Last Orders | Graham Swift | UK |
| Lincoln in the Bardo | George Saunders | US |
| The Line of Beauty | Alan Hollinghurst | UK |
| Links | Nuruddin Farah | Somalia |
| Little Bee | Chris Cleave | UK |
| The Lizard Cage | Karen Connelly | Canada |
| Lost in Translation | Nicole Mones | USA |
| Love Like Gumbo | Nancy Rawles | USA |
| The Luminaries | Eleanor Catton | Canada/New Zealand |
| Mao II | Don DeLillo | USA |
| A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar | USA |
| The Map of Love | Ahdaf Soueif | Egypt |
| March: A Novel | Geraldine Brooks | Australia/USA |
| Master Georgie | Beryl Bainbridge | UK |
| Messiah of Stockholm | Cynthia Ozick | USA |
| Midnight’s Children | Salman Rushdie | UK |
| The Ministry of Pain | Dubravka Ugrešić | Croatia (Yugoslavia) |
| Mister Sandman | Barbara Gowdy | Canada |
| The Mixquiahuala Letters | Ana Castillo | Mexican/American |
| Monkey Hunting | Cristina Garcia | USA/Cuba |
| Mosquitoland | David Arnold | US |
| The Mystic Masseur | V.S. Naipaul | Trinidan/UK |
| Nada | Carmen Laforet | Spain |
| Nervous Conditions | Tsitsi Dangarembga | Zimbabwe |
| Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro | UK/Japan |
| The Night Counter | Alia Yunis | USA |
| Old Filth | Jane Gardam | UK |
| One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd | Jim Fergus | UK |
| Oryx & Crake | Margaret Atwood | Canada |
| Paradise of the Blind | Duong Thu Huong | Vietnam |
| Possession | A.S. Byatt | UK |
| Purge | Sofi Oksanen | Finland |
| Purple Hibiscus | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Nigeria |
| The Quest for ChristaT | Christa Wolf | Germany |
| Red April | Santiago Roncagliolo | Peru |
| Reef | Romesh Guneskera | UK/Sri Lanka |
| The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | UK/Japan |
| Remembering Babylon | David Malouf | Australia |
| Reservation Blues | Sherman Alexie | USA/Native American |
| Room | Emma Donoghue | Ireland |
| Sacred Hunger | Barry Unsworth | UK |
| The Salteaters | Toni Cade Bambara | USA |
| The Salt Letters | Christine Balint | Australia |
| The Sea, the Sea | Iris Murdoch | UK/Ireland |
| Secrets | Nuruddin Farah | Somalia |
| The Secret Scripture | Sebastian Barry | Ireland |
| The Secret River | Kate Grenville | Australia |
| The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes | UK |
| Shadow of the Wind | Carlos Ruiz Zafón | Spain |
| The Shipping News | E. Annie Proulx | USA |
| A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian | Marina Lewycka | UK/Ukraine |
| Sisters Brothers | Patrick DeWitt | Canada |
| The Slap | Christos Tsiolkas | Australia |
| Small Island | Andrea Levy | UK |
| Snake Charmer | Sanjay Nigam | India/USA |
| Snow Falling on Cedars | David Guterson | USA |
| Southern Front | Alejandro Murguia | USA |
| Space Between Us | Thrity Umrigar | India/USA |
| Spidertown | Abraham Rodriguez, Jr. | USA/Puerto Rico |
| Star of the Sea | Joseph O’Connor | Ireland |
| Station Eleven | Emily St. John Mandel | Canada |
| Staying On | Paul Scott | UK |
| The Story of My Teeth | Valeria Luiselli | Mexico |
| Such a Long Journey | Rohinton Mistry | India |
| Sugar | Bernice McFadden | USA |
| Sultry Moon | Mempo Giardinelli | Argentina |
| The Swallows of Kabul | Yasmina Khadra | Algeria |
| The Thief | Fuminori Nakamura | Japan |
| The Thief and the Dogs | Naguib Mahfouz | Egypt |
| Thirteen Cents | K. Sello Duiker | South Africa |
| The Tiger’s Wife | Téa Obreht | USA |
| Tinisima | Elena Poniatowska | Mexico |
| Tipping the Velvet | Sarah Waters | Wales |
| Trumpet | Jackie Kay | Scotland |
| The Tuner of Silences | Mia Couto | Mozambique |
| 26a | Diane Evans | UK |
| Under the Frog | Tibor Fischer | UK |
| Union Atlantic | Adam Haslett | USA |
| The Unquiet Earth | Denise Giardina | USA |
| Visitation | Jenny Erpenbeck | East Berlin, Germany |
| A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan | USA |
| Waiting | Ha Jin | China |
| The Wandering Falcon | Jamil Ahmad | Pakistan |
| Water from the Well | Myra McLarey | USA |
| Ways of Dying | Zakes Mda | South Africa |
| West | Julia Franck | Germany |
| The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | UK |
| The Wilderness | Samantha Harvey | UK |
| Wild Ginger | Anchee Min | China/San Francisco |
| Wild Seed | Octavia Butler | USA |
| The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami | Japan |
| Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel | UK |
| Wolf Whistle | Lewis Nordan | USA |
| A Woman In Jerusalem | A.B. Yehoshua | Israel |
| World’s End | T. Coraghessan Boyle | USA |
| Yocandra in the Paradise of Nada | Zoe Valdes | Cuba |