Not everyone makes it to every book club meeting, every month. (Mind you, many make it to many meetings, which makes every month’s meetings full, rich and special.)

But you know what? Every month’s meetings happen, and happy readers gather to generously share their reading, virtually and in person. Those meetings spawn a new and intriguing combined list of books that have delighted, challenged, maybe occasionally disappointed but always filled our time in interesting ways. So, I’m just going to get to the list right away … and I’ll chatter at more length about the books, the readers, the recurring themes and lively topics that emerge in our discussions … all that and more, next month.

As always, every title on our group’s lists means that at least one (but usually more) readers have given that title thoughtful consideration. That doesn’t mean that every work on our lists is expressly recommended – but that’s more than OK, we think. Inclusion on this list always means that our readers have devoted time and attention to a title – and that, dear readers, means a lot.

• Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary – Her Private letters from inside the Studios of the 1920s, annotated by Cari Beauchamp
• Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Look After Her by Hannah Brown
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach
• James by Percival Everett
• The Donoghue Girl by Kim Fahner
• Carpenter’s Gothic by William Gaddis (audiobook)
• The Tunnel by William Gass
• Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery
• Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, narrated by Stacy Gonzalez, Jonathan Gregg and Jessica Pimentel (audiobook)
• Discretion by Faiza Guene, translated by Sarah Ardizzone
• Self-Esteem and the End of the World by Luke Healy
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Kangaroo by D.H. Lawrence
• Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
• Held by Anne Michaels
• The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
• The Capital of Dreams by Heather O’Neill
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
• The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, narrated by Aaliya Warbus and Jordan Waunch (audiobook)
• The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
• Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Sweetwater by Roxana Robinson
• Death in Spring by Merce Rodoreda
• The Dolphin House by Audrey Schulman
• Winter by Ali Smith
• The Art of Dying by Sarah Tolmie
• Nothing Left to Fear from Hell by Alan Warner
• 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger
• The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear
• Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, narrated by Catherine Ho (audiobook)