The Trinity Book Group
Click here for current book list
Who are we? We are a random, self-selected gathering of avid readers and conversationalists, with no particular political, social or religious agenda.
All are welcome. Newcomers are especially welcome.
Since the early 1980s the Trinity Book Group has met regularly to talk about a wide variety of books. We meet at each other's homes about once every six weeks, and read and discuss some seven books each year. In our busy lives, we don't always get around to reading everything we have assigned to ourselves, but we sincerely try, and we inevitably have fun trying and have memorable discussions.
We are mostly parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut. Some of us are educators and librarians; others are lawyers, psychologists, social workers, architects, doctors, art historians and scientists ...the list of professions is endless, but you definitely don't have to be a professional to join our group - you only have to be especially interested in the good life of reading and talking - and, on occasion, of also sharing in good food and drink.
What kinds of books do we read? We read bestsellers (The Secret Life of Bees; The Poisonwood Bible; Cold Mountain); we read classics (Dinesen's Out of Africa); we read detective novels and science fiction; we read biographies and histories; we read about the Bible (Elaine Pagels' Beyond Belief); we read almost anything that we collectively find interesting.
How do we select the books we read each year? Once a year we meet as a group to propose and evaluate the next year's selections. After an energetic hour or two of contemplation and debate, we vote on the next year's list, and come up not only with a selection of books but also with a selection of meeting dates and book group hosts. It's a somewhat unpredictable process, but we always manage to muddle through in good spirits. After all, what could be more - or less - serious than a book group's selection of readings?
Nonetheless, each year we are further edified by our book group friends and colleagues. We will have read books that we neither knew about nor anticipated; we will have seen and learned more than we expected; we will have extended ourselves and enjoyed the experience.
All are welcome. Newcomers are especially welcome. Call Jenny Briggs at 203-624-2488 for information and directions or click here to email
Book Group Schedule and Selections 2011-2012
(Click here to download PDF)
Saturday, September 17 (potluck supper)
Venue: Leroy and Carolyn Gould
Book: The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Tuesday, October 18
Venue: Jenny Briggs
Book: The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Monday, November 14
Venue: Boyd and Julianne Griffin
Book: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1860 to the present by Gail Collins
Monday, December 12
Venue: Peg Chambers
Book: The Madonnas of Leningrad by Deborah Dean
Tuesday, March 6
Venue: Wells and Maria Brandriff
Book: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Tuesday, April 10
Venue: Gary and Deborah Desir
Book: Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman
Monday, June 11 (potluck supper)
Venue: Joan Dreyfus
Book: The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Wednesday, June 27
Venue: Skip Weldon and Nancy Brown
Book Browse (to select books for next year)
Reading Lists 2001-11
Here is what the Trinity Book Group has read and discussed since 2001
2010-2011
A Game of Character by Craig Robinson
The Last Station by Jay Parini
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Thoreau Night, read one of his 3 books by Henry David Thoreau
2009-2010
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
Suite Francaise by Irene Némirovsky
Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
Body and Soul by Frank Conroy
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
2008-2009
The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky
A Letter to America by David Boren
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2007-2008
The Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers
A Year In the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell
2006-2007
The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
2005-2006
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink,
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong
The Kite-Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
2004-2005
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith
Beyond Belief, Elaine Pagels
Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
As I Sat on the Green, ed. Alice Mattison et al
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
2003-2004
The Piano on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, Bernard Lewis
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Prague, Arthur Philip
The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan
2002-2003
Firehouse, David Halberstam
Jim the Boy, Tony Earley
Lying Awake, Mark Salzman
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
Death in Holy Orders, P. D. James
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym
2001-2002
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill
A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr
My Garden Book, Jamaica Kincaid
Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
The Trinity Book Group
Click here for current book list
Who are we? We are a random, self-selected gathering of avid readers and conversationalists, with no particular political, social or religious agenda.
All are welcome. Newcomers are especially welcome.
Since the early 1980s the Trinity Book Group has met regularly to talk about a wide variety of books. We meet at each other's homes about once every six weeks, and read and discuss some seven books each year. In our busy lives, we don't always get around to reading everything we have assigned to ourselves, but we sincerely try, and we inevitably have fun trying and have memorable discussions.
We are mostly parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut. Some of us are educators and librarians; others are lawyers, psychologists, social workers, architects, doctors, art historians and scientists ...the list of professions is endless, but you definitely don't have to be a professional to join our group - you only have to be especially interested in the good life of reading and talking - and, on occasion, of also sharing in good food and drink.
What kinds of books do we read? We read bestsellers (The Secret Life of Bees; The Poisonwood Bible; Cold Mountain); we read classics (Dinesen's Out of Africa); we read detective novels and science fiction; we read biographies and histories; we read about the Bible (Elaine Pagels' Beyond Belief); we read almost anything that we collectively find interesting.
How do we select the books we read each year? Once a year we meet as a group to propose and evaluate the next year's selections. After an energetic hour or two of contemplation and debate, we vote on the next year's list, and come up not only with a selection of books but also with a selection of meeting dates and book group hosts. It's a somewhat unpredictable process, but we always manage to muddle through in good spirits. After all, what could be more - or less - serious than a book group's selection of readings?
Nonetheless, each year we are further edified by our book group friends and colleagues. We will have read books that we neither knew about nor anticipated; we will have seen and learned more than we expected; we will have extended ourselves and enjoyed the experience.
All are welcome. Newcomers are especially welcome. Call Jenny Briggs at 203-624-2488 for information and directions or click here to email
Book Group Schedule and Selections 2011-2012
(Click here to download PDF)
Saturday, September 17 (potluck supper)
Venue: Leroy and Carolyn Gould
Book: The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Tuesday, October 18
Venue: Jenny Briggs
Book: The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Monday, November 14
Venue: Boyd and Julianne Griffin
Book: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1860 to the present by Gail Collins
Monday, December 12
Venue: Peg Chambers
Book: The Madonnas of Leningrad by Deborah Dean
Tuesday, March 6
Venue: Wells and Maria Brandriff
Book: The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Tuesday, April 10
Venue: Gary and Deborah Desir
Book: Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman
Monday, June 11 (potluck supper)
Venue: Joan Dreyfus
Book: The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Wednesday, June 27
Venue: Skip Weldon and Nancy Brown
Book Browse (to select books for next year)
Reading Lists 2001-11
Here is what the Trinity Book Group has read and discussed since 2001
2010-2011
A Game of Character by Craig Robinson
The Last Station by Jay Parini
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Thoreau Night, read one of his 3 books by Henry David Thoreau
2009-2010
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
Suite Francaise by Irene Némirovsky
Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
Body and Soul by Frank Conroy
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
2008-2009
The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky
A Letter to America by David Boren
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
2007-2008
The Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers
A Year In the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell
2006-2007
The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
2005-2006
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink,
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong
The Kite-Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
2004-2005
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith
Beyond Belief, Elaine Pagels
Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
As I Sat on the Green, ed. Alice Mattison et al
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
2003-2004
The Piano on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, Bernard Lewis
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Prague, Arthur Philip
The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman
Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan
2002-2003
Firehouse, David Halberstam
Jim the Boy, Tony Earley
Lying Awake, Mark Salzman
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
Death in Holy Orders, P. D. James
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
Quartet in Autumn, Barbara Pym
2001-2002
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill
A Month in the Country, J. L. Carr
My Garden Book, Jamaica Kincaid
Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Plainsong, Kent Haruf