The Background: I started this book club in 2015 with my brother with the following intent: “Let’s read ten books that have been collecting dust on our shelves, books we’ve always wanted to read but simply would never otherwise take time to read.” This has morphed over the years, so now we have 12ish members, including all my siblings plus extended family and friends who are like family.

Note: In 2025, I also started a version for the kids, “Cousins’ Book Club.”

Our Method: We each recommend a list of books in December. I then send out a list of 70 titles or so, which we rank in order of interest, settling upon our collective top ten (with runners up). It’s always fascinating to see what eclectic hodgepodge of books we’ll be reading each year!

2025 – Siblings

1. Journal of a Trapper by Osborne Russell (1914)
2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2019)
3. The Lost City of Z by David Grann (2009)
4. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)
5. The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh (1953)
6. Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield (2023)
7. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (2014)
8. Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson (2006)
9. The Chelsea Murders by Lionel Davidson (1973)
10. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)

RUNNERS UP:
—– Jupiter’s Travels by Ted Simon (1979)
—– AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller (2010)
—– Last Stop Auschwitz by Eddy de Wind (1945)

2025 – Cousins [1st Year]

1. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright (1941) 
2. The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson (1977)
3. 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson (2007)
4. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss (1812)
5. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (2007)
6. The Island by Max Brooks (2017)
7. Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary (1961)
8. Star of Light by Patricia St. John (1954)
9. The Legend of Luke by Brian Jacques (1999)
10. The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (1986)

2024

1. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson (2018, nonfiction, 409 pages)
2. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011, fiction, 384 pages)
3. Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America’s First Frontier by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury (2021, biography, 383 pages)
4. The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (1922, mystery, 156 pages)
5. Misreading Scripture through Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien (2012, nonfiction, 240 pages)
6. Hammer of God by Bo Giertz (1941, fiction, 368 pages)
7. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann (2023, history, 329 pages)
8. Trails Plowed Under: Stories of the Old West by Charles M. Russell (1927, western, 211 pages)
9. The Apostle: A Life of Paul by John Pollock (1969, biography, 306 pages)
10. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. by David Grann (2017, history, 416 pages)
    
    RUNNERS UP:
    —– When the Legends Die by Hal Borland (1963, western, 304 pages)
    —– The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel by Douglas Brunt (2023, history, 374 pages)
    —– Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1959, nonfiction, 165 pages)
    —– The People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard (1894, fiction, 428 pages)
    —– Son of Hamas by Mosan Hasab Yousef (2010, nonfiction, 337 pages)

2023

1. Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale (1980, biography, 224 pages)
2. Man in the Wilderness by Jack Dewitt (1971, fiction, 217 pages)
3. Theology That Sticks: The Life-changing Power of Exceptional Hymns by Chris Anderson (2022, nonfiction, 221 pages)
4. A Planet Called Treason by Orson Scott Card (1979, Sci-fi, 299 pages)
5. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (2004, history, 352 pages)
6. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (1956, fantasy, 313 pages)
7. R.C. Sproul: A Life by Stephen J. Nichols (2021, biography, 371 pages)
8. Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667, poetry, 453 pages)
9. The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix (2018, biography, 176 pages)
   
   RUNNERS UP:
   —– A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie (1953, mystery, 220 pages)
   —– The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill (1950, history, 304 pages)
    —– The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006, fiction, 552 pages)

2022

1. Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides (2001, history, 344 pages)
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick (1968, Sci-fi, 258 pages)
3. I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short (2014, biography, 336 pages)
4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2014, fiction, 531 pages)
5. The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom by Andrew Peterson
   (2021, nonfiction, 224 pages)
6. Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck (1976, fiction, 384 pages)
7. The White Mouse by Nancy Wake (1985, biography, 216 pages)
8. Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980, fiction, 394 pages)
9. The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, the True Story of the 101st Airborne’s Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers by Richard Killblane (2012, biography, 227 pages)
10. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926, mystery, 288 pages)

2021

1. The Guest List by Lucy Foley (2020, mystery, 330 pages)
2. The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942, fiction, 123 pages)
3. Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan (1986, adventure, 344 pages)
4. The Cartographer of No Man’s Land by P.S. Duffy (2013, historical fiction, 384 pages)
5. King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard (1885, fiction, 264 pages)
6. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis (1943,Christian non-fiction, 113 pages)
7. The Long Valley by John Steinbeck (1938, short stories, 233 pages)
8. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy (1985, fiction, 351 pages)
9. A Life Observed: A Spiritual Biography of C.S. Lewis by Devin Brown (2013, biography, 241 pages)

2020

1. All You Need is KILL by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (2004, Sci-fi, 201 pages)
2. Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough (1981, biography, 370 pages)
3. Moonraker by Ian Fleming (1955, fiction, 247 pages)
4. Something Needs to Change: A Call to Make Your Life Count in a World of Urgent Need by David Platt (2019, Christian nonfiction, 224 pages)
5. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (1959, adventure, 282 pages)
6. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (1940, fiction, 471 pages)
7. Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief by Roger Lundin (1998, biography, 276 pages)
   
   RUNNERS UP:
   —-Ghost: My 30 Years as an Undercover FBI Agent by Michael R. McGowan (2018, biography, 298 pages)
   —-Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp (2002, nonfiction, 360 pages)
   —-The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1988, fiction, 182 pages)
   —-Watchmen by Alan Moore (2005, fiction, 416 pages)
   —-The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams (1977, fiction, 390 pages)
   —-Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979, Sci-fi, 193 pages)

2019

1. The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slawomir Rawicz (1956, adventure, 242 pages)
2. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M Barry (2004, nonfiction, 546 pages)
3. Rocket Men by Robert Kurson (2018, biography, 384 pages)
4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1889, travelogue,120 pages)
5. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1937, Christian nonfiction, 320 pages)
6. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (2011, Western, 336 pages)
7. Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card (1999, Sci-fi, 384 pages)
8. Pre: The Story of America’s Greatest Running Legend by Tom Jordan (1997, biography, 168 pages)
9. Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972, fiction, 478 pages)
10. “The Space Trilogy” by C.S. Lewis (Christian Sci-fi)
    —-Out of the Silent Planet (1938, 224 pages)
    —-Perelandra (1943, 288 pages)
    —-That Hideous Strength (1945, 534 pages)

2018

1. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee (2015, fiction, 278 pages)
2. The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux (1981, fiction, 384 pages)
3. The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck (1947, fiction, 64 pages)
4. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1869, fiction, 667 pages)
5. Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953, Sci-fi, 224 pages)
6. The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck (1951, nonfiction, 288 pages)
7. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985, Sci-fi, 324 pages)
8. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899, fiction, 188 pages)
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953, fiction, 175 pages)
10. Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur (2002, Christian nonfiction, 224 pages)

2015

1. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (1973, fiction, 303 pages)
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954, fiction, 398 pages)
3. Sharpe’s Tiger by Bernard Cornwell (1997, fiction, 385 pages)
4. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939, fiction, 182 pages)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932, Sci-fi, 288 pages)
6. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1953, fiction, 181 pages)
7. War by Sebastian Junger (2010, nonfiction, 304 pages)
8. The Bridge at Toko-Ri by James Michener (1953, fiction, 128 pages)
9. The Twelfth Imam by Joel Rosenberg (2010, fiction, 512 pages)

2012 [1st Year]

1. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)
2. Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov (1966)
3. Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut (1952)
4. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962)