12 of us met at Lester’s in Ladue for good food, drink and conversation about books in January. Here is an in-exhaustive list in no particular order of books that we enjoyed in 2017:

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

A Column of Fire by Ken Follett

The Midnight Line by Lee Child

The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box

Look Behind You by Iris Johansen

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

House of Spies by Daniel Silva

Upstream by Mary Oliver

The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseki

The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu

Aging as a Spiritual Practice by Lewis Richmond

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Year One by Nora Roberts

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Mister Monkey by Francine Prose