Chapters, a book discussion group for adults, had its first meeting in the fall of 1995. Many years and many titles later, the WMTL Chapters group is still reading, meeting, and talking!

Join Chapters for a morning or an evening discussion on the third week of the month:
Monday 11:00 – 11:45 a.m. or Wednesday 6:00 – 6:45 p.m.

Copies of the selected title are available for checkout each month. Along with a copy of the book, Chapters members receive a summary of the story, a brief background of the author, and an invitation to record a favorite quote for sharing at the following month’s meeting.

To join Chapters, please call 973-728-2822, email wmtl@wmtl.org, or stop at the Adult/Teen Services desk.

2024 Chapters

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (September 2024)
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes
The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom
The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

2023 Chapters
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McClain
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

2022 Chapters
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
Billy Summers by Stephen King
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Palisades Park by Alan Brennert
American Dirt by Janine Cummins
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

2021 Chapters
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
The Gone Dead by Chanelle Benz
The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer
Educated by Tara Westover
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

2020 Chapters VIRTUAL Titles
Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman
The Mountains Sing by Nguyn Phan Que Mai
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Super Ager by Elise Marie Collins
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Gown by Jennifer Robson
The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

2020 Titles
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

2019 Titles
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
I was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
Snap by Belinda Bauer
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Witch Elm by Tana French
The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

2018 Titles
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grisson
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
Nutshell by Ian McEwan
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryab Stradal
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

2017 Titles
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Fear the Dark by Kay Hooper
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
True Sisters by Sandra Dallas
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

2016 Titles
The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose
The Children Act by Ian McEwan
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

2015 Titles
Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
A Painted House by John Grisham
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makai
A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas D. Krstof and Sheryl WuDunn
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

2014 Titles
Nemesis by Philip Roth
Juliette Gordon Low: the Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts by Stacey A. Cordery
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Killing the Poormaster: a Saga of Poverty, Corruption, and Murder in the Great Depression by Holly Metz
The Invisible Wall: a Love Story that Broke Barriers by Harry Bernstein
The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin
The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley
Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard by Laura Bates
The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes
The Cove by Ron Rash
The Absolutist by John Boyne

2013 Titles
The Brave by Nicholas Evans
A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar
Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad by Bebe Moore Campbell
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Klein
My Abandonment by Peter Rock
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Underside of Joy by Seré Prince Halverson
The Roots of the Olive Tree by Miller Santo

2012 Titles
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
My Year With Eleanor by Noelle Hancock
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran

2011 Titles
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
Oxygen by Carol Cassella
Zoo Story by Thomas French
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran
Blame by Michelle Huneven

2010 Titles
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Pretty is What Changes by Jessica Queller
Three Weeks to Say Goodbye by C.J. Box

2009 Titles
Cost by Roxana Robinson
The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The House on Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen
Howards End by E.M. Forster
My Life in France by Julia Child
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

2008 Titles
A Free Life by Ha Jin
The Color of Water by James McBride
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
Lost Men by Brian Leung
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

2007 Titles
Angel’s Rest by Charles R. Davis
The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman
Open Secrets by Alice Munro
Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichel
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

2006 Titles
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Deafening by Frances Itani
The Ditchdigger’s Daughter by Yvonne S. Thornton
The Ha-Ha by Dave King
The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
The Lost Legends of New Jersey by Frederick Reiken
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve
You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon

2005 Titles
The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates
Gift from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh
Happiness by Will Ferguson
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Shortcut in Time by Charles Dickinson
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Sean Green
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

2004 Titles
All is Vanity by Christina Schwarz
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott
Hidden Power by Kati Marton
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Last Girls by Lee Smith
A Long Way from Home by Connie Briscoe
Lucy by Ellen Feldman
The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

2003 Titles
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
Martyr’s Crossing by Amy Wilentz
The New Work of Dogs by Jon Katz
Old Dogs and Children by Robert Inman
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach

2002 Titles
The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry
City of Light by Lauren Belfer
Clover by Dori Sanders
Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
Disobedience by Jane Hamilton
Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams
Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross
She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb
A Spanish Love by Joanna Trollope
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
This One and Magic Life by Anne George

2001 Titles
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Reservation Road by John Burnham Schwartz
Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
Talking God by Tony Hillerman
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2000 Titles
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman
The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green
Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom
The Sabbathday River by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Ferris Beach by Jill McCorkle
Emmeline by Judith Rossner
The Way I Found Her by Rose Tremain

1999 Titles
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott
Almost Perfect by Alice Adams
Libra by Don DeLillo
St. Agnes’ Stand by Tom Eidson
Mr. Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
Jackie by Josie by Caroline Preston

1998 Titles
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Time and Again by Jack Finney
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr
Naked Came the Manatee by Carl Hiaasen, et al.
Second Nature by Alice Hoffman
Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keillor

1997 Titles
The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
One True Thing by Anna Quindlen
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
Independence Day by Richard Ford

1996 Titles
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
A Yellow Raft on Blue Water by Michael Dorris
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton