Book Lists
Each month we put together a list of 5 books on the same theme. Our cub then votes on which book we'll read!
Here is a list of all of our themed short lists from each month.
Disclaimer: We have not read ALL of these books, but we'd like to! The first book of the list is the on we chose to read!
March + April 2020
Theme: Early Female Authors
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh
The Dispossessed - Ursula K LeGuin
The Ship Who Sang - Anne McCaffrey
February 2020
Theme: Short Stories
A Thousand Beginnings & Endings - Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman (editors)
Taaqtumi: an anthology of arctic horror stories - edited by Neil Christopher
A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers - Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams (editors)
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories - Ken Liu
Gnomon - Nick Harkaway
January 2020
Theme: Long REads
Dhalgren - Samuel Delany
Wanderers - Chuck Wendig
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Gnomon - Nick Harkaway
November 2019
Theme: Black, Indigenous and People of Colour
Signal to Noise - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Zone One - Colin Whitehead
The Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline
Terra Nullius - Claire G. Coleman
Severance - Ling Ma
October 2019
Theme: Horror VOL IV
The Hunger - Alma Katsu
Entropy in Bloom: Stories - Jeremy Robert Johnson
Wanderers - Chuck Wendig
The Last to See Me - M. Dressler
The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling
September 2019
Theme: Back to the Books VOL IV
Vita Nostra - Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall - Suzette Mayr
Lexicon - Max Barry
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
Ink And Bone - Rachel Caine
August 2019
Theme: Climate Fiction VOL III
Blackfish City – Sam J. Miller
American War – Omar El Akkad
The Sunlight Pilgrims – Jenni Fagan
Memory of Water – Emmi Itäranta
The Tangled Lands – Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell
July 2019
Theme: Canadian Authors VOL IV
The Amateurs – Liz Harmer
Falling in Love with Hominids – Nalo Hopkinson
The Migration – Helen Marshall
All Our Wrong Todays – Elan Mastai
The Wolves of Winter – Tyrell Johnson
June 2019
Theme: LGBTQ+
An Excess Male – Maggie Shen King
The Traitor Baru Cormorant – Seth Dickinson
The Mirror Empire – Kameron Hurley
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers
Provenance – Ann Leckie
May 2019
Theme: New Weird
The Etched City – K.J. Bishop
Borne – Jeff VanderMeer
John Dies at the End – David Wong
In the Night Garden – Catherynne M. Valente
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
April 2019
Theme: First Contact
Decision at Doona – Anne McCaffrey
Rosewater – Tade Thompson
Contact – Carl Sagan
The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
Foreigner – C.J. Cherryh
March 2019
Theme: Alternate History
The Difference Engine – William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
His Majesty's Dragon – Naomi Novik
The Aeronaut's Windlass – Jim Butcher
The Yiddish Policemen's Union – Michael Chabon
Homunculus – James P. Blaylock
February 2019
Theme: Short Stories, vol. III
The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
The People in the Castle: Selected Strange Stories – Joan Aiken
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 – edited by John Joseph Adams and N. K. Jemisin
Terra Incognita: Three Novellas – Connie Willis
The New Voices of Fantasy – edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman
December 2018 – January 2019
Theme: The Long Read Vol III
Thessaly Trilogy - Jo Walton
Space - James A. Michener
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. - Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
The Passage - Justin Cronin
November 2018
Theme: Translated Novels Vol II
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn - Boris + Arkady Strugatsky
The Man With The Compound Eyes (Taiwan) - Wu Ming-Yi
A Planet For Rent (Cuba) - Yoss
Wicked Weeds (Dominican Republic) - Pedro Cabiya
The Coincident Makers (Israel) - Yoav Blum
October 2018
Theme: Horror VOL III
The Cabin at the End of the World - Paul Tremblay
The Beauty - Aliya Whiteley
Frankenstein in Baghdad - Ahmen Saadawi
Unbury Carol - John Maleran
The Hollow Tree - James Brogden
September 2018
Theme: Back to the Books Vol. III
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
Never Let Me Go -Kazuo Ishiguro
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K LeGuin
August 2018
Theme: Climate Fiction VOL II
The Fifth Season - N K Jemisin
California - Edan Lepucki
New York 2140 - Kim Stanley Robinson
Gold Fame Citrus - Claire Vay Watkins
Sunlight Pilgrims - Jenni Fagan
July 2018
Theme: Canadian Authors VOL III
Eastern Standard Tribe - Cory Doctorow
Clockwork Angel - Kevin Anderson
American War - Omar El Akkad
Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline
Last Year - Robert Charles Wilson
June 2018
Theme: Epic Fantasy
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
Pawn of Prophecy - David Eddings
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
Grace of Kings - Ken Liu
May 2018
Theme: Golden Age Sci-Fi
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Jack Finney
Starship Troppers - Robert A Heinlen
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clarke
April 2018
Theme: More Than Human
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K LeGuin
The Last Unicorn - Peter S Beagle
The Bees - Lailie Paull
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
The Mechanical - Ian Tregillis
March 2018
Theme: Modern-Day Fantasy
The Kraken - China Miéville
The Hike - Drew Magary
Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Storm Front - Jim Butcher
The Magicians - Lev Grossman
February 2018
Theme: Short Stories Vol. II
Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Perchance to Dream - Charles Beaumont
After the Apocalypse - Maureen F McHugh
The Witcher: The Last Wish - Andrzej Sapkowski
December 2017 - January 2018
Theme: The Long Winter Vol. II
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
The Great Book of Amber - Roger Zelazny
The Once and Future King - TH White
Imajica - Clive Barker
The Night Angel Trilogy - Brent Weeks
November 2017
Theme: Sequels
Parable of the Talents - Octavia E Butler
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
City of Blades - Robert Jackson Bennett
The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin
October 2017
Theme: Horror VOL II
Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill
Bird Box - Joe Malerman
The Devil in Silver - Victor LaValle
The Terror - Dan Simmons
September 2017
Theme: Back to School
The Big U - Neal Stephenson
The Magician's Guild - Trudi Canavan
The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Inda - Sherwood Smith
Lexicon - Max Barry
August 2017
Theme: Award Winners
Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Last Call - Tim Powers
Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
July 2017
Theme: Canadian Authors VOL II
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson
Tooth And Claw - Jo Walton
A Turn of Light - Julie E Czenda
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
Company Town - Madeline Ashby
June 2017
Theme: Apocalyptica
Parable of the Sower - Octavia E Butler
The Passage - Justin Cronin
The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
California - Edan Lepucki
Wool - Hugh Howey
May 2017
Theme: First Contact
Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel
Sphere - Michael Crichton
Contact - Carl Sagan
The Humans - Matt Haig
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
April 2017
Theme: More Than Human
Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain - A Lee Martinez
Neptune's Brood - Charles Stross
Anathem - Neal Stephenson
The Chanur Saga - C. J. Cherryh
Watership Down - Richard Adams
March 2017
Theme: Near Miss
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Sabriel - Garth Nix
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Shadows of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Area X: Trilogy - Jeff Vandermeer
February 2017
Theme: Short Stories
The Sentinel - Arthur C Clarke
Rogues - George R. R. Martin, Gillian Flynn, and Various
Looking For Jake - China Miéville
Pretty Monsters - Kelly Link
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse - Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, and Various
December 2016 - January 2017
Theme: The Long Winter
The Inheritance Trilogy - N.K. Jemisin
The Southern Reach Trilogy - Jeff Vandermeer
The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
November 2016
Theme: Not Lost In Translation
The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin (Chinese)
Blood of Elves: The Witcher - Andrzej Sapowski (Polish)
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin (Russian)
Paprika - Yasutaka Tsutsi (Japanese)
Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Spanish)
October 2016
Theme: Horror
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Somethign Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
September 2016
Theme: Back to the Books
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
August 2016
Theme: Climate Fiction
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
The City and the City by China Mieville
July 2016
Theme: Canadian Authors
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Station Eleven by Emily St John Handel
The Untold Tale by J.M. Frey
June 2016
Theme: Time Travel
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
The Anubis Gate by Tim Powers
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Timeline by Michael Crichton
May 2016
Theme: Renaissance-ish
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
Sabriel by Garth Nix
April 2016
Theme: Oh, maybe we should start picking themes...
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Sabriel by Garth Nix
March 2016
Theme: Scifi & Fantasy
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey
Books of the North: Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook
Legend: The Drenai Saga by David Gemmel
February 2016
Theme: First Meeting
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heilein
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman