Spiritual Seedlings

The MAMs Book Club

The MAMs 6 up

Nancy Flinchbaugh’s novels feature the MAMs… The Magnificent and Marvelous Book Club. They made their debut in Nancy’s first novel, Revelation in the Cave (Spiritual Seedlings, 2012) and also star in the sequels, Revelation at the Labyrinth (eLectio Publishing, 2017) and Revelation in the Roots: Emerald Isle (All Things That Matter Press, 2022). Currently she’s working on a 4th in the series, Revelation on the Sea Island. Stay tuned!

After Nancy’s first book, one of her friends told her, “I want to be in a group like the MAMs.” And so, Nancy started a MAMs Book Club Springfield, which meets once a month at Nancy’s house. Every time they read a book, Nancy creates a study guide for their discussion, and for other book clubs as well. So, if you’re looking for a good read, or you need a study guide for your own book club, check out this page! Each study guide includes comments by Nancy and the fictitious MAMs, along with questions for discussion.

Here are the books, the MAMs Book Club Springfield has read, since they began back in 2012!

1) Revelation in the Cave

2) Consider the Fork

3) Dinner with A Perfect Stranger

4) Mennonite in the Little Black Dress

5) Wicked

6) Spoon River Anthology

7) All the Way Home

8) The Happiness Project

9) Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth

10) Funny in Farsi

11) Wild

12) The Road

13) Founding Mothers

14) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

15) Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff

16) Flight Behavior

17) Under the Banner of Heaven

18) Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

19) The Fault in our Stars

20) The Stop

21) The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency

22) The Rosie Project

23) Gilead

24) The Night Circus

25) Those Who Wish Me Dead

26) The Language of Flowers

27) Keeping Faith

28) Wash

29) The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up

30) The Grand Sophy

31) The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

32) Anam Cara: The Book of Celtic Wisdom

33) The Year of Living Biblically

34) Just Mercy

35) Glitter and Glue

36) Emily Alone

37) Gaining Ground

38) Virion

39) Patriotism, Peace and Vietnam

40) Wild Raspberries

41) The Paris Secret

42) Appalachian Daughter

43) The 13th Gift

44) Of Beards and Men

45) The Invention of Wings

46) All Dressed in White

47) The Handmaid’s Tale

48) Crazy Rich Asians

49) The All-Girls Filling Station’s Last Reunion

50) Lab Girl

51) Revelation at the Labyrinth

52) Driving Miss Norma

53) Playing for Pizza

54) Fish Tank: A Novel for our Times

55) The Warmth of Other Suns

56) Vacationland

57) Exit West

58) The Buddha in the Attic

59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

60) Bubbles Unbound

61) Facials Can Be Fatal

62) Still Life

63) The Ninth Hour

64) The Banker’s Wife

65) The Hate U Give

66) Letters from the Earth

67) Where the Crawdads Sing

68) Educated: A Memoir

69) The Tattooist of Auschwitz

70) Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking  

71) Something Permanent

72) Remarkable Creatures

73) The Secrets We Kept

74) Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America

75) The Blue Diary

76) The Little Paris Bookshop

77) The Library at the Edge of the World

78) Little Fires Everywhere

79) Awakening: A Contemplative Primer on Learning to Sit

80) The Queen’s Secret

81) The Jetsetters

82)  Me and White Supremacy

83) Animal Dreams

84) Her Last Flight

85) The Path of the Holy Fool

86) The Water Dancer

87) Hillbilly Elegy

88) Nature’s Best Hope

89) Practical Magic

90) House Lessons: Renovating a Life

91) The Crow Trap

92) The World We Knew

93) Unsheltered

94) The Scent Keeper

95) The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

96) The Thursday Night Murder Club

97) TIME OUT!

98) Revelation in the Roots: Emerald Isle

99) Knight’s Fall

100) American Queen

101) One More Day

102) Active Hope

103) The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

104) The Man Who Died Twice

105) The Wright Brothers

106) Skipping Christmas

107) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

108) Barn Burner

109) Lessons in Chemistry

110) My Grandmother’s Hands

111) Mindful of Race

112) The Bullet that Missed

113) Zero Days

114) The Vanishing Half

115) The Last Devil to Die

116) A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

117) The Secret Life of Sunflowers

118) Psalm for the Wild-Built

119) A Dog Named Boo

120) The Paris Wife

121) A Man Called Ove