1. The Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier (Plume)
   
   
2. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (Picador USA)
   
   
3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little Brown)
   
   
4. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Vintage)
   
   
5. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (Grove)
   
   
6. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine)
   
   
7. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (HarperPerennial)
   
   
8. John Adams by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster)
   
   
9. Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland (Penguin)
   
   
10. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial)
    
    
11. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross (Ballantine)
    
    
12. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Warner & HarperCollins)
    
    
13. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani (Ballantine)
    
    
14. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (Ballantine)
    
    
15. Jim the Boy by Tony Earley (Back Bay)
    
    
16. The Jew Store by Stella Suberman (Algonquin)
    
    
17. Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund (HarperPerennial)
    
    
18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin)
    
    
19. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Vintage)
    
    
20. Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson (Ballantine)

Book group members across the United States reflected on all the books they read and discussed during 2002 and these surfaced as the titles most often mentioned. This list represents the voices of more than 4,000 book group members who we thank for answering the survey.