Books To Shake Up Your Book Club

Early morning, August 1975: A camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds … Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a “stunner” (People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

Following their mother’s death, two estranged brothers come together to decipher the inheritance their mother left for them—a traditional Caribbean black cake and a voice recording. On the tape, they hear her own story of her tumultuous past, with secrets that puts everything they thought they knew about their family, and themselves, in a new light. Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, can shape relationships and history. Not only is this book a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick, but it is also a Hulu series, so you know there will be a lot to discuss!

Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister’s death in this “deeply nuanced and compelling” (Vogue) novel, from the acclaimed author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein.

Considered to be too crude for courtly life, Marie de France is cast out to England where she is to become the new prioress of an impoverished abbey. But what was meant to be a life punishment, quickly becomes her life’s greatest passion. Marie becomes fiercely loyal to the nuns under her care, and born to a long line of women warriors and crusaders, she is determined to follow in her ancestors’ footsteps and chart a new path forward.

Prepare for a ruthless and romantic new fantasy from #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author Sabaa Tahir that introduces a new generation of characters set in the same world as the unforgettable An Ember in the Ashes series. Tahir interweaves the lives of three young people as they grapple with power, treachery, love, and the devastating consequences of unchecked greed, on a journey that may cost them their lives — and their hearts. Literally.

The lives of three women — transgender and cisgender — collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires in “one of the most celebrated novels of the year” (Time). This provocative novel is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can’t reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.

Jane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around. She just finished her second novel — a centuries-spanning epic her husband dubs her “mulatto War and Peace.” Finally, some semblance of stability and success seems to be within her grasp. But things don’t work out quite as hoped. Desperate for a plan B, like countless writers before her, Jane turns her gaze to Hollywood. Funny, piercing, and page-turning, Colored Television is Senna’s most on-the-pulse, ambitious, and rewarding novel yet.

The award-winning, bestselling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space. A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: A story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both. In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.

Ph.D. student Ingrid Yang has been toiling away on her dissertation on the poet Xiao-Wen Chou for years, not gaining much ground, until she comes across a curious note in the archives. But this note proves to be a much more explosive discovery than she could ever have imagined, upending her sheltered life in academia, her relationship to white men and white institutions, and her own identity. Hilarious and insightful, your book club will love this book.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: A doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist …

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a simmering historical noir about a daydreaming secretary, a lonesome enforcer, and the mystery of the missing woman they’re both desperate to find. Enter the world of Mexico in the 1970s, where life is cheap and the price of truth is high.

To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession. An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice.

In this poignant coming-of-age story, almost-eleven-year-old KB deals with family, identity, and race. Following the death of her father by an overdose, KB and her sister, Nia, are sent to live with her estranged grandfather. Dealing with the aftermath of his death, the rumors circulating about her family, and the distance she feels from her mother and sister, KB will carve out an identity for herself and find her own voice.

A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past, an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents, and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom.

Ruthie has spent her entire life in the frozen town of Waitsfield, Massachusetts, but has never felt as if she belonged. When the majority of the families in town have ancestors who sailed over on the Mayflower, they don’t look kindly on those just struggling to get by. But a town this small is bound to have secrets just lurking below the surface, and when Ruthie discovers the truth, she will be lucky to get out alive.

One weekend. The elite underbelly of a Nigerian city. A party that goes awry. A tangled web of sex, lies, and corruption that leaves no one unscathed. A thrilling new novel from the bestselling, award-winning, visionary Akwaeke Emezi.

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: Priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. Will Chen plans to steal them back. Inspired by true events, this heist novel is equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, thrilling, and your book club will love all the twists and turns in this adventure.

Introducing Claudia Lin: A sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people’s online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until a client with an unusual request goes missing …

A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: A socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter’s wedding. Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer at the height of her powers.