A Guide to Choosing Your Book Club's Next Read
Even if your book club is just an excuse to get together, there's a book here for you
Some readers of this blog have recently let me know that their book clubs occasionally use my recommendations as inspiration when choosing their next pick. I was so pleased when I heard this that I decided to come up with a selection guide to meet every book club’s needs. If you’re not in a book club, consider this a hyper-curated backlist recommendation list. The guide includes seven categories across genres with three to four recommendations each. I had so much fun putting this together and I hope it is helpful for you!
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For when you want to read traditional literary fiction…
The Office of Historical Corrections - Danielle Evans
After finishing Danielle Evans’ The Office of Historical Corrections, all I could think was “wow, that was good.” This book, a collection of short stories and a novella for which the book is named, was incredible. Each story contains dynamic and complex characters grappling with poignant questions of race, womanhood, nationalism, and grief. I learned so much about identity, its interactions with society at large, and American history within these subtle stories driven by the daily lives of its characters. Unlike other collections in which the stories quietly end, every story in this collection had a twist. The beauty of these twists was that while they were each shocking, Evans wove them in so naturally that they felt like an inevitable element born out of the way things sometimes sadly are.
Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips
How many books have you read set in a far-off town in northeastern Russia? Not many, I’d assume, which makes Disappearing Earth so captivating from the very start. In chapter one, two sisters go missing on a beach near the coast of Japan and Alaska. Each subsequent chapter is told from the perspective of a different woman in the community who are all connected to the crime, exposing readers to a broad expanse of viewpoints as well as the varied geography that makes up the region. Underneath the surface-level plot line of the missing girls sits a story of ethnic tensions between the indigenous population and the European Russians who migrated east during the Soviet-era and now yearn for a more organized past.
Agatha of Little Neon - Claire Luchette
Agatha and her three sisters have spent the last nine years running a parish daycare, assisting with mass, and doing good deeds. When word comes, however, that their Buffalo diocese is bankrupt, Agatha and her fellow sisters are forced to relocate to Woonsocket, Rhode Island to run a halfway house called Little Neon, named after the color of the cheap paint on its exterior. For nine years, Agatha has done everything with her sisters and reveled in the anonymity provided by the church. When she is asked to teach sophomore geometry at the local Catholic girls school, however, her world slowly begins to expand, shining light on subtle problems that were always present but that she chose to ignore. I appreciated that Agatha's reckoning with the Catholic Church and her role as a sister were not instigated by one calamitous event nor were her complaints forceful and immediately clear. Rather, it was the accumulation of a decade of subtle slights that precipitated a slow awakening for Agatha to her surroundings. This is a beautiful book on faith and religion written with detailed precision.
A Burning - Megha Majumdar
A glib comment on Facebook made by Jivan, a Muslim woman living in the slums of India, places her at the center of a terrorist investigation after a devastating attack on a train. Looking for a scapegoat, Jivan is arrested by the authorities who ignore her alibi in order to maintain the facade of an easy explanation: Muslims attack Hindus. A Burning tells not only the story of Jivan, but also the stories of other disaffected people in the community, including PT Sir, a gym teacher who discovers his path to celebrity through a right-wing Hindu political party and Lovely, a transgender woman working to prove Jivan’s innocence while struggling to survive. A Burning is a fantastic debut about politics, mob mentality, and the cost of aspiration.
For when you want non-fiction that’s going to instantly spark discussion…
The Undocumented Americans - Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
The Undocumented Americans is both a memoir and contemporary history of the lives and circumstances of undocumented people in the United States. Brought to America at a young age from Ecuador, much of Villavicencio’s life was defined by her lack of legal status. Although she is now a DREAMer, attended Harvard for undergrad, and is currently a PhD candidate at Yale, her parents remain undocumented and this stress overshadows all their lives. Villavicencio asks a central question throughout the book: what happens when a person lives in the liminal space between the idealism of the American dream and a country that tries at every turn to make the attainment of this reality as difficult as possible? The way that Villavicencio weaved her personal story, the story of her family, and the stories of the people she met, all while telling the larger story of undocumented people, was absolutely masterful. Villavicencio frequently states that she is not writing to change people’s minds but I hope that minds have been changed after picking up this powerful and moving book.
Sisters in Hate - Seyward Darby
In Sisters in Hate, Darby writes about the role of white women inside the white nationalist movement using ideology, guiding principles, and conspiracy theories. Darby focuses on three women in order to highlight three elements of the movement: distorted community, traditional gender roles as empowerment, and the monetization of conspiracy theories, hate, and misinformation. I recommend this book for anyone who learns best by reading about the first-hand experiences of others. Indeed, it is the structure of this book and its focus on individual experience that makes it so successful in conveying the motivations and dangers of the alt-right.
The Outlaw Ocean - Ian Urbina
Ian Urbina, an adventurous investigative journalist for The New York Times, seeks to redefine our priorities by exposing readers to the expansive underbelly of the fishing industry and the lawless terrain of the world’s oceans. Each chapter tackles a different issue, from the lack of safety standards for fishing trawlers, to the horrible working conditions for fishing crews, to a rampant trafficking industry of laborers. Urbina also highlights immense environmental costs, including a disregard for endangered species, toxic dumps of waste into the ocean, and the industry’s inefficiencies. At the heart of each of these issues, and the biggest roadblock to enacting meaningful change, is the fundamental lawlessness of international waters and associated difficulties in enforcing any standards to improve conditions. In spite of these enforcement challenges, Urbina encourages readers to be aware of how they contribute to these problems - indeed, unless you seek out your fish from a specific local source, you are likely eating fish that was collected within this outlaw industry.
Dirty Work – Eyal Press
In Dirty Work, Eyal Press writes about workers whose jobs perform functions society cannot live without, yet condones as morally objectionable. Press divides the book into four sections, each highlighting a different type of “dirty work”: mental health professionals in prisons, drone strike operators, slaughterhouse employees, and off-shore oil rig workers. In addition to the moral questions surrounding the work, Press argues that this work continues in the shadows of regulation because employees, who typically come from poor and underserved backgrounds, do not have the luxury of choice to quit and find new employment when their current jobs become too mentally or physically straining. As a result, the problematic elements of this work, and lots of work like it, continue quietly in the background of our lives with our tacit acceptance.
For when you want fiction that’s going to instantly spark discussion…
A Children’s Bible - Lydia Millet
Told through the collective lens of youth, A Children’s Bible takes place in the present and opens at a large vacation home in New England where old college friends have gathered with their kids. The reunion quickly goes awry when a massive storm hits the area, cutting off electricity, causing catastrophic physical damage, and ushering in anarchy. Throughout the disaster the adults are incapable of taking charge, leaving the children to fend for themselves. The book is a parable for our present time: the planet is slated for destruction because the parents, adults or people with power, have been and continue to live their lives in blissful denial. It is only the kids, the next generation, who realize their plight. This is a terrifying story in its depiction of a reality that our society is trying to deny. However, Millet’s writing is exceptional and the book has stayed with me long after I was finished.
The School for Good Mothers - Jessamine Chan
Frida is a single mother struggling to maintain her job while raising her toddler, Harriet. One day, in a fit of frustration, Frida makes a mistake and leaves her daughter alone for two hours while she drives to her office to pick up paperwork. A neighbor who hears Harriet's crying calls the police and Harriet is taken out of Frida's custody and given to Frida's ex-husband and young girlfriend while the state determines Frida's parental status. Worried that Frida's behavior is indicative of larger parenting deficiencies, Frida is sent to the School for Good Mothers, a pioneering institution designed to take "bad mothers" and reform them over the course of one institutionalized and carefully monitored year. As Frida's situation quickly spirals out of control it becomes clear that the odds are not stacked in any mother's favor, including Frida's. I enjoyed The School for Good Mothers not only because it was a well-crafted book, but also because of the larger questions that the story raised, such as what does a good mother look like and what role the state should have in regulating the welfare of children.
Disorientation - Elaine Hseih Chou
Ingrid Yang is a PhD candidate at Barnes University studying the poetic techniques of a late-Chinese American poet. Although she’s in her final year, her ambivalence towards the subject-matter - which was thrust upon her by the eager (white) department head of East Asian Studies - prevents her from making any real headway on her dissertation. One day, while sitting in the archive, Ingrid comes across a note left on one of the poems she had been studying, sending Ingrid on a wild goose chase to uncover its meaning. Hseih Chou has written a remarkable debut that humorously and satirically tackles issues of discrimination, political correctness on campus, and institutionalized elitism. This is satire at its very best - it makes you laugh and makes you think.
For when you want to feel the weight of history…
Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin
In 1978, three years after American troops withdrew from Vietnam, sixteen-year-old Anh and her two younger brothers get on a boat bound for a refugee camp in Hong Kong. The rest of their immediate family, including their parents and four younger siblings, will take the next boat and meet them there, and then they will all travel to Connecticut to be reunited with an uncle. When the rest of the family’s bodies wash ashore, Anh is suddenly elevated to the role of family matriarch, tasked with caring for her brothers at the expense of her own ambitions, all while mourning the loss of their loved ones and homeland. Angry at her uncle for convincing her father that leaving Vietnam would be a good idea, Anh tells the UN refugee official that she has no family in the United States, so the trio is instead placed in council housing in London. From there, the three siblings attempt to build a life for themselves while reckoning with choices taken and abandoned.
Trust - Hernan Diaz
Trust, the 2023 co-Pulitzer winner, is a unique story about a wealthy 1920s financier told in four distinct parts. Part one is a novel within this larger novel about a wealthy investor and his reclusive wife. The layers of the story that readers are exposed to in part one are slowly peeled back in part two, with excerpts of an autobiography of the financier that “Bond,” the mini novel, is based on. Part three includes a memoir by the woman who ghostwrites the aforementioned autobiography and part four is the journal entries of the financier’s wife. I won’t go into detail about what parts two through four reveal, but as the story unfolds whatever perceptions that were created with “Bond” as the foundational text are quickly unraveled, forcing readers to consider the perspectives that influence history.
This Other Eden - Paul Harding
Apple Island, off the cost of Maine, served as a haven for a handful of formerly enslaved people, their descendants, and otherwise persecuted people. Discovered in 1792 by Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, the two set up a life together where they and their descendants were protected from discrimination on the mainland. Over a hundred years later, there are still a handful of families living together on the island, all but forgotten by American authorities. This fragile ecosystem exists until 1912, when Matthew Diamond, a retired white schoolteacher and missionary arrives on the island. His efforts attract the attention of the Maine authorities who set out to evict the island’s residents, relocate them to schools for the “feeble minded,” and transform the island into a vacation resort for the state’s white population. This book is based on true events, which Harding reflects through news clippings, journal entries, and pamphlets interspersed throughout his chapters. Overall, I felt completely immersed in this forgotten piece of shameful history, from the beautiful descriptions of nature to the indelible depiction of human resilience.
For when you want to learn about something new…
Poverty, By America - Matthew Desmond
In Poverty, by America, sociologist Matthew Desmond explores how and why immense, debilitating poverty exists within the United States, one of the richest countries in the world. Instead of using individual stories to highlight the toll of poverty like he did in Evicted, Desmond uses a more abstract approach, pointing to larger social trends, the impact of individual choices, and the role of government programs that contribute to this major problem. Desmond points his finger at the ordinary middle and upper class consumer for being complicit in systems that perpetuate poverty. This complicity exists in exclusionary zoning, tax breaks for the rich, and our reliance on convenience in non-unionized platforms like Amazon or food delivery drivers. This book is engaging, well-researched, and deftly argued. Desmond’s goal, it seems, is to not just convince those who might not agree with him, but to also raise awareness about our collective role in under-appreciated issues.
Let The Lord Sort Them - Maurice Chammah
Let the Lord Sort Them paints a comprehensive picture of the death penalty in the United States. Chammah is less focused on determining the justification for the death penalty in moral terms, instead spending his time making the case for why the death penalty should be abolished on legal grounds. Chammah makes a convincing argument that there is no fair legal standard that can apply to who gets sentenced to death and who does not. As a result, the odds of being killed by the state are akin to getting struck by lightening and depend on the varying factors of where one lives, what the population’s opinion towards the penalty is in that location, and the race or gender of the defendant in question. This is a book that will make you think and think again, and taught me a whole lot about a subject I thought I already knew a lot about.
Blood Gun Money - Ioan Grillo
Ioan Grillo is a British journalist for The New York Times based in Mexico City covering the violence of organized crime, cartels, and gangs. A crucial part of his coverage, outlined in this book, asks where and how these organizations get their guns. The answer is simple. Because of lax gun restrictions, a crippled ATF, and poor enforcement, nearly all of the guns come from the United States. With constant talk about a crisis on the southern border, Grillo makes compelling arguments about how gun laws in the United States contribute to and exacerbate the issues that people are trying to flee. Although the United States also has a serious issue with gun violence, the homicide rates or random ambushes are not nearly as high as those in Honduras or Tijuana. Grillo posits that this is the case only because of the strength of our institutions, and if we continue to degrade them then we too will become susceptible to a breakdown in standards of safety.
How to Hide an Empire - Daniel Immerwahr
When considering historical empires, we typically think of the British, French, or Ottomans. We don’t often think about the United States, which expands far beyond the fifty states. How to Hide an Empire tells the story of American territorial expansion in two parts: the physical claiming of land from Puerto Rico to the Philippines before the Second World War and a more modernized form of influence using cultural, political, and sometimes military persuasion in the years after 1945. This book reconsiders a typical understanding of American history and taught me about places often-overlooked and under-studied.
For when you want to read a book with a fancy (Pulitzer) prize…
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
The Stone Diaries is an exceptional book that follows Daisy Goodwill Flett from birth to death. Born at the beginning of the 20th century in a Manitoba quarry town, Daisy is sent to live with her former neighbor in Winnipeg after her mother dies in childbirth. Nearly a decade later, after her father gets a job in Indiana, Daisy leaves Canada to be reacquainted with him for the first time since birth. What follows is the story of Daisy’s unremarkable life in Indiana, Ottawa, and Florida. It is a tale of independence, motherhood, and friendship that stretches across the developments of the 20th century. Each chapter tackles a different stretch of time and fleshes out the lives of those relevant to Daisy during that period, providing important color as she grows. The beauty of this book comes from Carol Shields’ ability to depict Daisy’s life in such stark detail, transforming her ordinary existence into something extraordinary.
The Netanyahus - Joshua Cohen
Set in upstate New York in the late 1950s, The Netanyahus follows Ruben Blum, a taxation historian at the fictional Corbin College, as he shepherds Benzion Netanyahu through the search and interview process for an academic position at the institution. Blum has been selected for this role not because he holds any overlapping academic expertise with Netanyahu, but because he is also Jewish, and in the late 1950s, as the only Jewish professor on the campus, he is deemed the most-qualified person to connect with and assess Netanyahu. Ruben Blum and his family members are exceptionally dynamic characters who humorously tackle big questions of anti-Semitism, Jewish-American identity, and academia writ-large.
The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
The Nickel Boys tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a young black boy from Tallahassee who is unjustly incarcerated at the Nickel Academy, a juvenile detention reformatory. It is the 1960s, and although both Black and white boys are housed in the facility, treatment is segregated and conditions are horrific. As a means of survival, Elwood quickly develops a friendship with another boy, Turner, who pushes the boundaries of a school unafraid to push the boundaries of the law. This book is based on a real reform school in Florida that was recently discovered to have buried the bodies of countless children housed in the facility. Whitehead’s story is equal parts powerful and incredible, expertly crafted, and fully deserving of its Pulitzer Prize.
For when the book is just an excuse to get together…
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It - Elle Cosimano
Finlay is a financially struggling, recently divorced mother of two young kids. She is also a mystery writer. While at lunch with her editor pitching an idea for a new book that she was supposed to start months ago, Finlay gets slipped a note from her table-mate offering her $50,000 to kill her husband. While insistent that she does not want to get involved, Finlay can not suppress her curiosity and decides to inconspicuously meet the man she has been hired to kill. Once there, a series of mishaps starts a snowball of events that plunge Finlay headfirst into the coverup of a murder at the same time that she is trying to solve it. Along the way, Finlay gets wrapped up in a police investigation and a run-in with the D.C. branch of the Russian mafia. Cosimano adeptly pulls in little details to tie the mystery together and has created funny and charming characters that makes this book hard to put down.
Cheat Day - Liv Stratman
Kit feels like her life is stagnating. In her early-30s and married for almost a decade, Kit spends her days managing her sister’s bakery in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, while her husband David works a high-paying job in Manhattan. Intent on being able to regain personal control, Kit turns to dieting, which she does with such intensity that she has difficulty focusing on the rest of her life. After her sister hires a carpenter to build new shelves in the bakery’s kitchen, he and Kit begin an affair that she believes she can keep separate from her normal life. Cheat Day is a character-focused novel and Stratman is committed to presenting Kit as a fully-formed person with a flawed yet sympathetic personality. I loved how Stratman placed the story and its characters within New York, making the city feel like just as much of a character as any of the other people presented.
Other People’s Clothes - Calla Henkel
Zoe and Hailey are two New York art students who move to Berlin in 2008 for a year abroad. Upon arrival, they sublet an apartment from the thriller-crime writer Beatrice Becks, who is spending the year in Austria for a writing fellowship. A few months into their stay, Hailey and Zoe begin to discover clues that make them think they are being watched by Beatrice. Following an interview in which Beatrice states that her next novel is about a pair of roommates in Berlin, Hailey decides that she and Zoe should control the narrative and begin to throw elaborate parties in the apartment, gaining traction in Berlin's nightlife scene. Zoe, who is desperate for acceptance, goes along with Hailey's increasingly harebrained schemes, resulting in the book's exciting and dramatic climax. I very much enjoyed this twisty novel and found the premise and writing to be extremely clever.
All of the books written about above are available on my Book Club Bookshop Page, or you can click on the title of the book itself to be routed to the shop. Every book I’ve ever recommended, sorted by post, is also available on the general shop page.
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