Best Book Club Books: 2023 Edition

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

In Elizabeth Zott, Garmus has created a such commanding character! Elizabeth is a brilliant chemist, but because it’s the late 1950’s, she battles a thick wall of sexism in her quest to work on her research. She finds her soul-mate in Calvin Evans, who’s also a brilliant chemist. But the fates intervene and several years later, Elizabeth finds herself a single mother, trying to make ends meet.

Through an odd circumstance, she suddenly finds herself the host of an afternoon cooking show. She’s a brilliant cook, and she refuses to treat her homemaker audience like idiots. So, she brings her uncompromising spirit and no small amount of chemistry to the show.

The book tackles serious issues such as sexism, sexual assault and family tragedy, but it’s also often laugh out loud funny. The dialogue crackles and the quirky cast of characters include her brilliant daughter, a reverend with doubts, a take-no-prisoners PR hack, a neighbor with marriage issues, the TV producer and and a truly awesome dog.

Read it next month and use our Lessons in Chemistry discussion guide.

The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams

In this fictional account, Esme’s father works in the Scriptorium, which is a fancy word for the garden shed that James Murry and his team used to develop the first (and not fictional) Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

Esme spends time under the big table in the Scriptorium and she gathers word slips that are lost, discarded or otherwise don’t make the cut into the OED. Over time, she begins to realize that the discarded words tend to relate to women.

Esme discovers that the beauty of these words (even the vulgar ones), is that they relate to very valid women’s experiences. And for Esme, this is enough to confirm the importance of the words and merit for their preservation. And so, Esme decided to create her own dictionary consisting of the lost words.

With the suffrage movement’s rising and the Great War looming, Esme publishes her Dictionary of Lost Words.

This book is fun for clubs who really into lexicography. Use our Dictionary of Lost Words book club guide for your discussion.

The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Belle da Costa Green was far more than a librarian. She was hired by J.P. Morgan to curate his collection of books, manuscripts and artworks, which were housed in the newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. She became a formidable collector and curator, and a captivating fixture on the New York society scene. However, Belle was hiding a secret. She was not the White woman that New York (and Morgan) saw, but rather, Belle was Black. Her family had moved to New York, hoping to pass as White in order to gain a more secure economic life.

This book is a fictionalized account of her life as an extraordinary librarian, curator, lover and “passing” person of Color at a time when it was quite dangerous to do so.

Read it for your book club and use our discussion guide for The Personal Librarian.

The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles

Much like the titular Interstate, The Lincoln Highway spans the country, connecting the stories of five young characters in Midcentury America, and presenting a slice of a time that was in no way simple.

This book is not a quaint portrait of a romantic era. Rather, The Lincoln Highway is a layered journey about the burdens of expectations, the grief of lost dreams, and the meaning of home. 

Reading groups will appreciate discussing the books themes of ambition, privilege, metamorphosis and mental health.

Here are the book club questions for The Lincoln Highway.

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr

Doerr masterfully connects five characters, over hundreds of years through their relationship to a single book. That book tells of a shepherd, Aethon, seeking a magical, heavenly place in the sky– the “Cloud Cuckoo Land” of the title.

The characters range from a 15th century orphan who teaches herself to read, to a modern day teacher trying to stage Aethon as a play, to a women from the 22nd century who’s seeking an unspoiled home world on an interstellar ship. Their stories converge around the book and other shared experiences.

This is a good book club book for it’s unique timeline, compelling characters and hybrid genre.

Read it for book club using our Cloud Cuckoo Land discussion guide.

If you like this sort of meta thing where books are a big part of the book, then check out our article which features 20 books that feature books and manuscripts as a key narrative driver.

The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah

It’s the depression and the dust bowl drought has ravaged Elsa’s farm. The crops and farm animals are dying and then her son takes ill. Elsa has to decide whether to stick it out, or like so many others, take a perilous journey and migrate to California.

This book is not an easy journey for readers and the themes of tough times, tough women and survival will make for great conversation fodder.

Use our Four Winds reading guide to aid your group discussion.

The Midnight Library, Matt Haig

Don’t we all sometimes find ourselves plagued by the “what if”? What if we had (or hadn’t) married that person, what if we had studied something different in school…or turned left instead of right? Haig’s story explores just that when suicidal Nora finds herself in The Library. She is given a chance to see what some of her other lives may have been like…if she had only made different choices.

The structure of the library as a second chance institution and the spooling out of Nora’s many potential lives makes for a truly interesting read…and one that your club will enjoy discussing. You can use our Midnight Library guide to help you get started.

Anxious People, Frederik Backman

This character driven story is ostensibly about a bank robbery gone wrong. The bank robber, having failed at robbing the bank, bursts upon an apartment viewing and proceeds to take a group of unfortunate strangers hostage. But really, the book is about a group of mismatched folks, each with their secret fears and mistakes, slowly opening their hearts to one another.

It’s tragic and hilarious and believable and absurd and whimsical and humorous. Well, that should give you plenty to talk about, right?

We’ll help you with that, here’s our Anxious People book club guide.

The Last Thing He Told Me, Laura Dave

Reese Witherspoon called The Last Thing He Told Me a book with “…mysterious identities, unreliable friendships, dubious loyalties and terrifying chase sequences”. It’s all that, but we also liked it for the complicated family dynamic, the high-tech hijinks and the duffel full of cash.

And here’s our discussion guide for it.

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell

O’Farrell’s novel imagines Shakespeare’s family life, in particular his eccentric wife Agnes and his young son Hamnet. She’s a strong force for Shakespeare’s career, which is just taking off when Hamnet succumbs to a sudden fever. The book carries themes of love, loss, fraught family dynamics and making the hard trade-off between family and personal fulfillment.

The book’s transcendent qualities and prose, along with a rich imagining of Shakespeare’s family life are what will give you such a good Hamnet book club discussion. Here’s our guide for Hamnet.

The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett

Identity–whether we are born into it, or whether we choose it for ourselves–is at the heart of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half. Although the intertwined lives of the characters span time and generations, all of the characters grapple with the powerful pull of the places they come from and the families who made them who they are.

This complex family story will help your group reflect on the powerful issues of race, class, and gender. And we’ve got you covered with these book club questions for The Vanishing Half.

Apples Never Fall, Liane Moriarty

Joy and Stan have recently retired from running a successful tennis club. After helping out a woman in need, Joy, the wife and mother of four, has disappeared. Her adult children are rightfully concerned. But they’re reluctant to report Joy missing, because they know the prime suspect will be their father, and they’re not in agreement about his innocence.

Then the police come a knockin’ everyone has secrets to hide.

Your group will love peeling back the layers of this idiosyncratic family and their twisty tale.

Klara & The Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro describes a near future world were inequalities are entrenched by genetics and artificial friends are companions to the elite, assisting in homeschooling and keeping children company. Klara is an insightful and noble Artificial Friend who cares for a young child.

The plot is a slow burn and it’s chock full of ethical dilemmas. But in typical Ishiguro fashion, there are not a lot of answers. And that’s what makes this such a great book club book– it leaves quite a bit of fodder for your group to discuss.

Which you can do, using our Klara and the Sun discussion guide.

The Guest List, Lucy Foley

Storm tossed moody island…check. Bridezilla and Groomzilla…check. Wedding guests with secrets…check. A dead body…check. What more do you need from a thriller? The mystery is now only a whodunnit, but a whogotdone during a wedding set on a remote Irish island.

With all the dark secrets and twisty turns, The Guest List will definitely feed a great book club discussion. And we’ve got a reading guide for The Guest List to get you started.

The Lost Apothecary, Sarah Penner

Hidden deep in London’s East End is the site of a former apothecary shop from the 18th century. The shop is discovered in modern day by a women trying to reset her life after being betrayed by her husband.

Back in the day, this particular shop was fronted by the usual tinctures and ointments. But in the back room, the Apothecary ran a dark business, secretly dispensing poisons in order to help liberate women from the lovers and husbands who have wronged them.

My own book club enjoyed the murdery elements, questions of female agency and the dual time frames of the novel.

Here’s our Lost Apothecary book club guide.

Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner

Crying in H Mart is far more than a simple food memoir. In the book, Zauner explores her life growing up as a Korean American, an awkward adolescence, her Mom’s high expectations and lots and lots of eating in her Grandmother’s apartment. It’s also a painful foray in to the pain of grief. It’s a searing, devastating and often funny look at Zauner’s life (so far).

Zauner is a singer and guitarist, so she certainly knows how to deliver a performance, so the book is great on audio. In fact, it made our list of best audiobook memoirs. We’ve also got a book club guide for Crying in H Mart.

The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides

In this intense psychological thriller, the question isn’t whodunnit, but rather why. And Alicia, the killer, refuses to talk about it. Theo is a forensic psychotherapist is assigned to get her talking, but he’s too obsessed with Alicia and he’s got some serious issues of his own.

The book provides perspective through Theo’s investigation, and Alicia’s own diary entries. Get ready for a hair-raising ride!

And then use our discussion guide for The Silent Patient to get your conversation started.

American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins

This novel is about a Mexican bookseller who was forced to escape cartel violence. She flees with her son to the US and they face a harrowing journey while riding “The Beast” train. They travel with many other migrants, each with their own stories. The book is an intense and compelling look at the very human reasons why people choose to embark upon a risky migration.

This book has been insanely popular with book clubs, but it’s also controversial. Cummins’ intention was to give a face to the migrants who come to the US seeking asylum. And while many reviewers and book clubbers have loved the book, it has also received criticism for not being an owned voices book. That alone, could give you some very interesting fodder for your book club.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Evelyn had a plan to get out of her dreary life in Hell’s Kitchen and boy did she execute on it. She ended up an “it girl” during the 1950’s golden era of Hollywood. She not only racked up seven husbands, but she has a closet full of skeletons and a lot of stories to tell. Toward the end of her life, she engages with Monique, a journalist, to spill it all.

This is a great book club read for its themes of how to navigate the patriarchy, warped entertainment culture, keeping secrets and how to own your life.

Plus, we’ve got a book club guide for Evelyn Hugo.

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. It’s a prison sentence…but a pretty fancy one. The Hotel Metropol is a world unto itself, and within its walls, “the world had come and gone”. The hotel is the count’s prison, and it’s his sanctuary, but for how much longer can it be either?

The book’s themes take on topics like selfhood, friendship, simple pleasures, hope and how you can survive a lot if you have nice wine.

Use our Gentleman in Moscow book club guide.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, Isabel Wilkerson

Caste is an analysis of race, class and caste…and how they aren’t the same thing. Wilkerson looks at the topic of caste by examining America’s Jim Crow system (and our ongoing hangover form it), the stratified caste system in India and the system that was evolved by Nazi Germany.

My own book club found so much to discuss with this book: how race is a construct, how America exported it’s racist agenda to other countries, how the insidious nature of discrimination still lingers. It’s one of the best book club books for any club interested in understanding more about race.

Here’s our Caste book club guide.

Circe, Madeline Miller

Miller specializes in imagining the lives of lesser known characters and gods in Greek Mythology. In this one, she tells the story of Circe, who is the daughter of the sun God Helios. When Zeus discovers her powers, he banishes her to an island. Subsequent events force her to choose a life among the Gods (and her family) and that among the mortals whom she has come to love.

“This book is about love; the love between lovers, the love of a mother, and the love you must find in yourself. This book proves why family of choice will always be greater than family of origin. This book is about magic, and how we can find it in ourselves if we look hard enough. This is a book about becoming the witch you’ve always buried deep inside you.”

Here’s our discussion guide for Circe.

Born a Crime, Trevor Noah

Noah was born in South Africa during Apartheid. Having a Black mom and a White dad ensured that he was never a neat fit in Johannesburg. He got by on his wits and a lot of hustle, sliding in between Black, White and “Colored” cultures.

The book is an intimate look at the practical realities of Apartheid with a fascinating take on Noah’s complicated childhood.

We featured this book on our list of great audio memoirs for Noah’s fun performance and fantastic character voicing.

Use our discussion guide for Born a Crime.

The Dutch House, Ann Patchett

When Danny and Maeve’s father dies, he leaves everything to their estranged step-mother. She kicks them out, and with that, the once wealthy siblings are forced to make their own way in the world. But the house remains a looming anchor in their relationship.

The book’s themes feature abandonment, betrayal, damaging silences, revenge and a lot of sibling loyalty.

For those who like audio, Tom Hanks does a great job with narration.

Use our discussion guide for The Dutch House.

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing has some serious lasting power. It was published in 2018 and it sat on bestseller lists for a long time. It’s still a book club favorite, but there are more library copies available now, so this is a great book club book for groups who prefer to use the library.

In the story, Mya is the “Marsh Girl” of Barkley Cove. One after another, her family left her until at the age of six, she was left to fend for herself in the watery landscape.

There are lots of themes to discuss, including the coming of age story, the whodunnit of a murder and a life lived in nature.

Use our discussion guide for Where the Crawdads Sing.

Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other weaves together the stories of a large cast of British women of color, including mother, daughters and lovers. The book lays bare complicated feminist themes as well as issues of multiculturalism, gender roles, gender fluidity, Lesbian life and painful multi-gen family dynamics.

If you choose it for book club, be sure to use our Girl, Woman, Other book club guide.

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

This book is a slow-moving character portrait filled with complex family dynamics, small-town politics and the dangers of privilege. Mia’s daughter Pearl becomes friends with the kids of their landlord, Mrs. Richardson. They all become embroiled in the high drama of teenagers coming of age. The book also features a fraught local battle regarding the adoption of a Chinese baby by a rich, white family.

The fire smolders until it totally erupts.

Use our book club guide for Little Fires Everywhere.

Dear Edward, Ann Napolitano

A plane enroute from Newark to Los Angeles crashes, killing everyone on board except for 12 year old Edward Adler. But the book isn’t just about the flight and the crash. It also follows Edward throughout his life as his friends, remaining family and doctors help him heal.

“It’s thought provoking in a number of ways – how does a young boy bear his grief, this loss, the trauma of what he has experienced but it made me consider how little we know of the burdens that people whose paths we cross might carry. This book is full of sadness, without a doubt, but it is also filled with shared sorrow, love, friendship and caring. A beautiful story.”