The Full Read With Jenna Book List (Rated!)

Wait for Me, Amy Jo Burns

• Recommended: March ’26
• Rating: 4.09

This is the moving story of two immensely talented singer songwriters connected by a mysterious disappearance and a battered mandolin.

Elle grew up in Tennessee and rose to fame as a folk singer. Her powerful songs won acclaim, but she had a lot of hidden heartbreak. After a career high performance at the Grand Ole Opry, she suddenly disappears.

Nearly 20 years later, Marijohn is working at a gas station in rural Pennsylvania and writing her own songs on that mandolin, longing for a connection to her past. A strange meteorological event happens which unearths a piece of Elle’s past, creating a connection to Marijohn. The book is loaded with mystery, betrayal, secrets, and ambition.

One & Only, Maurene Goo

• Recommended: February ’26
• Rating: 4.12

Billed as In Five Years meets a millennial The Joy Luck Club. Cassia is a match-maker who can see into people’s past lives to help them find their true fated match. And while it works for others, it doesn’t seem to be working for her. After meeting handsome Ellis, Cassia is torn between finding what she was told would be her true match, and following her heart.

Homeschooled, Stefan Merrill Block

• Recommended: January ’26
• Rating: 3.70

Parents choose to homeschool their kids for many reasons, often in service of a more specialized experience for their kids. Block’s mom pulled him out of school, ostensibly because teachers were “stifling his creativity”. But what ensued was isolation, abuse and infantilization.

In this memoir he does touch on the homeschooling movement. But he also shares his personal experience in a similar vein of Educated or I’m Glad My Mom Died.

Cursed Daughter, Oyinkan Braithwaite

• Recommended: November ’25
• Rating: 4.05

“No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace…” 

This is the family curse that plagues Eniiyi’s family. And she’s doubly cursed because her family believes that she’s the reincarnation of her cousin Monife, who met a sad end. When Eniiyi finds her own love, she’s determined to break the curse.

The book carries a strong strain of Nigerian mythology with some dramatic twists, unnerving turns, and emotionally fraught grandmother/mother/daughter relationships.

And if you haven’t already read her previous book My Sister the Serial Killer, do so immediately! Here’s the guide for Cursed Daughters.

The Irish Goodbye, Heather Aimee O’Neill

• Recommended: October ’25
• Rating: 3.76

Why is it that family Thanksgivings are so fraught with secrets? Well, the Ryan family is no exception.

Two decades ago there was a tragic boating accident, followed by brother Topher’s suicide. Many years later, the three adult sisters gather with family to spend Thanksgiving in their childhood home on the eastern shores of Long Island. When a surprise guest is invited to dinner, it reopens old wounds, laying bare secrets and old resentments.

Key themes include parenting, self-care especially in contrast to religious beliefs, marital roles and aging parents.

Buckeye, Patrick Ryan

• Recommended: September ’25
• Rating: 4.19

The story is set in the small town of Bonhomie, Ohio over a generation spanning period between the start of WWII and the war in Vietnam. It feature two families: one is headed by Cal, a man whose physical disabilities made him unable to participate in WWII and the other by Margaret whose past (and marriage) have some secrets.

But secrets don’t stay private in a small town and things spill out as Cal and Margaret’s lives become entangled.

The book presents fully fleshed out characters, poignant moments, and a lot of emotion.

Here’s the discussion guide for Buckeye.

My Other Heart, Emma Nanami Strenner

• Recommended: August ’25
• Rating: 3.83

My Other Heart is really a story about who we think we are rather than where we come from. Mimi’s daughter went missing in 1998 while returning from America to Vietnam. Seventeen years later, best friends Kit and Sabrina are making plans for summer before college. Kit is adopted and has affluent white parents while Sabrina has a single Chinese mother. Both want to explore their ethnic heritage.

The three stories merge in the end for a shocking conclusion.

Happy Wife, Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores

• Recommended: July ’25
• Rating: 3.70

This book is a delicious, dishy summer read.

Nora thought she had found her happily-ever-after when she married Will , a wealthy lawyer twenty years her senior. She quickly goes from barely scraping by in Florida’s Winter Park, to a fairytale ending. Or is it? When Will mysteriously vanishes after his birthday celebration, everyone looks at Nora as the prime suspect.

A Family Matter, Claire Lynch

• Recommended: June ’25
• Rating: 3.71

In 1982, we meet Dawn, a young wife and mother whose emotional connection to someone creates a lot of complications. In 2022 Heron is keeping secrets from his daughter Maggie and his time is running out to come clean.

At only 240 pages, the writing is spare but packs an big emotional punch.

The Names, Florence Knapp

• Recommended May ’25
• Rating: 4.15

How important is a name? Knapp answers this question by exploring how a single name can define a person’s fate, shaping their relationships and leading them down vastly different life paths.

When Cora goes to register the name of her new son, she hesitates to name him after her abusive husband. And so, the story follows “Bear”, “Julian”, and “Gordon” down their life paths.

This book has a lot of feels and is filled with poignant moments, relatable characters, and a message that lingers long after the last page.

Here’s our discussion guide for The Names.

Heartwood, Amity Gaige

• Recommended April ’25
• Rating: 3.94

Valerie, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker has gone missing. Beverly, a Maine State Game Warden is tasked with finding her. And Lena, a bird-watching retiree has assigned herself the role of amateur detective.

Valerie is alone and exhausted and she pours her thoughts into a journal directed to her mother. Beverly is dedicated to the hunt but is also dealing with a family crisis involving her elderly mother. And Lena stumbles onto what she believes may be something sinister happing on the Appalachian trail.

At the heart of this mystery is an exploration of motherhood, self-discovery, loneliness, and resilience.

Here’s the discussion guide for Heartwood.

The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami

• Recommended March ’25
• Rated: 3.61

Speculative fiction always asks the “what if”. And in this dystopic tale, “what if” the governmental Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) could peer into your dreams and draw conclusions about whether you are at risk of committing a crime?

Well, Sara gets picked up on her way home from a business trip and finds herself a locked up in a detention center, you know, for her own good. She’s only supposed to be there for 21 days, but every infraction in the sub-par facility delays her release. Soon, she begins to question a system that effectively imprisons people without trial.

Lalami delivers this disturbingly realistic near-future with precision as she challenges readers to consider the human cost of technological surveillance. The book is throwing some Chain Gang All-Stars vibes, which was a Jenna pick in May of ’23.

This is a Love Story, Jessica Soffer

• Recommended February ’25
• Rated: 3.23

This is a classic love story with a modern edge. In it, Abe and Jane repeatedly return to Central Park, throughout their courtship, marriage, parenthood and burgeoning art and literary careers. Theirs is a long relationship with many peaks and valleys. But now Jane is dying and their son is estranged from them.

The book shares their story with perspectives from the three of them, but Central Park is a participating character as well. The writing has a lyrical quality and the story is poignant, heartbreaking, and nostalgic.

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, Emma Knight

• Recommended January ’25
• Rated: 3.47

Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She was drawn to Scotland because of her connection to the famous writer Lord Elliott Lennox and she’s hoping that he can shed some light on the secret.

She gets invited to their centuries-old estate, becomes close to his family, and falls in love for the first time. The book explores the range of lived experiences for women regarding their sexuality, their comfort in their own skin, and the many limitations and judgments that society places on women.

Devotions, Mary Oliver

• Recommended December ’24
• Rated: 4.56

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver has curated her own collection of 200 poems, which span her career.

I WAKE CLOSE TO MORNING

Why do people keep asking to see
God’s identity papers
when the darkness opening into morning
is more than enough?
Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.
Think of Sheba approaching
the Kingdom of Soloman
Do you think she had to ask
“Is this the place?”

This Motherless Land, Nikki May

• Recommended: November ’24
• Rated: 4.26

The book is billed as a “decolonized” retelling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. The action spans narrative two decades in Nigeria and England. After a family tragedy, Funke is sent from Nigeria to live with her stiff and joyless relatives in Somerset. Her exuberant cousin Liv takes Funke under her wing and they become besties…that is until a bad decision, miscommunications and greed fracture their friendship and upends Funke’s life one again

The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich

• Recommended: October ’24
• Rated: 3.85

Normally, for these summaries, I don’t like to crib from the publisher’s synopsis. They always smack of too much marketing copy and not enough synopsis. But for this book, the publisher synopsis is masterful…nearly as masterful as Erdrich’s writing. Here you go:

“Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.

The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.”

Blue Sisters, Coco Mellors

• Recommended September ’24
• Rated: 3.97

These sisters are tragic (Avery), tough (Bonnie) and dark (Lucky). They’re navigating their own additions and the death of their fourth sister against the backstory of their dysfunctional family. When their parents decide to sell the two-bedroom family house they grew up in and tell them to share their late sister’s belongings, the sisters unite against their parents to stop the sale.

The book brings all that’s good (and bad) about sister dynamics and it’s full of all the feels.

The Wedding People, Alison Espach

• Recommended August ’24
• Rated: 4.14

Phoebe has always wanted to go to the grand Cornwall Inn in Newport, and now she is finally here. But it isn’t at all the vacation she spent years dreaming of. For starters, she isn’t going with her husband…because she and the cheat are now divorced. But she’s decided that enough is enough and she shows up anyway, wearing a fancy outfit and packing an intention to commit suicide.

All of the other guests assume she’s there for the wedding as the bride integrates Phoebe into the wedding party. Phoebe and bride both work on untangling what they now want, from what they used to wish for and what’s expected of them.

It’s touching, funny and hopeful.

Here’s our The Wedding People discussion guide.

All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker

• Recommended: July ’24
• Rated: 4.35

The book has been billed as “A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each.” But it’s also a very gripping character study.

The book covers 1976 to 2001 and the relationship between Patch and best friend Saint. In the early years, Patch saves a local girl, Misty, from a kidnapping. That act of bravery becomes a defining moment for all three of them, and the event casts a long shadow on the choices they make throughout their lives.

Read it for book club and use our All the Colors of the Dark discussion guide. And if you’ve already read and loved it, try these 5 books that are similar.

Swift River, Essie Chambers

• Recommended: June ’24
• Rated: 3.51

In this poignant coming-of-age story, Diamond Newbery is the only African American person in her New England town. Her father “Pop” disappeared some years ago and she’s been raised by her loving but inept white mom. Diamond is struggling to find her identity and she’s searching for acceptance. After receiving a series of letters from her father’s sister, she goes on a journey to learn more about her family’s history.

Real Americans, Rachel Khong

• Recommended: May ’24
• Rated: 4.0

This family story kicks off with Lily, who’se the daughter of Chinese immigrants, struggling to make sense of her life working a dead-end job that she’s not even getting paid for, She meets Matthew, an heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. They fall in love and start a family together.

You get multiple timelines and the POVs from Lily in 1999, Nick in 2021, and (Lily’s mother) Mei in 2030. Ultimately, this is a story about family dynamics and how choices can have rippling effects across time. 

The Husbands, Holly Gramazio

• Recommended: April ’24
• Rated: 3.52

This fun book asks the question- What if you had an endless choice of husbands with the lure of someone better right around the corner (or, in this case, up in the attic?). When Lauren seeks to find out when she comes home one day to find a husband that she didn’t know she had occupying her house. When he goes up to the attic to get something, a different version of her husband comes back down. And so on.

The book pokes at when is enough, enough, and when should you stop looking for something better and be content with the life you have? It offers some Midnight Library vibes, but with a lighter tone.

Read this one for book club and use our discussion guide for The Husbands. And if you’ve already read and loved it, try these 5 similar books.

The Great Divide, Christina Henríquez

• Recommended: March ’24
• Rated: 3.71

In 1907 construction began on the Panama Canal, attracting people from all over the world who were looking for jobs, for adventure and a different life. This historical fiction brings together the stories of a local Panamanian fisherman, a sixteen year-old from Barbados, an American scientist dead set on eradicating malaria. The book presents an intimate study of the people who traveled from all around the world to make the Panama Canal a reality, and a look at how its construction so drastically affected the Panamanians.

Good Material, Dolly Alderton

• Recommended: February ’24
• Rated: 3.94

Andy’s life is spinning out of control. He’s a part-time amateur comedian who, at 35, is experiencing a serious failure to launch. He’s obsessed with figuring out the demise of his relationship with his long-term girlfriend, Jen. He had thought everything was perfect.

It wasn’t.

The first section of the book is from Andy’s POV and then it switches to Jen. Alderton’s writing style brings a lot of humor, empathy and insight in their relationship.

The Waters, Bonnie Jo Campbell

• Recommended: January ’24
• Rating: 3.46

The book is a character study of three sisters, one of the women’s daughter, and the domineering legend of a matriarch who looms large not only over her offspring, but over the neighboring town as well. The matriarch “Herself” is the town healer. The town doesn’t like her…but they also can’t do without her.

The book is set in Michigan, but reads like Southern noir with a swamp, some snakes, suspicions, dark doings and grudges.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves, Lauren Grodstein

• Recommended: December ’23
• Rating: 4.09

The Sun Sets in Singapore, Kahinde Fadipe

• Recommended: November ’23
• Ratings: 3.41

How to Say Babylon, Safiya Sinclair

• Recommended: October ’23
• Ratings: 4.45

Summer Sisters, Judy Blume

• Recommended: August ’23
• Ratings: 3.9

Banyan Moon, Thao Thai

• Recommended: July ’23
• Ratings: 3.95

The Celebrants, Steven Rowley

• Recommended: June ’23
• Ratings: 3.7

Chain Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• Recommended: May ’23
• Ratings: 4.15

Read it for book club and use our Chain Gang All-Stars reading guide.

Camp Zero, Michelle Min Sterling

• Recommended: April ’23
• Ratings: 3.22

And if you like climate fiction, check out our whole list of Cli-Fi books.

Black Candle Women, Diane Marie

• Recommended: March ’23
• Ratings: 3.39

Maame, Jessica George

• Recommended: February ’23
• Ratings: 4.10

Here’s our Maame book club discussion guide.

Sam, Alegra Goodman

• Recommended: January ’23
• Ratings: 3.78

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

• Recommended: December ’22
• Ratings: 4.17

If you’ve already read and loved this one, we’ve also got a list of books similar to The Secret History.

The Cloisters, Katy Hayes

• Recommended: November ’22
• Ratings: 3.53

The Whalebone Theatre, Joanna Quinn

• Recommended: October ’22
• Ratings: 4.09

Bright Burning Things, Lisa Harding

• Recommended: December ’21
• Ratings: 3.35

The Family, Naomi Krupitsky

• Recommended: November ’21
• Ratings: 3.63

The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles

• Recommended: October ’21
• Ratings: 4.23

Here’s the reading guide for the Lincoln Highway.

Beautiful Country, Qian Julie Wang

• Recommended: September ’21
• Ratings: 4.18

The Turnout, Megan Abbott

• Recommended: August ’21
• Ratings: 3.14

Hell of a Book, Jason Mott

• Recommended: July ’21
• Ratings: 4.07

We’ve also feature this novel on our list of 20 books that feature books as a key driver of the narrative.

Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid

• Recommended: June ’21
• Ratings: 4.09

Here’s the Malibu Rising discussion guide, and a full list of books by Taylor Jenkins Reid (ranked and rated!)

Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead

• Recommended: May ’21
• Ratings: 4.14

Good Company, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

• Recommended: April ’21
• Ratings: 3.39

What’s Mine and Yours, Naima Coster

• Recommended: March ’21
• Ratings: 3.50

Send for Me, Lauren Fox

• Recommended: February ’21
• Ratings: 3.46

The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah

• Recommended: February ’21
• Ratings: 4.30

Use this guide if your group decides to read it.

Black Buck, Mateo Askaripour

• Recommended: January ’21
• Ratings: 3.76

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

• Recommended: December ’20
• Ratings: 4.09

White Ivy, Susie Yang

• Recommended: November ’20
• Ratings: 3.58

Leave the World Behind, Rumaan Alam

• Recommended: October ’20
• Ratings: 3.22

Transcendent Kingdom, Ya Gyasi

• Recommended September ’20
• Ratings: 4.13

Here For It, R. Eric Thomas

• Recommended: August ’20
• Ratings: 4.06

The Comeback, Ella Berman

• Recommended: August ’20
• Ratings: 3.76

Friends and Strangers, J. Courtney Sullivan

• Recommended: July ’20
• Ratings: 3.67

A Burning, Megha Majumdar

• Recommended: June ’20
• Ratings: 3.74

All Adults Here, Emma Straub

• Recommended: May ’20
• Ratings: 3.60

Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore

• Recommended: April ’20
• Ratings: 3.79

Writers & Lovers, Lily King

• Recommended: March ’20
• Ratings: 4.06

The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Daré

• Recommended: February ’20
• Ratings: 4.44

Dear Edward, Ann Napolitano

• Recommended: January ’20
• Ratings: 4.09

Here’s an archive of the older Jenna’s Book Club picks.

Late Migrations, Margret Renkl

• Recommended: December ’19
• Ratings: 4.30

Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson

• Recommended: November ’19
• Ratings: 3.95

Here’s my Nothing to See Here book club guide.

The Dutch House, Ann Patchett

• Recommended: October ’19
• Ratings: 4.11

Use my discussion guide for The Dutch House.

The Dearly Beloved, Cara Wall

• Recommended: September ’19
• Ratings: 4.08

Patsy, Nicole Dennis-Benn

• Recommended: August ’19
• Ratings: 3.91

Evvie Drake Stars Over, Linda Holmes

• Recommended: July ’19
• Ratings: 3.84

Searching for Sylvie Lee, Jean Kwok

• Recommended: June ’19
• Ratings: 3.66

A Woman is No Man, Etaf Rum

• Recommended: May ’19
• Ratings: 4.26

Here’s my A Woman is No Man discussion guide.

The Unwinding of a Miracle, Julie Yip-Williams

• Recommended: April ’19
• Ratings: 4.09

The Last Romantics, Tara Conklin

• Recommended: March ’19
• Ratings: 3.73