Book club picks can be tough. After all, you want to choose a read that's juicy enough to rival the syrah that's flowing at your next meeting. If you’re looking for some recommendations that will impress everyone (even the pickiest bookworms) in your group, then you’ve come to the right place. From a chilling thriller about missing women to an unlikely friendship formed in a library, here are some great reads that will keep the discussion (and wine) flowing whether you're meeting virtually or IRL.
"Shooting Out the Lights" by Kim Fairley
When Kim Fairley was twenty-four, she fell in love with a man who was fifty-seven named Vern. Shortly after getting married, Kim became pregnant, and then things really took a turn. Haunted by Vern’s past, “Shooting Out the Lights” is a mysterious and page-turning memoir that deals with marriage, gun violence, and healing.
"Radiant Fugitives" by Nawaaz Ahmed
Seema was exiled from her family by her father after coming out as lesbian but made a great life for herself in San Francisco working as a consultant for Kamala Harris’s attorney general campaign. When Seema finds herself nine months pregnant and no longer with the Black father of her unborn child, she reunites with her mother and sister. This reunion is far from the comfort Seema expects when the three women confront the past and tension rises.
"Write My Name Across the Sky" by Barbara O’Neal
Gloria Rose is an influencer in her 70s living in the Upper West Side who has everything she could want in life. When her ex is arrested for art theft and forgery, Gloria’s first instinct is to flee before the FBI can put together the pieces and find out she was involved in a decades-old crime. An unexpected visit from her nieces puts that plan on hold. Willow has a failed album and a broken heart, and Sam is close to losing her video game company and the man she loves. Together, the three women must not only confront their problems and rely on each other.
"So We Meet Again" by Suzanne Park
Jessie Kim is laid off for not only being a woman but an Asian woman. After losing her temper and letting everyone know how she feels after being let go, she moves back in with her parents in her hometown in Tennessee. When she runs into her childhood nemesis, Daniel Choi, a lawyer, Daniel offers to help Jessie relaunch her Korean cooking channel, and just after she reluctantly accepts, the rivalry is back on.
"Riding High in April" by Jackie Townsend
A tech entrepreneur attempts his latest creation: COMPASS, an open-source network platform that Microsoft has described as “reckless.” With his reputation at stake, his funds limited, and his relationship at risk with the only woman he’s ever loved. When she shows up in Seoul to be with him during her own self-discovery of who she is, she finds that living in Asia changes her more than either of them ever expected.
"Dark Roads" by Chevy Stevens
The Cold Creek Highway is a five hundred-mile stretch through the wilderness of British Columbia’s mountains and has been the scene of missing and murdered women for decades with little to no cases solved. Hailey McBride decides to use this to her advantage, believing that if she runs away from home and her controlling police officer uncle, she will have everyone convinced she is just another victim of the highway. One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in town and gets a job at the same diner her sister, Amber, who was murdered, worked at. Hailey and Beth’s storylines start to merge as Beth tries to investigate the death of her sister, threatening to expose Hailey’s plan.
"The Reading List" by Sara Nisha Adams
Mukesh is a widower who lives a quiet life in West London and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who spends all of her time alone in her bedroom reading. Aleisha is an intelligent teenager who is spending her summer working at the local library and comes across a list of books she’s never heard of. Determined to read every book on the list, Aleisha uses these stories to provide the escapism she needs from her home life. When Mukesh visits the library in an attempt to get closer to Priya, Aleisha gives him a copy of the list, and soon the two form an unlikely friendship.
"Sugar Birds" by Cheryl Grey Bostrom
Harris Hayes has been teaching his daughter Aggie all about the northern woods for as long as she can remember. Hoping to help her mother cope with her depression, Aggie climbs a tree to draw a picture of a bird’s nest only to end up causing an accidental fire. Aggie escapes downriver and ends up in an untamed forest praying to never be found. Meanwhile, Celia arrives at a nearby farm and joins the search party for Aggie only to end up in a love triangle with two men.
"The Long-Lost Jules" by Jane Elizabeth Hughes
Just wanting to live a life of privacy, Amy’s quiet lifestyle is interrupted by her half-sister that she’s estranged from, and a man named Leo. Leo believes Amy is the long-lost descendant of Henry VIII’s last Queen, Katherine Parr. Amy thinks Leo is either dangerous or delirious. Harboring secrets of her own, Amy reluctantly joins Leo in an investigation into Queen Katherine’s lost baby only to find themselves not only falling for one another but keeping secrets that could rip them apart.
"Velvet Was the Night" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Taking place in Mexico City in the 1970s, Maite envies her beautiful next-door neighbor Leonora and the lifestyle she never had. When Leonora disappears, Maite begins to investigate her disappearance at the same time as Elvis, a criminal looking to escape his own life. Soon, Elvis becomes intrigued by Maite in his search for Leonora. As Maite and Elvis come closer to the truth to what happened to Leonora, they find themselves much closer to danger than they expected.
"The Show Girl" by Nicola Harrison
It’s 1927 in New York City when Olive McCormick arrives to make it as a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. With her wish coming true, the talented dancer and singer becomes enamored with the glamour her new lifestyle has to offer. When she meets Archie Carmichael, it seems like fate. He is the only man who accepts her for who she truly is. However, after his proposal, that acceptance becomes reluctance and Olive must choose between the life she’s always dreamed of and the love that could fade away in a second.
"The Heart Principle" by Helen Hoang
Anna Sun becomes an overnight sensation when a YouTube video of the violinist goes viral. After feeling burned out from trying to replicate the moment she became a sensation, her boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship. Shocked and angry, Anna agrees only to look for the most unacceptable suitors. After a string of failed romantic encounters with a tattooed biker named Quan, Anna finds herself falling for Quan on an emotional level. When tragedy strikes Anna’s family and her life starts to become too much, Anna and Quan realize what sacrifices must be made for them to find themselves and stay with one another.
Image: Courtesy of Garrett Billings
About the author: From upstate New York, Gare has been part of Bookstagram since 2017 where he found a community of people to bond with over a love of reading. Combined with his love of books and movies, he's the guy who loves to create a Hollywood cast as part of the review process for his favorite books. Growing up, he loved thriller and horror movies and could not get enough of the Goosebump and Fear Street books; the Scholastic book fair was his second Christmas. Now as a blogger, he gets the same enjoyment when a nice pile of book mail comes through the door.
Featured image: Color Joy Stock