Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Animals, Environment, Teamwork
Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy, Modern Classic Fiction, Action & Adventure, Humor
Popular Book Club Picks
Searching for study guides on books selected by some of the nation's top book clubs, curated by Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, the PBS NewsHour, the New York Times, and the American Library Association? Look no further. This collection covers critically-acclaimed classics like Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez to contemporary, buzzworthy novels like Girl, Woman, Other. We hope this compilation of study guides provides your own book club with lively discussion topics and keen insights.
The Kaiju Preservation Society
The Keeper of Happy Endings
The Keeper of Lost Things
The Kind Worth Killing
The Kitchen Boy
The Kitchen Front
The Kitchen House
The Known World
The Lager Queen of Minnesota
The Language of Flowers
The Last Carolina Girl
The Last Days of Night
The Last Green Valley
The Last Housewife
The Last Love Note
The Last Painting of Sara De Vos
The Last Runaway
The Last Thing He Told Me
The Latecomer
The Latehomecomer
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Animals, Environment, Teamwork
Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy, Modern Classic Fiction, Action & Adventure, Humor
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Femininity
Tags Historical Fiction, Romance, World War II, Military & War, World History, French Literature
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Aging
Tags Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Magical Realism, Romance, Fantasy
Ruth Hogan’s 2017 debut novel The Keeper of Lost Things is a romance infused with elements of the paranormal and the magical. Hogan, a career civil servant in the UK, was approaching 50 when the book was published. A prolonged recovery from a car accident and then a struggle with cancer gave her the opportunity to devote time to what had been her childhood passion for storytelling. A voracious reader, she had been writing short... Read The Keeper of Lost Things Summary
Publication year 2015
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Justice, Good & Evil, Apathy, Grief, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Loneliness, Revenge, Mental Health, Death, Power & Greed
Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2003
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Memory, Guilt, Loyalty & Betrayal, The Past, Forgiveness, Truth & Lies
Tags Historical Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Politics & Government, Russian Literature, World History, European History
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar (2003) is a historical fiction novel detailing the fate of the Romanovs by Robert Alexander (a pen name for Robert Zimmerman). Although Alexander is American, he spent decades in Russia. He attended Leningrad State University and, afterward, ran various businesses in St. Petersburg. As such, he has personal experience with Russian culture. He wrote several historical fiction novels that take place during the Russian Revolution—including Rasputin’s... Read The Kitchen Boy Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Friendship, Food, War
Tags Historical Fiction, Food, World War II, British Literature, Military & War, World History
Publication year 2010
Genre Novel, Fiction
Tags Historical Fiction, Southern Literature, World History
Kathleen Grissom’s 2010 novel, The Kitchen House, is a work of historical fiction that centers on the happenings at Captain James Pyke’s southern Virginia tobacco plantation, Tall Oaks, beginning in 1791. The two narrative threads follow Lavinia, a seven-year-old Irish orphan working at Tall Oaks as an indentured servant, and Belle, the beautiful young daughter of James and his slave. The novel is told from the first-person perspectives of Belle and Lavinia alternately over 55... Read The Kitchen House Summary
Publication year 2003
Genre Novel, Fiction
Tags Historical Fiction, Race & Racism, American Literature, World History
Edward P. Jones’s novel The Known World, published in 2003 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2004), tells the interconnected stories of the people living at the antebellum Virginia plantation of Henry Townsend, a black slaveowner. The novel begins on the night of Henry’s death in 1855, but the story is not linear. The narrative seamlessly moves both backward in time to provide context for characters and forward in time to reveal characters’... Read The Known World Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Siblings, Grandparents, Community
Tags Historical Fiction, Food, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2011
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Family, Forgiveness, Community, Childhood & Youth, Guilt
Tags Parenting, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Romance
The Language of Flowers (2011) is the debut novel of Vanessa Diffenbaugh. This fictional story follows Victoria Jones, a foster care child who is legally emancipated at the age of 18 and communicates primarily through the language of flowers. Diffenbaugh was inspired by the informational text Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway, which outlined the use of secret messages delivered via bouquet during the Victorian Era. Diffenbaugh studied creative writing and education at Stanford University... Read The Language of Flowers Summary
Publication year 2023
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Perseverance, Femininity, Social Class, Justice, Science & Technology, Truth & Lies
Tags Historical Fiction, Coming of Age, Southern Literature, World History
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Tags Historical Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History
The Last Days of Night (2016) is a novel of historical fiction by Graham Moore, author of the The Sherlockian (2010). The story follows a young lawyer in New York City in 1888, as he attempts to discern who invented the light bulb: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, or Nikola Tesla. The Washington Post named The Last Days of Night one of the best books of 2016.Plot SummaryIt is 1888 on the island of Manhattan, and... Read The Last Days of Night Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family
Tags Historical Fiction, Survival Fiction, World War II, Russian Literature, Military & War, World History
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Gender Identity, The Past, Power & Greed
Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction
Publication year 2023
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Love, Grief, Hope, Mothers
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Romance
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes The Past, Art
Tags Historical Fiction, Arts & Culture, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History
In Part 1, thieves steal At the Edge of a Wood—assumed to be the only surviving work of 17th-century painter Sara de Vos—from the apartment of Martijn “Marty” de Groot during a fundraiser for orphans. Marty does not discover the theft until months later because the thieves replace the original painting with a forgery created by Eleanor “Ellie” Shipley, an Australian doctoral student studying art history at Columbia University. Smith tells the story of how... Read The Last Painting of Sara De Vos Summary
Publication year 2013
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Race, Appearance & Reality, Marriage, Colonialism, Immigration, Nation, Politics & Government, Justice, Truth & Lies
Tags American Literature, World History, Historical Fiction
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Truth & Lies, Marriage, Memory
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Relationships, Grief & Death, Love & Sexuality, Modernism, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Truth & Lies, Art, Loyalty & Betrayal
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2008
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Family
Tags Mythology, Immigration & Refugeeism, Asian History, Poverty, World History, Biography
The Latehomecomer, a memoir by Kao Kalia Yang, was published in 2008. It won the Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award for Nonfiction. Yang was born in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in 1980 and immigrated to St. Paul, Minnesota when she was six years old. She is a graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University and co-founder of Words Wanted, an organization committed to helping immigrants with... Read The Latehomecomer Summary