Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Love, Memory, Regret, Gender Identity, Mental Health, Siblings, Self Discovery
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, LGBTQ+
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.
Blue Sisters
Book Lovers
Book of Night
Breakfast With Buddha
Brick Lane
Bridget Jones's Diary
Burial Rites
By Her Own Design
Caleb's Crossing
Call Me By Your Name
Call Your Daughter Home
Career of Evil
Carnegie's Maid
Chain-Gang All-Stars
Circe
Citizen: An American Lyric
City of Girls
Class
Clock Dance
Colored Television
Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Love, Memory, Regret, Gender Identity, Mental Health, Siblings, Self Discovery
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, LGBTQ+
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Literature, Self Discovery, Siblings, Grief
Tags Romance, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Loneliness, Love, Appearance & Reality, Nature Versus Nurture, Daughters & Sons, Social Class, Fame, Good & Evil, Power & Greed, Religion & Spirituality
Tags Fantasy, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Romance
Publication year 2007
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Self Discovery, Religion & Spirituality, Joy, Beauty, Fate, Good & Evil, New Age
Tags Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Travel Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Philosophy
Publication year 2003
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Fate, Beauty
Tags 9/11, British Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Indian Literature
The chief protagonist of Brick Lane was born in an East Pakistan village in 1967, prior to Bangladesh Liberation War. In 1971, the nation won its independence only to suffer through a devastating famine and political turmoil marked by a succession of military coups. The narrative mostly takes place in 2001, concerning events in a Muslim immigrant community in London before and after the World Trade Center tragedy. In this span of a woman’s life... Read Brick Lane Summary
Publication year 1996
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, Femininity, Family, Friendship, Self Discovery
Tags Romance, Humor, British Literature
Written by Helen Fielding in 1996, Bridget Jones’s Diary is a romance novel with a comedic twist. In 1998, it was named the British Book of the Year, and in 2003, it placed at number 75 on a BBC survey of favorite novels. A film adaptation was released in 2001. Renee Zellweger played the titular character and received an Academy Award nomination for her performance.This guide refers to the 1996 MacMillan Publishers print edition. Content... Read Bridget Jones's Diary Summary
Publication year 2013
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Truth & Lies
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction
Burial Rites is a 2013 novel by Australian author Hannah Kent. Based on the true story of the last woman to be publicly executed in Iceland, Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, a servant who is sentenced to death for the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer and lover. Two teenagers, Fridrik Sigurdsson and Sigridir Gudmundsdottir, are accused of aiding in the murders. While awaiting execution, she is placed... Read Burial Rites Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Perseverance, Race, Marriage
Tags Historical Fiction, Race & Racism, World History, Arts & Culture
Publication year 2011
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Indigenous Identity
Tags Historical Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, US History, Gender & Feminism, Colonial America, World History, Religion & Spirituality
Caleb’s Crossing (2011) is a historical fiction novel based on the real life figure of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University in 1665. Born into the Wampanoag tribe on an island near Cape Cod, the historical Cheeshahteaumuck converted to Christianity and attended a preparatory school before enrolling in Harvard. In her novel, Pulitzer Prize winning author Geraldine Brooks tells a fictionalized version of Caleb’s story in the form of a... Read Caleb's Crossing Summary
Publication year 2007
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Love, The Past, Childhood & Youth, Language
Tags Romance, LGBTQ+, Coming of Age, Modern Classic Fiction
IntroductionCall Me By Your Name by André Aciman is a piece of literary fiction in the subgenres of romance literature and queer literature. Published in 2007, the novel became a bestseller, received positive critical reception, and won the 2008 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction. The 2017 film adaptation of Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, won, among other accolades, the Academy Award for Best Adapted... Read Call Me By Your Name Summary
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Community, Mothers, Race, Truth & Lies
Tags Historical Fiction, Southern Literature, Great Depression, Race & Racism, Poverty, Trauma & Abuse, World History
Publication year 2015
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Fear, Hate & Anger, Disability, Femininity, Gender Identity, Masculinity, Mental Health, Childhood & Youth, Death, The Past, Place, Friendship, Mothers, Equality, Good & Evil, Justice, Loyalty & Betrayal, Safety & Danger
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense
Career of Evil (2015) is the third novel in the Cormoran Strike detective series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym). The story begins when Strike’s assistant, Robin Ellacott, receives a package containing a woman’s severed leg. The gruesome delivery sparks the investigative duo’s pursuit of a sadistic killer of women. As Strike and Robin investigate suspects from Strike’s troubled past, the story delves into themes of trauma, misogyny, and the lasting effects of violence. A... Read Career of Evil Summary
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Power & Greed, Equality, Education
Tags Historical Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, Romance, World History
Publication year 2023
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Wins & Losses, Power & Greed, Justice, Fame, Community, Teamwork, Death, Future, Race, Gender Identity, Mental Health
Tags Science Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Satirical Literature, LGBTQ+, Black Lives Matter, Business & Economics, Grief & Death, US History, Incarceration, Race & Racism, Trauma & Abuse, Social Justice, Fantasy
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Gender Identity
Tags Mythology, Gender & Feminism, European History, Historical Fiction, World History, Fantasy, Romance
Published in 2018, Circe retells the story of the eponymous Greek mythological figure. The novel is also popular among the online BookTok community. Although traditionally viewed as a heartless, savagely beautiful witch who lures sailors to their deaths, the Circe of Madeline Miller’s imagining is quite different. This Circe is a multidimensional, flawed, and empathetic character struggling to find meaning and worth in her immortal life. Through Miller’s detailed and honest first-person narrative, which takes... Read Circe Summary
Publication year 2014
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Tags Black Lives Matter, Creative Nonfiction, Race & Racism, Education, Education, Social Justice, Politics & Government
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric is a genre-bending meditation on race, racism, and citizenship in 21st-century America. Published in 2014, Citizen combines prose, poetry, and images to paint a provocative portrait of the African American experience and racism in the so-called “post-racial” United States. Claudia Rankine is an essayist, poet, playwright and the editor of several anthologies; she is currently the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University. Citizen is the winner of... Read Citizen: An American Lyric Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction, Romance
City of Girls is the third novel by author Elizabeth Gilbert, published in 2019. Gilbert is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include Stern Men (2000) and The Signature of All Things (2013). A noted writer of nonfiction, she has also written a biography entitled The Last American Man (2002), as well as several memoirs including Eat Pray Love (2006), Committed (2010), and Big Magic (2015). Eat Pray Love became a worldwide bestseller... Read City of Girls Summary
Publication year 2023
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Mothers, Social Class, Perseverance, Shame & Pride, Education
Tags Poverty, Social Justice, Education, Education, Sociology, Biography, Politics & Government
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Self Discovery, Family, Trust & Doubt, Community, Mothers, Marriage, Conflict, Gratitude, Love
Tags Realistic Fiction, Gender & Feminism, Love & Sexuality, Parenting, Relationships, Modern Classic Fiction
Clock Dance (2018) is Anne Tyler’s 22nd domestic literary fiction novel that explores the smaller details of the human condition. Clock Dance, which spans time periods from 1967 to 2017, follows Willa, a woman who’s always made herself useful to those around her without any regard for her own needs. Through Willa’s life, Clock Dance explores themes of self-fulfillment, appreciation, passivity, and community to show how people do (or don’t) change throughout time. This novel... Read Clock Dance Summary
Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Gender Identity, Race, Social Class, Art
Tags Humor, Satirical Literature, Literary Fiction, Race & Racism