Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Education, Race, Sexual Identity, Coming of Age
Tags Relationships, LGBTQ+, Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction
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.
Come and Get It
Commonwealth
Convenience Store Woman
Conversations with Friends
Counterfeit
Count My Lies
Crossing to Safety
Crow Lake
Crying in H Mart
Cultish
Cursed Bunny
Cursed Daughters
Cutting for Stone
Daisy Darker
Daisy Jones & The Six
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
Deacon King Kong
Dead Mountain
Dead Until Dark
Dead Wake
Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Education, Race, Sexual Identity, Coming of Age
Tags Relationships, LGBTQ+, Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes The Past, Family
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction
Written by the best-selling author Ann Patchett, Commonwealth was published in 2016 and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Commonwealth tells the story of two families: the Keatings and the Cousins. In a nonlinear fashion, the novel follows their stories over fifty years from multiple points of view, although the dominant point of view comes from Franny Keating. The novel explores the burdens and joys of children and old... Read Commonwealth Summary
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Social Class, Masculinity, Femininity, Loneliness, Midlife
Tags Japanese Literature, Relationships, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Asian Literature
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Politics & Government, Friendship
Tags Romance, LGBTQ+, Irish Literature, Modern Classic Fiction
Conversations with Friends is Irish writer Sally Rooney’s debut novel, published in 2017. Rooney wrote the novel when she was 25 and followed it up quickly with Normal People in 2018 and Beautiful World, Where Are You in 2021. All three works have garnered award nominations, and the first two have been adapted into television series. Conversations with Friends tells the story of Frances and Bobbi— college students, best friends, and former girlfriends—and Nick and... Read Conversations with Friends Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Friendship, Race, Justice, Appearance & Reality
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Survival Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Truth & Lies
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense
Publication year 1987
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Memory, Friendship
Tags American Literature, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction
Crossing to Safety is a 1987 semi-autobiographical novel by Wallace Stegner. Using a series of flashbacks in the mind of a writer, Larry Morgan, throughout a single day, the novel is a reflection on youth, idealism, and the often unarticulated but lifelong process of compromise one must endure while seeking a stable place in the world. Stegner’s novel explores these themes via Larry’s perspective on two academic couples: Larry and his wife, Sally Morgan, and Sidney... Read Crossing to Safety Summary
Publication year 2002
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Gender Identity, Family
Tags Gender & Feminism, Modern Classic Fiction
Crow Lake is a 2002 Canadian bildungsroman set in a rural farming community in northern Ontario. It is author Mary Lawson’s debut work and earned her the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the UK McKitterick Prize. The novel focuses on the Morrison siblings, who are orphaned when their parents are killed by a logging truck. Kate, the second-youngest member of the family, narrates the novel in first person. Her narrative alternates between the... Read Crow Lake Summary
Publication year 2021
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Mothers, Immigration, Death
Tags Food, Grief & Death, Relationships, Asian Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Music, Biography
Publication year 2023
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Language
Tags Psychology, Religion & Spirituality, Crime & Law, Sociology, World History, Psychology
Publication year 2017
Genre Short Story Collection, Fiction
Themes Fear, Loneliness, Revenge, Disability, Gender Identity, Language, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Death, Appearance & Reality, Family, Marriage, Social Class, Economics, Justice
Tags Horror & Suspense, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Korean Literature
Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Religion & Spirituality, Self Discovery, Family, Death, Love
Tags Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction, British Literature, African Literature
Publication year 2009
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Immigration, Religion & Spirituality, Siblings
Tags Historical Fiction, Health, African Literature
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was published in 2009. Verghese, an Indian American doctor born in Ethiopia, interrupted his medical career to attend the University of Iowa’s Writing Workshop and wrote two memoirs before publishing this novel. The book is notable for its incorporation of medical knowledge and its intimate portrayal of the lives of medical doctors. The novel spans several decades, weaving a deeply personal story with the complex 20th-century history of Ethiopia... Read Cutting for Stone Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Guilt, Family, Justice, Revenge, Grief, Death
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Music, Fathers, Fame
Tags Historical Fiction, Music, Modern Classic Fiction, World History
Taylor Jenkins Reid’s historical fiction novel Daisy Jones & The Six, published in 2019, is a contemporary work of fiction that explores the rich music culture of the 1970s in the United States. This time was known for rock ’n’ roll, partly as a cultural response to the strict rules of the 1960s and the disaster of the Vietnam War. The California dream world of hard partying, no rules, and freedom persists as a major... Read Daisy Jones & The Six Summary
Publication year 2022
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Truth & Lies, Love
Tags Fantasy, Mythology, Romance, Asian Literature, Asian Literature, Historical Fiction
Publication year 2020
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Community, Fathers, Race, Daughters & Sons
Tags Race & Racism, Poverty, African American Literature, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction
Deacon King Kong was published in 2020 and written by American author James McBride. It is an example of near-historical fiction written about American cities and social issues. McBride’s 1995 memoir about growing up in a mixed-race family in Brooklyn, The Color of Water, was both a commercial and critical success, and his own life experience aligns with some of the narratives and issues in Deacon King Kong.McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird won the... Read Deacon King Kong Summary
Publication year 2013
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Grief, Memory, Language, Death, The Past, Climate, Environment, Place, Teamwork, Nation, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies
Tags Russian Literature, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Biography, European History, Crime & Law, Action & Adventure, Travel Literature
Publication year 2001
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Hate & Anger, Love, Death, Self Discovery, Safety & Danger
Tags Horror & Suspense, Fantasy, Romance, Gothic Literature
Dead Until Dark (2001) is an urban fantasy novel by American author Charlaine Harris that blends contemporary supernatural elements with the traditions of Southern Gothic literature. The first installment in The Southern Vampire Mysteries, Harris’s 13-book series, the story introduces Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress living in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Her life is irrevocably altered when she becomes involved with a local vampire, drawing her into a dangerous new world and... Read Dead Until Dark Summary
Publication year 2015
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Tags Politics & Government, World History, World War I, European History, US History, Military & War, Biography
In Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, writer Erik Larson traces the Lusitania’s final journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The Lusitania is a British passenger liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Company. First sailing in 1907, the Lusitania quickly sets records for the fastest journey across the Atlantic Ocean, stealing the coveted Blue Riband away from Germany.Dead Wake follows the Lusitania’s final journey, which took place during the first week of May 1915... Read Dead Wake Summary