The most recommended book club books

Who picked these books? Meet our 1,503 experts.

1,503 authors created a book list connected to book club, and here are their favorite book club books.
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Book cover of Hamnet

Suzanne McKenna Link Author Of #GirlFight

From Suzanne's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Suzanne's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Suzanne McKenna Link Why did Suzanne love this book?

I'm always happily surprised when a beautifully, long-winded literary book like this is so popular.
O'Farrell has a vivid imagination, and though there was a slow section toward the last third of the book that made me wonder where this story was going, I absolutely loved the way the ending pulled it all together.

By Maggie O'Farrell,

Why should I read it?

42 authors picked Hamnet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021
'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell

TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.

Neither…


Book cover of The Plague

David R. George III Author Of Serpents Among the Ruins

From David's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

David's 3 favorite reads in 2024

David R. George III Why did David love this book?

Albert Camus's The Plague feels like a book out of time. Clearly, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has left people worldwide with an understanding of what a virulent contagion can do when it sweeps across a community. Indeed, some of the novel's contents seem prescient. Coupled with the inherent philosophy embodied in the book, the tale makes for a forceful read.

By Albert Camus,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The Plague as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Its relevance lashes you across the face.” —Stephen Metcalf, The Los Angeles Times • “A redemptive book, one that wills the reader to believe, even in a time of despair.” —Roger Lowenstein, The Washington Post 

A haunting tale of human resilience and hope in the face of unrelieved horror, Albert Camus' iconic novel about an epidemic ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature. 

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they…


Book cover of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

Maia Toll Author Of Letting Magic In: A Memoir of Becoming

From my list on witchy women who love an enchanting tale.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was the kid who always had a fantasy novel in her backpack. Fantasy required I stretch my imagination, be open to possibilities, and understand different concepts of reality. This curiosity fueled my academic career, steering me from philosophy to Jungian psychology and, eventually, many years later, to an apprenticeship with a traditional healer in Ireland where I put my hands in the dirt and learned things that touched my soul, like how the growth of plants relates to the moon, ways to alchemize medicine making, and the psycho-spiritual aspects of healing…. You know, magic. I hope reading through this list brings you as much joy as putting it together did for me.

Maia's book list on witchy women who love an enchanting tale

Maia Toll Why did Maia love this book?

This book is a glorious exhortation to live, even when—especially when!—death is lurking. It takes place in the plague of 1666. I used to have a bizarre fear of the bubonic plague (like I imagined it was in my closet and, if I opened the door, it would escape out into the world), so it’s strange how much I love this book.

I think it’s because Anna, the main character, is such a force. She repeatedly reminds me to connect with the natural world and myself and then to stretch and reach beyond what I thought I was and who I thought I could be. It's magic.

By Geraldine Brooks,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Year of Wonders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'March' and 'People of the Book'.

A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village.

In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp…


Book cover of Hamnet
Book cover of The Plague
Book cover of Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague

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