23 Insanely Good Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Picks For Autumn Book Club

Looking for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club picks for autumn? I’ve put together a list of 23 insanely good books from Reese’s reading group that are perfect for cozy fall reading. These novels include thrillers to funny mysteries, powerful historical fiction, and modern romances. What I love about Reese’s picks is the variety and diversity, there’s always something new to discover, whether you’re into mysteries, romance, or character-driven fiction. Each book is a strong choice for your fall book club discussion. If you’re looking for your next favorite read or want to add to your autumn TBR, these Reese’s Book Club recommendations are a great place to start.

Also read : Top 5 Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Picks That Will Keep You Up All Night

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Broken Country is about Beth. She and her husband Frank live a quiet, happy life in their village. But everything changes after a dog is shot near their farm. The dog belongs to Gabriel Wolfe—the man Beth loved when she was young, the man who broke her heart.Now Gabriel has returned with his young son, who reminds Beth of her own child lost in an accident. As Beth reconnects with Gabriel, old secrets, jealousies, and dangers return to the surface. Beth must decide between her past and her present, and the choice could change everything. This explores first love, grief, and the hard choices people make. It’s emotional, full of twists, and gives plenty to talk about with friends.



Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

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Isola by Allegra Goodman

Isola is Marguerite grew up rich and was set for a good life. But after her parents die, her guardian wastes her money and takes her to New France. Lonely and scared, Marguerite grows close to the servant. They fall in love, but when their secret is found out, both are punished.They are left alone on a cold, empty island with no way to escape. Marguerite, once dressed in silk and pearls, must now fight to survive against hunger, storms, and ice. In her struggle, she finds new strength and faith. This novel is based on a true story. This is such a great fall book club choice to  discussion on resilience, freedom, and what it means to hope when everything is lost. It’s one of my favorite historical fiction with strong female leads.

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue.

Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.

Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

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All That Life Can Afford  by Emily Everett

Set between London and the world of the rich, All That Life Can Afford is a coming-of-age novel . Anna grows up poor in America but dreams of London’s glamour from the books she reads. After college, she finally moves there. Instead of fancy parties, she finds herself living in a small, moldy apartment and struggling to get by. Her life changes when she meets the wealthy Wilder family. They take her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their daughter. Soon, Anna is pulled into their world of parties, money, and secrets. She meets two very different men, one offers her wealth and escape, the other understands who she really is.
Now Anna must decide how much she’s willing to change herself to fit into this glittering life, and what parts of her past she cannot leave behind.
This debut is about class, ambition, and identity. It asks what we give up to belong and what we keep to stay true to ourselves. 

A taut and lyrical coming-of-age debut about a young American woman navigating class, lies, and love amid London’s jet-set elite.

I would arrive, blank like a sheet of notebook paper, and write myself new.

Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library—its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs. But when she finally arrives after college, the real London is a moldy flat and the same paycheck-to-paycheck grind—that fairy-tale life still out of reach.

Then Anna meets the Wilders, who fly her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter. Swept up by the sphinxlike elder sister, Anna soon finds herself plunged into a heady whirlpool of parties and excess, a place where confidence is a birthright. There she meets two handsome young men—one who wants to whisk her into his world in a chauffeured car, the other who sees through Anna’s struggle to outrun her past. It’s like she’s stepped into the pages of a glittering new novel, but what will it cost her to play the part?

Sparkling with intelligence and insight, All That Life Can Afford peels back the glossy layers of class and privilege, exploring what it means to create a new life for yourself that still honors the one you’ve left behind.

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The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King 

Blending history and magical realism, The Phoenix Pencil Company is a powerful multigenerational story. Monica Tsai is a  college freshman who spends most of her time online. She feels alone, except for her love for her grandparents, now in their nineties. Her grandmother, Yun, rarely talks about her past in China, but Monica knows she once worked at the Phoenix Pencil Company during WWII and was separated from her cousin, Meng. When Monica’s computer program connects her to a young woman with a mysterious pencil, she begins to uncover Yun’s  history. The story shifts between Monica’s search in the present and Yun’s dangerous past in Shanghai. You will love the mix of past and present, ordinary life and quiet magic, makes it both moving and engaging. 

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she’s always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly—especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade.

Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica’s discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun’s own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive.

Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A Tale for the Time Being with the uplifting, emotional magic of The Midnight Library, Allison King’s stunning debut novel asks: who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy.

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Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman 

Inspired by true-crime style stories, Before We Were Innocent is a gripping mystery about friendship and secrets. Ten years ago, three best friends spent a summer in Greece, but only two returned home after Evangeline’s death. Bess and Joni were never found guilty, yet the media destroyed their reputations. Joni used the attention to build a career as a motivational speaker, while Bess chose to live quietly. Now, when Joni becomes linked to a new crime that feels too much like the past, she calls Bess to LA for help. This novel explores friendship and  guilt. It’s suspenseful but also emotional. Your reading group will have many themes to debate and reflect on together.


A summer in Greece for three best friends ends in the unthinkable when only two return home in this new novel from Ella Berman. . .
Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.

While the girls were never convicted, Joni, ever the opportunist, capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess, on the other hand, resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .

Except now Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that one fateful night in Greece. And when she asks Bess to come back to LA to support her, Bess has a decision to make.

Is it finally time to face up to what happened that night, exposing herself as the young woman she once was and maybe still is? And what happens if she doesn’t like what she finds?

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Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major 

Perfect for fans of One Day and Groundhog Day, Maybe Next Time is a sweet  “what if” novel. Emma is a busy London book agent. She is always on her phone, rushing to work, and trying to juggle her family. Her husband Dan feels lonely, her kids are unhappy, even the dog seems sad. On their anniversary, Emma forgets once more. They argue, Dan walks out, and he dies in an accident. But the next morning, Emma wakes up—and it’s Monday again. Dan is alive. The same day repeats over and over.
Emma tries everything: spending more time with her kids, listening to Dan, ignoring work, even making wild choices. Each repeat gives her a chance to see what really matters. But can she stop fate, or is she only learning how to live?


This story is emotional and thought-provoking. And will make you discuss the importance of choice. 

One Day meets Groundhog Day, in this heartwarming and emotionally poignant novel about a stressed woman who must relive the same day over and over, keeping her family and work life from imploding as she attempts to spare her husband from an unfortunate fate.

It is an ordinary Monday and harried London literary agent Emma is flying out of the door as usual. Preoccupied with work and her ever growing to-do list, she fails to notice her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. Even the dog seems sad.

She is far too busy, buried deep in her phone; social media alerts pinging; clients messaging with “emergencies”; keeping track of a dozen WhatsApp groups about the kids’ sports, school, playdates, all of it. Her whole day is frantic—what else is new—and as she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out, desolate, dragging their poor dog around the block. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary and she has forgotten, again, she hears the screech of brakes.

Dan is dead.

The next day Emma wakes up… and Dan is alive. And it’s Monday again.

And again.

And again.

Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up: leaving WhatsApp, telling her boss where to get off, writing to Dan, listening to her kids, reaching out to forgotten friends, getting drunk and buying out Prada. But will Emma have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children, love her husband? Will this be enough to change the fate they seem destined for?

A moving “What if” story of what it is to be a woman in the modern world—never feeling we’re getting it quite right—about learning to slow down and appreciate life that is sure to resonate with women’s fiction fans.

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Anatomy by Dana Schwartz

Full of gothic mystery and romance, Anatomy is perfect for fans of dark historical fiction. Hazel Sinnett is a young woman in 1800s Edinburgh who wants to be a surgeon. Even though society expects her to marry instead. Jack Currer is poor and makes money by digging up bodies for medical study. When Hazel is banned from a famous surgeon’s lectures because she is a woman, she makes a deal that she can continue if she passes the exam on her own. To succeed, she needs real bodies to study, and Jack becomes the person who can help her. But Jack has troubles of his own: people are vanishing from the streets, graveyards are being watched by strange men, and a deadly fever is spreading through the city again. As Hazel and Jack work together, they discover dark secrets hidden in Edinburgh. With the perfect autumn setting and gothic themes this is a fabulous autumn read for your group. 

Dana Schwartz’s Anatomy: A Love Story is a gothic tale full of mystery and romance.

Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, Beecham will allow her to continue her medical career. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books―she’ll need corpses to study.

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living.

But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets, and the dreaded Roman Fever, which wiped out thousands a few years ago, is back with a vengeance. Nobody important cares―until Hazel.

Now, Hazel and Jack must work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.

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The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

The Cliffs is for the fans of family dramas. The novel is set against the coast of Maine. On a bluff above the ocean, stands an old lavender Victorian house filled with secrets from the past. As a teenager, Jane Flanagan used the abandoned house as a place to hide from her troubled mother. Twenty years later, after making mistakes that hurt both her job and marriage, Jane comes back home and is shocked to see the house has been changed into something unrecognizable by its new owner, Genevieve. Genevieve believes the house is haunted and hires Jane to research its history. As Jane looks into the past, she uncovers stories of lost loves, grief, art, stolen history, and ghosts that never left.I am a huge fan of atmospheric books, so if you are looking for good book club books that are enthralling and rich in details, this is for you.   


A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers.

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.

Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.

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The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

The Comfort of Crows is a must-read, especially as an audiobook. It is made of fifty-two short chapters, each following the birds, animals, and plants in the author’s backyard across one year. It begins with a crow seen on New Year’s Day and ends with bluebirds returning in December. The author writes about joy in small things, like flowers and birdsong, but also about grief, as seasons change too quickly and some species become fewer. At the same time, she reflects on her own life, with grown children leaving home, memories of the past, and the way her city and countryside continue to change.

In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.

Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author—and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.”

With fifty-two original color artworks by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world.

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Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House has the perfect small-town setting and a mysterious house with a life of its own .In the town of Eden, Kentucky, there is a haunted house built by the writer E. Starling, who disappeared long ago. The house is now falling apart, lived in only by her last heir, Arthur. Most people avoid it, but Opal, a young woman trying to care for her brother, takes a job there. At first the house feels dark and strange, but soon it begins to feel like a real home, something Opal has always wanted. This gothic story of ghosts, family, and finding a place to belong is a must-read autumn book club . It  mixes mystery and drama with the right amount of emotion.  So I think it’s a great spooky book for October with gothic, eerie, and dark secrets.

A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can’t stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

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The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

The Most Fun We Ever Had is a big family story. Marilyn and David fall in love in the 1970s. Forty years later, they are still deeply in love. Their four daughters watch this and struggle with their own messy lives. Wendy is widowed and hides her pain in alcohol and younger men. Violet once had a high-powered job but now stays home with her kids, fighting anxiety and regret. Liza is a professor who learns she is pregnant and questions everything about her relationship. Grace, the youngest, is lost and living a lie no one suspects. Then Jonah, a teenager given up for adoption, suddenly shows up. His arrival cracks open secrets and old wounds. The book moves between past and present, showing fights, betrayals, but also love and connection. It is about sisters, parents, and what holds a family together. If you are a fan of multigenerational family dramas, you’ll love the emotional elements as well as family dynamics.

A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple–still madly in love after forty years–recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they’ve built.

When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that’s to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she’s not sure she wants by a man she’s not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Above it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents’.

As the novel moves through the tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt–given up by one of the daughters in a closed adoption fifteen years before–we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons’ past: years marred by adolescence, infidelity, and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.

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Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

This is the perfect funny mystery to read in a day! You’ll adore the story of sharp-witted grandmother, her practical daughter, and a fiercely independent granddaughter. This will also be a great book for the fans of Gilmore Girls and crime thriller. Lana, a tough businesswoman from Los Angeles, is sick and sent to rest in a small coastal town. She does not want to slow down, but she is stuck with her daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack. Jack finds a dead body while kayaking and soon becomes a suspect. The family panics, but Lana decides to investigate. She wears her wig, pushes herself into the case, and drags Beth and Jack into it. The three women find lies, secrets, and power struggles hidden in the small town. Mother-Daughter Murder Night is funny, warm, and filled with suspense.

The coastal small-town setting adds charm, while the Rubicon women’s dynamic keeps the story fresh and entertaining. It’s fast-paced, fun, and full of surprises—a delightful read you won’t want to put down!

Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.

A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls , but with murder.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy   coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does. 

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always depend on each other.

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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

This is a truly one of the unforgettable historical fiction that brings Renaissance Italy to life. Maggie O’Farrell masterfully portrays Lucrezia de’ Medici, a young duchess. The Marriage Portrait follows her life as Lucrezia is forced into marriage with Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. She is still very young, but suddenly must live in a strange court. She does not know who her husband really is. At times he is charming. At other times he is cold and frightening. Lucrezia paints, watches, and tries to survive. Everyone expects her to give the duke an heir. Until then, she has little power and her life feels fragile.

The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.

Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.

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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Our Missing Hearts follows twelve-year-old Bird on a journey to unravel the truth about his mother. Bird Gardner is twelve years old. He lives with his father, who once taught linguistics but now works quietly in a library. Their life is small and careful. They avoid attention, follow the rules, and try not to stand out. For years, the country has been under strict laws meant to “protect American culture.” These laws target families of Asian descent and punish anyone who questions authority. Children of dissidents are taken from their parents. Books are banned, especially those considered unpatriotic. Among them are the poems of Bird’s mother, Margaret, who disappeared when Bird was nine. Bird barely remembers her. He has been told not to ask questions, not to search, not to care. But then a mysterious letter arrives. Inside is only a strange drawing. This small clue pushes Bird onto a dangerous path.

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.

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First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

First Lie Wins is about Evie Porter who seems to have a perfect life, but her whole identity is fake. She was trained to live with false names and jobs for secret work. When she begins to want a real life, her past comes back to threaten her. The story is full of twists and surprises as she decides whether to keep lying or tell the truth. Also read, books like First Lie Wins.

Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge

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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett’s writing paired with Meryl Streep’s delivery, Tom Lake was a phenomenal. I absolutely enjoyed spending days with family and picking cherries in Michigan. During the pandemic, three daughters go back to their family orchard. They ask their mother to tell them about her past love with a man who later became a movie star. The book moves between the past and the present. The orchard setting and the harvest time make it feel very much like autumn. It is a warm and thoughtful choice for book clubs because it gives you chance to  talk about love, family, and memory.  Also read book club questions Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Yellowface is told from the perspective of a white author who steals the manuscript of a deceased Chinese author. When a young writer named Athena dies, her friend June steals her unfinished book and publishes it as her own. June becomes famous, but soon questions about race, identity, and authorship begin to grow. The story is sharp and bold and shows the world of publishing and ambition. Also read : Yellowface by R. F. Kuang Book Club Questions & Snack Ideas

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

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Wrong place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Wrong place Wrong Time is a clever mix of mystery, suspense, and time travel.One night, a mother sees her teenage son commit a crime. The next morning she wakes up and it is the day before. Each time she wakes she goes further back, trying to stop what happened and understand why it took place. The book is both a thriller and a story about family and choices. It is gripping but also emotional. Which means it’s easy to discuss questions about fate, parenting, and how we change our future. Read more: 33 Book Club Questions For Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister.

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?

It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger.

She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered.

After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up… it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.

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Honor by Thrity Umrigar

Honor was a heartbreaking novel set in India. An American reporter travels to India to write about a Hindu woman who was attacked for marrying a Muslim man. As she works on the story, the reporter faces her own family history and sees the clash between tradition and freedom. The book is such a rich autumn book club choice . There are many topics b about morality, identity, and loyalty. 

In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.

In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal, and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.

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The Last Thing he Told Me by Laura Dave

The Last Thing he Told Me begins with Hannah’s husband disappearance.He leaves her a note that says “Protect her,” meaning his teenage daughter Bailey. Hannah and Bailey do not have a close bond, but they must work together to find out the truth about the man they thought they knew. As they search, Hannah starts to wonder what makes a real family. Also read my review of The Last Thing he Told Me

Before Owen Michaels disappears he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows to whom the note refers—Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child and wants nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Infinite Country is a poignant story of families torn apart and their relentless fight to reunite. This novel tells the story of a Colombian family divided by deportation. Elena and Mauro fall in love as teenagers in Bogotá, but with little hope for work they go to the United States. At first, they send money home and think about whether to stay or return. When they choose to overstay their visas, they live under the fear of being discovered. After Mauro is deported, Elena must raise their three children alone and make painful choices that affect everyone. 

For readers of Valeria Luiselli and Edwidge Danticat, an urgent and lyrical novel about a Colombian family fractured by deportation, offering an intimate perspective on an experience that so many have endured—and are enduring right now.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Colombia is a country devastated by half a century of violence. Elena and Mauro are teenagers when they meet, their blooming love an antidote to the mounting brutality of life in Bogotá. Once their first daughter is born, and facing grim economic prospects, they set their sights on the United States.

They travel to Houston and send wages back to Elena’s mother, all the while weighing whether to risk overstaying their tourist visas or to return to Bogotá. As their family expands, and they move again and again, their decision to ignore their exit dates plunges the young family into the precariousness of undocumented status, the threat of discovery menacing a life already strained. When Mauro is deported, Elena, now tasked with caring for their three small children, makes a difficult choice that will ease her burdens but splinter the family even further.

Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself the daughter of Colombian immigrants and a dual citizen, gives voice to Mauro and Elena, as well as their children, Karina, Nando, and Talia—each one navigating a divided existence, weighing their allegiance to the past, the future, to one another, and to themselves. Rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean myth, and tense with the daily reality for the undocumented in America, Infinite Country is the story of two countries and one mixed-status family—for whom every triumph is stitched with regret and every dream pursued bears the weight of a dream deferred.

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The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List is a fast-paced thriller with multiple narrators hiding secrets.A wedding takes place on a small island in Ireland. The bride, the groom, and the guests all have secrets. A storm traps them on the island and one person is killed. The story is told by different voices as the truth slowly comes out. There is so much to love about this book. The dark setting and the mystery make this a tense read. It works well for an autumn book club because it is exciting and full of suspense but also gives members  a chance to talk about trust, class, and how well we really know people. Also check out : 28 The Guest List Book Club Questions & Snack Ideas

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.

The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

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Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing is a masterpiece. The main character Kya grows up alone in the marshes of North Carolina after her family leaves her. Soon she is  teaching herself how to survive and finding comfort in the natural world around her. The townspeople never accept her and when a young man is found dead suspicion falls on her. This story of mystery and survival is also about loneliness.  It makes a wonderful autumn book club choice because it is layered with emotion and asks big questions about belonging, resilience, and how the natural world can hold both comfort and danger. 
Also check out 26 Unputdownable Books Like Where The Crawdads Sing.

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.

But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.

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The Last Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine

The Last Mrs Parrish is a slow-burn suspense novel. Amber Patterson is tired of being invisible. She wants the rich, glamorous life that Daphne Parrish already has with her powerful husband, Jackson. Amber pretends to be Daphne’s friend and slowly enters her perfect world. She travels with the family, grows close to Jackson, and thinks her plan is working. But Amber is hiding secrets from her past. If the truth comes out, everything she has built could be destroyed. This thriller is full of lies, and twists you won’t see coming. It’s exciting, fast to read, and makes you want to talk about the choices people make for power and love.
Also read : 26 Book Club Questions For The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Eleanor lives a quiet and lonely life. She likes routine: frozen pizza, vodka, and phone calls with her mother. She finds it hard to talk to people and often says exactly what she thinks. Her life changes when she meets Raymond, a kind but messy coworker. Together, they help an old man named Sammy after he falls. Slowly, the three become friends. This is warm and emotional book about friendship and healing . It’s the kind of book that makes you think and feel, perfect for the cozy and reflective mood of autumn. It’s also one of the most memorable books I have read.

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart.

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The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Rules of Magic is a whimsical story about the Owens family. They that have been cursed since 1620. In 1960s New York, Susanna Owens wants to protect her children from their magical heritage. Franny is strong and stubborn .Jet is quiet but can hear other people’s thoughts. Vincent is fun and always gets into trouble. Susanna gives them strict rules: no magic, no black clothes, no red shoes, no cats, and never fall in love.
One day, they visit their Aunt Isabelle in a small town in Massachusetts. There, they learn the truth about their family.
When they return to New York, each child starts a dangerous path as they try to break the family curse. This will be a cozy book club pick featuring witches.

Find your magic

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.

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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

In This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage Ann Patchett shares stories from her own private life. She talks about her childhood, family, marriage, and career as a writer. She shares about her first failed marriage and later finding happiness with her second husband. If your autumn book club wants an uplifting book club book for 2025, get this one.

Blending literature and memoir, Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto, examines her deepest commitments — to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband — creating a resonant portrait of a life in This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage takes us into the very real world of Ann Patchett’s life. Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, it covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.

As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.

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Redwood Court DéLana by R. A. Dameron

Redwood Court DéLana is a coming-of-age novel that follows Mika Tabor, the youngest in her family. She is growing up in an all-Black neighborhood in South Carolina. As she watches her family and neighbors work hard and push through struggles, Mika learns about strength, joy, and what it means to belong. This is such a discussion-worthy book. There is so much to talk about including the lives of ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.

Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ’em in your books and show everyone who we are.”

So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court. The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.

With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.

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The Unwedding by Ally Condie

The Unwedding is about Ellery Wainwright. She is planning to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary at a luxury resort in Big Sur, but after her divorce, she is traveling alone. To make things worse, a wedding is happening during her stay. However, things take a dark turn when she finds the groom’s dead body in the pool. When another guest dies, everyone is a suspect. If your book club loves an atmospheric book club choice with a suspenseful remote-setting, choose this one.

Ellery Wainwright is alone at the edge of the world. She and her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their twentieth wedding anniversary together at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California. Where better to celebrate a marriage, a family, and a life together than at one of the most stunning places on earth? But now she’s traveling solo.

To add insult to injury, there’s a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now she isn’t certain of anything except her love for her kids and a growing realization that this place, although beautiful, is unsettling.

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Looking for Smoke by K. A. Cobell

Looking for Smoke is about Mara who joins a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway. She hopes to make friends. But things didn’t turn out as she expected. Soon one of the girls in the group, Samantha, is dead. Mara and the other three teens become suspects.

When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren’s missing sister, Mara thinks she’ll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation.

Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.

Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation. And all of them—Mara, Loren, Brody, and Eli—have a complicated history with Samantha.

Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.

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City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim

This heartwarming historical fiction from Reese’s book club is an ambition books for your October book club. City of Night Birds follows Natalia Leonova, a famous Russian ballerina. When she returns to St. Petersburg in 2019 after a devastating accident, ghosts of her former life begin to haunt her. All those painful memories of her difficult mother, absent father, and two dancers who changed her life, Alexander, her greatest love, and Dmitri. Your book club will love this profound exploration of art, love and ambition.

A once-famous ballerina faces a final choice—to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke her, or to walk away forever—in this incandescent novel of redemption and love

On a White Night in 2019, prima ballerina Natalia Leonova returns to St. Petersburg two years after a devastating accident stalled her career. Once the most celebrated dancer of her generation, she now turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past.

She is unmoored in her old city as the ghosts of her former life begin to resurface: her loving but difficult mother, her absentee father, and the two gifted dancers who led to her downfall.

One of those dancers, Alexander, is the love of her life, who transformed both Natalia and her art. The other is Dmitri, a dark and treacherous genius. When the latter offers her a chance to return to the stage in her signature role, Natalia must decide whether she can again face the people responsible for both her soaring highs and darkest hours.

Painting a vivid portrait of the Russian ballet world, where cutthroat ambition, ever-shifting politics, and sublime artistry collide, City of Night Birds unveils the making of a dancer with both profound intimacy and breathtaking scope. Mysterious and alluring, passionate and virtuosic, Juhea Kim’s second novel is an affecting meditation on love, forgiveness, and the making of an artist in a turbulent world.

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