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15 Perfect Books for Fall Book Club Discussions
Fall is hands down my favorite season. I love the vibrant colors and the cozy smell in the air. If you’re looking for some great books to discuss with your book club this season, you’ll love this list. I’ve rounded up 15 book club books that are perfect for fall. These reads are heartwarming, atmospheric, and totally gripping. From fall-themed romances to cozy mysteries and even fall classics, the list has something for every kind of reader. ou will also find I have fall-themed book club kit and helpful answers about book clubs in general.
What Books Are Included in The List?
Like I mentioned, you can find all sorts of genres here. I’ve included multiple genres for so many reasons: to keep things interesting, to give everyone in the club something they’ll enjoy, and to make sure you’ll never get stuck in one genre.
15 Must-Read Book Club Books For Fall 2024
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s debut in romantasy—a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love. Kiela, a librarian with social anxiety, flees a revolution with her sentient spider plant assistant, Caz, and returns to her childhood home. There, she meets a handsome and nosy neighbor and starts a secret spellshop. This book is perfect for the fall season with its magical, heartwarming story that feels like a Hallmark movie mixed with mythical creatures.
The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.
When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.
In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.
But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.
Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.
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The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
At the end of World War II, Cyril Conroy buys the Dutch House, propelling his family to wealth and eventually causing their downfall. Narrated by his son Danny, this story covers five decades of loss, family bonds, and the siblings’ unshakable connection. It’s a great autumn book club pick. It has deep themes and rich character studies, leading to heated discussions about family, wealth, and forgiveness.
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
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The Secret History Donna Tartt
In The Secret History, a group of eccentric college students fall under the spell of their charismatic professor and slowly descend into corruption and betrayal. This dark, gripping tale is perfect for book clubs that enjoy deep psychological analysis and moral dilemmas.
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
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Verity by Colleen Hoover
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer who uncovers a chilling manuscript while completing the books of a famous author incapacitated by an accident. This psychological thriller, filled with shocking twists and moral questions, is perfect for autumn book club discussions, as members will debate the ethics and motivations behind the characters’ actions.
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.
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The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
Hannah Hall receives a cryptic note from her husband just before he disappears, instructing her to protect his teenage daughter, Bailey. As Hannah and Bailey search for answers, they uncover shocking truths about Owen’s past.
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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The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
A young woman discovers an ancient book and letters that plunge her into a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the basis for the Dracula legend. This detailed novel spans centuries and continents. The historical intrigue and eerie vibes make the book a must-read fall book club choice.
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history….Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor,” and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of, a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself–to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler’s dark reign and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The passionate and tragic love story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff set on the Yorkshire moors is a timeless classic. Wuthering Height is perfect for autumn reading group with its dark, moody atmosphere and deep emotional intensity.
At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff – recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.
This best-selling Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1847 first edition of the novel. For the Fourth Edition, the editor has collated the 1847 text with several modern editions and has corrected a number of variants, including accidentals. The text is accompanied by entirely new explanatory annotations.
New to the fourth Edition are twelve of Emily Bronte’s letters regarding the publication of the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights as well as the evolution of the 1850 edition, prose and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and Edward Chitham’s insightful and informative chronology of the creative process behind the beloved work.
Five major critical interpretations of Wuthering Heights are included, three of them new to the Fourth Edition. A Stuart Daley considers the importance of chronology in the novel. J. Hillis Miller examines Wuthering Heights’s problems of genre and critical reputation. Sandra M. Gilbert assesses the role of Victorian Christianity plays in the novel, while Martha Nussbaum traces the novel’s romanticism. Finally, Lin Haire-Sargeant scrutinizes the role of Heathcliff in film adaptations of Wuthering Heights.
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Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in a Massachusetts town that blames them for everything that goes wrong. This bewitching novel blends magic and family drama.
The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape.
One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic
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The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
Single mother Zoe moves to the Scottish Highlands for a fresh start and finds herself caring for three challenging children in a tumbledown castle. This warm-hearted novel combines charming characters and picturesque settings, making it a lighthearted book club book. The book also has themes of starting fresh, being resilient, and building community.
A grand baronial house on Loch Ness, a quirky small-town bookseller, and a single mom looking for a fresh start all come together in this witty and warm-hearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan.
Desperate to escape from London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her son Hari. She can barely afford the crammed studio apartment on a busy street where honking horns and shouting football fans keep them awake all night. If she doesn’t find a way out soon, Zoe knows it’s just a matter of time before she has a complete meltdown. On a whim, she answers an ad for a nanny job in the Scottish Highlands, which is about as far away from the urban crush of London as possible. It sounds heavenly!
The job description asks for someone capable of caring for three “gifted children”, two of which behave like feral wolverines. The children’s widowed father is a wreck, and the kids run wild in a huge tumbledown castle on the heather-strewn banks of Loch Ness. Still, the peaceful, picturesque location is everything London is not—and Zoe rises to the challenges of the job.
With the help of Nina, the friendly local bookseller, Zoe begins to put down roots in the community. Are books, fresh air, and kindness enough to heal this broken family—and her own…?
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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
This classic gothic novel about a young bride overshadowed by her husband’s first wife is perfect for the cooler months. With its eerie atmosphere and suspenseful plot, Rebecca will lead to discussions about identity, memory, and the influence of the past.
Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county’s showpiece. Rebecca made it so – even a year after her death, Rebecca’s influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter’s shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow?
A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely…
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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Bod, raised by ghosts in a graveyard, faces dangers both supernatural and human. This darkly enchanting novel is perfect for autumn, with its blend of fantasy, adventure, and coming-of-age themes. Your reading group is sure to have a rich material for book club discussions.
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead.
There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.
But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod’s family.
A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean.
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Autumn by Ali Smith
Set in the tumultuous time of Brexit, Autumn is a meditation on aging, love, and time. This contemporary novel is perfect for book clubs with its thought-provoking themes and poetic prose.
Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. That’s what it felt like for Keats in 1819.
How about Autumn 2016?
Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.
Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand in hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever.
Ali Smith’s new novel is a meditation on a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, on what harvest means. This first in a seasonal quartet casts an eye over our own time. Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearian jeu d’esprit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s Pop art: the centuries cast their eyes over our own history-making.
Here’s where we’re living. Here’s time at its most contemporaneous and its most cyclic.
From the imagination of the peerless Ali Smith comes a shape-shifting series, wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories, and a story about ageing and time and love and stories themselves.
Here comes Autumn.
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There There by Tommy Orange
This novel follows twelve Native American characters in Oakland as they prepare for a powwow. There There is a powerful exploration of identity, history, and community, making it a poignant choice for book clubs seeking meaningful discussions.
Tommy Orange’s wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.
Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American–grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.
Hailed as an instant classic, There There is at once poignant and unflinching, utterly contemporary and truly unforgettable.
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The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Four seekers arrive at Hill House to study its supernatural phenomena, only to find themselves caught in its sinister grip. This classic horror novel is a perfect spooky autumn read.
It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
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A Pumpkin and a Patch by Jennifer Peel
Josie Peterson, known for a torrid story she wrote as a teen, finds herself entangled with the real-life inspiration, Reece Cavanaugh, as they navigate a messy legal battle and budding romance. Set in a pumpkin patch, this light-hearted and romantic novel is perfect for the season. It’s charming, feel-good vibes will bring so much fun and lively discussions.
Every person has that one thing they’re known for, and it doesn’t matter what you do, that one thing—whether good or bad—follows you around like a bloodhound for the rest of your life. For me it’s a story I wrote when I was fifteen. Forever more I will be known as the Reece the Rogue Pirate girl, instead of Josie Peterson. Why couldn’t I be known for all the cute children’s stories I’ve written about my family’s pumpkin patch?
Tragically, the torrid story I wrote as a teen was based on a real person, Reece Cavanaugh. And guess what? He grew up to be a pirate—okay, lawyer. Same thing. To make matters worse, the man is representing my ex-fiancé who wants to steal my treasure, aka engagement ring. If that wasn’t the icing on the cake, Reece has an adorable daughter who happens to be my new student. That’s right, I must now have actual conversations with him after avoiding him for half my life, even by hiding behind banana displays when needed. But the more I get to know Reece—the real version, not the imaginary one who ravishes me on sandy beaches—I can’t help but wish we could roll around in the sand together. There’s a problem though, the school I work for frowns upon relationships between parents and teachers. And it’s pumpkin season, which means all my free time is spent on the family farm. But when he kisses me, I can’t help wanting to break all the rules and get tangled up in the barn. The burning question is, am I brave enough to make my story a reality or will it be another bad ending?
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Fall-themed Book Club Kit
This is a free PDF printable with fall-themed book club tracker and book review template. Use the review template to write detailed reviews of your book club books. DOWNLOAD NOW
Conclusion:
There you have the best discussion-worthy book club books for fall season.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Makes a Good Book Club Book?
A good book club book leads to great conversations and keeps everyone engaged. Look for books with rich narratives and thought-provoking themes. For example, Educated by Tara Westover provides plenty of discussion points about resilience and self-discovery. Another great pick is The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, which explores survival and family dynamics. These kinds of books make meetings lively and interesting for everyone.
How Do I Choose a Book for My Book Club?
Think about what your members like to read, how long the book is, and if it has interesting discussion points.
How Can I Make My Book Club Meetings More Engaging?
If you are looking for more engagement ,try using printables like discussion guides, monthly planners, character analysis worksheets, and quote trackers. These can help keep things organized and make sure everyone is ready to dive into the discussion.
What Are Some General Book Club Questions I Can Use?
Here are some go-to questions for any book club meeting:
• What was your favorite part of the book?
• Were there any plot twists that surprised you?
• How did the setting impact the story?
Also check out my blog post: : 15 questions that will work for any book!
How Often Should My Book Club Meet?
Most book clubs meet once a month, which gives everyone enough time to read and prepare. But honestly, it depends on what works best for your group. You can always adjust the frequency based on everyone’s schedules and preferences.
More fall-themed Blog posts
FREE Fall-Themed Printable Bookmarks
24 Cozy Classic Novels You Should Read
Stephy George
