If you’re looking for the next book for your book club, this is a list of the 100 Best Book Club Books of All Time. The books are listed in reverse chronological order (so newer books are first), based on publication year.
The list has a preference for titles released in more recent years, but includes notable titles that were published in earlier years as well that have remained firmly on book club reading lists.
Happy reading and if you think there’s something missing, feel free to drop me a line in the comments below!
For more book club reads, see the Best Book Club Books of 2021 or the Best Book Club Books of 2020.
The Vanishing Half (2020)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Vanishing Half (2020) Publication Date: June 2, 2020
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Vanishing Half (2020) Publication Date: June 2, 2020
The Giver of Stars (2019)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Giver of Stars (2019) Publication Date: October 8, 2019
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Giver of Stars (2019) Publication Date: October 8, 2019
The Dutch House (2019)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Dutch House (2019) Publication Date: September 24, 2019
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Dutch House (2019) Publication Date: September 24, 2019
Such A Fun Age (2019)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Such A Fun Age (2019) Publication Date: December 31, 2019
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Such A Fun Age (2019) Publication Date: December 31, 2019
Where the Crawdads Sing (2018)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Where the Crawdads Sing (2018) Publication Date: August 14, 2018
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Where the Crawdads Sing (2018) Publication Date: August 14, 2018
Circe (2018)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Circe (2018) Publication Date: April 10, 2018
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Circe (2018) Publication Date: April 10, 2018
Educated (2018)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Educated (2018) Publication Date: February 20, 2018
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Educated (2018) Publication Date: February 20, 2018
Little Fires Everywhere (2017)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Little Fires Everywhere (2017) Publication Date: September 12, 2017
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Little Fires Everywhere (2017) Publication Date: September 12, 2017
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (2017)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (2017) Publication Date: May 9, 2017
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (2017) Publication Date: May 9, 2017
Pachinko (2017)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Pachinko (2017) Publication Date: February 7, 2017
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Pachinko (2017) Publication Date: February 7, 2017
A Gentleman in Moscow (2016)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) Publication Date: September 6, 2016
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) Publication Date: September 6, 2016
The Girl on the Train (2015)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Girl on the Train (2015) Publication Date: February 18, 2024
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Girl on the Train (2015) Publication Date: February 18, 2024
All The Light We Cannot See (2014)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of All The Light We Cannot See (2014) Publication Date: February 18, 2024
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of All The Light We Cannot See (2014) Publication Date: February 18, 2024
Station Eleven (2014)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Station Eleven (2014) Publication Date: September 9, 2014
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Station Eleven (2014) Publication Date: September 9, 2014
A Man Called Ove (2014)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of A Man Called Ove (2014) Publication Date: July 15, 2014
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of A Man Called Ove (2014) Publication Date: July 15, 2014
The Goldfinch (2013)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Goldfinch (2013) Publication Date: October 22, 2013
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Goldfinch (2013) Publication Date: October 22, 2013
The Rosie Project (2013)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Rosie Project (2013) Publication Date: October 1, 2013
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Rosie Project (2013) Publication Date: October 1, 2013
Where'd You Go Bernadette (2012)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Where'd You Go Bernadette (2012) Publication Date: August 14, 2012
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Where'd You Go Bernadette (2012) Publication Date: August 14, 2012
The Night Circus (2011)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Night Circus (2011) Publication Date: September 13, 2011
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Night Circus (2011) Publication Date: September 13, 2011
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2008)
What It's About: Publication Date: July 10, 2018
What It's About: Publication Date: July 10, 2018
Olive Kitteridge (2008)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Olive Kitteridge (2008) Publication Date: March 25, 2008
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of Olive Kitteridge (2008) Publication Date: March 25, 2008
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) Publication Date: May 22, 2007
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) Publication Date: May 22, 2007
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)
What It's About: Publication Date: May 18, 2004
What It's About: Publication Date: May 18, 2004
The Devil in the White City (2003)
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Devil in the White City (2003) Publication Date: February 11, 2003
What It's About: See the Full Summary and Review of The Devil in the White City (2003) Publication Date: February 11, 2003
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (1997)
What It's About: When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a "tap-dancing child abuser." Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding...Publication Date: May 22, 1996
What It's About: When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a "tap-dancing child abuser." Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding...Publication Date: May 22, 1996
Angela's Ashes (1996)
What It's About: Imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion. This is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while...Publication Date: September 5, 1996
What It's About: Imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion. This is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while...Publication Date: September 5, 1996
The Reader (1995)
What It's About: Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age...Publication Date: March 10, 1999
What It's About: Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age...Publication Date: March 10, 1999
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994)
What It's About: Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction...Publication Date: January 13, 1994
What It's About: Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction...Publication Date: January 13, 1994
A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)
What It's About: Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying...Publication Date: March 13, 2012
What It's About: Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul is both extraordinary and terrifying...Publication Date: March 13, 2012
The Remains of the Day (1989)
What It's About: An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.
The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman...Publication Date: September 12, 1990
What It's About: An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.
The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman...Publication Date: September 12, 1990
The Alchemist (1988)
What It's About: Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom, and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.
Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure...Publication Date: April 15, 2014
What It's About: Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom, and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.
Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure...Publication Date: April 15, 2014
The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
What It's About: Audie Award, Fiction, 2013
Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale explores a broad range of issues relating to power, gender, and religious politics. Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe award-winner Claire Danes (Temple Grandin, Homeland) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, one of the most powerful and widely read novels of our time...Publication Date: April 17, 1985
What It's About: Audie Award, Fiction, 2013
Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale explores a broad range of issues relating to power, gender, and religious politics. Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe award-winner Claire Danes (Temple Grandin, Homeland) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, one of the most powerful and widely read novels of our time...Publication Date: April 17, 1985
I, Claudius (1934)
What It's About: A modern classic of historical fiction written in the form of Claudius's autobiography.
Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D. Despised as a weakling and dismissed as an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings that marked the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the mad Caligula to become emperor of Rome in 41 A...Publication Date: January 1, 1934
What It's About: A modern classic of historical fiction written in the form of Claudius's autobiography.
Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B.C. to 54 A.D. Despised as a weakling and dismissed as an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings that marked the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the mad Caligula to become emperor of Rome in 41 A...Publication Date: January 1, 1934
Great list! I have heard a lot about some of the books from this list. I have read only 3 but I plan to add some to my TBR. Thank you for sharing!
My book group have read many of the books on this list, and I personally have read and loved even more of them – thanks for producing this list, I’ll certainly check out some of the ones I haven’t read!
I only count 91 books. Are there more to come?
This is an incredible list! I’m definitely inspired to make better use of my Kindle. Great blog and site Jennifer!
What a great list of books!! I have read quite a few on this list…24!!! And others on this list are already on my nightstand waiting impatiently. Not sure if you have a section of “If you like this book, you should read this”. I follow authors so something like that would be helpful. Either way, this list is amazing and the goal now is to read them all. Thank you! Your site is beautiful!!
What an amazing list!! We must be of like minds because I have read 24 of them…like The Handmaid’s Tale and my favorite, A Thousand Splendid Suns!! I am not sure if you have a section like “If you like this book, you should read this” but that would be really helpful. Either ways this is a great list and the goal now is to read all of them. Thank you for such a beautiful site!!!