Best Book Club Books for 2024

Book Summary

Living in British-colonized Malaya in the mid-19030s, Cecily Alcantara wanted more than anything to be more than just a housewife to her low-level bureaucrat husband. After a chance meeting with a handsome Japanese general, she found herself drawn into an unlikely life of espionage. She hated the way the British treated the locals and was drawn in by the Japanese promise of an “Asia for Asians.” Not until it was too late would she realize she was helping to usher in a brutal occupation by the Japanese.

A decade later in 1945, with WWII nearing its climax, Cecily’s actions have caught up with her, and her family is paying the price. Her 15-year-old son has disappeared, her youngest daughter is forced to hide out at home to avoid being forced to work at the comfort stations, and her older daughter, who works at a tea house serving drunk Japanese soldiers, is growing angrier by the day.

Book Summary

This gorgeously written and heartbreaking novel tells the story of a tragic wildfire and how it forever changes the lives of a Greek family and their village. Irini teaches music, her husband, Tasso, paints pictures of the ancient forest surrounding their home, and together, they are raising their young daughter, Chara, whose name means joy.

When a wildfire rips through the forest and destroys their home and their village, the family is left to grapple with the cause while the village tries to rebuild. The fire was started by a landowner attempting to use a controlled burn to clear the site for redevelopment, but it quickly got out of control.

Months later, Irini encounters the man who started the fire. He is dying, but in her anger, Irini makes a rash decision that results in a police investigation.

Due to burns on his hands, Tasso is unable to paint. He struggles to cope with the loss of his artistic voice, his beloved forest, and his father, who hasn’t been seen since before the fire. If it weren’t for his young daughter, he wouldn’t have any hope for the future.

Book Summary

Emma realizes that her life might have gotten a bit too hectic and tiring when she falls asleep in an IKEA showroom. Between trying to be a good mother to her kids, a good daughter to her ailing mother, and a good wife, she’s struggling to keep up. Thank goodness for her best friend, Roz, who keeps her sane. But when Roz climbs through her bathroom window one day with terrible news to share, Emma loses all confidence in her ability to keep it together.

Thurston’s once-full life is empty these days. He’s recently widowed, and without his wife of sixty-two years, he no longer finds joy or purpose in his life. When driving his niece to work one day, Thurston has a chance encounter with Emma and quickly gets drawn into the whirlwind of her chaotic life.

Thurston has a calming presence that helps Emma put her problems in perspective, and soon, the two form an unlikely friendship.

Book Summary

Hermine Zook lives on an island in Michigan’s Great Massasauga Swap. As an herbalist, Zook has offered healing to the local women for generations. Zook is estranged from her three daughters, but the youngest daughter has left her own 11-year-old daughter to grow up on the island.

Dorothy (“Donkey”) spends her days exploring the wild landscape and digging into her math books, all the while wanting nothing more than for her mother to return for her. But soon, the innocence of her childhood will be turned upside down by family secrets and violent men.

Book Summary

This novel traces the history of Colorado’s Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, and also explores how the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was impacted by a traumatic event involving Orvil Red Feather from Tommy Orange’s acclaimed There There.

In the 19th century, Star is a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre who is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle under the evangelical guard of Richard Henry Platt. Platt would go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded with the intent to eradicate Native history and culture. A generation after the Massacre, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by Platt.

In Oakland in 2018, Opal is trying to hold her family together after her nephew Orvil’s near-death experience. Beginning during his recovery in the hospital, Orvil becomes obsessed with researching similar incidents online, all the while becoming dependent on prescription medication. His younger brother, Lonny, has PTSD from the event.

Book Summary

Nelly Sawyer is the 20-year-old daughter of a Kentucky horse breeder who is alleged to be the “wealthiest Negro in America.” Their family has catapulted to a new level of elite Black society. Her brother is presumed to be the heir to the family fortune, but when he dies unexpectedly, Nelly is suddenly elevated to be a premier debutante. Marriage and societal influence are far from Nelly’s goals, however.

She’s spent the last year working as an undercover investigative journalist. In this capacity, she’s had the opportunity to share the achievements of many everyday Black people living under the shadow of Jim Crow. Her latest assignment throws her into the world of the dangerous so-called Mayor of Maxwell Street.

Jay Shorey is a charming and mysterious young man who longs for the comfort of high society. After his parents, a biracial couple in rural Alabama, were murdered, Jay took the chance to escape his hometown. He finds himself in Chicago, where he crosses paths with Nelly, and she asks his help to expose the Mayor and fight the corruption that has overrun Prohibition Era Chicago.

Book Summary

In 1964, a racial divide cuts through the town of High Cotton, Texas, just as plainly as the train tracks, but cultural shifts are on the horizon. The friendship between two girls, one local and one new to town, is about to escalate the tension.

Corky is 13-years-old, right on the cusp between childhood and adolescence. Her family just hired a new housekeeper from Haiti, and Corky is quick to befriend her daughter, America. Corky has been reading a new “grown-up” novel called To Kill a Mockingbird, and she’s eager to share it with America. But America’s take on the book is very different from Corky’s… and much more personal.

As the summer goes on, Corky learns that America can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph, and she invites America to play on her church softball team. It seems like fun and games, but the invitation crosses the color lines and sparks a firestorm in High Cotton. It will be a season of big changes for the town with lifelong impacts on the girls.

Book Summary

Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a 21-year-old nursing student who has been raised by her conservative parents to always do “the right thing.” But when her brother ships out for Vietnam in 1965, she begins to change her views of right and wrong. Frankie impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows her brother to Vietnam. As she tends to the green and inexperienced young men who have been sent to fight the war, she is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction. Returning home to a changed America doesn’t prove to be any easier.

While The Women is the story of Frankie going to war, it also shines a light on the story of all women who risk everything to help others. The publisher describes this book as “a novel of searing insight and lyrical beauty” that is “profoundly emotional” and “richly drawn.”

Book Summary

Marie and her husband recently lost one of their children to a tragic accident and she is desperate to help her family get a fresh start for the sake of her other three surviving kids. She travels to New Hampshire in hopes of selling a family estate only to find a war veteran, known to locals as “the river witch” living in a cabin on the property. Davina insists that it was a gift to her from Marie’s grandfather.

If Davina refuses to move on, then Marie won’t be able to either. As the women fight over the property, battles lines are drawn in the town and within Marie’s family with both sides digging into their positions. When tensions reach a breaking point, a force outside of their control intervenes.

Book Summary

Cassie is a NYC bookseller who receives an unusual book as a gift from one of her favorite customers. Filled with strange writing and mysterious drawings, the book even includes a handwritten message to Cassie in the front. It states that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door.

Cassie will soon discover that the Book of Doors can transport her anywhere in the world that she can imagine. She also learns that there are other books in the world with magical powers – some wondrous and others dreadful, especially in the hands of dangerous individuals.

When Cassie and her best friend, Izzy, are confronted by violence and danger, they need help. It appears that the only person who can help them is Drummond Fox, who possesses his own secret library of magical books. His books are hidden for protection, but someone is hunting them all.

Book Summary

By 1906, San Francisco was full of the newly wealthy and those dreaming of new wealth. Two of those dreamers were Gemma, who was trying to rekindle her singing career, and Suling, a Chinese seamstress trying to escape an arranged marriage. The women meet through the acquaintance of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate and collector of Chinese antiques, including the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.

However, before the women can benefit from Thornton’s patronage, the 1906 earthquake rips through the city and Thornton disappears. Then, five years later, the Phoenix Crown reappears at a Paris costume ball. Gemma and Suling must join forces to figure out what really happened to Thornton.

Book Summary

In 1924, when Cecily was only 4, her mother reluctantly left her at an orphanage and promised to return when she had money to support her. However, three years later, her mother hasn’t returned, and Cecily is “adopted” by a traveling circus. She’s assigned to be the “little sister” of a glamourous bareback rider, and believes she’s found the family she has always dreamed of. By the time Cecily is a teenager, she’s seen the problems in her traveling world. When she falls in love with a roustabout named Lucky, her life changes again in a dangerous way.

In 2015, Cecily is 94 and has a quiet Minnesota life with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. When her great-grandson has a project for school, the family takes DNA tests, and the results reveal a tragic story Cecily has kept secret for decades. Four generations are forced to reevaluate what “family” really means.

Book Summary

This dual-timeline novel takes you back and forth between the lives of two women. In 1985, rising star Anita is found dead in New York City. Her death is widely talked about at first, but by the time Raquel is an art student in 1998, Anita has been forgotten.

Raquel is one of the only students of color at her school, and most of the other students come from money. She has to work twice as hard for everything until she begins dating an older art student, which quickly propels her up the social ranks. But when she discovers Anita’s story, she begins seeing eerily parallels with her own life and relationship.

Book Summary

This book will transport you back to 1907 Panama, as the United States attempts the extraordinary engineering feat of creating the Panama Canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. While this was thrilling for most of the world, locals experienced a wider range of emotions.

Francisco is a fisherman who resents the big project led by a foreign power. However, his son, Omar, works as a digger and loves the new connections he forms working with a team. Ada is a 16-year-old who stowed away on a ship from Barbados looking for a better life.

When Omar collapses after a long day of strenuous work, Ada is the only one to help him. John is a doctor who traveled to Panama to further his goal of eliminating malaria, but now his wife is ill. When he sees Ada’s bravery, he impulsively hires her as a caregiver, which sets off a tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.

Book Summary

Dutiful Nigerian daughter Joy is overwhelmed by her life coaching career and recent divorce, but has still planned the perfect 70th birthday weekend for her mother, Mama Mary. As more of their extended family arrives to the house for the weekend, Mama Mary decides to take a nap.

However, when grandkids try to wake her later, it’s discovered that she has passed away in her sleep. Mama Mary’s sister, Auntie Nancy, refuses to believe the news. And since the death took place on Good Friday, Nancy is convinced that Mama Many will wake up on Easter Sunday, just like Jesus.

As the family buys into this upcoming miracle, they invite the entire Nigerian Canadian community to join them. But Joy is skeptical. She’s torn between not being ready to mourn and planning the funeral her aunt won’t seem to allow.

Book Summary

This character-driven read explores life for those left behind after a loved one passes away too soon, in this case, a mother of four in her 30s, Annie. The story is told from three points of view: Annie’s husband, her best friend, and her oldest child. When her husband, Bill, and best friend, Annemarie, fall apart after Annie’s death, Ali is forced to step up and care for her younger brothers.

Over the course of one year, Annie is always present in the memories of all three characters as they gain strength and try to redefine what their lives will look like without her.

Book Summary

After her home was destroyed by a bomb and her marriage crumbled, Yvonne is floundering. Her daughter is busy with war work, and Yvonne feels like her life has no purpose. But then she has a chance to create a whole new world for herself while helping the war effort.

Yvonne is recruited to be Britain’s first sabotage agent. Suddenly, it’s an asset that she is in her forties and goes unnoticed in life. After training, she arrives in France with her new identity, ready to infiltrate Hilter’s regime. However, she must be cautious because it seems everyone is an adversary.

Book Summary

This thought-provoking novel transports you back to 1840s Missouri, the land of Huckleberry Finn. However, in James, you’ll find the story reimaged from the point of view of the enslaved man, Jim, who prefers to be called James.

James overhears that he’s about to be sold to a man in New Orleans. If this happens, he’ll never see his wife and daughter again. That thought is too much for him to bear, so he decides to hide on Jackson Island until he comes up with a long-term plan. The island is also the temporary home of Huck Finn, who is running from his abusive father.

Together, the unlikely duo is determined to make it down the Mississippi River to the elusive Free States. Along the way, they encounter the same trials Mark Twain included, but they feel different through the eyes of James.

Book Summary

The Shahs came to America from India twenty years ago with good educations, a shared dream, and little else. Now, they’re moving into a perfect gated community in Pacific Hills, California with their three American-born children. This move represents all the work and sacrifices they made along the way.

However, one Saturday night, their twelve-year-old son is arrested. Each family member is forced to redefine who they are and what success really means. The book explores themes of policing, immigration, generational conflict, social class, and privilege in a page-turning tale.

Book Summary

A decade ago, hairstylist Jess Greene’s mother ran off with a man she barely knew. Since that time, Jess has been raising her younger half-sister, Tegan. Now 31 years old, Jess has also been keeping a secret all these years. She always known that her mother’s boyfriend is an accomplished con man that has since been featured as the subject of a popular podcast. But what Jess didn’t expect was for Tegan to figure that out for herself.

Now that Tegan knows, she plans to leave the safety of the home her sister has provided for her in search of their mother. She doesn’t plan to search alone, though. She’ll be accompanied by the prying podcaster and the podcaster’s handsome producer, Adam. Jess doesn’t want Tegan to go, but since she can’t stop her, she reluctantly agrees to go along.

As the four make their way across the country they work to unravel the mystery of where the couple went, and why. For the first time in a long time, Jess is discovering what it’s like to step outside the walls she built up around her. She’s surprised to feel a connection with Adam – something she didn’t even realize she was missing in her life.

Book Summary

This collection includes six story stories set in New York City and a novella set in LA. The novella, Eve in Hollywood, follows Evelyn Ross from Towles’ “Rules of Civility” as she boards a train home to Indiana in 1938. However, along the way she extends her ticket to LA. She arrives in Hollywood’s golden age and crafts a new future for herself, which is shown to the reader from seven different points of view.

Book Summary

Sara is struggling after both her business and marriage failed. When her beloved great-aunt Rosie passes away, it just feels like another punch from her terrible year. However, Aunt Rosie left Sara a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land, and a shocking secret. Rosie believes Sara’s great-grandmother Serafina was murdered.

Sara is recharged by this new mission to find out what happened to Serafina. She ends up on an epic adventure through the Italian countryside and learns all about her feisty great-grandmother, who fought for the rights of all the women in her small village. However, as Sara begins challenging the status quo like Serafina did, she’ll find herself in the same danger.

Book Summary

When Lauren returns home late one night, her life changes in a way she never could have expected. She’s greeted by her husband, Michael…except she knows she’s not married. But suddenly, there are photos of them around her flat and even on her phone. Her friends even swear she’s married.

As Lauren tries to figure out how she could have been married for years with no recollection, Michael goes to the attic for a light bulb. However, the man who returns from the attic isn’t Michael. It’s a different husband, and just as suddenly, she’s in a new life again.

It seems her attic has an infinite supply of husbands, and if she doesn’t like one, she can just send him to the attic, and a new man will emerge. But how will she know which one she is supposed to keep?

Book Summary

After Daphne makes a big move to her fiancé Peter’s lakeside hometown, he turns her future upside down by discovering he’s actually in love with Petra, his childhood best friend. Now, Daphne is stuck in a new town with no friends. She at least has her dream job as a children’s librarian (which barely covers her bills).

When Daphne needs a roommate, she comes up with Miles, the only other person who can understand her recent heartbreak. Miles was engaged to Petra before Peter moved back to town.

Daphne and Miles mostly avoid each other until they decide to team up and begin posting misleading photos of their summer adventures together. As they partake in fake adventures, surely Daphne won’t fall for her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex, right?

Book Summary

Travel back to 1860 as Abraham Lincoln wins the presidency of a very divided America. Southern extremists states were trying to destroy the Union by seceding one after another. Slavery was a big topic of debate, and eventually, the beliefs of both sides were focused on one piece of land – Fort Sumter in Charleston.

The Demons of Unrest covers the five-month period between Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the start of the Civil War in April 1861. In addition to Lincoln, the book teaches us about Major Robert Anderson, Fort Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both.