Play 2026 Book Bingo
Best Book Club Books for 2026
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.If you’re looking for new discussion-worthy book club books for 2026, you’ve come to the right place. Even if you’re not in a book club, as long as you love reading excellent books, these recommendations are for you!
Discussion-Worthy Book Club Recommendations for 2026
This list currently includes books scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2026, organized by publication date. It will be updated throughout the year as new titles are released. Watch for updates in our Friday newsletter!
Books with Release Dates Between January and March 2026
Book Summary
In 1664, Alouette was the 18-year-old daughter of a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works. She dreams of a life bigger than the one she was born into, but instead, her life takes a terrible turn when her dad is wrongfully arrested. Things get worse when she tries to save him, but instead ends up sent to the Salpêtrière asylum, where thousands of women are held captive and cruelly treated. But she’s not the only brave woman there, and she finds some unlikely allies.
Three centuries later, in 1939, a medical student named Kristof is doing his psychiatric residency in Paris. His neighbors are a Jewish family who fled Poland, but now the Nazis are threatening their new home. Kristof is their only hope of survival. Over the next three years, his life looks dramatically different from what he planned when he entered medical school.
Thoughts on This Book
Unlike most popular dual-timeline novels that contrast WWII with a present-day storyline, Skylark takes us back to a less commonly covered period in history. This would be a great fit for clubs that enjoy historical fiction, but are looking for an interesting twist. Plan on discussing how you think the stories are related to each other.
Be aware that the story starts at a slower pace, and it may take you a bit longer than normal to be hooked. However, reviewers say it’s worth the wait, and you will connect with the characters once you get to know them.
Missing Sam
Book Summary
Samantha and Aliya (Ali) are an unlikely couple. Sam is a writing instructor and aspiring novelist who had a harsh childhood with an abusive father. Ali is the daughter of Muslim immigrants from India and works as a high-end interior designer. They married after grad school and are still in love, with any arguments generally tied back to their very different upbringings.
One morning after one such fight, Sam opted to go on their early run alone instead of waking Ali. When Ali wakes up, she assumes Sam needs some space, but eventually realizes Sam is missing. While Ali reports this to the authorities, the police and neighbors immediately suspect her of playing a role in the disappearance. Now, Ali is fighting for both her wife and to prove her own innocence.
Why This is a Great Book Club Book
We have enjoyed many of Thrity Umrigar’s literary and historical fiction novels, so we’re very excited to read her first foray into the mystery/thriller genre. There won’t be a lack of things to discuss after reading this page-turning novel that interweaves suspenseful thriller elements with family drama and themes of homophobia, racism, and sexism.
Women of a Promiscuous Nature
Book Summary
Ruth is a young, unmarried woman who has never shared more than a kiss with a man. But one day, she’s walking through town to her diner job when she’s stopped by the local sheriff, who insists that she accompany him to a health clinic. By the end of the day, she is one of dozens of women suspected of being “promiscuous,” held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women.
Dorothy is the colony’s superintendent and believes she is transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society. And she creates these transformations through her strict rulebook and harsh consequences for anyone who doesn’t stay in line.
Why This is a Great Book Club Pick
The questions about eugenics that arise when learning about the early-20th-century ‘American Plan’ policies (linked to the Chamberlain–Kahn Act) will give your club plenty to discuss. It’s a great pick for clubs that had good discussions about Take My Hand.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree
Book Summary
In 1995, 14-year-old Tati is determined to find her father’s identity. However, her mom and grandma have many secrets with no inclination to share them. As Tati digs into her family history, she finds more questions than answers.
Tati’s 1995 storyline alternates between her POV and those of her female ancestors, going all the way back to Jubi’s attempt to pass as white in 1917. You’ll see both generational trauma and resilience pass through the generations.
Thoughts on This Book
If your club loves multi-generational sagas, this is a compelling pick! Keep in mind that, because the timeline isn’t linear and covers seven generations, it may slow your reading speed, as more focus is required to follow the connections. That said, the novel is on the shorter side at only 336 pages, so it’s not as large a time commitment as the synopsis may lead you to believe.
The Secret of Snow
Book Summary
Má is an eccentric 85-year-old with a secret. She’s been diagnosed with cancer and is determined to find someone to care for her husband, Biera, when she’s gone, which is tricky because the only person she regularly talks to is Siri, who she believes is a real person, not just an AI phone assistant. She has no plans to tell Biera about her condition.
Dr. Kaj and his fiancée are new to their village, and he’s trying to adapt while still mourning the loss of his mother. One day, he finds a box of Sámi (the indigenous people of Scandinavia) handicrafts belonging to his mother. The crafts unlock something he never anticipated that will change his life for years to come.
Why This Book Made the List
When we saw that this February 2026 release was already a hit in Sweden, we immediately added it to our TBR list. If your club has enjoyed Swedish novels like When the Cranes Fly South or author Fredrik Backman, this debut is also worth considering.
One reviewer called it “charming and funny and sweet and heartbreaking and beautiful,” which is exactly what we’ve come to expect and appreciate about contemporary Swedish fiction. Reviewers really enjoy learning more about the Sámi people and culture.
Keeper of Lost Children
Book Summary
In 1965, teenage Sophia had the opportunity to integrate a prestigious boarding school in Maryland. But a chance meeting with a classmate unveils a secret that upends her world.
In the 1950s, Ethel spots a group of mixed-race children following a nun. Desperate for her own family with her American husband, she’s intrigued and follows them.
In 1948, Ozzie volunteered for the Army, hoping to help break barriers for other Black soldiers. Unfortunately, he finds that racism has followed him from Pennsylvania to his assignment in Allied-occupied Germany. His only solace is in the arms of Jelka, a German woman struggling with the lack of resources in her destroyed country.
The story alternates between the lives of these characters until we see how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives.
About the Author
We can’t wait to get our hands on the newest novel from the author of The House of Eve and the Yellow Wife.
The Astral Library
Book Summary
Alix grew up in the foster system and learned that, unlike people, books would never let you down. She’s now working three jobs just trying to make ends meet. Each night, she takes refuge in the reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels.
One day, she stumbles through a hidden door and is introduced to a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives… inside their favorite books. However, a shadowy figure is threatening all that is good in the Astral Library. Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby in an attempt to stay safe and protect the library.
Thoughts on This Book
After many highly rated historical fiction novels, Kate Quinn is leaping into magical realism with this compelling book for book lovers!
More Than Enough
Book Summary
Polly is a high school English teacher who is open to discussing anything, including her struggles with IVF, her complicated relationship with her mother, and the lives of her private school students, with her close-knit book club. Other than her husband, a veterinarian, the other three women are the bedrock of her life.
However, everything changes when they give her a DNA kit as a joke, and she is matched with a stranger. While Polly is sure that it’s a mistake, she also starts investigating her family’s past.
What to Expect in This Novel
Anna Quindlen excels at writing character-driven novels about “average,” relatable women. While the DNA test has a mysterious element, the book unfolds slowly as you step into the characters’ daily lives.
Like many real-life book clubs, the book club in More Than Enough serves as a regular connection point between friends rather than a time when they actually discuss books. However, you’ll still find some literary references related to Polly’s job teaching English at a private high school.
Kin
Book Summary
Vernice and Annie have known each other their whole lives. They were raised in the same small town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana. Bonded at an early age by the loss of their mothers (one through death and the other through abandonment), the girls formed a deep friendship. But they are fated to lead very different lives.
After her mother’s death, Vernice’s aunt is determined to give her a stable home, and at the age of 18, Vernice moves to Atlanta to attend Spelman College. There, she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and marries into a wealthy family.
Annie, on the other hand, is constantly haunted by the hole in her life left by her mother’s abandonment and is fixated on the idea of finding her. Her efforts to track her mother down set her on a journey into a world of peril and adversity that will lead her to a battle for her own life.
Thoughts on This Book
Tayari Jones, the author of An American Marriage, is a master at writing complex relationships. Set in the South throughout the 1950s and 60s, a time of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, Kin is a novel about powerful bonds of friendship and sisterhood, as well as mothers and daughters.
Early readers of this novel say that it does not have a concrete ending that ties up all of the loose ends, but rather leaves certain questions up to the interpretation of the reader. Keep this in mind if you prefer a story with a clear and definitive conclusion.
Book Summary
If you loved The Golden Girls of Miami, then you’re going to want to meet The Golden Gays of Palm Springs! Theodore (Teddy) has created a fabulous life in his pink, mid-century desert home that he shares with three friends. Barry is a former child actor still trying to cling to his youth and his hair. Ron is an uprooted Christian from the Midwest with a big heart. And Sid, who came out late in life, has never been in love. Despite their sniping and bickering, they’ve created a great life for themselves in their golden years.
Things get upended when Teddy’s estranged sister, Trudy, shows up at their doorstep alongside her dramatic teenage granddaughter. Despite Teddy’s efforts to keep Trudy at a distance, she manages to worm her way into all their lives. When the real reason for her visit is revealed, the secrets they’ve all been keeping begin unraveling.
Why This Book Made the List
For the past decade, Wade Rouse has been publishing feel-good novels under the pen name Viola Shipman. He chose that alias to honor his grandmother, whose memory inspires his works of fiction.
In the past, Wade has also published several memoirs under his real name, but this novel marks his first novel published under his own name. Likewise, it is his first novel to feature gay main characters.
Having been huge fans of his writing for years, and having enjoyed following both him and his husband, Gary, on social media for some time, we can’t wait to get our hands on this new book about found family and friendships!
Lake Effect
Book Summary
In 1977, Nina lived in Rochester, New York, with her husband and her teenage daughter, Clara. When a recently divorced friend gives her a copy of The Joy of Sex, it becomes impossible for Nina to ignore the lack of intimacy in her marriage. She finds herself craving more, and finds it via an intoxicating fling with a neighbor. But in doing so, she risks the reputations of both families and ends up unraveling her daughter’s world just as Clara is on the cusp of adulthood.
Years later, Clara works as a food stylist in New York City. She has never quite been able to move past the long-ago scandal of her mom’s affair. When she returns home for a family wedding while still wrestling with her own demons, she makes a decision that turns her life upside down.
Thoughts on This Book
While Angela really enjoyed Sweeney’s last novel, Good Company, it didn’t quite hit the mark with many readers. However, the early reviews of Lake Effect are singing its praises, and we are looking forward to diving into the family drama.
This promises to be another novel where you won’t always agree with the characters’ decisions, but oftentimes those books provide the very best discussion opportunities!
A Far-Flung Life
Book Summary
This epic novel is set in the vast expanse of Western Australia, where a million-acre sheep station is merely a dot on the map.
All it takes is a few seconds of inattention on a lonely outback road for the lives of the MacBride family to be forever shattered. But fate wasn’t done with them yet. Another twist of consequences will cause one of them to lose their life and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child.
Why This Book Made the List
It’s been more than a decade since we read M.L. Stedman’s debut novel, The Light Between Oceans, and yet the story has stuck with us all these years. We still think about the moral complexities of good people making bad decisions with the best intentions.
We’re excited for Stedman’s long-awaited sophomore novel. This family saga promises to also challenge readers with moral and ethical questions.
Life: A Love Story
Book Summary
Ninety-two-year-old Florence “Flo” Greene is nearing the end of her life and has decided to leave her home and her possessions to Ruthie. Although she has since moved away, Ruthie grew up next door to Flo and is like a surrogate daughter to the elderly woman.
In addition to her will, Flo decides to write Ruthie a letter detailing the meaningful events of her life and the objects of significance in her home. All the while, Flo continues to seek out new adventures and to intervene in the lives of her friends and neighbors.
In her final weeks, Flo encourages Teresa to open her heart to romance; she visits the library for advice from librarian Mimi; and she counsels Ruthie to give her marriage another chance by sharing a long-held secret about her own seemingly perfect husband.
Why This Book Made the List
Several of Elizabeth Berg’s novels have been popular with our readers across our reading challenges, so her 2026 release immediately caught our eye. We love an uplifting read, and we know many of you do, too!
Daughter of Egypt
Book Summary
In the 1920s, Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle and his associate, archaeologist Howard Carter, discovered Tutankhamun’s treasure-filled tomb, capturing the world’s attention and unleashing a fascination with the ancient world.
What people didn’t know, however, was that without the pioneering spirit of Carnarvon’s daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, the tomb might have never been found.
When she was young, Evelyn learned the story of Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled Egypt under the guise of a man. Despite her success at bringing peace and prosperity to her country, her male successor insisted upon erasing her name from history. Evelyn became determined to find the tomb of Egypt’s first female ruler, but doing so exposed her to danger and pitted her against archaeologists who refused to believe it could be found.
Just when it appears that success might be in reach, Evelyn will have to make an agonizing choice between loyalty to her father and Carter and realizing her own dreams.
Historical Context
This novel weaves together a dual timeline story about real historical figures, including Hatshepsut, a female Egyptian Pharaoh, and Lady Evelyn Herbert, the real-life aristocratic woman who helped discover King Tut’s tomb. While Benedict has fictionalized the thoughts and specific actions of these two female main characters, the novel is based on detailed historical research.
The novel is said to accurately depict the excitement and historical context surrounding the 1920s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and also explores the real historical mystery of why Hatshepsut’s legacy was erased.
The Night We Met
Book Summary
You never know when you’ll make a split-second decision that will change your life.
For Larissa, that decision came when choosing which guy to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great together, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy.
But Chris isn’t the one who drove Larissa home all those months ago—Chris is her boyfriend’s best friend.
All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. And he’s just not that guy.
About the Series
Abby Jimenez’s books never fail to make us laugh out loud, but they are also more than just breezy beach reads. Her novels also typically deal with many complex, heavy topics, making them excellent book club picks!
While Abby says that this book can be read as a standalone, it is listed as book 2 in the Say You’ll Remember Me series. Xavier, the lovable veterinarian from the first book, is part of the friend group in this novel, and there are said to be other fun Easter eggs from the Abby-universe.
Printable Version of this List
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Will These Books Be Easily Available at Libraries?
While many of our curated book lists are filled with high-quality backlist titles, sometimes it’s fun to look ahead and explore upcoming book releases. If your book club members prefer to obtain their books from the local library, then new releases aren’t always the best option. Unfortunately, popular books published this year are likely to have long library waitlists.
For great recommendations from prior years, be sure to check out our list of Best Books Club Books of 2025, Best Books Club Books of 2024, Best Book Club Books of 2023, and Best Book Club Books of 2022. We also have more great book club picks on our Book Club Resources page, as well as lists of the best backlist books from each year from 2012 forward.
More 5-Star Book Recommendations
If you’re looking for more five-star book recommendations, be sure to check out the lists below. Each one is filled with excellent book ideas for your book club.
