Uplifting Books for Book Clubs

Book Summary

In this charming debut novel, Widower Tova works at the Sowell Bay Aquarium to occupy her mind and time. She takes pride in cleaning perfectly every night, even though she doesn’t need the money. She loves all the aquarium life but forms a special bond with the intelligent (and curmudgeonly) octopus named Marcellus.

He’s just as surprised to feel friendly toward this human who visits him nightly. Soon, he connects the sadness he sees in her with something he saw in the ocean long ago. Can he help her solve the mystery of her son’s disappearance 30 years ago?

Book Summary

Clover had an unusual childhood, with her Kindergarten teacher passing away during a reading of Peter Rabbit. Then, her parents passed away while traveling, and she started a new life with her grandfather in New York City. She continued to be fascinated by death and was studying different cultural traditions abroad when she received the terrible news that her grandfather had passed away alone in his office.

Clover commits to preventing others from dying alone by becoming a death doula. She only takes one patient at a time, so can be more present for her clients than hospice workers. Whether she’s only holding their hand or hearing their regrets about life, she is present to honor them in their last moments. Her only friend is actually her grandfather’s friend, Leo, who is very concerned that when he is gone, Clover will be alone. Between his friendship-matchmaking and a fiesty new client, can Clover shift her life focus outside of work from the dying to a new life of her own?

Book Summary

Lucy is a 26-year-old teacher’s aide hoping to adopt her student, seven-year-old Christopher. He tragically lost his parents, but she needs to be in a better financial situation for both the actual adoption process to be approved and to take care of Christopher long-term.

She’s always found comfort in books, especially the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. The author stopped writing and became reclusive years ago, but she still regularly re-reads his work. Just when Lucy is about to give up on adopting Christopher, Jack Masterson re-emerges and announces a new book. However, it’s not a standard release. Four contestants will get to come to the real Clock Island and compete for a chance to win the single copy in existence, which is worth at least six figures.

Book Summary

When teenage library worker Aleisha finds a list of little-known novels in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird, she decides to read every book on the list. Each story is magical to her for different reasons.

Widower Mukesh worries about his bookworm granddaughter, Priya. To connect with her, he visits the library and meets Aleisha. When she shares the found list with him, they begin to form an unexpected friendship and discover the healing that is desperately needed for each of them.

Book Summary

West With Giraffes is a charming tale of adventure that takes you on the ride of a lifetime from the East Coast of the US to the West, alongside a rowdy 17-year-old, a grumpy older man, and two giraffes. The year is 1938, and no American zoo has successfully housed giraffes before. The female zoo director of the San Diego Zoo believes she can do it. The giraffes have just survived a hurricane en route to the East Coast, and Riley Jones, the curmudgeonly head zookeeper, is responsible for safely transporting the giraffes from New York City to San Diego.

America is still in the throes of the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl conditions continue to ravage the drought-stricken Southern Plains states. A coast-to-coast trek with giant animals is no easy feat. Jones begrudgingly teams up with a starving teenager named Woody to help him make the journey. The adventures along the way include run-ins with circus con artists, being tailed by a female photographer looking for a big scoop, an emotional visit to Woody’s hometown, and so much more.

At its heart, this is a coming-of-age story. Now, at the age of 105, Woody recounts his 12-day cross-country trip with Jones and the giraffes and how it shaped his life.

Book Summary

Albert Entwistle is a 64-year postal worker in the UK. He has no plans of retiring but receives a letter informing him that his mandatory retirement is just around the corner on his 65th birthday.

Albert’s only friend is his cat, and although he isn’t chatty with others at work or on his routes, he still dreads being home alone without a job. When he’s reminded of his only romantic relationship, which happened 50 years prior, something begins to stir in Albert. Perhaps it’s not too late to find happiness after all?

With the help of some unexpected new friends, Albert sets off to find George, the man he hasn’t seen since they were teenagers.

Book Summary

Auggie has a facial deformity that previously prevented him from attending a traditional school. In his own words, “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

Wonder begins from Auggie’s point of view as he starts 5th grade, but soon switches to include his classmates. While there are also chapters told from the perspective of his teenage sister, her boyfriend, and others, Auggie remains the focus of the story throughout. The multiple perspectives create a beautiful portrait of Auggie’s community as they struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

Book Summary

It’s the mid-1990s, and sixteen-year-old April has a rough life. While her father is off playing house with his new family, she fends for herself in a motorless motorhome that he won while playing poker. April works at a diner, but dreams of being a songwriter. After flunking out of school and having another fight with her dad, she sets off to find a better life.

Along the way, she meets others with their own complex stories, which are the perfect inspiration for her songs. But even more importantly, she finds that family doesn’t have to mean the community you were born into. As April bounces from town to town, she meets people who leave lasting impressions, even after she’s left them behind. Ultimately she discovers that the people you meet can become the family you need.

Book Summary

While this book takes place on September 11, 2001 and the following days, it’s not the constantly devastating story you would expect. Instead, this heartwarming book recounts the experiences of countless passengers from some of the 38 planes that were unexpectedly diverted to Newfoundland – an island in Canada’s easternmost province – when US airspace was closed on 9/11. On that day, the small town of Gander, with a population of just 10,000, received more than 6,600 passengers from 92 countries. Ganderites, along with residents of the surrounding towns, opened the doors to the local churches, schools, and even their own homes.

Throughout this book, you’ll not only learn the personal stories of the passengers, but you’ll also learn a lot about life on this tiny, remote island and about the unexpected hosts who welcomed strangers from around the world with open arms and generous hearts.

Book Summary

Britt-Marie is a socially awkward 63-year-old perfectionist who comes across as constantly critical of others despite her best intentions. But inside, she has big dreams and a warm heart.

After leaving her cheating husband, Britt-Marie begins a new season of life as the caretaker of a rec center and inherits a variety of odd regular visitors, including kids desperate for a football (soccer) coach. Can she get past her fussy nature and turn the town into a place where she finally feels she belongs?

Book Summary

The Newcomers follows the lives of twenty-two immigrant teenagers throughout the course of the 2015-2016 school year as they land at South High School in Denver, Colorado. Ranging in age from fourteen to nineteen, most of these students came directly from refugee camps in countries plagued by war, famine, or drought.

The non-fiction read follows the student’s English language education with their dedicated and creative teacher Mr. Williams. As they grasp the language, their individual histories unfold and add faces, names, and stories to those seeking asylum. At the same time that these teenagers are trying to adapt to an unfamiliar way of life in a new country, they are also balancing the more typical teenage challenge of fitting in and making friends.

Book Summary

Born with ocular albinism, Sam Hill is a young boy whose rare red eyes cause problems from the moment his mother enrolls him at the Our Lady of Mercy school. 

Labeled “Hell Boy,” he is bullied not only by his classmates but also given a hard time by the nun who is the principal at his elementary school. Eventually, Sam finds the new best friend he desperately needs in Ernie Cantwell, the only African American boy in his class, and years later in a fiercely individual girl named Mickie.

As an adult, Sam is a respected ophthalmologist moving through life with Ernie and Mickie still by his side. His world is about to be upturned when he’s unexpectedly reunited with the biggest schoolyard bully from his past.

Book Summary

After losing her husband in WWII and her daughter to illness, Iris walled herself off from the world. She’s spent many decades hiding behind the tall fence around her home. In place of human connection, Iris has surrounded herself with a family of flowers. Propagating her daylilies and roses and tending to a garden that helps her keep memories of those she loved alive.

In the early 2000s, Abby is a young mother whose husband has recently returned from military service in Iraq. When Abby’s family rents a cottage along Lake Michigan, next door to Iris’ property, the older woman can’t help but view the young family as a window to the life she once had.

As Iris and Abby are drawn together by their shared love of flowers, the friendship that blossoms between them is a testament to the healing power of both gardening and human connection.

Book Summary

While this book is technically a YA Fantasy, it receives high ratings across the board, even from those who don’t typically choose YA or Fantasy novels.

Linus is a 40-year-old caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, and spends his days overseeing children in orphanages and his nights in a tiny house with his devious cat.

When Linus is called to a classified assignment to visit 6 children deemed dangerous, he also meets their caretaker, Arthur Parnassus, who is dedicated to the children’s safety. However, as Linus and Arthur connect, secrets are exposed. Linus must choose between destroying the home of the children or risking them destroying the world.

Book Summary

Eudora has lived a long, full life, but at the age of 85 she’s decided she’s done with it all. She’s already witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age, and she wants the end – her end – to be on her own terms. She’s called a clinic in Switzerland to set her plan into motion. But then she meets 10-year-old Rose.

Rose is rainbows and sparkles and cheer. And as much as Eudora just wants to be left alone, she can’t help but be drawn into her young neighbor’s world of adventure. Along with her affable and recently widowed neighbor Stanley, they join Rose for afternoon teas, shopping sprees, trips to the beach, and birthday celebrations. As they all await the arrival of Rose’s new baby sister, Eudora is secretly waiting for approval to go ahead with her plan.

As this unlikely trio grows closer, the joy that her new friends bring to her life forces Eudora to reconsider whether she’s really ready to say goodbye.

Book Summary

Lillian and Madison were boarding school roommates and friends from very different backgrounds. However, they’ve barely spoken since a scandal forced Lillian to leave school.

A decade later, Lillian’s life is not on the track she’d imagined for herself, so when she receives a call from Madison asking her to help care for Madison’s twin step-children who are moving in, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose.

But there is a catch: both kids spontaneously burst into flames when they are agitated. Madison needs to keep this fact somehow a secret while her husband runs for public office. Despite knowing nothing about raising kids, Lillian agrees to take on the role, and throughout one summer, she and the kids learn together how to keep their cool – literally. It may even prove to be the start of a whole new life for Lillian.

Book Summary

In this moving memoir, author Wade Rouse, who writes fiction under the pen name Viola Shipman, shares the story of his complicated relationship with his father. Growing up as a queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade and his father, Ted, had little in common. Wade was never the athlete his father hoped for, but his desire to connect with his father and gain his approval led Wade to learn the vocabulary of baseball and to watch the game with his dad season after season.

As an adult, he and his father rarely saw eye-to-eye, but it was always baseball that brought them back together. When his father’s health declines, Wade returns home to southwest Missouri to spend one final season with his father. Inning by inning, they move closer toward forgiveness, reconciliation, and closure.

Book Summary

Don Tillman is a charming, but awkward, genetics professor at a university in Melbourne, on the southeast coast of Australia. He is trying to find love, and true to his academic roots, he approaches the challenge scientifically. He creates a 16-page survey designed to find his perfect match called “The Wife Project.” Will anyone be his perfect match?

Enter Rosie. Although Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, he’s intrigued by her own quest to identify her biological father and he’s eager to help. He terms their collaboration The Father Project. As they work together, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie―and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Book Summary

This nonfiction book is part family memoir and part travelog. Norma had recently lost her husband of nearly seven decades when she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. The medical advice included surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. But she had a different vision for her waning days. Rather than spending them in a hospital bed, Norma wants an adventure.

Together with her retired son, Tim, his wife, Ramie, and their Poodle named Ringo, Norma hits the road in a motorhome, determined to see as much as possible. A once timid woman, Norma decides to say “yes” to living. State by state, she tries regional foods for the first time, goes whale watching and hot air ballooning, and mounts up for a horseback ride. With each passing mile (and thanks in part to a stop at a cannabis dispensary), Norma’s health improves, and she and her family form a tighter bond.

Book Summary

Harry has always loved trees, but he spends his days behind a computer as an analyst in a treeless US Forest Service office. After his wife dies suddenly and tragically, Harry can’t seem to move forward. One day, he decides to follow his wife’s advice – he quits his job and escapes to the remote woods of northeastern Pennsylvania to be with the trees.

There, he meets Oriana, a young girl who has suffered a significant loss of her own. She spends most of her time in the forest with her book in the treehouse her father bought for her. They bond over their love of the forest and the trees.

The octogenarian librarian in town gives Oriana a strange, handwritten book called The Grum’s Ledger. With this book as their guide, Oriana helps Harry believe in the magic, if only he’s willing to open his eyes and see it.