Alta Journal’s California Book Club
The book: White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Our reviewer says: “Thirteen-year-old Astrid Magnussen, the sensitive and heart-wrenching narrator of this impressive debut, is burdened with an impossible mother in Ingrid, a beautiful, gifted poet whose scattered life is governed by an enormous ego.” Read more.
The book: Tell Me How You Eat: Food, Power, and the Will to Live by Amber Husain
The book: Lake Effect by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Our reviewer says: “Sweeney’s latest arresting family drama tracks the fallout of an affair in 1970s Rochester, N.Y., across two generations.” Read more.
The book: Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal
Our reviewer says: “Bilal’s vivid debut collection portrays the dualities and tensions embedded in the lives of Black Muslims in the 1970s U.S. ... These singular stories offer great insight on a community underexplored in literature.” Read more.
The book: The Valley of Vengeful Souls by Kim Fu
Our reviewer says: “A grieving woman loses her tether to reality in the alluring if uneven latest from Fu.” Read more.
Oprah’s Book Club and Eclectix the Book Club
The book: Kin by Tayari Jones
Our reviewer says: “Jones delivers a triumphant novel of two motherless girls from rural Honeysuckle, La., who follow very different paths into adulthood.... It’s a tour de force.” Read more.
The book: Wait for Me by Amy Jo Burns
Our reviewer says: “Burns serves up an evocative if contrived tale of how music legends are born.” Read more.
Good Morning America Book Club
The book: The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives by Elizabeth Arnott
Our reviewer says: “The ex-wives of three different serial killers band together to stop a new one in this riveting crime novel from Arnott.... It’s a winner.” Read more.
Good Morning America YA Book Club
The book: Her Hidden Fire by Clíodhna O’Sullivan
Our reviewer says: “O’Sullivan deftly interweaves Irish-mythology-inspired worldbuilding with dystopian fantasy trappings to deliver an intriguingly dark romance.” Read more.
The book: Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love by James Lawson, Jr.
Our reviewer says: “Late civil rights leader Lawson, who died in 2024, offers an engrossing behind-the-scenes look at his work organizing nonviolent resistance in this posthumous memoir coauthored with journalist Yellin.” Read more.
Jewish Book Council Book Club (fiction)
The book: The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai
Jewish Book Council Book Club (nonfiction)
The book: Antisemitism, an American Tradition by Pamela S. Nadell
The book: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Our reviewer says: “Bestseller Weir delivers a suspenseful portrait of human ingenuity and resilience in this powerful narrative of a desperate effort to save Earth.... This is a winner.” Read more.
The book: Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose
Our reviewer says: “Influencer Ciara Dunphy, the protagonist of Bose’s uneven debut, lives in an unnamed village outside Dublin, Ireland, where she appears to have it all: beauty, money, a handsome husband, and many friends.... Well-crafted prose suggests Bose has enough talent to do better next time.” Read more.
The book: The Beginning Comes After the End by Rebecca Solnit
Our reviewer says: “In this ardent yet repetitive essay collection, author and activist Solnit argues that social progress, while not always immediate or linear, is still occurring.” Read more.
The book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The book: The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
Our reviewer says: “Nguyen’s poignant debut captures the perspectives of, and essence of the bond between, a parent and child, proving that language—and love—can transcend words.” Read more.
The book: The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
The book: Soft Launch by Sarah Vacchiano
The book: Wait for Me by Amy Jo Burns
Our reviewer says: “Burns serves up an evocative if contrived tale of how music legends are born.” Read more.
The book: Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser
Our reviewer says: “Hochhauser’s splendid debut retells the ‘Cinderella’ story from the stepmother’s perspective.... It’s a winner.” Read more.
The book: This Is the Only Kingdom by Jaquira Díaz
Our reviewer says: “Díaz’s textured debut novel (after the memoir Ordinary Girls) finds a mother and daughter struggling to live on their own terms in Puerto Rico.... It’s a moving family drama.” Read more.
The book: Paradise by Toni Morrison
Our reviewer says: “In 1950, a core group of nine old families leaves the increasingly corrupted African American community of Haven, Okla., to found in that same state a new, purer community they call Ruby.... So intense and evocative in its particulars, so wide-ranging in its arch, this is another, if imperfect, triumph for the Nobel Prize-winning author.” Read more.
The book: A Year Without Home by V.T. Bidania
Our reviewer says: “This edifying novel by Bidania, narrated in evocative verse by 11-year-old Gao Sheng, traces the year during which she and her extended family of 20 lived as refugees following the end of the Vietnam War.” Read more.
The book: In Time With You by Kristin Dwyer
The book: The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson
The book: Diorama by Carol Bensimon
Our reviewer says: “Cecília Matzenbacher, the Los Angeles–based taxidermist who narrates this intriguing outing from Bensimon, views her trade as ‘history, storytelling, allegory, spectacle.’ ... There’s much to admire in this layered work.” Read more.
Amazon’s Sarah Selects book club has been discontinued.
