Looking for hot suggestions to make at your next book club meeting?
There’s an endless library of books out there – so it can be hard to find the best books to put forward.
But we’ve done the hard work for you and rounded up the best must-read books for your book club. These books fire up discussion (in a good way), inspire ideas for writers and readers alike, and are simply great reads that, well, need to be read!
And for good measure, we’ve provided a nice choice that includes different genres and categories to narrow it down.
So with all that said and out the way, here they are: the 50 best books that all book clubs need to read!
Best Classic Books & Must-Reads
1. Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date published: 1945
Genre: Fiction, fable
2. Lolita
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher: Olympia Press
Date published: 1955
Genre: Fiction
3. Madame Bovary
Author: Gustave Flaubert
Publisher: Revue de Paris (serial) & Michel Lévy Frères (book volumes)
Date published: 1856
Genre: Fiction
4. The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Publisher: Ticknor, Reed & Fields
Date published: 1850
Genre: Romance
5. Atonement
Author: Ian McEwan
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Date published: 2001
Genre: Romance
Best Christmas Books For The Holidays
1. The Christmas Book
Author: Various
Publisher: Whitman Publishing Company
Date published: 1954
Genre: Children’s literature
2. Seven Days Of Us
Author: Francesca Hornak
Publisher: Berkley
Date published: 2017
Genre: Humor
3. 25 Days ‘Til Christmas
Author: Poppy Alexander
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Date published: 2018
Genre: Christmas story
4. Royal Holiday
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Date published: 2019
Genre: Romance
5. In A Holidaze
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date published: 2020
Genre: Romance
Best Books About Books & Writers
1. The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Canongate Books
Date published: 2020
Genre: Science fiction, fantasy
2. In The Great Green Room
Author: Amy Gary
Publisher: Macmillan
Date published: 2017
Genre: Biography
3. The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
Publisher: Dial Press
Date published: 2007
Genre: Historical fiction
4. The Editor
Author: Steven Rowley
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Date published: 2019
Genre: Historical fiction
5. The Little Paris Bookshop
Author: Nina George
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Date published: 2013
Genre: Romance
Best Feel Good Books
1. Anxious People
Author: Fredrik Backman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date published: 2019
Genre: Humor
2. Castle Of Water
Author: Dane Huckelbridge
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date published: 2017
Genre: Fiction
3. The Rosie Project
Author: Graeme Simsion
Publisher: Text Publishing
Date published: 2013
Genre: Romance
Author: Beth O’Leary
Publisher: Quercus
Date published: 2019
Genre: Romance
5. Kafka On The Shore
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Shinchosha
Date published: 2012
Genre: Fiction, fantasy
Best Horror Books
1. Home Before Dark
Author: Riley Sager
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date published: 2020
Genre: Horror
2. The Troop
Author: Nick Cutter
Publisher: Gallery Books
Date published: 2014
Genre: Horror
3. The Only Good Indians
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Date published: 2020
Genre: Horror
4. Mexican Gothic
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Publisher: Del Rey
Date published: 2020
Genre: Horror
5. The Last House On Needles Street
Author: Catriona Ward
Publisher: Viper
Date published: 2021
Genre: Horror
Best Mystery Books
1. Where The Crawdads Sing
Author: Delia Owens
Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Date published: 2018
Genre: Mystery, romance
2. Then She Was Gone
Author: Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date published: 2018
Genre: Mystery
3. The Last Time I Lied
Author: Riley Sager
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Date published: 2019
Genre: Mystery
4. The Silent Patient
Author: Alex Michaelides
Publisher: Celadon Books
Date published: 2019
Genre: Mystery
5. The Maidens
Author: Alex Michaelides
Publisher: Celadon Books
Date published: 2021
Genre: Mystery
Best Spy Books
1. A Spy In The Struggle
Author: Aya de León
Publisher: Kensington Books
Date published: 2020
Genre: Mystery
2. Slow Horses
Author: Mick Herron
Publisher: Soho Crime
Date published: 2021
Genre: Mystery
3. The Nightingale
Author: Kristin Hannah
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
Date published: 2015
Genre: Mystery
4. When No One Is Watching
Author: Alyssa Cole
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Date published: 2020
Genre: Mystery
5. For Your Own Good
Author: Samantha Downing
Publisher: Berkley
Date published: 2021
Genre: Mystery
Best Book To Screen Adaptations
1. The Chestnut Man
Author: Søren Sveistrup
Publisher: Harper
Date published: 2019
Genre: Thriller
2. Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Publisher: John Murray
Date published: 1815
Genre: Fiction
3. Normal People
Author: Sally Rooney
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Date published: 2018
Genre: Fiction
4. The Vanishing Half (Series In Development!)
Author: Brit Bennett
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date published: 2020
Genre: Fiction, historical fiction
5. All The Light We Cannot See (Series In Development!)
Author: Anthony Doerr
Publisher: Scribner
Date published: 2014
Genre: Historical fiction
Best Thriller Books
1. One By One
Author: Ruth Ware
Publisher: Scout Press
Date published: 2020
Genre: Thriller
2. The Night Swim
Author:Megan Goldin
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date published: 2020
Genre: Thriller, mystery
3. The Last Thing He Told Me
Author: Laura Dave
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date published: 2021
Genre: Thriller, mystery
4. The Wife Upstairs
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Date published: 2021
Genre: Thriller
5. The Witch Elm
Author: Tana French
Publisher: Viking
Date published: 2018
Genre: Thriller, mystery
Best New Books For 2022
1. Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date published: 2022
Genre: Fiction
2. Our Missing Hearts
Author: Celeste Ng
Publisher: Penguin Press
Date published: 2022
Genre: Fiction
3. Trust
Author: Hernan Diaz
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date published: 2022
Genre: Fiction
4. Olga Dies Dreaming
Author: Xóchitl González
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Date published: 2022
Genre: Fiction
5. The Maid
Author: Nita Prose
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date published: 2022
Genre: Mystery
Final Word
And that wraps up our list of the 50 best books that all book clubs must read (Also check out The Best Books From The Read With Jenna Book Club). You’ve probably read a few of them but you (and your book club friends) won’t have read all of them, so definitely bring these up at your next group meeting!
As mentioned, we chose these books for the fact that each book is a great discussion starter, an inspirational read (especially if you’re an aspiring writer), and a genuine page-turner from start to finish. Start checking these off today!
There’s nothing better than someone falling in love with a book that you told them to read!
This is the reason why I decided to start up my website where we can talk about fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and more. I want to get more people excited about reading!
I hope you enjoy my website and who knows, maybe I’ll meet you around the bookshelves one day.
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