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Spring is right around the corner, and as the weather slowly starts to change, it’s a great time to plan your book club selections. Whether you’re looking for a story about motherhood, resilience, grief or redemption, here are 15 of the best discussion-provoking book club picks for spring 2023.
Here are the best book club picks of 2023>>
The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything by Kara Gnodde (2/28)
Art and Mimi Brotherton are bound together after their parents’ death. Art relies on logic while Mimi listens to her heart. When she decides she wants to find love, Mimi asks Art for help. He agrees, but only if she uses a strict mathematical principle to find her other half. Things are going well, until Mimi meets Frank. Frank is an impulsive stargazer who is also a mathematician. It’s love at first sight for Mimi, but Art is wary of him. Art and Mimi’s relationship reaches its breaking point as Art is sure something about Frank is off and only he can see it. This moving, uplifting novel explores sibling dynamics, true love, and the fine line between logic and following one’s heart.
Go As A River by Shelley Read (2/28)
Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash is the only surviving female in a family of men. She runs their household in the small, rural town of Iola, Colorado. She meets Wilson Moon, a young drifter displaced from his tribal land, and their meeting ignites passion and danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria escapes into the surrounding mountains, leaving behind the only life she’s ever known. As the seasons change, so does she, finding purpose and strength to rebuild her life. This debut novel, inspired by the true story of the destruction of Iola in the 1960s, is a story of finding resilience, courage, friendship and a home.
Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah (3/7)
Efe arrived in the UK from Ghana struggling to keep up with her parents’ expectations. She met idealistic Sam, who was on track to become a lawyer, and found comfort in him. Everyone said they were meant to be. Sam had a clear vision for their future together, a future that Efe finds suffocating ten years later. When they are faced with an unplanned pregnancy, Sam is ready for fatherhood, but Efe is terrified. As new revelations come to light, they are forced to confront how different they are. One day, Sam wakes up to find money missing from their joint bank account and Efe is almost 5,000 miles away. This provocative story about motherhood and sacrifice examines what happens when a marriage collapses, and how two people have to discover what they truly want.
Weyward by Emilia Hart (3/7)
In 1619, Altha is accused of witchcraft, although the magic her mother taught her is not rooted in spells, but in a deep understanding of the natural world. In 1942, World War II rages on and Violet is stuck in her family’s estate, longing to receive an education like her brother. She also longs for her mother, rumored to have gone mad before her death, who left behind a locket and the word “weyward” carved into the baseboard of her bedroom. In 2019, Kate runs from an abusive relationship, finding shelter at the Weyward Cottage she inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. But Kate starts to realize her great aunt had a secret, woven into the foundation of the cottage and the 17th century witch hunts. This is a story about female resilience and the power of the natural world.
Fractured Soul by Akira Mizubayashi (3/14)
When Rei was a young boy in Tokyo, he witnessed his father’s arrest, never to see him again. He takes his father’s ruined violin and escapes thanks to a mysterious lieutenant. Sity-five years later, in Paris, Rei goes by Jacques and has spent his life repairing the broken violin, studying music, and becoming a luthier. Despite all of this, he struggles to make sense of his past and his present. But his past is brought back to light when a world-class violinist, who is connected with the mysterious lieutenant that saved Jacques as a boy, appears. This might be his final chance to heal the wounds of the past and what he once had and lost. This story was translated from the French by Alison Anderson.
A Broken People’s Playlist by Chimeka Garricks (3/21)
This collection of 12 music-inspired short stories explores love, humanity, the meaning of life, and redemption. About the book, Garrick says, “I like to think that the stories are a strong reminder of what it means to be human, flawed, complicated, ugly-beautiful, sometimes doomed but mostly, hopeful for redemption.” These stories will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (3/21)
The war is over and Anh, Thanh, and Minh journey from Vietnam to Hong Kong with the promise that their parents and younger siblings will join them soon. But when tragedy strikes, sixteen-year old Anh becomes the caretaker of her two younger brothers. This novel follows the siblings as they seek refuge in the UK, from their time in crowded resettlement centers to their lives in London as anti-immigrant sentiment rages on. The three siblings take very different paths in life while they all struggle with survivor’s guilt. Soon, it becomes unclear if love is enough to keep them together. This story explores a family marked by war, yet resilient in forging ahead and creating a bright future.
Evil Eye by Etaf Rum (3/28)
When Yara fights with a racist coworker, she is placed on probation at her job. Her Palestinian mother tells her that all of this is because of a family curse. Yara doesn’t buy into these old superstitions, but she begins to examine her strict and volatile childhood, trying to learn why she feels so unfulfilled in a life that her mother dreamed of. Etaf Rum explores a complex mother-daughter relationship and the effects of generational trauma in this striking and emotional novel.
A Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfar (3/28)
In 2030, America is under the control of an authoritarian government and closed off to the rest of the world. Adéla arrives looking for the daughter she gave up at birth, Tereza. Tereza is a researcher for a company determined to discover the key to immortality. She instantly forms a deep connection with her mother, but shocking events cut their time together short. Now, Tereza has to look into her company’s alarming activity, and convince the Czech brother she doesn’t know to help her. This unique novel shows the love between a mother and daughter that can never be severed.
The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland (4/4)
It’s 1811 in Richmond, Virginia and four strangers’ lives will be forever changed by a fire at the city’s only theater. Sally Henry Campbell is newly widowed, seeking joyful memories at the theater. Cecily Patterson is attending the play for reprieve from her suffocating life. Jack Gibson is hopeful that his gig as a stagehand will lead to something bigger, and Gilbert Hunt is working as a blacksmith across town to buy his wife’s freedom so he can take her to the theater someday. When the theater goes up in flames, all four people make split-second decisions that will change the lives of themselves and everyone around them. The stories of these four strangers will be forever intertwined after the tragedy tears apart the community.
Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti (4/11)
Advika Srinivasan is a self-proclaimed failed screenwriter, grieving the death of her twin sister. She bartends A-list events and finds herself at the 2015 Oscars afterparty. She meets Julian Zelding, a powerful producer who is 41 years her senior, but despite that, Advika and Julian set off on a whirlwind romance that leads to an elopement. One topic that is off-limits, however, is Julian’s previous relationships. But when Julian’s first wife dies, she leaves a film reel and a million dollars to her ex’s “latest child bride” under the condition that Advika divorces him first. Shaken and confused, Advika dives into her husband’s exes and their stories, and she soon realizes how little she knows about her partner. She decides to formulate a plan that will remove herself from Julian once and for all.
The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro (4/18)
Alejandra is a wife, a mother, and an adopted daughter, but she cannot recognize herself. She’s slowly being consumed by a darkness, and she’s seeing a ghost of a crying woman. When she visits a therapist, she begins to explore the family history she’s ignored, starting with her birth mother. As she learns more about her ancestors, she discovers that the crying woman is La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican legend. She will not rest until Alejandra embraces the darkness that the women before her did as well. But Alejandra inherited strength and courage from her foremothers, and she’s ready to get rid of La Llorona forever. This literary horror novel takes a unique look at motherhood, family legacy, and self-discovery.
Shadows We Carry by Meryl Ain (4/25)
This sequel to Meryl Ain’s post-holocaust novel, The Takeaway Men, follows Bronka and JoJo Lubinski as history is made for women in the late 1960s. As social and political upheaval take the United States by storm, the twins and their peers struggle with their ancestry and the role it plays in their lives. Bronka and JoJo both search for their identities, both as women and individuals. This novel explores hidden family secrets, bloodlines, confusing religious identities, and the scars of World War II.
Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Wharton (4/25)
In 1966, Sook-Yin is exiled from Kowloon, Hong Kong to London and told to restore her family’s honor. She trains to become a nurse but realizes she must create her own place in this world. Thirty years later, biracial, nonconformist Lily only remembers her late mother from stories that her perfect older sister tells her about Sook-Yin. When she’s unexpectedly included in the will of a powerful Chinese stranger, Lily secretly sets off from London to Hong Kong to learn about the lost side of her identity and claim the inheritance. But soon Lily learns about the secrets her older sister has been keeping about their past, and what good fortune will cost her.
Moorewood Family Rules by HelenKay Dimon (4/25)
Once upon a time, a con man met an heiress, charmed her, married her, and they had two beautiful kids. And they kept on conning. Jillian Moorewood is the oldest child of the family, always the stable one who fixes her family’s problems. She even went to prison for thirty-nine months to protect them. Now she’s out—and she’s angry. Her family is still conning, but Jillian forces them to either get it together or get out. Her own life is a mess but with the help of a great aunt, a hot bodyguard, and some allies, she starts piecing things back together. She’s ready to make a life for herself outside of her family’s schemes and deceits.
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