Best Book Club Books in 2025 for a 5-Star Reading Year

Patti’s book The Secret Book of Flora Lea was one of my favorite book club books in 2024! She’s known for writing some popular books for book club, especially if your book club reads a lot of historical fiction.

We got to chat with the author beforehand, and I can honestly say I will pick up anything Patti Callahan Henry writes.

Her in-depth research and love of story always makes for a fantastic book with lots to discuss.

I firmly believe The Story She Left Behind will be just as good, which is why it’s on my most anticipated books of 2025 list.

This dreamy Southern mother-daughter literary mystery looks like it’s going to have me on the edge of my seat!

Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:

Inspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the mesmerizing The Secret Book of Flora Lea returns with the sweeping story of a legendary book, a lost mother, and a daughter’s search for them both.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina.

Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old.

Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work.

As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language.

Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog.

With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District.

It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

Told in Patti Callahan Henry’s lyrical, enchanting prose, The Story She Left Behind is a captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.

The Story She Left Behind will be published on March 18, 2025, by Atria Books.

RELATED: 20 Buzzy Book Club Books for Fall 2024

Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well.

The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public.

The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby’s high profile romance falls apart without any explanation, that’s exactly what they get.

So Ebby flees to France, only for her past to follow her there.

And as she tries to process what’s happened, she begins to think about the other loss her family suffered on that day eighteen years ago—the stoneware jar that had been in their family for generations, brought North by an enslaved ancestor.

But little does she know that the handcrafted piece of pottery held more than just her family’s history—it might also hold the key to unlocking her own future.

In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multigenerational epic that examines how the past informs our present.

Good Dirt will be published on January 28, 2025, from Ballantine Books.

“A spellbinding debut about friendship, motherhood, first love, and the choices that bind us. . . I couldn’t put it down!”—Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Summer Will Be Different

A witty, atmospheric, and brilliantly told novel that offers compelling portraits of womanhood, motherhood and female friendship, along with the irresistible intrigue surrounding an extraordinary British family

Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her.

She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives.

When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .

As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life.

A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.

The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus was published on January 7, 2025, from Pamela Dorman Books.

A podcast producer agrees to host a new series about modern dating—but will the show jeopardize her chance at finding real love?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over and Flying Solo.

Longtime podcast producer Cecily Foster has always operated behind the scenes. For years, she’s worked toward hosting her own show, putting everything, including her love life, on the backburner.

So when her boss finally offers her the chance, she’s over the moon.

But there’s a catch. Actually, two:

1.) The show will be about Cecily’s dating life. 
2.) Cecily will be mentored by renowned dating coach/life coach/influencer Eliza Cassidy.

Cecily would rather do anything else than put her singledom on display, especially since the last time she mixed work with romance the outcome was catastrophic.

But when Cecily’s boss tells her that doing the show is the only way to protect her mentee’s job, she realizes she has no other choice.

To make matters even more complicated, Cecily finds herself unable to stop thinking about Will, a photographer she serendipitously met while chasing a runaway dog down a busy street.

Even though there are sparks between the two, Eliza forbids Cecily from dating Will, whom she believes is no better than Cecily’s disappointing exes.

As Cecily struggles to balance her real romantic life and the one Eliza wants to create for her, she finds herself at a crossroads.

Will she fall back into old patterns, or is this her chance to finally find love that lasts?

Back After This will be published on February 25, 2025, from Ballantine Books.

Four dissatisfied sixties-era housewives form a book club turned sisterhood that will hold fast amid the turmoil of a rapidly changing world and alter the course of each of their lives.

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new “planned community” in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all.

The fact that “all” doesn’t feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them.

Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson—the eccentric and artsy “new neighbor” from Manhattan—and read Betty Friedan’s just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.

Controversial and groundbreaking, the book struck a chord with an entire generation of women, helping them realize that they weren’t alone in their dissatisfactions, or their longings, lifting their eyes to new horizons of possibility and achievement. Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy, and Viv are among them.

But is it really the book that alters the lives of these four very different women?

Or is it the bond of sisterhood that helps them find courage to confront the past, navigate turmoil in a rapidly changing world, and see themselves in a new and limitless light?

The Book Club for Troublesome Women will be published on April 22, 2025, from Harper Muse.

Thurber Prize finalist and author of the beloved Hollow Kingdom returns with another fantastical and endlessly funny story featuring a cast of colorful characters in a dying Italian village and a giant truffle that changes their fate forever.

After nearly losing the election to a geriatric but wildly popular donkey named Maurizio, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can’t help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarini Boscarino.

Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara’s cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo—even Postman Duccio has been disgraced.

All that’s left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina’s volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they’ve spent their entire lives.

Little do the villagers know that, mere miles away in the forest, local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza has just happened upon something that could change everything.

Swollen to massive proportions, soaking the atmosphere in its pungent fumes, potentially worth six figures in certain international circles, a truffle—un tartufo, that is—sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen—they’re not completely sure which since Giuseppina’s psychic was a bit unclear on the matter.

Tartufo is much more than a charming romp through the foothills of Tuscany.

Written in the same enchanting style and raucous humor that defines Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures, Buxton’s newest story is a reflection on the interconnectedness of life in all its manifestations—and how holding on to harmony in the face of hardship can grow something beautiful and rare beneath the surface.

Tartufo will be published on January 28, 2025, from Grand Central Publishing.

A stunningly original love story between a museum employee and the man in a masterpiece hanging on the walls—a breathtaking debut about time, art, and the enduring power of love.

Jean’s life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Van Gogh.

But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life.

Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean’s painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above.

The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse—is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her secrets? Did he just move? 

In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean’s painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of World War I.

She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery’s other paintings come to life—glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs, that they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only modern visitor, alone in possession of this gift.

But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they’ve only dared to dream of.

Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?

The Art of Vanishing will be published on July 1, 2025, from Ballantine.

A taut and lyrical coming-of-age debut about a young American woman navigating class, lies, and love amid London’s jet-set elite.

I would arrive, blank like a sheet of notebook paper, and write myself new.

Anna first fell in love with London at her hometown library—its Jane Austen balls a far cry from her life of food stamps and hand-me-downs.

But when she finally arrives after college, the real London is a moldy flat and the same paycheck-to-paycheck grind—that fairy-tale life still out of reach.

Then Anna meets the Wilders, who fly her to Saint-Tropez to tutor their teenage daughter. Swept up by the sphinxlike elder sister, Anna soon finds herself plunged into a heady whirlpool of parties and excess, a place where confidence is a birthright.

There she meets two handsome young men—one who wants to whisk her into his world in a chauffeured car, the other who sees through Anna’s struggle to outrun her past.

It’s like she’s stepped into the pages of a glittering new novel, but what will it cost her to play the part?

The acclaimed author of the “lyrical coming-of-age novel” (Good Morning America) The People We Keep returns with a luminous new story of redemption, breaking generational curses, and the power of family in its truest form.

After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents.

Despite attempts to lay low, Freya encounters childhood friends, familial enemies, and old flames—as well as her fifteen-year-old niece, Aubrey, who is secretly living in the derelict home.

As they reconnect, Freya and Aubrey lean on each other, working to restore the house and come to terms with the devastating events that pulled them apart years ago.

Set in the birthplace of the American circus, this deeply moving novel is an exploration of broken families, the weight of the past, and the complicated journey of finding home.

Home of the American Circus will be published on May 6, 2025, from Simon & Schuster.

The Best Book Club Books in 2025 to Enrich Your Reading Life

These are my unique book club books or 5-star book club books in 2025, and I intend to read these new releases and report back!

If you don’t want to start a book club but you want to join an existing virtual book club with its own book club reads in 2025, check out the No Thanks We’re Booked club that I run with my best friend Katie!

There are so many books to read and so little time, but I really want to prioritize these books.

If you have any book club recommendations for 2025 or you have a list of the best book club books for discussion, will you share them with me? I’m always excited to see what gets named the best book club books on Goodreads.