The Best Book Club Books for Fall 2026

Belle Burden’s #1 New York Times-bestselling memoir chronicles the collapse of her 20-year marriage after a stranger reveals her husband’s affair. 

Blending a tabloid-worthy story of elite New York betrayal with the terror of sudden change, she spends the book revisiting their life together. Much of its appeal lies in its raw take on heartbreak—and the courage it takes to walk away. 

A Netflix adaptation is now in the works, with Gwyneth Paltrow attached to star and produce. 

Strangers is sure to prompt important discussions in your group about marriage, finances, social expectations, and more, in what Emmy Award-winning author Graydon Carter called “a beautifully written instant classic.” 

If your group has yet to dive into science fiction, Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary provides the perfect opportunity! 

Ryland Grace wakes up on a spacecraft with no memory of who he is, how he got there, or where the rest of his crew has gone. All that he knows is that humanity’s survival depends on him figuring it out—and fast. 

The film adaptation, starring Ryan Gosling, also hit theaters and streaming earlier this year, so there’s an easy post-read watch lined up!

Are you ready to kick off your autumnal horror rotation? Incidents Around the House is the ultimate chilling, atmospheric read. 

8-year-old Bela’s life revolves around her family: Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, vying for her attention. An evil spirit who is growing tired of asking the question: “Can I go inside your heart?” 

With the film adaptation, Other Mommy, starring Jessica Chastain, hitting theaters this October, you’ll have enough time to discover why Esquire called it “the most purely effective horror novel I have ever read.”

Gerry Anderson, bed-bound after a fall, begins receiving calls from Aubrey—the heroine of his bestselling novel, which readers always insist is too real to be fiction. 

Isolated at home, he relies on his assistant and night nurse for help, two women he barely knows. Are the calls from an ex, or a symptom of his unraveling mind? 

A nod to “Stephen King’s Misery,” and “the sharpest, clearest-eyed take on our #MeToo reckoning yet,” Dream Girl will give your group plenty to unpack, particularly when considering how male novelists create the women they invent (People; Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author).

If your group has already enjoyed Rebecca or Mexican Gothic, The Hacienda has all the makings of a perfect gothic horror story, “transport[ing] one to a world where love triumphs over demons” (New York Times). 

Set just after Mexico’s War of Independence, Beatriz marries a wealthy widower to rebuild her family’s fortune—dismissing any gossip about what happened to his first wife along the way. 

But when she discovers her new home is very much haunted, and no one believes her, Beatriz turns to a young priest for help. 

No ordinary priest, Padre Andrés has the ability to fend off the supernatural—if only he could keep his forbidden feelings for the young woman he feels drawn to protect at bay.

John Steinbeck’s sprawling family saga, set in California’s Salinas Valley, is widely considered a masterpiece. It’s the kind of classic that rewards a read at least once in a lifetime—or even a reread, even if half your group covered it in school. 

It’s on the longer side, with most editions clocking in at over 600 pages. So it makes sense to read with a group, pushing one another to probe deeper into the novel’s themes of free will or the moral choice between good and evil.

What’s more, Netflix’s long-anticipated adaptation, starring Florence Pugh as the infamous Cathy Ames and written by Zoe Kazan, premieres October 1st. Packed with major cozy, moody autumnal vibes, you’ll have no problem reading in time to watch!

From the bestselling author of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared comes a “funny and completely implausible farce about a woman, a bomb and a man’s frustrated ambition to overthrow the king of Sweden” (Kirkus Reviews).

A bit of an unexpected pick for book club, but Jonas Jonasson’s signature absurdist humor offers a palate cleanser while still leaving your group plenty to dig into.

Taking place on a road trip through the English countryside in the 50s, The Remains of the Day practically oozes with the crisp air of fall. 

Stevens, an aging butler, spends the drive reflecting on a lifetime of duty and, equally, repression, particularly with the one relationship he never let himself have. 

Under 250 pages, this Booker Prize winner, from a Nobel Prize-winning author, is “a virtuoso performance [...] put on with dazzling daring and aplomb” (New York Review of Books).

Part of Crosby’s long-running Wine Country Mystery series, this installment unfolds during harvest season at Montgomery Estate Vineyard. 

A cozy mystery with major fall vibes, the plot kicks off when Lucie Montgomery’s first crush is murdered and dark family secrets come to light; she’ll be put right in the path of a killer! 

Fun and uplifting, Harvest of Secrets is best read after something heavier—with a glass of something that matches the setting. 

Taking place in a small-town cemetery in Bourgogne, France, Valérie Perrin’s Fresh Water for Flowers is chock-full of warm conversations, mist-filled grounds, and the melancholic feeling of a new season. 

Violette is the eccentric caretaker of the cemetery, stuck in her routines, when she meets Julien Sole, the local police chief. He has come to scatter the ashes of his mother on the tombstone of a complete stranger. 

As she probes the mystery, Violette learns of a past that intertwines with her own, in a story that “may on the surface of it appear gloomy and morose, [but] in Perrin’s hands is an appealing indulgence in nature, food and drink, and, above all, friendships” (The Guardian).