The Best Book Club Books in Summer 2024

Wingate’s novel is perfect for fans of Killers of the Flower Moon. Exploring two separate timelines nearly eighty years apart, Shelterwood tells the story of women facing difficulties in Oklahoma—some in 1909, and others in 1990. 

Ollie has a hunch that her stepfather has less-than-honorable intentions for the Choctaw girl that they have in their care. They set out with the intention of hiding at her parent’s old cabin, but along the way, they encounter a community they didn’t expect. 

Valerie Boren Odell, a ranger, is newly stationed at the Horsethief Trail National Park. What should be a quiet assignment turns into an uproar when a reveals the truth about a local mystery.

If you don’t have any travel plans this summer and are looking for a book to transport you, give Lucashenko’s Too Much Lip a try. Set in the fictional town of Durrongo, the story follows a family of Indigenous Australians. Kerry Salter is forced to return to her hometown on her stolen Harley Davidson to say goodbye to her dying father. 

Kerry’s return coincides with the local council’s plan to build a prison by a nearby river, a project that her family is strongly against. As Kerry is drawn to stay, support them, and fight for their home, she finds herself reconnecting with a life and people she had once been determined to leave behind. 

Unable to handle his inability to protect his sister, Philip Richards is in a downward spiral. At the age of fifteen, he chooses to run away from home. He turns to alcohol to dull his pain, and does what he can to avoid the truth of his family’s dark and violent past. 

Exploring the country’s less-than-pristine history, and generational trauma, Vicars’ Echoes of Our Ancestors is a page-turner that will spur book club conversation. 

Sellers’ novel unpacks the intricate relationship between the sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, two prominent figures in the Bloomsbury Group. 

Vanessa, the elder sister, becomes a talented painter, while Virginia emerges as a brilliant writer. Despite their different artistic paths, their work is deeply interconnected, each sister drawing inspiration from the other. As the narrative is focused on Vanessa, it captures the essence of their sibling rivalry, the tensions that arise from their differing temperaments and ambitions, and the profound love that underpins their relationship.

Benedict’s novel will have you longing for the cool breeze of a beach in New England, and relieved that you aren’t in the middle of divorcing an ex-CIA agent. Sophy Chase’s life is just beginning to pick up again after a tumultuous divorce. She’s finally finding her stride—until she learns that her soon-to-be ex-husband has been found dead. 

Sophy returns to Swansea Island, grappling with this jolting change. It would be one thing if all she was facing was her almost-ex-husband’s passing, but there’s more waiting for her. Between her step-children, former lovers, and recovery from her alcohol addiction, it’ll be a miracle if Sophy manages to make it off the island in one piece. 

Sheila Gower has every intention of ditching her small town life as soon as she possibly can. Working at the local convenience store isn’t much, but it’s a way to pass the time, and to save up enough money to get the heck out of there. In the meantime, a stranger becomes a regular, piquing Sheila’s interest. More interesting still, the man has an ID with a familiar fictional moniker—Peter Parker. 

It’s clear to Sheila that it isn’t his real name, but this obvious deception just makes him all the more intriguing. Her interest in leaving town is matched by Peter’s plans to go to Chicago. It isn’t long before the two of them are making plans, and Peter is referring to her as Gwen, the name of Spider Man’s first love. 

Set against the backdrop of the late 19^th and early 20^th century, the novel centers around Sivakami, a young Brahmin girl married off at a tender age to a man much older than herself. As Sivakami navigates the challenges of her traditional household, she grapples with her duties as a wife and mother as her husband’s prediction that their lives together may end looms over them. 

Throughout the novel, Sivakami's resilience and determination to uphold her family's honor and traditions will leave you inspired, and itching to see what happens next. The Toss of a Lemon is an examination of a life lived after great upheaval, intertwined with rich and immersive prose. 

Perfect for fans of magical realism, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight follows the lives of several families in post-Soviet Russia. A young woman raised by her harsh, sardonic grandmother, recreates the art that she’s surrounded by in her daily life at an art museum. 

When a group of American museum facilitators try to help the local artists, Tanya enlists the help of other building residents to bring the museum up to their standards. If they can show that the All-Russia All-Cosmopolitan Museum is worth investing in, they’re in with a chance—if they can get through it without driving one another crazy. 

There’s nothing that can describe Marie’s life better than the word ‘routine.’ A museum guard at the National Gallery in London, she finds herself feeling detached from her life, observing both the artwork and the visitors who pass through the gallery's halls.

One day, Marie encounters a mysterious elderly man who appears to be sketching a painting by Francisco de Goya. Intrigued by this unusual visitor, she embarks on a quest to learn more about him and his connection to the painting. As Marie continues her quest to unravel the mystery of the elderly man and the Goya painting, she finds herself drawn into a world where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur.

In Man Gone Down, an unnamed Black protagonist finds himself struggling as life seems to come at him from all sides. A failed academic and struggling father of three, he’s on the brink of financial ruin, burdened by debt and the loss of his family's home.

He reflects on memories of his childhood in Boston, his tumultuous relationship with his wife, and his struggles with racial identity and self-worth.