The Best Book Club Books for Winter 2026

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere comes a dystopian family drama set in near-future America. Selected as a Reese's Book Club Pick, Witherspoon described Our Missing Hearts as “Thought-provoking, heart-wrenching [...] I was so invested in the future of this mother and son.”

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives with his father, a former linguist who now works shelving books at a local library. His mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left them with no trace of her whereabouts. 

All that Bird has to remember her by are her books, which an increasingly strict government has since banned.

That is, until one day, a letter arrives for Bird with a cryptic message. Soon, he will embark on an adventure through a network of underground libraries and ultimately to New York City. He must draw on the folk tales Margaret told him in his youth to build a future in which his family can reunite. 

What could be more cozy than a winter-setting fantasy? Characterized by “a glittering, steampunk world” and a “tiny-voiced powerhouse you can’t take your eyes off,” A Winter’s Promise offers historical, mythical, and folklore elements that will pull you in and not let go until you read the other three books in the series (Wall Street Journal; New York Times).

Independent, bold Ophelia has long marched to the beat of her own drum. What’s more, her ability to read the past of objects and travel through mirrors — a skill passed down from her ancestors—sets her apart from the rest of Anima.

But her life is interrupted when she is arranged to marry Thorn, a high-up member of a distant clan. She must leave the world she has known since childhood, for the icy Pole, full of danger and misfortune at every turn. 

There, she will reluctantly meet her husband — and learn of the role she plays as a pawn in a political game, with ramifications that impact the entire worl

Winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize, Heart Lamp encapsulates the lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Translated by Deepa Bhasthi, these 12 stories were originally published in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023.

With most editions under 250 pages, these intimate, succinct portraits examine the families and community tensions that Banu Mushtaq observed during her years as a journalist and lawyer. 

That said, there is ample material to draw from during book club discussions, including quirky children, bold grandmothers, unlucky husbands, and more. 

Percival Everett often reimagines history through the eyes of the overlooked or stereotyped — most famously, with James, the 2024 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Similarly, The Trees, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022, examines the legacy of lynching in the Jim Crow South through the lens of horror and comedy.

Although hardly a light read, the satirical elements offer new entry points into discussions of racism, history, and justice—topics that should never be simplified, but made accessible here. 

In the story, a series of brutal murders occurs in Money, Mississippi, linked by a second body at the crime scene that resembles Emmett Till, a young boy lynched 65 years prior in the same town. 

The detectives soon realize that similar murders are taking place across the country, and seek help from a local root doctor, who has been documenting the atrocities for centuries. 

A gothic romance full of towers, flourishing gardens, expensive taste, and of course, dark, buried secrets? Count us in! 

Set in New York’s Hudson Valley during the nineteenth century, the Wells family receives a letter from a distant relative — the wealthy Nicholas Van Ryn — inviting one of their daughters to his Dragonwyck estate. 

Eighteen-year-old Miranda, bored with her rural life on a farm, welcomes the opportunity to escape. There, she becomes enchanted with the master and his sprawling mansion, unaware of the mystery that lurks beneath its shiny facade.

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, The Left Hand of Darkness is a seminal work of science fiction by a master of the genre. 

Following the journey of a lone human ambassador, sent to the alien planet of Winter (what could be more on theme than that?), he encounters a world where its inhabitants live without gender or sexual prejudice. 

In order to accomplish his mission of incorporating Winter into a growing intergalactic civilization, he must come to terms with his own views and work to understand a culture completely unlike his own. 

Today, amid so much political strife, Le Guin’s mediation on empathy, identity, and culture feels more urgent than ever.

Elif Shafak, the celebrated British-Turkish novelist and political scientist, routinely draws on her unique blend of experiences to offer insightful stories about identity, memory, and marginalized voices—any of her novels would make for great book club picks. 

Our pick, though, is 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. Equal parts beautiful and haunting, the story begins with the murder of Tequila Leila, who has been left in a dumpster outside Istanbul. In the moments before her death, she enters a heightened state, where she remembers her life and those she has intersected during her time as an outcast.

Each minute brings a new memory to the surface—whether the smell of goat stew or when her father sacrificed her for a son. Before entering the afterlife, she uses her remaining time to remember, most importantly, her chosen family—those who imbued life with meaning. 

Make way for the reigning queen of historical fiction—okay, not actually, but Kristin Hannah may as well be. If you’ve already read the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, with your book club, this is a great next pick!

Set against World War II in the Soviet Union, Winter Garden follows two sisters who grow up to lead completely polar-opposite lives: one raising children on their family's farm, the other travelling the world as a photojournalist. But when their father falls ill, the women will be reunited under the same roof and the disapproving eye of their mother, Anya, once more. 

As children, Meredith and Nina bonded over a Russian fairytale their mother occasionally told them—and for their father’s last dying wish, he will ask them to read it once more, to the very end. Alternating between past and present, they will unravel the harrowing story of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago.

A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better is a “harrowing and unforgettable” novel “about a road trip that takes a shocking turn, and the lasting impact of trauma” (Booklist, starred review; Shelf Awareness, starred review). With emotionally resonant prose, parallel narratives, and themes of isolation that lead well to winter-driven discussions, you can’t go wrong with this pick!

Daniel Hardesty, who now uses a different name, has spent the last two decades trying to mend from childhood trauma. One day, a younger Daniel and his estranged father, Francis, embarked on a road trip in the hopes of bringing them closer together.

They have one thing in common: their shared love for a TV program that Francis is working on, and has promised to show Daniel around the studio. But with each passing mile, Francis grows more frantic, culminating in a desperate act of violence that will shape the rest of his child’s life. 

With rich themes for discussion, including class, race, and tragic love, A Good Neighborhood is “a provocative, absorbing” selection (People). 

Valerie Alston-Holt, a professor of forestry and ecology, has found Oak Knoll, North Carolina, the perfect place to raise her biracial son, Xavier. That is, until the Whitman family, with their nouveau riche ways, destroys the house and land next door to make way for their showplace.

Quickly, these families find themselves at odds, first over a historic oak tree in Valerie’s yard, and then when love blooms between their teenagers.