The Best Book Club Books for Spring 2025

If you’ve been spring cleaning around your house, then you know that a person’s home and possessions can reveal a lot about their inner lives. In this choice, an unnamed narrator stays at her friend Molly’s house in Dublin while Molly takes an acting gig in NYC. 

Our narrator can’t stop the urge to search for clues about what Molly is really like and hold them up to what she knows about her personally. And she also can’t help but reflect on her own life and choices and compare them to her friend’s in the process. This novel set in one day leads to the age-old question about how well we really know our friends and lovers versus how much they allow us to know them.

There’s a reason that celebrity memoirs usually end up on the bestseller list; fans crave more intimacy from people that they think they already know well. 

In this novel, written in the form of a tell-all by a fictional 22-year-old pop star, the behind-the-scenes life of a star is revealed. From the origin story of breakout stardom to the world tours to the fraught relationships with friends and loved ones, the narrator gives his fans a glimpse of a life that may surprise them and explores his realization that even the famous are just a speck of stardust in the end.

If this doesn’t scratch your spring book club itch, then you need to put your book down and go run in a field for a moment because you’ve forgotten what spring is all about. 

Aurelie is a chef. A chef in Paris. THE Paris. And if the setting and the promise of mouthwatering food descriptions aren’t enough, take in the moment where Aurelie finds herself browsing in a bookstore to heal a broken heart. It is there she finds herself, quite literally, in a book that features “the smiles of women”. Needing answers, Aurelie sets out to find the author and we are lucky enough to follow along.

If you’re in the mood for traveling across continents and time, consider this selection. This is the story of Olga and the life she leads despite the boundaries people and society have tried to impose on her.

Olga is a young Prussian from humble beginnings, so naturally she falls for the son of a local aristocrat, Herbert. We follow their romance through different POVs, obstacles and time, witnessing the devotion that Olga shows for Herbert despite his ability to get exactly what he wants out of life when she cannot. But do not feel sorry for Olga. She is a force to be reckoned with and will suck the marrow out of life even if it will never be all that she dreamed of or deserved.

While this selection’s title has the word spring included, do not assume that this will be a light read. If you still fancy a read that is immersive and thought-provoking before heading into the beach reads of summer, this selection will deliver.

The reader finds Frank very early on navigating fatherhood on his own after his wife leaves him. To make matters worse, she did try to take the kids with her but when that task proved too difficult, she abandoned them as well. Frank does not have the luxury of solving the mystery of why his wife left as he must continue running the family business in Russia. What Frank also does not know is the true identity of an intriguing nanny who comes to help with the children or that the restlessness of the Russian people signals that great change is on the horizon.

One of my book club members once admitted that her age is a superpower. She can be in the most public of places and go undetected, observing the smallest details of people’s everyday lives. She said it was like wearing an invisibility cloak, and the main character of this selection is likely to agree. 

Ethel is 75 and runs a boarding house. No one pays her any attention. So, when she witnesses a murder, she decides to solve it herself instead of waiting for help. Soon, her distant cousin Jesse is unwittingly recruited to help her in the case and realizes along with us that underestimating those with more lived experience is a mistake, and there is nothing like the love and loyalty of family.

Hear me out. I know this choice has the word summer in the title but it is just so you to plan ahead. And trust that this novel is about much more than romance. This is the story of Ali and all the complexities, heartbreak and hope that she is experiencing in this season of her life.

Ali Morris has had a run of a few bad years that have left her simultaneously divorced, a single mom and a grieving daughter.  When her dog pees on a handsome stranger (yes, you read that right), everything changes. This is not a rom-com where finding your soul mate completes you; this is a novel of self-discovery, a journey that Ali takes to feel complete on her own and open to taking a chance on life again.

How can a book contain multitudes while being so easily accessible at the same time? Ask McFarlane. Her writing reads like you’re talking to your good friend or book club member or both, but it will stop you in your tracks with the nuggets of wisdom that she drops oh so casually.

While a book that centers on grieving may not sound like a spring pick-me-up, do not underestimate the brilliant storytelling in this selection. Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been BFFs for decades when we open on a night that will upend their friendships forever. This book goes back and forth in time as the friends navigate secrets and events that could either revive or terminate the relationships they’ve always known. 

Still craving a selection that will take you places? Travel from the Caribbean to the UK and around the States with Eleanor Bennett. While the lush landscapes are very satisfying, it’s the amazing story of Eleanor that will keep you turning the page.

It’s no spoiler that at the beginning of the novel, we find out that Eleanor has died. And so we are introduced to her children who must listen to her story told posthumously through recordings in order to receive their inheritance. As they listen to their mother, the siblings realize that they only ever really knew the parts of her that she chose to share, and the secrets that she reveals will alter the paths of their own lives.

Perhaps you’ve heard of this book? This classic is loved most ardently and has been adapted into TV series, movies, and modern book adaptations, including Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld and Pride by Ibi Zoboi.

In honor of Ms. Austen’s upcoming 250th birthday, I give you Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. This romance has been the foundation for many of the tropes we love today, including major miscommunication leading to a major misunderstanding and the beloved enemies-to-lovers plot line. Take a stroll back to 19th-century England and see where one of the most celebrated love affairs began.

In this “spare yet wrenching tale” (The New York Times Book Review), the daughters of divorced parents each grapple with unhappy relationships as they mature; one settling into an unsatisfying marriage, the other flitting from a series of romantic entanglements.

To give you an idea of this classic novel's longevity, it was first published in 1976 and is currently being recommended by comedian and author David Sedaris on his cross-country tour. We have a feeling it may be cropping up in a lot of book clubs this spring.