9 Book Club Books that Celebrate the Pleasure of Reading Together

Will Schwalbe’s frank and moving memoir documents how he and his mother formed an informal book club of two while she underwent treatment for cancer. It is a testament to the closeness between mother and son, and a loving tribute to the joy and comfort found in a good book.

In this smart social comedy, six friends meet once a month to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. If you don’t consider yourself an Austenite already, you soon will—each friend’s love life parallels one of the novels they read and you’ll find yourself revisiting Austen’s classics to catch every last reference and in-joke.

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. Giving us a rare glimpse of women’s lives in revolutionary Iran, this luminous masterpiece is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny, and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

What begins as a casual reading group becomes a meaningful community for five women in very different stages of life. As the members of the group undergo everything from partners’ infidelity to midlife crises, Elizabeth Noble reveals that although many things in life can’t be counted on, good friends and good books always can be.

Culled from Paula Huntley’s diary entries and e-mails during her eight-month stint as an English teacher in the former Yugoslavia following the Kosovo War of 1999, this is the account of a resilient group of young survivors who found hope through literature. This thought-provoking and touching memoir is a reminder of education’s mighty capacity to inspire ambition and change.

This warmhearted novel will touch the hearts of daughters of all ages. When four sixth-grade girls and their mothers read Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women together, they discover the joys of friendship, family, and fiction and learn to navigate the struggles of girlhood.

Recently widowed Jean’s impromptu book club, started with a mismatched group of friends, was never meant to function as a support system. But when Jean’s already broken life is shaken up once more, it is the members of the book club who are there to help her reassemble the pieces.

A struggling book club’s reading list takes a turn for the scandalous in this saucy homage to the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon. Inspired by their sizzling reads, the group’s shy suburban readers shake off their inhibitions and discover new sides to themselves.