Book Club Books – 2025

July 17, 2025July 17, 202521 Comments

There are books, and then there are book club books. The sign of the later is when you’re finished reading it, you want to discuss it with someone else who has read it. So, here are ten books, published in the past year or two, good for discussion at book clubs everywhere…..except mine of course, where the majority prefer light and fluffy (see last week’s Beach Reads). Not that there’s anything wrong with those, (I read both) but the ideal book club selection should have enough material in it for a lively discussion. (I’ve critiqued the cover art too…although this batch is not as good as last weeks, but it’s what’s inside that counts!)

Upwardly mobile cover art conveys the theme.

A Great Country – Shilpi Samaya Gouda

Family saga. For the Shahs, Indian immigrants who came to America twenty years ago, the move to a lovely upscale Pacific Heights neighbourhood is the culmination of a dream, until their 12 year old son is arrested in a violent encounter with police. For their three children born and raised in America, success is not so simple. Themes – immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege. I enjoyed her other books, especially her first, Secret Daughter.

Standard cover art for her books – with a few palm fronds for the tropical setting.

One Perfect Couple – Ruth Ware

Psychological Suspense, reminiscent of Agatha Christies And Then There Were None. Things are not going well for Lyla and her actor boyfriend, until he auditions for a reality TV show in England and wins. They are whisked away to a small island in the Pacific with five other couples, and things are fine until a storm hits, the film crew suddenly departs, and the couples are left alone as a killer stalks among them. Deprived of their cell phones the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and supplies run low, Lyla finds this game show is all too real, and the stakes are life and death. Although Ruth Ware is one of my favorite authors, I wasn’t prepared to like this book as much as I did, given my general dislike of reality tv shows, but I found it very suspenseful, with a truly surprising ending. I won’t reveal the theme, but it’s sort of like Lord of the Flies for adults, with a twist. I think this is her best book yet.

The God of the Woods – Liz Moore

Psychological suspense and family drama. August 1975, early morning in the Adirondack Mountains, a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Barbara Van Laar, the 13-year-old daughter of the affluent family who owns the summer camp, has gone missing, prompting a massive search. But this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared, her older brother vanished 14 years ago, never to be found. A real page turner, with a satisfying ending.

A Calamity of Souls – David Baldacci

Historical fiction/courtroom drama. South Virginia, 1968, the civil rights movement is raging. A young white male lawyer teams up with a female black lawyer from Chicago to represent a black man wrongly accused of brutally killing his wealthy white employers. Fast paced, good characterization, and a riveting court case, with a surprise ending. Wow – is all I can say, this was one of the best books I read last year. Lots to discuss, racism, the civil rights movement, a bygone era that’s starting to look familiar again.

The Briar Club – Kate Quinn

Historical Fiction. Washington DC 1950, a story of friendship and secrets in a female boarding house during the McCarthy era. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, until a mysterious widow with secrets of her own, arrives and starts to hold weekly dinner parties in her room. The book opens with a dead body upstairs and the women must decide who is the true enemy in their midst. I had never read anything set in the McCarthy era, so I enjoyed this immensely.

I like this cover – short and to the point.

Those People Next Door – Kia Abdullah

A gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours. Salma Khatun is hopeful that the safe suburban neighbourhood they have just moved to, is a fresh start for her family and teenage son, but not long after they move in, the man next door rips out the anti-racist banner she put on her front lawn. She doesn’t confront him as she wants to fit in, so she moves the banner inside and puts it in her window, only to wake the next morning to find her window smeared with paint. Things escalate from there and battle lines are drawn, while they are unaware their two sons have become friends.

A standard cover for her, with a helicopter for Vietnam

The Women – Kristen Hannah

Historical drama about the forgotten role of women in the Vietnam war. 21-year-old Frankie, a sheltered young woman from an affluent military family, enlists as a nurse during the Vietnam War. The story follows her tours of duty and the decades thereafter. I found this story fascinating and disturbing as all war stories are, particularly as I had never read anything set in Vietnam.

The Berry Pickers – Amanda Peters

Family saga/mystery. July 1962 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl from Nova Scotia goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, where her family travels for work every summer, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors and remains unsolved for fifty years. Meanwhile a young girl grows up in Maine, the only daughter of affluent parents, never quite fitting in, until she searches for the truth about her family. A debut novel by a Canadian author, very good.

Beware a guy who seems to good to be true. The copy I read had a plainer British cover, minus the sociopath.

One of the Good Guys – Araminta Hall

Psychological thriller/mystery. “Hall’s feminist tour de force, shines a light on how easy it can be for strong women to be coerced and manipulate by ’good men’….and how easily these men hide in plain sight.”

How often have you heard a divorced woman say – I thought I married one of the good ones? Two people meet in a small coastal British village and think they know each other, until two female hikers are declared missing from the same area. Honestly, this book just creeped me out, as it was meant to, particularly the good guy character. Totally amazing plot twists made for a very bold statement at the end.

Patio lanterns – it’s midnight party time.

The Midnight Feast – Lucy Foley

Psychological thriller/mystery. A multi-character novel about a reunion that turns deadly at a luxury resort in the English countryside. When a body is discovered on the opening night in an adjacent wood all the secrets of the past come spilling out at the midnight feast. The founder of the resort, one of those perfect influencer types, was especially well done, and justice was served like desert at the end. Easily her most riveting book yet.

I love it when my favourite authors just keep getting better and better. I wonder how they can keep coming up with such amazing ideas and plots which also make for a great discussion. I would like to start my own book club someday, but have you ever tried to coordinate the schedules of a bunch of retired people…

Happy Reading!

Beach Books 2025

July 9, 2025July 17, 202530 Comments

These ten books with short summaries are all good reads, published over the past year or two. They’re light and riveting enough for the beach – just remember to reapply sunscreen! (Lately I’ve been critiquing book covers, so check out those too. Some books are just easier to illustrate than others.)

The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club – Martha Hall Kelly

Historical drama/family saga about two sisters struggling to keep the family farm going when American soldiers descend on the island for training exercises n 1942. The book club part seems incidental but it’s a nice story, with a bit of romance, but I love anything about Martha’s Vineyard.

Famous Last Words – Gillian McAllister

Psychological thriller. Riveting tale about a new mother’s search to find the truth when the police arrive at her door to tell her there is a hostage situation developing in London, and that her husband is the gunman.

A deserted island haunted by ancestral ghosts

Camino Ghosts – John Grisham

Captivating thriller/courtroom drama, about a resort development firm claiming ownership of an unoccupied island between Florida and Georgia, and the last living inhabitant, an elderly black woman, who stands who stands in their way. The island was owned by free slaves and the locals believe it to be cursed. I’ll read anything by John Grisham, but this was one of his better books. This is the latest of his Camino Island trilogy and the best, same characters, but it can be read as a stand alone, the first was about a murder during a hurricane.

Mystery at a Big Sur resort where a wedding does not happen, because I’m not sure unwedding is a word?

The UnWedding – Ally Condie

Thriller/Mystery. A woman spends her 20^th wedding anniversary alone at a fancy resort near Big Sur, after the unexpected break up of her marriage. There’s a wedding at the resort, and a big storm brewing, and complications occur when the groom is found dead floating in the pool on the morning of the wedding. This was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection.

A quiet suburban neighbourhood in the middle of the night.

Middle of the Night – Riley Sager

Thriller/Mystery – Thirty years later a man returns to the quiet neighbourhood where his best friend disappeared from their tent in his backyard in the middle of the night. I’ve never read anything by Riley Sager, but this was good and very suspenseful. Nominated for 2024 Goodreads Thriller of the Year

A big house she can’t afford without her inheritance?

The Inheritance – Joanna Goodman

A mother-daughter family saga. A grieving 36 year old single mother with three children, deeply in debt after the death of her husband, receives a phone call from a New York lawyer offering a glimmer of hope between a life of poverty and wealth thanks to her unknown deceased billionaire father. The drama is in the legal fight for her inheritance. I didn’t like this protagonist initially, but the story grows on you, and the ending was quite good.

Pineapple Street – Jenny Jackson

Family saga. Contemporary fiction about three women in New York’s one percenters, and their families – love and class. If you ever wanted to read about how the rich live, it was surprisingly interesting, and I liked how she wrapped up the stories at the end. Nominee for Goodreads Readers 2023 favourite fiction.

Neither does this one? Is she supposed to be beautiful?

Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano

Family saga. An “emotional, heart wrenching family drama’ about an Italian Catholic family of four sisters. Two sisters fall for the same man, causing the family to break apart for 25years. Hello Beautiful is the greeting the dad gives each of the daughters. I have to admit I shed a few tears at the end.

Third in the series, just different colors so instant brand recognition. The diary is a clue.

The Maid’s Secret – Nita Prose

Heartwarming mystery, the latest of the Molly the Maid series and the best yet. You can’t help root for Molly who is on the autism spectrum. She’s been promoted to head maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, in charge of special events, but when a daring art heist takes place during the filming of an antique roadshow reality TV show, long buried secrets are revealed about her dead grandmother’s wealthy past. I really enjoyed the grandmother’s diary entries, and the ending – well – pass the Kleenex. My favorite yet of the three in the series, plus the Christmas novella.

I have to admit this cover is my favorite because of the mortar and pestle.

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern – Lynda Cohen Loigman

Nominated for Goodreads Historical Fiction 2024. When I saw this one on the new releases list I was intrigued because as a retired pharmacist, I had never read a book where the main character was a pharmacist, so I liked it even before I opened a page. After turning 80, newly retired Augusta Stern relocates to a senior’s centre in southern Florida, where she unexpectedly crosses paths with her first love Irving, the delivery boy who broke her heart 60 years ago. Alternating between present day and 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta attends pharmacy college (rare for a woman then) after her father’s sudden death and inherits his neighbourhood pharmacy. When her eccentric Great Aunt Esther moves in Augusta is drawn to her unconventional remedies, ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions, and she decides to experiment with a love potion for Irving with disastrous results. But is it ever too late for love?

What I liked about this book – the pharmaceutical accuracy and descriptions of a time when almost everything was compounded from scratch. The author acknowledges in the notes how she researched the remedies from old drug journals. The protagonist was based on a great aunt in the family who had been a pharmacist way back then. I liked Augusta’s independence, her spunk, and her dedication to her career, as it’s not an easy job to do. But what impressed me most was the love story part, (and you know I’m not a romance reader) as it’s the first novel I’ve read involving seniors which doesn’t portray them as a bunch of senile old people who are only concerned with their hearing aids, glasses, bowels, food and naps. Honestly, I’ve read enough of those British cozy mysteries set in retirement homes, as they seem so popular now, but the older people I know are not like that. So kudos to the author (whose father lived in a retirement home) for getting it right, both with the pharmacy stuff and what it’s like to be an active healthy senior today.

See a list of book club discussion books next week.