The Most Anticipated Stories for Book Club of Summer 2025

The #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcasters Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle created We Can Do Hard Things — the guidebook for being alive — to help fellow travelers find their way through life.

Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: A second chance.

Two sisters examine what they owe each other and what they are willing to sacrifice to make their dreams come true in this “epic story” (Reese Witherspoon) from New York Times bestselling author Beck Dorey-Stein.

As an internet culture critic for The New York Times, Amanda Hess had built a reputation among readers as a sharp observer of the seductions and manipulations of online life. But when Hess discovered she was pregnant with her first child, she found herself unexpectedly rattled by a digital identity crisis of her own. At once funny, heartbreaking, and surreal, Second Life is a journey that spans a network of fertility apps, prenatal genetic tests, gender reveal videos, rare disease Facebook groups, “freebirth” influencers, and hospital reality shows. Hess confronts technology’s distortions as they follow her through pregnancy and into her son’s early life. The result is a critical record of our digital age that reveals the unspoken ways our lives are being fractured and reconstituted by technology.

The extraordinary novel that asks: Can a name change the course of a life? With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, causing us to consider the “one, precious life” we are given. The book’s brilliantly imaginative structure, propulsive storytelling, and emotional, gut-wrenching power are certain to make The Names a modern classic.

A young woman must find her missing husband and prove her innocence in this twisty, unputdownable novel set in an ultrawealthy Florida community where looks can kill.

In this spellbinding historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea and The Wind Knows My Name, a young writer journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father — and herself.

Maya Killgore is twenty-three and still in the process of figuring out her life. Conor Harkness is thirty-eight, and Maya cannot stop thinking about him … What is wrong meets what feels right in this romance set in Italy by the New York Times bestselling author of Deep End.

Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.

A romantic coming-of-age story about one woman’s inspiring journey to find self-love, reconnect with family, and forge a new path for her future, from the author of the Good Morning America Book Club pick Dirty Laundry.

In seven days Jet Mason will be dead. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder — now a hit Netflix series — returns with her first novel for adults: A twisty thriller about a young woman trying to solve her own murder.

From the political writer and podcaster, a ferociously honest and disarmingly funny memoir about her elusive mother’s encroaching dementia and a reckoning with her complicated childhood. A pitch-perfect balance of acceptance and rage, humor and heart, How to Lose Your Mother tells a universal story of loss alongside a singular story of a literary life. This is a memoir that will stand alongside the classics of the genre.

One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge. In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution. Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of thirteen hours. But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them — even though it means putting her own life at risk.

In this vulnerable exploration of personal identity, the New York Times bestselling author of I’m Still Here chronicles her efforts to live as her full self in a society that wants women — and Black women in particular — to do anything but that.

In this dazzling debut, Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

From the author of Oprah’s Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle. Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.

In this poignant retelling of The Great Gatsby, set amongst L.A.’s Black elite, a young veteran finds his way post-war, pulled into a new world of tantalizing possibilities — and explosive tensions.

On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident — and the killer’s still on the island — in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here.

From the founder of Money with Katie, a leveled-up finance guide for ambitious women everywhere — and a rallying cry for a new money movement. It’s time for women to unite in unapologetic financial autonomy with the net worths to show for it — and to change the playing field not just for ourselves but for the next generation of Rich Girls, too.

In this remarkable and harrowing debut novel, three extraordinary women — a mother, her daughter, and their maid — are each forced on a journey of survival during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II.

From Melissa Febos, the national bestselling author of Girlhood, comes an examination of the solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes she discovered during a year of celibacy and a wise and transformative look at relationships and self-knowledge.

A Muscogee pop star and a cowboy who couldn’t be more different come together to strike a deal in this new romantic comedy by Danica Nava, USA Today bestselling author of The Truth According to Ember.

Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Winner takes all. Lily — a bored, beautiful twenty-something — wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: Why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily can make it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams — but what will she have to do to win?

Romance is the biggest scheme of them all in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy from beloved author Alexa Martin.