How to Start a Book Club (and the Best Books to Choose For It!)

Do you miss debating the plot of books in your high school English class? Did you just finish a particularly twisty-turny mystery book and wish you could have talked about the plot twists with someone? Then you may be the perfect person to start a book club. Luckily, with a little help from us, anyone can learn how.

Why Should You Start a Book Club?

Enjoying a book by yourself is fun, but if you want to broaden your mind and hear other people’s perspectives, nothing beats discussing the text at a book club. Regardless of background, education, or interest, anyone is welcome to come together and talk about a book club book. Hearing other people’s takes on the characters, plot, and writing style helps you understand the story deeper and see things you might’ve missed during your own read.

How to Start a Book Club of Your Own

If you don’t have an existing program in your area, don’t fret: you can host a book club yourself! But choosing a book club book is only part of the fun. In order to provide your guests with the best possible experience, you’ll need to do a bit more preparation.

5 Steps to Hosting a Book Club:

• Step 1: Find your reason
• Step 2: Pick a setting
• Step 3: Send out invites
• Step 4: Read the book
• Step 5: Discuss with your club

Step 1: Decide Why You’re Hosting a Book Club

There’s no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to book clubs. Some people want to dive deep into the hidden meanings behind classic works; certain clubs are focused on a specific genre; others meet more to socialize than to actually discuss. Defining what kind of book club you want to be a part of will guide the rest of your decision-making and inform potential members if it’s the right fit for them.

Types of Book Clubs You Can Start:

• Short stories: If you want to discuss a text in greater detail, consider starting a book club where you and your guests bring short stories. The length of these book club books will let you go over every single line with a fine-tooth comb and may help you meet more frequently.
• Silent book club: If you don’t want to start a book club where you read the same title, consider creating a space where your friends and family can gather to read different titles side-by-side (and quietly).
• “Book-to-film” adaptations: Read the book club book as a group and then go see the movie together when it releases! Nothing beats comparing what they got right and wrong in the adaptation.
• Themes: With so many good choices for book club books, narrowing down your options can feel daunting. Hosting a book club around a specific theme, like mysteries or locations, can help make the selection simple.
• Authors: From Kristin Hannah to Freida McFadden to Brandon Sanderson, certain authors have ever-growing catalogs. If you and your friends love an author, consider working through all of their stories together.
• Genres: When you host a book club for a specific genre, members know exactly what they’re signing up for and that every title will align with their interests.  
• Celebrity: Read the chosen title from your favorite celebrity book club and feel a part of something bigger, whether that’s Reese Witherspoon’s book club or Oprah’s book club.    

Step 2: Determine How Your Book Club Will Meet

Now that you know what kind of book club you want to start, you can choose where and how often it will meet. If you try to coordinate a time and place where everyone can gather after you’ve already started, planning the actual meeting becomes very challenging. Combat this frequent issue and pick the date and location before anyone cracks open the book club book.

Do you want to meet in a different member’s home each time? Would you like to host a book club in your backyard? Is there a local indie book store with an inviting space you’d like to try? Is joining a Zoom call more accessible for your members? Figure out the ideal setting for your book club and go from there.

As far as the timeline goes, most book clubs run on a month-to-month basis, since four weeks is typically enough time for members, regardless of how fast they read, to finish the book. If you want to meet more frequently or less, you can—as the book club host, it’s completely up to you.

Step 3: Send Out the Invites and Choose the Book Club Book

Choosing a book club book in the invite stage will allow people to make a judgment call about whether or not they’d like to read the assigned title before agreeing to do so. This can be done in a few ways, but whether it’s chosen by the founder, selected by a different member, or put to a democratic vote for everyone on the guest list, the book should excite you.

Once the book club book is selected, you can craft the official invite for the discussion date. Whether you send out a text, email, Partiful, or old-fashioned postcard, your invite should include what book you’re reading, the date of the discussion, where you’ll meet, and any other pertinent info you choose.

Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to be selective in the first round of invites—you can always expand later on when you feel more confident hosting a book club.

The Best Genres for Book Club Books:

• True crime
• Memoir
• Romance
• Historical fiction
• Science fiction
• Dystopian
• Fantasy

Step 4: Read the Book Club Book

Now that everyone knows what book club book you’re reading and when they have to have it finished, all that’s left to do is read! If you prefer listening to audiobooks, grab it on your favorite service and get to it. We recommend taking notes as you go, either in the margins or in your phone, to keep your ideas straight when it’s time to meet up again.  

Step 5: Meet Up and Discuss the Book Club Book

Time’s up! Put your books down, pack them in your bag, and get ready for the whole reason you decided to start a book club. The discussion is the best part.

Set out a few refreshments, get your seating arranged so that everyone can see one another, and settle in. As the book club host, it’s typically your responsibility to start everything, so try to think of (or research) a thought-provoking question to kick things off. When you’re done with your dissecting, you can choose the next book club book and meeting date as a group.

Get Conversation Flowing With Our Favorite Book Club Books

Feeling inspired to start a book club, but don’t know what title to choose? Lucky for you, as Novel hosts our very own book clubs, we’ve got plenty of experience in the matter.

Whether you’re looking for a thrilling satire or a post-World War II novel or something completely different, we’ve got you covered. Explore some of our favorite book club books to find the perfect one today.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

For as long as she can recall, Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of her place in the world. Almost every morning, she sits down to pen letters to her brother, her best friend, the university president who won’t let her audit a class, and to one person whose letters she never ends up sending.

As a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, and distinguished lawyer, Sybil has lived a full life. But when someone from her past starts sending letters of their own, she is forced to reexamine the most painful memories. Will she be able to move forward and find forgiveness? Find out in one of our favorite book club books, The Correspondent.

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

After serving 22 months for killing a local kindergarten teacher in a drunk driving incident, 22-year-old Violet Powell is being released from prison. The retired English teacher who runs the prison’s book club, Harriet Larson, is facing an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, is trying to wrap his head around his complicated marriage to the woman Violet killed.

When the three run into one another at a bookstore in Portland, their lives begin to intertwine in unexpected and transformative ways. If you’re looking for a book club book that understands that the right novel can change your life, How to Read a Book is the best choice for you.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

In this debut book club book, Yesteryear, Natalie Heller Mills' life is perfect. Living in a charmingly rustic farmhouse, with a handsome cowboy as a husband, and six delightful children, she spends her days sharing tips, tricks, and lifestyle inspiration for others on social media. So, what if there are nannies and producers working behind the scenes and industrial-grade appliances around every turn—what Natalie’s 8 million followers (and the Angry Women in her comments) don’t know, won’t hurt them.

But when she wakes up one morning to a life that isn’t hers, everything begins to fall apart. Her home, her husband, her children, feel familiar, but something’s wrong. Could it be time travel? Has she been kidnapped to star in a demented reality show? Is God testing her? Only one thing is clear: she has to escape.

Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson

Ethel Gathers, the wife of an American Officer in occupied 1950s Germany, discovers a local orphanage filled with abandoned mixed-race children. Determining that they must be the offspring of German women and Black American GI’s, she feels it’s her duty to help find these kids homes.

Eager to make his mark in the world, Philadelphia-born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the newly desegregated army in 1948. But when he meets a local woman in Manheim, Germany, named Jelka, the two form a relationship that will change their lives forever.

When Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend an all-white boarding school and escape her heartless parents in 1965 Maryland, she takes it. But the secret she unearths sends her on a quest to unravel the truth of her own identity. As Keeper of Lost Children toggles between the three protagonists, this book club book explores how love, whether it’s familial, parental, or forbidden, can transcend.

Little One by Olivia Muenter

To anyone else, Catharine West’s childhood on her parents’ farm may sound idyllic, and, for a time, thanks to her magnetic father, it was. But when she grew older, the farm and land she was raised to love faded into something much darker.

A decade after abandoning the farm, Catharine has tried her best to reinvent her life. But when an email from a charismatic journalist interrupts her peace with all sorts of questions about a mysterious “cult” in central Florida, she realizes she’ll have to stay one step ahead of him to find her sister and keep her secrets buried before it’s too late. A powerful look at modern womanhood and wellness culture, Little One is the perfect book club book for anyone looking to answer: how far would you go to be good?

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

With a husband, three children, a station wagon, and a home in one of Northern Virginia’s most picturesque suburbs, Margaret Ryan is living the 1960s American woman’s dream in The Book Club for Troublesome Women. So why doesn’t it feel like enough?

When Margaret meets the newest, most mysterious resident, Charlotte Gustafson, she’s thrown for a loop. Determined to be in her orbit, she hosts a book club get-together and invites Charlotte and two of her neighbors, Bitsy and Viv. As the women share secrets, cocktails, and genuine responses to the latest controversial release, The Feminine Mystique, they start to realize they long for much more than the American Dream they’ve been sold. Nicknaming themselves after the author, Betty Friedan, the “Bettys” embark on a journey of tears, triumphs, angst, and arguments to find their true selves.

Other Book Club Books We Loved at Novel:

• The Names by Florence Knapp
• The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller
• Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven
• The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall
• The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark
• Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

To some, the term “book club” sounds like homework—but that’s not the case! Book clubs are a tried-and-true way to make reading a more community-based hobby. With our help, hosting a book club is easy! Grab your people, choose a book club book, and get to planning ASAP.