April has brought with it showers of book club picks, with Hartnett’s latest capturing the attention of two clubs and mythological retellings capturing others. Whether you’re looking for a way to spend a rainy afternoon indoors or want to enjoy the first coat-free days of spring, you’re sure to be fully booked.
To submit titles for inclusion in this roundup, email us.
Amerie’s Book Club and Good Housekeeping Book Club
The book: Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (Ballantine)
Recommended for: When you miss someone who has departed, human or animal, and are looking for something to reassure you of their continued presence in your life.
“Hartnett delivers a quirky ghost story set in present-day Upper Valley, N.H., inspired by the legacy of naturalist Ernest Harold Baynes.” Read more here.
The book: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf)
Recommended for: When you feel like you’ve read every book that talks about traveling to far-off places.
Our reviewer says: “In Mandel’s stunning latest, people find themselves inhabiting different places and times, from early 20th-century Canada to a 23rd-century moon colony.” Read more here.
The book: A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin (Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends)
Recommended for: Fans of mythology and those who take full offense when someone describes tea as “hot leaf juice.”
Our reviewer says: “Lin’s fast-paced, immersive debut, a duology opener, follows 17-year-old Zhang Ning, who is a shénnóng-tú, an apprentice of the magical art of tea-making.” Read more here.
The book: From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga by S.H. Fernando Jr. (Hachette)
Recommended for: Fans of hip hop, Shaolin shadowboxing, and the Wu-Tang sword style.
Our reviewer says: “Music journalist Fernando meticulously recounts the career of legendary hip-hop supergroup Wu-Tang Clan (WTC) in this sprawling biography.” Read more here.
The book: A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen (Razorbill)
Recommended for: Anyone whose parents have ever disapproved of a significant other (regardless of whether they’re the heir of the rival family restaurant across the street and irresistibly attractive, no matter how much you initially try to deny it yourself).
The book: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (Akashic)
Recommended for: Poetry fans who also have a penchant for science fiction and abolitionism.
Our reviewer says: “Solomon debuts with a raw distillation of slavery, feudalism, prison, and religion that kicks like rotgut moonshine.” Read more here.
The book: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow)
Recommended for: When you find yourself revisiting your childhood haunts but don’t remember them as fondly as everyone else around you seems to.
Our reviewer says: “‘Childhood memories are sometimes covered and obscured beneath the things that come later... but they are never lost for good’—and the most grim of those memories, no matter how faint, can haunt one forever, as they do the anonymous narrator of Gaiman’s subtle and splendid modern myth.” Read more here.
Good Morning America Book Club
The book: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday)
Recommended for: People who enjoy cooking shows (especially ones with Alton Brown) and think chemistry equipment would make nifty glassware.
Our reviewer says: “Garmus debuts with a perplexing feminist fairy tale set in 1960s Southern California. Plucky chemist Elizabeth Zott believes she’s not like other women ‘Most of the women she’d met in college claimed they were only there to get their MRS,’ Garmus writes.” Read more here.
The book: The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker (Harper)
Recommended for: Fans of The Golem and the Jinni and Middle Eastern mythology.
Our reviewer says: “Wecker delivers a satisfying, mature sequel to The Golem and the Jinni, continuing the magical story of two immigrant mythological characters from the turn of the 20th century to the outbreak of WWI.” Read more here.
The book: The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (Morrow)
Recommended for: People who love to read about badass, deadly women in history.
Our reviewer says: “Quinn draws on a historical female sharpshooter from WWII in her exciting latest. In 1937, Mila Pavlichenko studies history at Kiev University and raises her five-year-old son, Slavka.” Read more here.
The book: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead)
Recommended for: When you want to learn more about recent Afghan history ,but nonfiction isn’t your forte.
Our reviewer says: “Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s.” Read more here.
The book: The Sobbing School by Joshua Bennett (Penguin)
Recommended for: When your very opinionated uncle complains that there are too many stories about Black people and you have to calmly explain why there needs to be even more.
Our reviewer says: “In his scintillating debut, Bennett, a performance poet and 2015 National Poetry Series winner, raises a crucial question about the writing of African-American experience: how can one convey the enormity of black suffering without reducing black life and expression to elegy?” Read more here.
Read with Jenna, the Jenna Bush Hager Book Club
The book: Groundskeeping by Lee Cole (Knopf)
Recommended for: That aspiring writer in your life who insists that love isn’t a priority, publishing a book is—but can’t seem to stop talking about another fellow writer they befriended while attending a writer’s workshop.
Our reviewer says: “Cole’s nimble debut combines elements of Southern fiction, the campus novel, and youthful romance.” Read more here.
The book: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake (Tor)
Recommended for: Diehard fans of the dark academia aesthetic.
Our reviewer says: “This melodramatic, series-opening magical school tale from Blake eschews action adventure for more cerebral, emotional beats”. Read more here.
The book: Her Body and Other Parties by Maria Machado (Graywolf)
Recommended for: Those who have been looking for a scary story but aren’t looking to stay up fearing things that go bump in the night. Maybe instead you’ll stay up late thinking about how unfairly women’s bodies are treated.
Our reviewer says: “Machado creates eerie, inventive worlds shimmering with supernatural swerves in this engrossing debut collection.” Read more here.
