12 books that are perfect for book clubs

Explore how communities under threat can pull together when old rules and codes are being rewritten in James McBride's colourful, heartbreaking and unforgettable 1969-set story. Your book group will enjoy poring over the memorable characters inhabiting a housing project in south Brooklyn where the old guard, church, drug dealers and the mob intersect at a time of great societal change.

Fifteen years after the Second World War, Isabel lives alone in her late mother’s home in the Dutch countryside. One scorching summer, her safe, solitary existence is shaken by the arrival of her brother’s new girlfriend Eva, whom Isa initially despises. As resentment slowly thaws into tenderness, uncomfortable revelations threaten to tear apart the very fabric of their lives. An exhilarating tale of repressed desire, guilt and reparations in the aftermath of the Holocaust, with so many themes to dig into.

Foster is a short but powerful book – it won't be difficult for group members to read in advance of a meeting, but with so much to explore it's sure to lead to interesting discussions. Centred on a young girl sent to live with relatives in rural Ireland, it takes in family, belonging, and what it means to be loved. Keegan's writing leaves many things unsaid, encouraging book group members to share their thoughts about characters' feelings and motivations, as well as their perspectives on the ambiguous ending.

This is crime fiction as you’ve never seen it before. Rita’s body is found in the bell tower of her local church prompting a simple conclusion from the local police. Her unwell mother is the only person determined to seek out the truth. Elena Knows is a mysterious unravelling of secrets involving a painstaking journey into the city, a heartbreaking illumination into life with Parkinsons and a spectacular confrontation. A captivating mother/daughter tale traversing grief, disability and womanhood.

A sleeper hit made famous by TikTok, this bestselling novel from the now box office hit Backman tells of the fallout from a terrible crime in a small town in a large Swedish forest and the impact on its lauded ice hockey team. Reading like an HBO boxset, this story is an examination of who has the courage to do the right thing in the face of peer pressure.

In Antebellum, Louisiana, a young girl escapes slavery and falls into the company of two mysterious women. Spanning 200 years, Gilda traverses brothels, Black women’s suffrage groups, hair salons and jazz clubs seeking comfort and freedom from society’s greed, violence and exploitation. Tackling themes of race, community and love, this radical vampire story is an instant queer classic.

When Leah comes home late from a secretive deep-sea mission, her wife Miri quickly realises she has returned profoundly changed. The novel weaves together a story of their lives, love and losses before, during and after the expedition. The less you know about the story beforehand, the better to be swept along by the mystery. Try the audiobook with its dual narrators for an especially immersive reading.

This epic small town soap opera follows each member of an Irish nuclear family as they each navigate their own personal crises. With his once-thriving car dealership on the brink of collapse, dad Dickie is more preoccupied with preparing for climate collapse. His wife Imelda is increasingly dissatisfied by her middle-class life, while the ghosts of her past creep ever closer. Their children Cass and PJ, battling adolescent dramas of their own, cannot escape the sense of impending disaster that looms over their family. Funny, complex and dripping in pathos, this book is ripe for discussion and debate in a book group.

There There immerses us in a culture many of us will be unfamiliar with, following a group of Native American characters in contemporary Oakland, California. Each character has a different background and relationship to identity and culture, allowing book groups to explore the experience of the community from a variety of perspectives and learn more about Native American history. With the characters all moving towards a fateful final meeting at the Big Oakland Powwow, it's also a page-turner that will be sure to keep your book group engaged.

As a favour to a friend, a local government employee is roped into organising a funeral for a young Syrian refugee. Over the next few days, we see a full spectrum of the absurdities of racism, austerity, bureaucracy, cultural customs and migrant experiences in modern Britain. Told with wit and razor-sharp insight On the Greenwich Line is a perfect depiction of the multi-faceted otherness faced by migrants in the UK’s inhumane system.

What happens to love when AI becomes more human than human? Explore this question and debate the incredible subtleties of plot and meaning in this unforgettable novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Never Let Me Go.

A collection of short stories can be the perfect introduction to starting a book club or refreshing the format of an established group. Our latest Scotland’s Stories book, Friendship, is a free book bringing together true short stories and poems written by people all over Scotland. It offers a concise way to explore a range of topics and dip into different perspectives, each centred around the theme of friendship. Visit the Scottish Book Trust Shop to order free copies of the book.