I have been lucky enough to be part of an incredible book club for coming up on 2 years now. One of my beautiful friends, Lauren, brought up the idea one day and I loved it! We started brainstorming on how we wanted to set it up, who we could invite, and which books we wanted to start with. It didn’t take long until we had our group text going and set up a monthly schedule to read and meet together. We’ve been through so many great, and some not so engaging, books that I wanted to share what some of my favorites have been! These are in no particular order, mostly because I enjoyed them all for different reasons.

As a side note, if you enjoy reading and are not part of a book club I highly encourage it! It is not only a great motivator to slow down and take the time to read, but it’s also a lot of fun to have scheduled time with your girlfriends.

The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos

This book is different and interesting because it follows the story of a young Jewish girl in 1940’s Romania. At the time, Romania had aligned with the Nazi’s. So being Jewish in and of itself was extremely dangerous. She is found on the steps of an apartment building, placed in an orphanage, and goes on to be adopted by a wealthy family. As the story reads on and she grows up, parts of her past start to surface. There’s also a love story involving a boy named Victor. Victor grows up to be an important part of the Communist regime, and they go on to cross paths again as adults. An affair begins, and after some twists and turns he ends up trying to help her get out of the country entirely, potentially leading to their split.

We all really enjoyed this book as a change of pace from the thrillers we had been reading. I would highly suggest it as a great group read!

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

This is one of a run of thrillers we ready simultaneously. But we all really enjoyed this one for the ending! It’s not often that none of us could guess the end, but this one got us all. The story is from a woman’s perspective who is essentially in a polyamorous marriage who gets to spend particular days of the week with her husband. She knows that she is one of a few wives, but does not know anything about the other women besides that they exist. You follow this woman, named Thursday, through a complicated and thrilling ride of trying to track down one of the other, newly pregnant, wives. There are lots of exciting surprises, but the ending is definitely the craziest and worth the read!

The Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

This is one of the first few books we read as a group, and I would describe it as a feel good type of read. This story follows a modern Punjabi woman struggling with her historic culture and trying to live in the current world. She prefers her non traditional life, but ends up taking a job teaching a creative writing course for a group of proper Sikh widows. The story follows the main character, Nikki, through helping bring these very traditional Punjabi women into their own. The twist is they do so by writing stories of fantasies and memories they’ve kept hidden for so long. There is a little bit of thrill and turmoil involved, but overall this book is one of empowerment in different generations coming together.

This is a really fun read that will start off a new book club on the right foot. It also just so happens to be a part of Reese’s Book Club. This one is a great vacation read for the beach or plane ride!

A Piece of Cake

This is actually the only autobiography that we’ve read in our book club up to this point. It is the true story of a woman, Cupcake Brown. Honestly, to say it is complicated and tragic is an understatement. You follow Cupcake through her entire childhood and into her adult life. After her mother passes away tragically as a child, you walk with her through her foster care experiences, on into growing up and joining a gang. She continues on into a tailwind of alcohol and drug addictions. Towards the end you see Cupcake come to terms with needing to clean up her life and move on to bigger and better things. There are a lot of lows, as well as highs throughout this story. You will most certainly walk away with a huge respect for Cupcake and everything she overcame.

This book is not what you want to read as a feel good option. There are times where I thought, “gosh what else could happen?” But, is an incredible insight to the life of a person who was at every disadvantage and still somehow turned her life into a positive example.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Coming back around to the feel good category, this book was another break we took from a string of thrillers. The book is very enjoyable as it follows a group of women, and men, working in theater in New York City in the 1940’s. This is a story of how they each loved, lost, and enjoyed themselves. The main character is a white collared girl named Vivan, who gets kicked out of college and goes to live with her eccentric Aunt Peg out in Manhattan who owns a theater. There are a multitude of characters throughout the story, all with their own importance. There’s a reason to love, and hate, each of them. But, overall, the book is a fun story of how they all grew up and grew out of that crazy, exciting theater and moved on into the real world.

This story was a hit for us because of it’s fun loving and happy tone. Thrillers and murder mysteries are always intriguing, but sometimes you need something you enjoy just because it’s a fun time! Again, I would say this book would be awesome as a vacation read.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

You might recognize this author for her other big time hits, Daisy Jones and the Six and Malibu Rising. We also read Daisy Jones, loved it, but this was our most recent and most loved read to date! The fictional story follows two main characters, Evelyn Hugo and Monique Grant. Monique is a young professional in the journalism field trying to make her mark. Evelyn Hugo, on the other hand, is one of the most famous movie stars of the time who is known for her beauty, but infamous for her seven husbands. For whatever reason, Evelyn has decided she wants no-name Monique to be the author of her secret biography project. As you follow the two through Evelyn’s historic love life you almost can’t believe what you’re reading (or hearing)!

I listened to this book on a 16 hour road trip, and literally felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. My book club all agrees this was our favorite book so far. There is drama, love stories, affairs, money, and secrets. What more could you want?!

I hope this list was inspiring for someone to either start their own book club, or bring one of these options as your next read to your current book club! Leave your favorite most recent reads down below in the comments!