[Note from Frolic: We’re so excited to welcome author Stephanie Elliot to the site today. She has some great picks for your book club! Take it away, Stephanie!]
Looking for a new book club read? With so many great books out there, it may be hard to decide what to read next, so let us do the search for you. Here are 10 new books that will be perfect for your book club! From romance, suspense, and nonfiction, to crime, comedy, and COVID-19, any of these picks will make for a great conversation at your next book club.
Truth of the Matter by Jamie Beck
Newly divorced, Anne Sullivan is looking for a fresh start when she moves back to the quaint bayside town where her grandparents still live. When she finds a vintage recipe box that holds hints about her grandmother’s past, she feels the need to learn more. But her grandmother is suffering from dementia and it’s difficult to get the answers she longs for. When secrets are revealed, will Anne be able to move ahead with her new life or will she be trapped by what happened in the past?
Ties that Tether by Jane Igharo
Azere had promised her parents that she would honor them and marry a Nigerian man. She planned to keep that promise, but when she meets Rafael Castellano, a tall and handsome white man, she’s not sure she can. Their one-night stand turns into something much more, and Azere must choose – will she stay faithful to her parents’ wishes, or will she follow her own heart and compromise everything she stands for including her own identity?
Boop and Eve’s Road Trip by Mary Helen Sheriff
Eve Prince has had enough – of school, guys, and even her mom. But she puts her own frustrations aside when her best friend goes missing. Determined to find her, Eve plans a search, and her grandmother, Boop, decides to accompany her. Besides, Boop figures a road trip is the perfect chance to share with Eve a secret she’s kept hidden for sixty years.
Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery by Catherine Gildiner
This nonfiction highlights five of therapist Catherine Gildiner’s most memorable patients and their stories of recovery, which will inspire book clubs all around and give your members plenty to talk about! She shares about a Chinese immigrant musician, a woman who was abandoned by her father at a young age, and a workaholic whose narcissistic mother woke her up every morning by saying, “Good morning, Monster.” Trauma and challenges are discussed as each client unpacks a lifetime of suffering in order to recover.
Jenna Takes the Fall by A.R. Taylor
Jenna is just twenty-four years old and starting a job in Manhattan when her boss ends up dead. When her only friend at work asks her to stand in as the boss’s secret lover, Jenna slips herself under his dead body and dials 911. Will taking the fall really impact Jenna when she’s already got nothing to lose?
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
Betty Carpenter is born in a bathtub and into violence and poverty inside her home and on the outside in rural Ohio. Her family consists of her white mother and Cherokee father, and Betty’s seven siblings. Dark secrets and a brutal history of the Appalachian foothills haunt a resilient Betty, who turns to writing to bring her solace. Despite a life of hardships, Betty is curious about the world around her and loves her sisters fiercely. This is the powerful story of a young girl and the truths that will haunt her forever.
Don’t Ever Forget by Matthew Farrell
Investigators Susan Adler and Liam Dwyer team up to solve a crime and find an old man before a killer strikes again in Don’t Ever Forget. But disturbing evidence found at the scene leads the investigators back to two cold cases and their search gets even more intense. A sick and desperate killer is on the loose, and if Susan and Liam don’t work fast, there will be more victims to add to the list.
Show Me the Way by Ashley Farley
In Show Me the Way, two people meet by chance in this romantic and suspenseful book two in the Hope Springs series. Presley has always wanted to know about her birth parents and when a move to Virginia offers that opportunity, she goes for it, never suspecting she might fall for Everett, a handsome bartender with secrets of his own.
Eat a Peach: A Memoir by David Chang
The chef and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious shares more than just recipes and stories of food in this tell-all. The youngest son in a deeply religious Korean American family from Virginia, Chang went to Japan after college to find himself. After experiencing his first manic episode, he turned to cooking and food to give him a purpose he hadn’t had before. This is his story of his failures and his ultimate success.
Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 by Jennifer Haupt
A September 2020 book list wouldn’t be complete without something to read about the current environment. Alone Together is extremely relevant and takes a look at this stressful time in all of our lives. Ninety authors (including Jean Kwok, Caroline Leavitt, Ada Limón, Dani Shapiro, Garth Stein, Luis Alberto Urrea, Steve Yarbrough, and Lidia Yuknavitch, to name but a few) share essays, poems, and more on how to stay connected. This book will serve as a historical perspective on how we all lived and loved through the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the Author:
Stephanie Elliot is the author of the young adult novel, Sad Perfect, which was inspired by her daughter’s journey with ARFID, Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. She writes about parenting, mental health issues, relationships, and of course, books. An editor and advocate for authors, she lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her family. For more info, visit www.stephanieelliot.com or www.stephanieeditorial.com.
