"I guess I could explain the plot to you: An actress meets up with a man who is convinced she's his mother. It turns out she's not. I think? Maybe she is? Or, maybe she's not but actually kind of is? What is a mother? The most impressive thing about this Booker Prize finalist is how Katie Kitamura plays with the narrative and toys with the reader without being overly clever about it all. She's stingy with details and answers, but generous with intrigue and depth."
"Where else would a novel called Buckeye be set but in Ohio? Its title, however, is the only expected thing about this moving historical narrative, which follows the lives of two intertwined couples in the fictional small town of Bonhomie from pre-World War II to the close of the 20th century. Patrick Ryan, whose previous books include the standout 2016 short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts, aims to write an American epic and he has the chops to do so, even channeling Herman Wouk to take readers into the thick of naval battles in the Pacific."
"Cursed Daughters, by bestselling author Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Sister, the Serial Killer), is another genre-bending novel that offers family insights, multigenerational curses and surprises. Cursed Daughters follows three women of the Falodun family - Monife, Ebun and Eniiyi - who are bound by a long-standing curse that"
Twenty recommended 2025 titles are presented as strong choices for book-club conversations, with options suitable for fast-reading groups and deeper, slower reads. Selections include an ambiguous psychological novel about an actress and a man convinced she is his mother, a sweeping historical narrative set in Ohio that follows intertwined couples across much of the 20th century, and a genre-bending story about three women bound by a multigenerational curse. The picks span literary experimentation, family drama, historical scope, and suspense, each offering thematic richness and discussion-ready tension.
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