Book Club in a Bag

If your group likes mysteries with a strong sense of place, read Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker for a mystery set in rural France, and enjoy a story filled with investigations, provincial coziness, and richly detailed meals.

Bruno is a former soldier who has embraced the pleasures and slow rhythms of country life - living in his restored shepherd’s cottage, patronizing the weekly market, and ignoring the European Union bureaucrats from Brussels. But then the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army changes everything and spurs this mystery series.

If your group likes lyrical memoirs about family and relationships, read Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. The Japanese Breakfast indie pop star presents her reflections on growing up Korean-American, becoming a professional musician, and caring for her terminally ill mother.

In her memoir, Zauner reflects on growing up as one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon. She shares her struggles with her mother’s particularly high expectations of her, her painful adolescence, and treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

If your group likes skillfully plotted thrillers with diverse characters who are complex yet likeable, try Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.

If your group likes reflective and lyrical science-fiction that focuses on characters, try Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Waiting to be chosen by a customer, an Artificial Friend programmed with high perception observes the activities of shoppers while exploring fundamental questions about what it means to love.

Ishiguro takes readers to a vaguely futuristic, technologically advanced setting for a surprising parable about love, humanity, and science. Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF) who is eventually bought by teenager Josie and learns about humans through her interactions with Josie’s family and childhood friend. When Josie becomes seriously ill, Klara pleads with the sun to make her well again and confronts the boundary between service and sacrifice.

If your group likes memoirs and autobiographies that are heartwarming and accessible, with a varied cast of characters, try London’s Number One Dog-Walking Agency by Kate MacDougall.

With sharp wit, delightful observations, and plenty of canine affection, the author, a former Sotheby’s employee turned dog walker, reveals her unique and unconventional coming-of-age story, as told through the dogs she walks, and the London homes and neighborhoods they inhabit.

If your group relishes locked room mysteries that are intricately plotted with a likable neurodivergent main character, try The Maid by Nita Prose.

When she discovers the dead body of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black in his suite, hotel maid Molly Gray finds her orderly life upended as she becomes the prime suspect in the case and is caught in a web of deception that she must try to unravel.

If your group likes engaging historical mysteries, try Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Winspear writes the story of Maisie Dobbs who becomes the pupil of a wise family friend. In 1929, following an apprenticeship, Maisie hangs out her shingle: M. Dobbs, Trade and Personal Investigations.

In this delightful mix of mystery, war story, and romance set in WWI–era England, humble housemaid Maisie Dobbs climbs convincingly up Britain’s social ladder, becoming a university student, a wartime nurse, and ultimately a private investigator.

If your group is looking for a funny, tender story of finding one’s true self, try The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain.

The forced retirement of a shy, closeted postman in northern England creates the opportunity for him to track down his lost love, embrace his true self, connect with his community, and finally experience his life’s great adventure.

If your group devours small-town police procedurals, with complex, character-driven, and richly detailed stories, try Still Life by Louise Penny.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Canada's Surete du Quebec is called to Three Pines, a tiny hamlet south of Montreal, just north of the U.S. border, to investigate the suspicious hunting "accident" that claimed the life of Jane Neal, a local fixture in the village.

If your group enjoys thought-provoking, issue-oriented fiction, try This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. This heartwarming and moving story will leave readers with much to discuss.

A family reshapes their ideas about family, love, and loyalty when their youngest son Claude reveals increasingly determined preferences for girls' clothing and accessories and refuses to stay silent.