What Your Book Club Should Read Next: Recommendations from Kirkus

"The fictional memoir of a gay biracial British actor of rare intelligence and elegance, over a half decade of social change... The expansive architecture of this book fluidly slips you from one phase of David's life to the next, examining the ups and downs of his acting career and his love affairs—and then suddenly there's an ending you will likely find yourself reading several times so you can fully take in its subtlety, power, and emotion. Hollinghurst continues to amaze and delight, hitting both the most delicate grace notes and portentous chords perfectly."

"A murder reveals the faults in an allegedly optimized far-future society... The story transports and transforms, alchemizing a combination of mystery, romance, and science fiction into an impactful exploration of the importance of connection, the evolutionary nature of identity, and the inevitability of revolution. Affecting relationships and a sinuous, kaleidoscopic third-person narrative further define and develop the exquisitely rendered characters. Singularly stunning and stunningly singular."

"Like Barbra Streisand, this iconic woman, born in 1946, is going to need about a thousand pages to tell the story of her amazing life and career—but she has chosen to do it in two volumes. This one ends about eight years before she won her Oscar for Moonstruck in 1988, but having started her partnership with Sonny Bono at the age of 16, there is plenty to cover... The vicarious experience of wealth, glamour, and romance is rarely this much fun. A truly great celebrity memoir."

"The Red River of the North cuts a vivid track through the hardscrabble lives that anchor Erdrich’s surpassing North Dakota fiction... Erdrich has few equals in braiding landscape and sky into the marrow of her characters. Her poet’s origins are in full force as she folds in the sickening damage of fracking and pesticide-dependent agriculture, right alongside the sprouts of resistance. In this tender and capacious story, love and tragedy mingle along the river and into the world."

"An interracial couple vacations with both sets of parents... Wang is an incisive writer with sharp psychological insight who does dialogue particularly well, revealing what is not said in conversation just as much as what is said out loud. This quietly engrossing novel is subtle and powerful in its cultural critique and will surely be relatable for anyone who has in-laws. A compelling portrait of family dynamics under pressure."

"The noted traveler, journalist, and author turns to an unexpected subject: the monastic life of contemplation and meditation... A lovely complement to the monastic writings of both Thomas Merton and Patrick Leigh Fermor, Iyer’s book speaks well to the qualities of those who live both outside and firmly within the daily world and the wisdom, rough and refined, that monks have to offer, as when one advises him, 'If you do spot a mountain lion, make sure you don’t look like a deer!' Essential reading for anyone interested in the monastic tradition and those who follow it."

"Germany is reunited, but a family is starkly divided... A brilliant dissection of a fragmented nation in which a glimmer of hope relieves a somber but wholly memorable tale."

"Riveting novel of a prima ballerina’s tumultuous rise, fall, and potential return... This is another brilliant page-turner from Kim, whose first novel, Beasts of a Little Land (2021), was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Written in sumptuous prose, Kim’s novel is a feast for the senses."

"A darkly comic contemporary fairy tale about estranged sisters who happen to have been born snakes... The obvious dichotomy between their views and values, coupled with reptilian amorality, set off a series of events ranging from graphically violent and deeply tragic to romantically bittersweet and deliberately, eloquently silly."

"A young girl becomes a refugee in her own land in this fairy tale–adjacent bildungsroman... The novel is told in fairy tale cadence and peppered with sophisticated animals, sensitive objects, and the enduring magic of folklore forests; its raw power lies in the way it blends the realities of war with the equally trenchant realities of its child narrator’s perspective as she navigates her suddenly irredeemable world. A powerful novel—heartbreaking, magical, and real."