Best Books for Book Clubs in 2016

Dear BookBrowser,

Choosing books for book club is no easy feat. You have to pick a challenging book worthy of discussion, yet something that members will enjoy reading.

Here we present the cream of the crop for early 2016. A dozen books all rated 5-stars by our reviewers which publish in paperback between September 2015 and February 2016 (and are already available in hardcover and ebook).

I hope you find many gems for your upcoming book club meetings!

Your editor,
Davina

Update 6/27/16: Also see our Best Book Club Books for 2016 Part 2 - 10 books with stellar reviews that published/will publish in paperback between Spring and early Fall 2016.

How to be Both by Ali Smith Paperback Oct 2015. 384 pages. Published by Anchor Books How to Be Both is a wide-eyed look at the world's magic. It is breathless with both joy and sorrow, with the miracle of being alive and the grief of someone you love being taken suddenly from the living. "So always risk your skin, and never fear losing it," Francesco del Cosa's mother tells her. Indeed, Ali Smith has risked her skin with her bold reimagining of the novel. And indeed, we are the better for it. (Reviewed by Naomi Benaron) More info including reading guide

Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories by Terrence Holt Paperback Oct 2015. 288 pages. Published by W.W. Norton & Company In a way, Holt, looking back on his residency with the subsequent experiences of a full-fledged doctor, has a beneficial hindsight. It is clear that he has taken in what's important to him from his career experiences, and, after looking thoughtfully at each piece, shows them to us. By this method, Holt carefully and gracefully sculpts his words and stories to the very marrow of their meaning. Under the surface of the simple language he employs, there is enormous impact that makes us sit back and think about these stories long after. (Reviewed by Rory L. Aronsky) More info

Lila by Marilynne Robinson Paperback Oct 2015. 272 pages. Published by Picador In contrast to many novels, Lila is quiet and contemplative, deeply profound, filled with universal, ethical and philosophical questions about the nature of existence that thoughtful readers will relate to: why are we here, does life have meaning and purpose? I recommend it to thoughtful readers who like their novels deep and emotionally rich.   (Reviewed by Sharry Wright) More info including reading guide

Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera Paperback Dec 8, 2015. 256 pages. Published by St. Martin's Griffin Munaweera's writing is exquisite…She presents vividly the breathtaking beauty found in Sri Lankan nature and the heart-wrenching joys and sorrows found in human relationships. Matter-of-factly interspersed are intense, brutal, numbing depictions of the unnatural and inhuman actions of civilian warriors…I look forward to more of her work.   (Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers) More info including reading guide and online discussion

Black River by S.M. Hulse Hardcover Jan 2015. Paperback Jan 5, 2016. 240 pages. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt This carefully told story richly explores themes of loss, revenge and forgiveness, fatherhood, and faith in God through the eyes of one man, Wesley Carver. The precise, evocative prose perfectly mirrors the content of this emotionally wrought debut novel. This a gritty story, dealing with misery and pain. After all, in a prison-town, there is no escaping the fact that bad things happen. Some people commit horrendous crimes. And yet, despite the tough truths, there is also hope, and a deep appreciation for beauty. The story is much like the rugged mountains of Montana: beautiful, yet rough and immense.   (Reviewed by Sarah Tomp) More info & reading guide BookBrowse's online book club will discuss Black River in February - please do join us!

A God in Ruins: A Todd Family Novel by Kate Atkinson Hardcover May 2015. Paperback Jan 12, 2016. 400 pages. Published by Little Brown & Company Atkinson's A God in Ruins is simultaneously a story of one man's harrowing journey through war, a family's journey through the twentieth century, and every person's journey through mistakes and shortcomings toward something resembling redemption, no matter how imperfect.   (Reviewed by Norah Piehl) More info

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald Hardcover Mar 2015. Paperback March 8, 2016. 288 pages. Published by Grove Press —as she begins to emerge from the grief that has almost consumed her — is able to reflect on larger questions, such as how and why humans imbue wild creatures with human qualities and whose version of "nature" is worth preserving. Most of all, she realizes that — her genuine and hard-won affection for Mabel notwithstanding — she needs more than a raptor counterpart to find herself truly human.   (Reviewed by Norah Piehl) More info & reading guide

Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar Hardcover Dec 2014. Paperback Jan 14, 2016. 368 pages. Published by Ballantine Books Parmar details the conflicted relationship between the sisters beautifully, and with compassion. The portrait of Vanessa as a sister, wife, mother, and artist painted by the author reveals her love, kindness, patience and determination to succeed, both personally and professionally. I especially love the irony that Vanessa is given a voice that soars and sings with humor, insight, and brilliance, qualities traditionally recognized only in her sister Virginia Woolf.   (Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers) More info & reading guide

God Help the Child: A Novel by Toni Morrison Hardcover Apr 2015. Paperback Jan 19, 2016. 192 pages. Published by Knopf (hardcover) & Vintage (paperback) God Help the Child, is hard and often painful, even if there is hope that circumstances can and do get better. Inhabiting her characters' lives and voices, in a story told from multiple perspectives, Morrison examines the beauty and ugliness in all our lives, in a memorable story, skillfully told.   (Reviewed by Kate Braithwaite) More info & reading guide

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara Hardcover Mar 2015. Paperback Jan 26, 2016. 736 pages. Published by Doubleday (hardcover) & Anchor (paperback) "The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there." These memorable opening lines might belong to another brilliant novel (The Go-Between, by L. P. Hartley) but they could well form the essential scaffolding for A Little Life, a wrenching yet illuminating exploration of how child abuse can exert a suffocating grip on adulthood.   (Reviewed by Poornima Apte) More info

A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer Hardcover Feb 2015. Paperback Feb 2, 2016. 368 pages. Published by Flatiron Books This tight journalistic account is a pulse-pounding, cinematic narration of not just the couple's abduction and their eventual escape - but of the North Korea of the 70s and 80s, a surreal canvas for a truly bizarre story. Proving that life can sometimes be stranger than fiction, A Kim Jong-Il Production is a riveting ride. (Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers) More info

When the Doves Disappeared by Sofi Oksanen Hardcover Feb 2015. Paperback Feb 2, 2016. 320 pages. Published by Knopf (hardcover) & Vintage (paperback) While the novel's primary trope — of ordinary people being galvanized by war to different actions and outcomes — is nothing new, Oksanen lends the story (translated seamlessly by Lola Rogers) a more raw and visceral touch. The players' emotions are laid bare not crudely or in an overly simplistic fashion, but in ways that hit the reader with a sense of urgency that makes you take notice. (Reviewed by Poornima Apte) More info & reading guide