Open Books Challenge 2025: Celebrity Book Club Pick

Updated December 31, 2024
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Martyr!
Akbar, Kaveh
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR * A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR * A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and...
Leave the world behind : a novel
Alam, Rumaan
Paper Book
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award (Fiction) One of Barack Obama's Summer Favorites A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago...
The world needs more purple people
Bell, Kristen
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestseller! Actress, producer, and parent Kristen Bell (The Good Place, Veronica Mars, Frozen) and creative director and parent Benjamin Hart have a new challenge for you and your kids- become a purple person by embracing what makes YOU special while...
Firekeeper's daughter
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
A PRINTZ MEDAL WINNER! A MORRIS AWARD WINNER! AN AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD YA HONOR BOOK! A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller Soon to be adapted at Netflix...
The Ministry of Time
Bradley, Kaliane.
Paper Book
A 2024 literary highlight in the Sunday Times, BBC, Grazia, Dazed, Sunday Express, GQ, i-D, Stylist, Bookseller and Literary Friction'Outrageously brilliant' ELEANOR CATTON'Make room on your bookshelves for a new...
Data baby : my life in a psychological experiment
Breslin, Susannah
Paper Book
A Belletrist Book Pick​ for December 2023 Lab Girl meets Brain on Fire in this provocative and poignant memoir delving into a woman's formative experiences as a veritable "lab rat" in a lifelong psychological study, and her...
Long Island compromise
Brodesser-Akner, Taffy
Paper Book
'Everything I was dreaming it would be - shocking, tender, profound and delicious' EMILY MAITLIS'Both enjoyable and funny while also substantive and profound' CATHY RENTZENBRINKFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble comes Long Island...
The school for good mothers
Chan, Jessamine
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN OBAMA'S 2022 SUMMER READING PICK 'A taut and propulsive take on the cult of motherhood and the notion of what makes a good mother. Destined to be feminist classic - it kept me up at night' PANDORA SYKES...
Looking For Smoke
Cobell, K A.
Paper Book
THE REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK - A literary-thriller murder mystery, set within a Native American community for fans of Firekeeper's Daughter, Sadie and the One of Us Is Lying series by a debut own voices author Since moving to the Blackfeet Reservation...
Trust
Díaz, Hernán
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE "Buzzy and...
The Friday afternoon club : a family memoir
Dunne, Griffin
Paper Book
A charming, hilarious account of Griffin Dunne's coming of age among a family of larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan.
King : a life
Eig, Jonathan
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *SELECTED AS ONE OF  BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2023* Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights...
The mighty red
Erdrich, Louise
Paper Book
'Erdrich remains one of the world's literary giants' Boston Globe In Argus, North Dakota, a fraught wedding is taking place. Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe. Gary thinks Kismet is the answer to all of...
The wedding people : a novel
Espach, Alison
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew. It's a beautiful day in Newport,...
Twelfth knight
Follmuth, Alexene Farol
Paper Book
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Twelfth Knight, a grumpy/sunshine YA romantic comedy and coming of age story. Featuring gorgeous inside cover artwork. Viola and Jack do not get along. Popular Jack Orsino is...
When the clock broke : con men, conspiracists, and how America cracked up in the early 1990s
Ganz, John
Paper Book
"John Ganz is the most important young political writer of his generation--just the one our dark moment needs." --Rick Perlstein"Lively and kaleidoscopic." --Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker"John Ganz belongs to a species of public intellectual that is almost extinct . . . When the Clock Broke is the...
The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder
Grann, David
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on The Wager...
Afterlives
Gurnah, Abdulrazak
Paper Book
BY THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2021 "Riveting and heartbreaking ... A compelling novel, one that gathers close all those...
This other Eden : a novel
Harding, Paul
Paper Book
In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys' descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the...
Starling house
Harrow, Alix E.
Paper Book
A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICKNobody in Eden remembers when Starling House was built. But the town agrees it's best to let this ill-omened mansion - and its last lonely heir - go to hell. Stories of the house's bad luck, like good china, have been passed down the generations.Opal knows better...
Piglet
Hazell, Lottie.
Paper Book
Her life is so full, so why is she hungry? 'A high-wire exploration of control, pleasure and desire' Chloe Ashby 'A book that tears at the surface of things to reveal the vast, messy truth of a body with a beating heart' Catherine Newman --...
A thousand splendid suns
Hosseini, Khaled.
Paper Book
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, the #1 New York Times bestseller A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family,...
Klara and the sun
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is "an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a...
An American marriage : a novel
Jones, Tayari.
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION "One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit, whether it's on a...
Intimacies
Kitamura, Katie
Paper Book
**A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2021** 'An amazing book, beautiful and captivating.' Elif Shafak 'A gorgeous, destabilizing meditation' Raven Leilani From the author of A Separation, a taut and electrifying story about a...
You have a match
Lord, Emma
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A REESE'S BOOK CLUB WINTER YA PICK INDIE NEXT PICK A BEST YA PICK OF 2021 BY POPSUGAR * PARADE A new love, a secret sister, and a summer she'll never forget. From the beloved author...
Blue sisters
Mellors, Coco.
Paper Book
'IT MOVED ME DEEPLY' LIV LITTLE 'DEEPLY POIGNANT' HARPERS BAZAAR 'GORGEOUS' RAVEN LEILANI THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN 'It will make you laugh, cry deeply, and want to call your siblings'...
Chip war : the fight for the world's most critical technology
Miller, Chris
Paper Book
***Winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award*** 'Pulse quickening. A nonfiction thriller - equal parts The China Syndrome and Mission Impossible' New York Times  An epic...
Nightcrawling
Mottley, Leila
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK * A dazzling novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system. This debut of a blazingly original voice "bursts at the seams of every page and...
The marriage portrait
O'Farrell, Maggie
Paper Book
WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici...
Natalie Portman's fables
Portman, Natalie
Paper Book
In The Tortoise and the Hare, the slick and confident Hare meets the patient and focused Tortoise. When Hare challenges Tortoise to a race, Hare believes (as do the other animals) that shy Tortoise doesn't stand a chance. But as Hare learns, bragging about one's abilities doesn't make one a winner....
Jack
Robinson, Marilynne
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller Named a Best Book of 2020 by the Australian Book Review, AV Club, Books-a-Million, Electric Literature, Esquire, the Financial Times, Good Housekeeping (UK), The Guardian, Kirkus...
They dream in gold
Sennaar, Mai
Paper Book
An electrifying Afrobeat love story about a young Senegalese jazz musician and an aspiring African American producer thrown together by chance, and destined to make music that will change the world. 'Extraordinary' - The New York Times 'A mouth-watering delight...
Mother-daughter murder night : a novel
Simon, Nina
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK  Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door. "I just loved how intriguing the mystery is but also the dynamics between a grandmother, a mother, and a teenage daughter." --Reese Witherspoon Think: Gilmore...
How to say Babylon : a memoir
Sinclair, Safiya
Paper Book
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner A New York Times Notable Book A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! A Best Book of 2023 by the New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, Shelf Awareness<...
Romantic comedy a novel
Sittenfeld, Curtis
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A comedy writer thinks she's sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions--a "smart, sophisticated, and fun" (Oprah Daily) novel from the author of Eligible, Rodham, and Prep....
Peanut goes for the gold
Van Ness, Jonathan
Paper Book
Jonathan Van Ness, the star of Netflix's hit show Queer Eye, brings his signature humor and positivity to his empowering first picture book, inspiring readers of all ages to love being exactly who they are. Peanut Goes for the Gold is a charming, funny, and heartfelt picture...
The Covenant of Water
Verghese, Abraham.
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in...
Let us descend a novel
Ward, Jesmyn
Paper Book
From Jesmyn Ward--the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow--comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War. "'Let...
Project Hail Mary : a novel
Weir, Andy
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING RYAN GOSLING AND DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER LORD AND PHIL MILLER From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this "propulsive" (Entertainment...
Crying in H Mart : a memoir
Zauner, Michelle
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American--"in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself" (NPR). * CELEBRATING...

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