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I’ve been writing about book clubs for BR for years and only just thought to mine the treasure trove that is our collection of writers for tea on what different book clubs are reading. It is, as you might have guessed, an interesting thing to see. Many books are released every year, so it’s no surprise that book clubs are going to choose different titles from each other, though I did notice something looking at these book clubs compared to the more advertised ones I usually cover.
The main difference is the publication dates. The book club picks shared below by some of our writers are all backlist titles, which is very different from the mostly new picks that most online/celebrity book clubs decide on. Reaching back can be a nice change of pace from what can seem like a frontlist obsession.
If you’re curious to see what we’ve been reading in our book clubs, the titles below have everything from romance to dystopian realities and epic fantasy.
Even if the Sky is Falling, edited by Taj McCoy
This was the choice for the first When In Romance Book Club book of the year. Jess said it’s “an interesting romance format (anthology). The ones where they already knew each other make the best stories.”
Read by Book Riot Editor Danika Ellis
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
This was one of thee books of 2023…and 2024 if we’re being honest. And it’s actually still that girl in 2025. It’s also still pretty popular among book clubs.
This National Book Award finalist comes from the author of Friday Black, and tells the bloody story of Loretta Thurwar and “Hurricane Staxxx,” two women who are friends, lovers, and popular Chain-Gang All-Stars. As All-Stars, they’ve fought against other prisoners in lethal battles to win shortened sentences through a highly contested program that’s run through the controversial Criminal Action Penal Entertainment organization in a (not so) alternative United States. Loretta nears the day she’ll finally be free, but the burden of all she’s done — and still has to do — weighs heavily on her in this damning look at America’s prison industrial complex and culture of violence.
Read by Me
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
This multi award-winning nonfiction account Black American history details the rich history of Black transpeople, especially how they have been cut out of the narrative of trans and queer history. By using the narratives of enslaved people seeking freedom, Afro-modernist literature, journalism, and other sources, Snorton shows just how much race has determined how topics like queerness and gender have been represented.
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