Our Favorite GMA Book Club Picks

How far would you go for the perfect house? Washington, D.C., resident Margo Miyake has goals for her life and marriage, including buying the ideal home. When she gets a tip that the house of her dreams is about to be listed, she’s determined to put in the winning offer. It’s a dog-eat-dog housing market, and Margo is willing to do whatever it takes to get a leg up — especially after having already lost multiple bidding wars. Yet as her pursuit intensifies, Margo’s methods grow increasingly dangerous. She’s come this far, and she’s not giving up until that SOLD sign goes into the ground. Stalking is only a misdemeanor if you get caught, right? A darkly funny page-turner that doubles as a searing commentary on our current housing crisis, Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino is a razor-sharp thriller.

Lucy’s relationship with her small Texas hometown is, to say the least, complicated. Years ago, she was found wandering its streets, spattered in her best friend Savvy’s blood. While Lucy maintains that she has no memory of what happened that terrible night, everyone at home is convinced she’s a killer. So Lucy packed up and left, swearing she’d never come back. That is, until a highly popular true crime podcast announced it would reopen the baffling cold case of Savvy’s death. Now Lucy is determined to head back home and uncover what happened that terrible night — even if the truth is that she killed her best friend. A wickedly funny murder mystery, Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie is sure to keep you riveted. 

A captivating space drama set against a 1980s backdrop, Atmosphere by the celebrated Taylor Jenkins Reid is passionately told and full of life. Physics professor Joan Goodwin has always dreamed of going to space, and she’s about to get her shot. Selected as one of NASA’s first women scientists to join the program in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, along with a cohort of out-of-this-world candidates. As they train together and prepare to venture into the cosmos, the group begins building new relationships, and Joan finds herself reconsidering her perspective on her place in the world. Then, in 1984, their space mission finally launches, and everything changes. It takes years to prepare for a space mission — but only a moment for disaster to strike.

A multigenerational family saga that confronts America’s long history with racism while also exploring themes of legacy, choice, and identity and belonging, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is “beautifully written, thought-provoking, and immersive” (Associated Press). Identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella Vignes grew up together in the 1940s in a small Black community in the Deep South, but they followed separate paths after running away at 16. Years later, Desiree returns to the hometown they left behind to raise her Black daughter, while Stella passes for white in an affluent California neighborhood, keeping her past and racial identity a secret from her white husband. Despite their long separation, the twins’ lives converge once again when their daughters meet by chance. 

A bestselling crime drama that’s as heartfelt as it is propulsive, Long Bright River by acclaimed author Liz Moore delivers a riveting blend of sisterhood and suspense. Sisters Kacey and Mickey were inseparable as children, but they grew apart after Kacey fell into addiction, landing her on the same streets that Mickey patrols on her beat as a police officer. Then Kacey vanishes, and bodies start turning up in Mickey’s district. Mickey is now determined to uncover the murderer and find her sister before Kacey becomes another statistic. 

Paris, 1664: Alouette Voland, the daughter of a master dyer at Gobelin Tapestry Works, yearns for artistic freedom but finds herself locked away in a cruel women’s asylum when she tries to free her father from his own unjust imprisonment. Centuries later, in 1939, with WWII underway, Alouette’s story intertwines with that of psychiatry resident Kristof Larson, who becomes the only chance of survival for his Jewish neighbors when the Nazis flood Paris. A moving historical fiction narrative suffused with courage and resilience, Paula McClain’s Skylark is an evocative tale that paints a fascinating portrait of Paris.

A New York Times bestseller, Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is at once a twisty mystery and a thought-provoking family drama. A biracial Korean American family’s life is flipped upside down after the father and son step out for a stroll to the neighborhood park but only the son returns. Young Eugene, born with a genetic syndrome that severely impairs his speech, cannot explain what happened to his dad — or why he’s covered in blood. As the family races to find their missing father, it becomes clear that their closely guarded family secrets may be at the root of his disappearance. “One of the smartest, most multilayered mysteries of the year. . . . Deftly crafted and truly riveting” (The Boston Globe).

At the heart of Bryan Washington’s wry and romantic bestseller Memorial are Mike, a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant, and Benson, a Black day-care teacher. They’ve been together for a few years and share a home in Houston. Their relationship, though, has lost its shine. It’s a perfectly fine relationship, and yet, they’re not entirely sure why they’re still together. But their routine gets a shake-up when Mike travels to Osaka to see his estranged and now dying father, leaving his sharp-tongued mother, Mitsuko, behind as Benson’s temporary roommate. The dramatic change will test Mike and Benson in unexpected ways — but they might just find what they need on the other side. 

From Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Klara and the Sun is a fascinating book about artificial intelligence that centers on Klara, an Artificial Friend who waits to be chosen. From her spot in the store, Klara observes humanity — the customers who come in to shop and the people who pass by the window — and ponders the way they move through the world from her unique, inhuman perspective. As NPR notes, Klara and the Sun revisits some of Ishiguro’s most prevalent and recurrent themes: “What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have a self? And how much of that self can and should we give to others?”

When her first child, Violet, is born, Blythe Connor is determined to break the cycle and be the loving, attentive mother she wishes she had. But Violet is different. Something isn’t right. At least, that’s what Blythe believes. Blythe’s husband, Fox, dismisses her worries — she’s just exhausted, everything’s fine — as Blythe’s own grip on reality begins to slip. When their son, Sam, is born, Blythe’s anxieties melt away; she’s filled with the bliss and connection she had longed for in motherhood. Even Violet appears to adore her baby brother. That is, until a shocking event shatters the family joy, compelling Blythe to reckon with the truth. An immersive and intense domestic drama, The Push by Ashley Audrain dives into the experience of motherhood, with all of its joys as well as its darkest moments.