Indies Recommend The Best Book Club Picks For Fall 2023

Browse our selection of the best books to read with your book club as recommended by independent publishers. These books are sure to engage, entertain, and spark discussion at your meetings!

Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Issac Fitzgerald

 

Isaac Fitzgerald has lived many lives. He's been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, a prince of New England. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents' lives—or so he was told. In this New York Times-bestselling, award-winning memoir-in-essays, Fitzgerald, with warmth and humor, recounts his ongoing search for forgiveness, a more far-reaching vision of masculinity, and a more expansive definition of family and self. Gritty and clear-eyed, loud-hearted and beautiful, Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a rollicking book that might also be a lifeline.

 

Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

 

From the critically acclaimed author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Last Housewife comes a gothic Southern thriller about a killer haunting a small Louisiana town, where two outcasts—the preacher's daughter and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks—hold the key to uncovering the truth. A dark and powerful novel that is an examination of the ways we’ve come to expect love, religion, and stories to save us, the lengths we have to go to in order to take back power, and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world.

 

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The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

 

From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a “howling love letter to the world” (Ann Patchett): a luminous book that traces the passing of seasons, personal and natural.

 

 

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The Wrong Calamity by Marsha Jacobson

 

An intimate and compellingly honest memoir of a woman coming into her own after profound pain and grief. "Jacobson's powerful story of calamity, discovery, and change will serve as an inspiration (and road map) to other women facing similar conundrums...Libraries and readers seeking stories of not just escape from abuse, but considerations of the financial, psychological, and social influences on their evolution, will find The Wrong Calamity enlightening, revealing, and hard to put down." —Midwest Book Review "Riveting....An absorbing and rewarding read." —BookLife
 

 

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Daughter of Ashes by Ilaria Tuti

 

Set in the idyllic mountains of Northern Italy, the latest volume in Ilaria Tuti's gripping series is a tour de force, a poignant and irresistible story about the relentless pull of the past on the present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Ride of My Life by Justin "Mooch" Deloretto

 

Justin joined a 1%-er motorcycle club in pursuit of age-old values of brotherhood, honor and respect. He never lost those values, but he watched them come under fire in America as clearly as in club life, where gaining personal power became the highest objective, rather than honoring the code that once bound his community. Pursuing a new career in social work, Justin carried the old values to a new generation of youth caught in the riptide of a world increasingly defined by personal gain over communal well-being. "If you are a lover of motorcycles or if you enjoyed Mayans M.C and Sons of Anarchy, you will really enjoy this memoir.⁣" —Reading_with_Nicole

 

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Tatae's Promise by Moises J. Goldman and Sherry Maysonave

 

Hinda was eighteen years old when an axe crashed through the front door of her home in Poland. Nazi soldiers swarmed inside and herded the family into an army truck and hauled them away for one lone reason: They were Jews. World War II and the Hitler-induced Holocaust was in full swing. Hinda's Tatae (Yiddish for the word Father) wrote her a note moments before being murdered by the Gestapo. In that note was a blessing and a promise: ‘You will live; you will tell.’ Tatae's Promise is based on the true and never-before-told story of Hinda Mondlak's successful escape from Auschwitz. "A memorable story of resilience and enduring love." -Betty Sue Flowers, Professor Emeritus UT-Austin, former Director, Johnson Presidential Library, and editor, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth “As a student of the Holocaust and one who interviewed Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah History Foundation, I thought I had heard it all. Now, I know I was wrong. This is not your ordinary Holocaust story.” - Mike O’Krent, Founder and CEO, LifeStories Alive
 

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Bit Flip by Mike Trigg

 

Bit Flip is a fast-paced corporate thriller that delivers an authentic insider’s critique of Silicon Valley and the dark underbelly of the tech industry. When startup executive Sam Hughes discovers possible fraud within his company, he becomes entangled in a web of complicity. As he begins to unravel the insidious schemes of the founder and venture investors, Sam risks losing everything to achieve his dreams of entrepreneurial success.

 

 

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Bessie by Linda Kass

 

Drawing on biographical and historical sources, BESSIE (She Writes Press), a novel by bookseller Linda Kass reimagines the early life of Bess Myerson—the musically talented daughter of poor Russian Jewish immigrants from the Bronx—who, in the bigoted milieu of 1945, remarkably rises to become Miss America, the first—and to date only—Jewish woman to do so. This tender fictional portrait unveils a bold young woman living at a precarious moment in our cultural history as she searches for love and acceptance, eager to make her mark on the world. Praised by Hadassah Magazine and Historical Novels Review, and featured in MS. Magazine, this is the perfect book club read. Sponsored by Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity

 

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Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace by Tracey D. Buchanan

 

Another great book club read is Tracey D. Buchanan’s debut novel, TOWARD THE CORNER OF MERCY AND PEACE (Regal House Publishing). In 1952 Paducah, Kentucky, Mrs. Minerva Place would prefer everyone mind his own business, follow the rules, and if dead, stay dead. Nosy neighbors and irritating church members are bad enough but when residents of the local cemetery start showing up, the quirky widow wonders if she’s going crazy. Now, a new boy in the neighborhood seems intent on disrupting her life. Minerva holds him and his father at arm’s length. But just when Minerva starts to let her guard down, a tragic accident shatters her emerging reconnection with life. Now more than her sanity is at stake. With the help of the living and the dead, Minerva discovers the power of forgiveness and why it’s worth it to let others into your life, even when it hurts. Publishers Weekly called it “…one to savor” and this charming debut is already in a second printing. Sponsored by Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity

 

These book picks are a combination of titles chosen by the Bookclubs editorial staff, and the top titles recommended for book clubs by our publishing sponsors, including Bloomsbury Publishing, Crooked Lane/ Alcove Press, DartFrog Books, and Sourcebooks. If you buy books through links on this page, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Looking for more book club book recs? Check out our lists of the most popular book club books

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