Book Club 2025 - Potential Picks
LGBTQIA+
Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus (245 pp) (4.36/5)
Valerie Danners, unaware she's in a cult, stumbles upon a queer book that shakes her conservative Christian homeschooling world. When she meets the cutest girl at Bible class, everything she believed comes into question.
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White (370 pp) (4.48/5)
Trans autistic teen Miles sneaks off to a party after coming out, carrying photos that could expose a corrupt sheriff. His evidence may finally turn the tide of a bloody West Virginian feud.
Native American
*The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America by Carrie Schuettpelz (259 pp) (4.38/5)
Explores Native American identity, tribal enrollment, and how race and politics shape these discussions. The number of self-identified Natives in the U.S. has surged in recent decades.
Alcohol and Drugs/Mental Health Definitely Better Now by Ava Robinson (352 pp) (3.91/5)
Emma, sober for a year, is the last person anyone should worry about. This witty and heartbreaking novel explores the challenges of sobriety and family dynamics.
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker (377 pp) (4.16/5)
The Galvin family, plagued by schizophrenia, became a key case study for the National Institute of Mental Health.
Religion
American Rapture by C.J. Leede (384 pp) (4.11/5)
A virus sweeps America, making the infected feral with lust. As the world burns, Sophie, a devout Catholic, journeys across the Midwest to find her family.
Disability
The Year of the Buttered Cat by Susan Haas and Lexi Haas (320 pp) (4.39/5)
Born with an out-of-control body and no voice, Lexi, now a superhero-obsessed teen, prepares for a high-risk brain surgery that could give her a voice or even the ability to walk. As the countdown begins, she feels an urgent need to share her past.
Living in an Immigrant Family
Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (288 pp) (4.22/5)
Four generations of Filipino American men (1930–2020) navigate identity, masculinity, and complex father-son relationships.
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. (284 pp) (4.48/5)
A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant finds solace and strength in the Quran while navigating her coming-of-age journey.
The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu (320 pp) (3.94/5)
Susan’s family fled Vietnam for California, where her mother built two successful nail salons. After her mother’s tragic death from a botched surgery, Susan uncovers the dark truth about the surgeon. (Also: Body Image)
“Medicine”
Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by James R. Doty (288 pp) (4.22/5)
Growing up in poverty with an alcoholic father and a paralyzed mother, Jim Doty's life changed when he met Ruth, a woman who taught him mind exercises that led to his medical success.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (342 pp) (4.14/5)
ason wakes up strapped to a gurney in a world where his wife isn’t his wife, and his son was never born. To return home, he must confront the darkest parts of himself.
*The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Child’s Life by Rachel Clarke (256 pp) (4.58/5)
Dr. Clarke intertwines the history of heart transplants with the story of two children—one desperately needing a new heart.
Racism
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely (316 pp) (4.30/5)
Rashad, Black, and Quinn, white, must confront the realities of racism and police brutality. To change the future, they must risk everything.
Your Plantation Prom is Not Okay by Kelly McWilliams (320 pp) (4.18/5)
Harriet and her father run a museum on a former plantation, but new owners plan to turn the site into a wedding venue—where her school intends to hold prom.
Body Image
Hollow: A Memoir of My Body in the Marines by Bailey Brett Williams (320 pp) (4.12/5)
Joining the Marines to escape her strict Mormon upbringing, Bailey learns its unspoken rules for women. To prove her discipline, she turns to an eating disorder.
Books in My Reading Queue (aka Books I Haven’t Read Yet)
(Medical/Mental Health) The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy by Andrea Dunlop and Mike Weber (304 pp) (4.17/5) (02-02-2025)
A mother’s child faces life-threatening illnesses—but what if she’s the cause? This book explores the disturbing reality of Munchausen by proxy.
(Medical) Shattered: A Memoir by Hanif Kureishi (336 pp) (4.20/5) (02-04-2025)
After a fall left him paralyzed, Kureishi spent a year navigating Rome’s medical system. This memoir chronicles his struggle for independence and return home.
(Mental Health) Bibliophobia: A Memoir by Sarah Chihaya (240 pp) (4.29/5) (02-04-2025)
Books can seduce, provoke, and devastate. Chihaya examines how literature shaped her identity, her battles with depression, and the painful truths books reveal.
(Mental Health/Trauma) The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker (288 pp) (4.16/5) (02-25-2025)
After giving birth, Jane experiences amnesia, premonitions, and hallucinations. Are these symptoms of new motherhood or buried trauma from her past?
(Iraqi Women) Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (352 pp) (4.01/5) (02-25-2025)
Dr. Nadia Amin is tasked with leading a deradicalization program for ISIS-affiliated women in Iraqi refugee camps, but ethical and political challenges threaten to derail her mission.
(Chinese culture) Homeseeking by Karissa Chen (512 pp) (4.31/5)
Spanning sixty years, this novel follows a couple torn apart by world events, exploring the Chinese diaspora and the meaning of home.
*These books are non-fiction accounts of personal/cultural situations. My disclaimer is that each of them reads less like a novel, in that, there are sections of technical information that may or may not be of interest to you.