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Best Books for Your Senior Book Club in 2025

A group of adults come together in a living room for a book club meeting

The written word has the power to take us to new and exciting places, help us understand complex ideas and introduce us to people, places and lifestyles we’d never be able to experience otherwise. For the chance to engage in riveting discussions and hear the perspectives of others, many people are joining local book clubs. If you’re interested in taking your mind on a journey, here are some of our 2025 book club recommendations: 

  • “How to Sleep at Night” by Elizabeth Harris: In this domestic drama about love, marriage and ambition, one couple doesn’t let being on different ends of the political spectrum get in the way of their love, until one of them decides to run for Congress. Across town, a free-spirited artist turned suburban mom, is facing a similar conundrum in her marriage as she begins to reconsider her desires. 
  • “Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People” by Imani Perry: “Black in Blues” is an-depth exploration of blue and its deep roots in Black contemporary culture. Beginning with the production of indigo dye in the 16th century, a product that was often traded for an enslaved person, National Book Award winner Imani Perry traces the history of the color and how its many shades (cobalt, periwinkle, navy) became intertwined with Black identity. 
  • “Stone Yard Devotional” by Charlotte Wood: “Stone Yard Devotional” follows a woman who leaves her life in Sydney behind to check into a retreat house at a convent in the plains of rural Australia. But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past. 
  • “Tilda Is Visible” by Jane Tara: When Tilda Finch is diagnosed with invisibility, she’s not overly surprised – she’s felt invisible for years. She has a good life and a successful business selling inspirational quotes on merchandise. But Tilda’s past has taken a toll and she’s lost sight of herself. Now, with the possibility of completely disappearing, she must face the trauma of her past and rewrite the way she perceives the world and herself. 
  • “The Pretender” by Jo Harkin: This book is inspired by a footnote to history – the true story of the little-known Lambert Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII. “The Pretender” is historical fiction featuring a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from fifteenth-century England.  
  • “Maine Characters” by Hannah Orenstein: Follow two half sisters who meet for the first time at their father’s cabin in Maine after his unexpected death. When Vivian arrives at the lake to spread her father’s ashes and sell his cabin, she’s shocked to find Lucy there, awaiting his return. In an ideal world, they’d help each other through their grief. Instead, forced to spend the summer together, they fight through a storm of suspicion and hostility to untangle the messy truth about their parents’ pasts. While Lucy is desperate to hold onto the house, Vivian is scrambling after a betrayal. After thirty years apart, is it too late for them to be a family? 
  • “Isola” by Allegra Goodman: When a 16th-century French noblewoman and her lover are left stranded on a small island by her volatile guardian, they must find a way to survive the winter cold with next to nothing. Inspired by the true story of Marguerite de La Rocque, Allegra Goodman’s latest novel is a feminist castaway tale about love, faith and self-actualization. 
  • “Three Days in June” by Anne Tyler: Nothing seems to be going right for Gail Baines. The day before her daughter’s wedding, Gail loses her job, discovers she didn’t get an invite to festivities organized by the groom’s mom and gets stuck rooming with her ex-husband and a depressed cat. But that’s not the worst of it: her daughter just discovered a shocking secret about the man she is about to marry, putting their big day in jeopardy. In this charming marriage story, the revelation throws Gail back to the unresolved issues surrounding her divorce – and she’s finally forced to reckon with its repercussions. 
  • “Death Takes Me” by Cristina Rivera Garza: Cristina Rivera Garza’s 2007 novel, newly translated from the original Spanish by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker, begins with a literature professor, also named Cristina, finding the body of a castrated man while jogging. After looking through the crime scene photos, she discovers a message written in coral-colored nail polish next to the corpse, lines of poetry from the late Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, who Cristina has studied for years. When Pizarnik’s work starts showing up at similar crime scenes, Cristina is enlisted to help catch the murderer before the mysterious killer catches her first. 
  • “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad: Award-winning novelist Omar El Akkad’s nonfiction debut reckons with what it really means to be an American right now. After 20 years of working as a journalist, covering the War on Terror, the Black Lives Matter protests and the growing death toll in Gaza, the Egyptian Canadian writer, who now lives in the U.S., has been disheartened by the lack of compassion and empathy he’s seen from his adopted country. With his new book, he tries to make sense of how the promise of the American dream has become such a nightmare. 
  • “The Talent” by Daniel D’Addario: “The Talent” follows a group of actresses on the awards-show trail during an especially fraught season. The five women – the grande dame, the ingénue, the great thespian, the long shot and the former child star – must confront their rivalries, anxieties and insecurities if they wish to take home a little gold man on Hollywood’s biggest night. 
  • “The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward” by Melinda French Gates: Philanthropist Melinda French Gates’ latest book, “The Next Day,” encourages you to embrace life’s changes – and she’s speaking as someone with a lot of experience in this department. Over the last four years, French Gates has gone through a series of personal and professional changes that have forced her to rethink her future, telling TIME in June, “I feel like, Wow, I’m 60. I better surround myself with people and still travel [so that] I’m still absolutely learning, because the world is moving, the world is changing.” With her newest memoir, she promises to offer a “rare window” into some of the most transformational moments of her life, including becoming a parent, the loss of a dear friend and her recent departure from the charitable foundation she started with ex-husband Bill Gates. 
  • “Zeal” by Morgan Jerkins: “Zeal” is a multigenerational romance that spans more than 150 years. In 2019 Harlem, Oliver and Ardelia throw a party to celebrate their engagement. Before it ends, Oliver hands his fiancée a love letter written in 1865 by a soldier who, after being discharged from the Union Army as a free man, returned home to Mississippi in hopes of reconnecting with the woman he loved. The centuries-old note will forever change the way the couple sees their love story. 
  • “The Manor of Dreams” by Christina Li: “The Manor of Dreams,” is a modern gothic tale about the battle over a trailblazing 1980s star’s crumbling mansion. Following Vivian Yin’s death, her daughters find themselves fighting an estranged mystery relative for the deed to their reclusive mom’s sprawling estate. Things only get worse once the warring factions decide to move into the dilapidated home together. Once inside, they discover that the manor hides terrible secrets that it’s hellbent on keeping. 
  • “The Emperor of Gladness” by Ocean Vuong: “The Emperor of Gladness,” is a big-hearted ode to second chances. After Grazina, an elderly widow with early-stage dementia, saves Hai from taking his own life, the teenager becomes her caregiver. The unlikely pair form an unexpected friendship that changes Hai’s life in ways he could never imagine. 
  • “A Silent Treatment” by Jeannie Vanasco: “A Silent Treatment,” looks at the psychological cost of refusing to communicate. It’s a topic that has personal significance to the author; her mother, after moving in with her during the pandemic, began using the silent treatment as a form of punishment for any perceived slight. She once went six months without saying a word to her daughter. Using her own harrowing experience as her guide, Vanasco investigates the punishing effects of leaving things unsaid. 

Follow Your Interests at Freedom Plaza.

Freedom Plaza has a library that is constantly updated and upkept by dedicated librarians. To learn more about Freedom Plaza’s book club, and other community organizations, use our Community Assistant chat feature or contact us here.