Good book club books: how to choose one

What makes a book good to talk about

The best book club books are not always the best books. A novel everyone adored often makes for a short evening: you agree it was wonderful, and then the conversation turns to holidays. A book that splits the room keeps people talking for two hours. When you are choosing, look for at least one of these.

A choice you can argue about. A character who does something half of you would never do, and the book does not tell you who is right.
A narrator you are not sure about. Someone telling their own story who may be leaving things out.
An open question. An ending that can be read two ways, or a mystery the book never quite solves.
A world some of you know and others do not. A place, a job, a period of history. The member who grew up there will have things to say.

A book everyone loved makes a short evening. A book that splits the room makes a long one.

The practical test: can everyone get it, and will they finish?

A brilliant choice nobody finishes is a bad choice. Before the club commits, check three things.

Length. Under four hundred pages for a club that meets every four to six weeks. Longer books can work if everyone agrees in advance, or if you split them over two meetings.
Availability. Is it out in paperback? Can it be borrowed? A new hardback at full price is a lot to ask of every member every month. An e-book or audiobook should count as reading it, too.
Content. If the book deals with something some members may find hard (violence, abuse, the death of a child), say so when you suggest it. That is not spoiling anything; it is letting people decide.

Four fair ways for a club to choose

How a club chooses matters as much as what it chooses. A club where the same person always picks tends to lose the others. Agree on one of these and stick to it.

Take turns. Each member chooses once, in a fixed order. Simple, and everyone gets to share a book they love. The catch: you will read a few you would never have chosen, which is also the point.
Shortlist and vote. Whoever's turn it is brings three books, and the club votes. Fairer, and the chooser does not carry the whole blame if it falls flat.
Themes. The club agrees a theme for the season (books in translation, debut novels, one country) and members suggest titles within it.
The host decides. Works for clubs run by a library, a bookshop or one keen organiser, as long as the host listens.

Whatever the method, ask everyone who suggests a book to say in one sentence why the club should read it. ‘It is everywhere at the moment’ is a weaker sentence than ‘I could not decide whether I liked the main character, and I want to hear what you think.’

Where to find book club ideas in the UK

Publishers' book club pages. Penguin's book club page has reading lists and discussion questions, and Pan Macmillan publishes monthly picks with downloadable reading group questions. They are publishers recommending their own books, which is worth remembering, but the questions save a lot of work.
Book Club Hub. The Reading Agency's resources page shares material on new releases, including book club questions.
Your library. If your library lends reading group sets, its list of available sets is a ready-made menu, and every title on it is one you can get ten copies of.
Prize lists. The Booker, the Women's Prize and the many genre prizes publish their shortlists every year. A shortlist is a good source because the books are new, discussed and argued over.
Your members' shelves. Ask everyone to bring the last book they could not put down. You will have a year's worth of suggestions in one evening.

Penguin, Pan Macmillan and Book Club Hub were checked on their own websites on 29 October 2026.

A few kinds of book that tend to work, with examples

These are our own general suggestions, the kind any bookseller might make. They are not a ranking and nobody voted on them. Each shows a type of book that tends to get a club talking.

A short book with a hard choice in it. Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, about a coal merchant in a small Irish town in 1985, is short enough for everyone to finish and asks what a decent person owes his neighbours.
A narrator who may not be telling you everything. Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, in which an English butler looks back on his years of service, is the classic example.
A memoir that divides people. Tara Westover's Educated tends to start arguments about family, loyalty and memory.
A crime novel with warmth. Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club, set in a retirement village, is light enough for a summer meeting and has a cast everyone has an opinion on.
A book about readers. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, a novel in letters set just after the Second World War, is about a book club of its own.

Getting copies: library sets and second-hand

Buying a new book every month adds up. Many UK library services lend reading group sets, usually about ten copies of the same title, for a few weeks. Some lend them free, others charge: according to their own pages on 29 October 2026, BCP Council asks £4 for each set of ten, East Sussex £1.00 for each book borrowed, and Staffordshire £40 a year for twelve sets if the group meets in the library. Ask your own library service; sets are popular, so book early.

Clubs registered on Book Club Hub can also apply for free book sets offered by publishers, in return for posting reviews. Charity shops and second-hand bookshops are worth a look for older titles.

When the club has run out of ideas

Every club hits the month when nobody has a suggestion. That is a good moment to ask outside the group.

In Time to Read you can do that in Ask. Write one sentence (‘a novel under three hundred pages for a book club that likes an argument, nothing too bleak’) and readers whose shelves overlap with yours each answer with one book and a reason, usually within the hour. When too few readers are around, the Reading Desk, the app's own editors, answers under that name. In the app's Clubs, the host sets the book and the date, and everyone's progress shows as a bar. For the evening itself, see book club questions that work for any novel.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a good book club book?

Something to disagree about. A character who makes a choice half the room would not, a question the book leaves open, a narrator who might not be telling the truth. A book everyone simply loved often makes for a short evening; one that splits the group makes a long one.

How long should a book club book be?

Short enough that everyone finishes. For a club that meets every four to six weeks, under four hundred pages is a sensible limit. Go longer only if the club agrees in advance, and consider splitting a long book over two meetings.

Should a book club read new books or classics?

Both work, for different reasons. A new book means nobody has read the critics first and everyone comes to it fresh, but it may only be in hardback. A classic is cheap, easy to borrow and has more written about it, which helps if you are leading the discussion.

Where can a book club get copies cheaply?

From the library. Many UK library services lend reading group sets of about ten copies of one title, sometimes free and sometimes for a small charge: BCP Council asks £4 a set and East Sussex £1 a book, according to their own pages on 29 October 2026. Book Club Hub also lets registered clubs apply for free book sets in return for reviews.

How do we choose a book without arguing?

Pick a method once and stick to it. Taking turns is simplest; a shortlist of three with a vote is fairest. Whatever you choose, ask everyone who suggests a book to say in one sentence why the club should read it.

Good book club books, and how to choose the next one