13 Books To Spark Epic Book Club Debates In 2026

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“But we must tell our stories, and not be ensnared by them.”

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Looking for books for book clubs that will ignite lively conversations and spark unforgettable debates in 2026? Whether your group loves exploring thought-provoking novels, tackling controversial themes, or diving into twist-filled page-turners, choosing the right book club books can transform your meetings from casual chats into deep, engaging discussions. Today at What We Reading, we’re curating our favourite discussion books for book clubs that challenge perspectives, inspire conversation, and push readers to think critically about the world around them. From modern fiction to novels that spark debate, these picks are perfect for groups looking for more than just a light read. With a mix of genres, themes, and storylines, each book here is guaranteed to provide ample material for lively, memorable and insightful group reading experiences! 

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Where The Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Kicking off our list of the best books for book clubs is Delia Owens’ acclaimed bestseller, Where the Crawdads Sing. For years, rumours of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild, unfit for the polite society of the 1960s. When the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, Kya is naturally treated as the prime suspect. But Kya is not what they assume. Drawn to two young men from the town, each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world – until the unthinkable happens. 

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming-of-age story and a haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and profoundly moving, Owen’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. 

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American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins

Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia’s life is comfortable. But after her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same again. 

Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But, what exactly are they running to? American Dirt is one of the best books for book clubs looking to explore cultural appropriation, stereotyping and systemic inequality through the lens of some of the finest prose in recent times. 

1984 – George Orwell

One of the most timeless and timely book club picks of all time, George Orwell’s 1984 remains a masterpiece of rebellion and imprisonment. Big Brother. Thought Police. Orwellian. These words have all entered our vocabulary because of this classic dystopian novel. The story of one man’s Nightmare Odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information, but also individual thought and memory. 

1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale more relevant than ever before. Orwell’s work exposes the worst crimes imaginable: the destruction of truth, freedom, and individuality. Whether it’s the novel’s enduring legacy or its place in today’s post-modern world, it remains a solid pick for any reading group. 

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The Plot – Jean Hanff Korelitz

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first novel. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect. Then he hears the plot of Evan Parker’s, his most arrogant student, own book. He braces himself for the supernova publication of Parker’s novel, but it never comes. When Jacobe learns that Evan has died, he does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that – a story that deserves to be told. 

In a few short years, Jacob is the author, enjoying the waves of success. However, at the height of his glorious new life, an email arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says. As Jacob struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from the world, he starts to learn more about his late student, and what he uncovers both amazes and terrifies him. 

The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich

The Night Watchman is a powerful, deeply human novel inspired by author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather, who worked as a night watchman and was also a tribal leader fighting against the US’ termination policies of the 1950s. The story charts the life of Thomas Wazhushk, the night watchman at a jewel-bearing factory, as he navigates his daily routine while advocating for his Ojibwe community’s rights. Parallel to his story is Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau, a young woman trying to protect her family while wrestling with poverty, abuse, and limited opportunities. 

As government agents push the tribe toward surrendering their land and tribal status, Thomas does all he can to prevent the extermination of his people’s identity and culture. The Night Watchman blends historical detail with intimate storytelling, exploring themes of resilience, community, and the personal toll of political struggle. 

If We Were Villains – M.L. Rio

Oliver Marks has just served ten years in jail – for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he’s released, he’s greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago. 

As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into real life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless. 

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Intermezzo – Sally Rooney

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationship with two very different women – his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. 

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives soon become rapidly intertwined. Intermezzo is the story of two grieving brothers and the people they love, which is sure to spark some lively discussions in any book group. 

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Everything I Never Told You – Celeste Ng

Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfil the dreams they were unable to. But Lydia is under pressures that have nothing to do with growing up in 1970s small-town Ohio. Her father is an American born of first-generation Chinese immigrants, and his ethnicity and hers make them conspicuous in any setting. 

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path that could spell the end of his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable, no matter the cost. Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You is a gripping page-turner about secrets, love, longing, lies, and race. 

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Transcendent Kingdom – Yaa Gyasi

Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. 

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalising as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a moving portrait of a family of Ghanian immigrants ravaged by depression, addiction, and grief – a moving novel about faith, science, religion, and love. 

The Last House On Needless Street – Catriona Ward

This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house perched at the end of an ordinary street. All these things are true; and yet, all of them are lies…

You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this sort of story before. That’s where you’re wrong. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it’s not what you think…

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Whereabouts – Jhumpa Lahiri

The woman at the centre of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, serves as a confidant. In addition to colleagues at work, she has girl friends, guy friends, and “him”, a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. One day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will change. 

Whereabouts marks Jhumpa Lahiri’s most daring literary work to date, and it’s the perfect short story for book clubs looking to explore a more poignant, introspective character study. 

The House Of Doors – Tan Twan Eng

The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert’s, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could upend more lives than one. 

Maugham, one of the great novelists of his time, is beleaguered. His career deflating, his health failing, he arrives at Cassowary House in dire need of a new subject for his book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage far more duplicitous than it first appears. As the friendship between the two of them grows deeper, Maugham discovers a far more surprising tale than he imagined, one that involves not just war and scandal but also a trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder. For Maugham, it is a story worthy of fiction. 

The Water Dancer – Ta-Nehisi Coates

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her – but granted a mysterious power. Years on, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves him. This brush with death births an urgency and a daring scheme. Thus begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s plantations to the idealistic movements in the North. 

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the best books for book clubs that promises a propulsive, transcendent experience that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was taken. It is a dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of men, women, and children – and the war they waged to make lives with the people they love simply.