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Our Best Articles for Book Club Inspiration
2025 "best of" content, holiday reads, and more ...
Book Club News: December Issue
Hello Book Clubbers,
This month, we bring you online discussions of some fun holiday reads.
Kate Storey’s The Forgotten Book Club is a heartwarming novel about the power of books and one particular (and somewhat peculiar) book club, while Annelise Ryan’s Beast of the North Woods follows a cryptozoologist in Wisconsin investigating a crime that may have been committed by a creature of local legend.
Read our interview with Gerri Bonarrigo of The Bibliophiles’ Book Club, an online group that has supported busy mothers in a time of isolation.
We also have some great end-of-year content for you to enjoy: the best of our First Impressions features, book club discussions, and “beyond the book” articles!
Thanks for reading,
The BookBrowse Team
Book Club Discussions
Discussions are open to all! If you’d like to participate, you can do so by creating an account here. Please note that discussions can contain spoilers.
The Forgotten Book Club by Kate Storey
From the Jacket For three decades, Grace supported her husband Frank's passion for books, even though her own love for literature paled in comparison. Since his passing, the shelves echo longingly, and Grace's heartache has only grown. When Grace's grandson suggests joining Frank's old book club, she hesitates. How could meeting with a bunch of strangers possibly fill the void he left behind? Despite her doubts – and desperate to feel close to Frank again – Grace decides to attend. |  |
From the Discussion
“I enjoyed The Forgotten Book Club and learning about the ways that books bring us together and help strengthen our connections to others. The book club provided a place for its members to develop a sense of community and belonging. The topics of loneliness, grief, friendship, neurodiversity, depression, and a sense of purpose are included in this story.” —Patricia_Williams
“I really enjoyed this book. I thought it would be a light and easy read. While it was, I also found it much deeper than I thought it would be.” —Emily_Bahhar
“I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sharing the books they read. It gave me a new perspective on book clubs, and it also warmed my heart.” —Shirl
Beast of the North Woods by Annelise Ryan
From the Jacket An ice fisherman is savagely mauled to death in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and an eyewitness claims the man was attacked by a hodag. There's just one problem with that: it's well known that the creature is not real and was created by a local hoaxer. So how could an imaginary creature be chomping on local sportsmen? The witness to the attack happens to be the nephew of Morgan Carter's bookstore employee, Rita Bosworth, who convinces the professional cryptozoologist to travel to Wisconsin to prove that a hodag not only exists but killed the victim. |  |
From the Discussion
“I enjoyed the book. I liked the whimsy of the lead character. It was light and very readable. Perfect for a busy holiday read.” —Renee_P
“This was so out of my usual reading! I enjoyed it as a quick read and appreciated being introduced to eDNA and the world of a cryptozoologist. I had no idea that the festival and monuments in Wisconsin dedicated to hodags existed!” —Dee_Driscole
See what people are saying in response to this question: Do you live in or near an area that celebrates a cryptid, or have you traveled to a festival that revolves around one? If so, which one, and how do they venerate it?
Our Best 2025 Discussions & First Impressions Books
Besides getting access to our digital magazine and a wealth of archived content, BookBrowse members can take part in our First Impressions reader review program and book club discussions year-round. In 2025, we discussed or will discuss more than 35 books in our community forum, and we featured nearly 50 titles in First Impressions. Below, we look at some of the books that generated the most enthusiastic and intriguing discussion and that were the most highly rated and positively reviewed. We hope you enjoy browsing through them and find some perfect picks for your TBR or your own book club discussion list. … continued |  |
Our Best Beyond the Book Articles of 2025
At BookBrowse, we’re all about bringing you great reading, period. That’s why we don’t only feature reviews of recommended books, but also “beyond the book” articles, bite-sized literary and cultural pieces that expand on an aspect of each featured title. Below, we’ve selected some of the best articles written by our reviewers this year, one from each of our nine categories. These span subjects ranging from Ukraine’s national soil to American political lawn signs, crime dioramas created by “the mother of forensic science,” Mariah Carey’s career, how author Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu transformed aspects of the 19th-century adventure novel King Solomon’s Mines, and more. … continued |  |
“Beyond the book” articles provide the perfect starting point for or supplement to a book club discussion, and may even inspire you to choose a particular book for your group. Members can explore all articles from this page, and non-members can access limited articles in each category.
Q&A: The Bibliophiles’ Book Club
As COVID disrupted lives, readers reached out to each other to maintain a sense of community. Book group leader Gerri Bonarrigo tells BookBrowsers about how she created an online book group that is thriving today.
BookBrowse: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about The Bibliophiles’ Book Club, Gerrie! How did your group get started?
Gerrie: After Covid, I found that the book clubs I had belonged to were gone and weren’t starting back up again. Everyone was still nervous or had moved on. I had started and successfully run in-person book clubs for many years, but over time they fell apart as people moved away, or like me started their families and just no longer had the time. I saw an article in the New York Times about an online group for women on a site called Peanut. So, I went online and joined at no cost. … continued
Discussions & Ask the Author Interviews
Discussions are open to all, so please join us! If you would like to receive a message when a particular discussion opens, you can sign up for a one-time notification. You can also find inspiration for your book club among our more than 200 past discussions. Currently, we’re discussing Kate Storey’s The Forgotten Book Club and Annelise Ryan’s Beast of the North Woods. Later this month, we feature Oyinkan Braithwaite’s Cursed Daughters. |  |
BookBrowse is now hosting Ask the Author sessions in our community forum. We invite you to follow along and post your own questions in any future interviews that interest you. In the meantime, see our recent conversation with Kate Heartfield, author of Tapestry of Time and other books. |  |
About BookBrowse
BookBrowse offers a cornucopia of resources for book clubs, including recommended books by genre, time period, setting, and a wide range of themes; advice on starting and running a book club; and much more!
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