Best book club books 2021: Recommendations to get the discussion flowing

Finding the best books to read with your book club can feel like an uphill battle, especially when you have members with particular tastes (to put it mildly), and at least one who will try and wing it on the day.

Given the year we’ve just had, that leeway needs to extend to the whole group, so we have rounded up a selection of great book club books that will make you all actively look forward to the next meet-up, rather than wishing you could read something else.

We were looking for stories with strong angles for discussion, and which draw the reader along – no sense of duty here, please, a good book club book should be enjoyable to read as well as interesting, otherwise nobody will bother to finish it.

We have also chosen books that are of wide enough interest to appeal to even the fussiest genre snob: recent publications to keep things fresh, a crime novel for people who wouldn’t ordinarily try crime, a thoughtful thriller, and a Booker Prize-winner so delightful to read that it’ll make even the most doubting of literary fiction-deniers take a second look the next time they pass a shortlist in their local book shop.

And above all, there is plenty to talk about – so with that in mind, let’s dig in.

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The best book club books for 2021 are: