12 Book Club Picks For May 2025

About the book club: Tiffany and Alexandra, longtime friends, created the Subtle Asian Book Club in 2020 with the goal of uplifting Asian voices and storytellers. You can read along with the monthly book pick, join in on discussions on social media, and watch videos of their live author interviews.

About the book: If you’re looking for a literary dystopian that feels very right now—”A perilous and fantastical satire of banned books, secret libraries, and the looming eye of an all-powerful government.”—this is your book club this month!

Follow Subtle Asian Book Club on social media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Discord

About the book club: The NYPL is selecting young adult books that have been challenged or banned from schools and offering them free nationwide via digital access. The book club also hosts the authors for an event.

What The New York Public Library’s Teen Banned Book Club said about the book: “Our next Teen Banned Book Club pick is The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. The book is available on Libby for unlimited download—no holds or wait times—for NYPL cardholders through June 30. Plus, download our free discussion guide and sign up for our book club event with the author!”

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About the book club: Dawnshaeé Reid is a self-proclaimed eclectic blogger who created this book club with Black authors as a priority. It aims to highlight a wide range of genres. There’s an in-person, once-a-month meeting option if you’re in Louisville, KY, and a virtual option that meets the last Tuesday of every month.

What Eclectix The Book Club said about the book: “MAY — ‘The Fantasies of Future Things’ by Doug Jones
We could always use a novel that leaves our hearts feeling tender and sculpted by compassion, so my hope is by jumping into this novel following two Black men as they make sense of their sexuality and masculinity we will walk away from it with insight and hope.”

Follow Eclectix The Book Club on social media: Instagram, Discord, TikTok

About the book club: Author Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, Ayiti, The Banks) selects a book every month with the goal of uplifting “authentic and necessary perspectives from writers who fearlessly share their stories.” Here are the Book Club FAQs.

What Roxane said about the book: “Next month in the Audacious Book Club, we’re talking about My Documents by Kevin Nguyen (@knguyen). I hope you’ll join us at The Audacity to discuss this powerful novel throughout the month of May.”

Follow Roxane Gay on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

About the book club: Born from TikTok, Sapph-Lit is a safe space book club for sapphic women and nonbinary readers to come together and chat books and life as well as offer each other support. One book a month is selected, alternating between fiction and nonfiction.

What Sapph-Lit said about the book: “A deep and beautiful story about a queer Black woman working to stay clean, pull her life together, and heal after her time in prison.”

Follow Sapph-Lit on social media: Instagram, Geneva

About the book club: Every month, Reese Witherspoon picks a book for Reese’s Book Club that centers a woman in its story.

What Reese said about the book: “Exciting news! The May @reesesbookclub pick has arrived a little early and it’s a mystery, romance, and thriller all rolled into one captivating story! The plot follows two journalists competing for the chance to interview a prominent socialite who has been missing for 30 years. What unfolds between them? I won’t give away any spoilers, but trust me, it’s so good! You don’t want to miss our May pick and the incredible new release, “Great Big Beautiful Life” by the very talented @emilyhenrywrites! Listen all month on @applebooks, our official audiobook partner. ”

Follow Reese’s Book Club on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube

About the book club: Oprah’s book club has taken on different forms over the decades, starting in 1996 on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She’s still book clubbing, more than 100 titles later!

What Oprah said about the book: “Our next book club selection is “Matriarch” by @mstinaknowles—and @oprah already sat down with her at a @starbucks café to discuss the inspiring memoir.

Tina Knowles, the mother of iconic singer-songwriters Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Solange Knowles, and bonus daughter Kelly Rowland, is known the world over as a Matriarch with a capital M: a determined, self-possessed, self-aware, and wise woman who raised and inspired some of the great artists of our time. But this story is about so much more than that. Matriarch begins with a precocious little girl growing up in 1950s Galveston, the youngest of seven. She is in love with her world, with extended family on every other porch and the sounds of Motown and the lapping beach always within earshot. But as the realities of race and the limitations of girlhood set in, she begins to dream of a more grandiose world. Her instincts and impulsive nature drive her far beyond the shores of Texas to discover the life awaiting her on the other side of childhood. This is a page-turning chronicle of the will it takes for a girl from Galveston to change the world. It’s one brilliant woman’s intimate and revealing story, and a multigenerational family saga that carries within it the story of America—and the wisdom that women pass on to one another, mothers to daughters, across generations.”

Follow Oprah’s Book Club on social media: Instagram, Twitter

About the book club: Mocha Girls Read is a monthly book club of Black women who love to read. They currently have chapters in 14 cities across the United States. Starting in 2024, anyone can join an “IG Live every first Saturday of the month at 5 pm PT. Alysia, our founder, will chat about our current book club selection.”

What Mocha Girls Read said about the book: “The votes are in! After a lively nomination period and a conclusive week of voting, we’re excited to share the chosen title for our 2025 book selection. The Mocha Girl Read May 2025 Monthly Book Selection is Blood at the Root by Ladarrion Williams.

Follow Mocha Girls Read on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, MeetUp, Goodreads, Pinterest

About the book club: The Stacks is a podcast that chats all about books, and there’s a monthly book club. The book chosen for the month is discussed on the podcast in the last week of the month with a selected special guest.

What The Stacks Book Club said about the book: “We’re diving into the world of crime fiction in May by reading Walter Mosley’s debut novel, Devil in a Blue Dress. Written in 1990, this mystery is the first in the award-winning Easy Rawlins series. It follows Rawlins, as he is tasked with finding a missing blonde woman with a penchant for frequenting Black jazz clubs in 1940’s Los Angeles. The book is not only a masterclass on mystery and suspense, but also on social commentary; which is why it was named one of “The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time” by Time Magazine.

If you want to read with us this month, here are some key dates to The Stacks Book Club read of Devil in a Blue Dress.

May 7 — The Stacks Episode announcing our guest for the Devil in a Blue Dress episode.

May 28th — The Stacks Book Club episode of Devil in a Blue Dress.

June 3rd — The Stacks Virtual Book Club meetup to discuss the book. To participate you will need to join The Stacks Pack on Patreon. There, you’ll have inside access to the show, access to the Discord community, and more.”

Follow The Stacks on social media: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok

About the book club: Jenna Bush Hager—current co-host of Today with Hoda & Jenna—independently chooses a book each month that she personally loves. (“Jenna was not paid to mention these items and is unaffiliated with the authors and publishers“)

What Jenna said about the book: “’We watch these three different realities take place over a lifetime,’ Jenna says. ‘We watch a family who comes together, grows apart, and we meet this boy whose name, in three different ways, predicts who he will be. It’s a book about second chances. It’s a book about family, it’s a book about hope.’”

Follow Read With Jenna on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Read With Jenna Goodreads group

About the book club: Lillianne Leight and Amanda Spivack created this book club, which focuses on Jewish books and characters “with varying relationships to Judaism” that welcomes all readers—Jewish and non.

What Matzah Book Soup said about the book: “What better way to kick off Jewish American Heritage Month than with this month’s Matzah Book Soup Pick! We are so happy to share that WE WOULD NEVER by @tovamirvis is May’s pick

We will be chatting with Tova on May 27 at 8 pm est!

This family drama/thriller will captivate you as you follow one family consumed by the deteriorating relationship of its youngest, Hailey. Filled with wonderful Jewish rep, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat.”

Follow Matzah Book Soup on social media: Instagram, Facebook

About the book club: Read along with Good Morning America Book Club, which aims to “showcase book picks from a wide range of compelling authors.”

What GMA said about the book: “Can you feel our excitement?! Audre & Bash are Just Friends by @tiawilliamswrites is our GMA Book Club Young Adult pick for May!

The New York Times bestselling author of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is ready to take on the world of YA with this sizzling summertime love story set in the universe of her smash hit, Seven Days in June.”

Follow GMA Book Club on social media: Instagram, Facebook