Novels and stories by American writers published since 2000, from Saunders and Franzen to book-club favourites and comic novels.
76 books on Contemporary American fiction, recommended by 32 people including Zoë Foster Blake and Bill Gates.
76 books · 32 experts
“the book he wrote about it is hilarious”Andrew Wilkinson
“Celeste Ng's second novel was a 2017 selection that Witherspoon and Kerry Washington co-produced as a Hulu limited series. The book's central question — who gets to define a family, and who gets to burn down the rules — maps directly onto themes the club returns to repeatedly.”Reese Witherspoon
“Taylor Jenkins Reid's Hollywood-set novel was selected in 2019 and introduced many club readers to Reid before Daisy Jones arrived. Witherspoon has talked about Evelyn Hugo's moral complexity — a woman who made ruthless choices and refuses to apologize for them — as exactly the kind of female character the club exists to champion.”Reese Witherspoon
“Kristin Hannah's novel about an Alaska homestead gone wrong was a 2018 pick that gave the club one of its starkest protagonists: a teenage girl watching her father's trauma unravel the world her mother built around it. Witherspoon has cited it as the Hannah novel that hooked her on the author entirely.”Reese Witherspoon
“One of the club's signature picks and its best-known adaptation — Witherspoon's production company produced the 2022 film. She selected it in 2018 and has described it as the book she hand-sold to more people than any other, telling friends to cancel their plans and read it immediately.”Reese Witherspoon
“Brit Bennett's novel about twin sisters who choose opposite racial identities was a 2020 selection. Witherspoon has described it as a book that opens up the question of what we choose about ourselves versus what is chosen for us — and what it costs either way.”Reese Witherspoon
“…books I've recommended, highlighted to death, or forced on friends.”Andrew Wilkinson
“A favorite novel he put at the top of his entrepreneurs reading list.”Fred Wilson
“Cormac McCarthy's 2006 Pulitzer winner was a departure from the club's usual emotional register — spare, brutal, without resolution. Oprah's on-air conversation with the notoriously press-shy McCarthy remains one of the club's most-watched segments.”Oprah Winfrey
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