Our Favorite Reese Witherspoon Book Club Picks

Le Sommet is a formerly abandoned sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, which has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel. Detective Elin Warner is invited by her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, and though she’d rather not, she really has no reason not to accept. After arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge–there’s something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic. And the only other woman who could have warned them about the danger they’re all in is also missing.

In a tiny Kansas town, Chicken Mimi’s and Chicken Frannie’s have spent a century vying to serve the best fried chicken—and the feud between their respective owners, the Moores and the Pogociellos, has lasted just as long. Amanda Moore, who grew up working for her mom at Mimi’s before scandalously marrying Frank Pogociello and changing sides to work at Frannie’s, is tired of being caught in the middle. When she calls Food Wars, the reality TV restaurant competition that promises $100,000 to the winner, she gets in over her head and her sister Mae comes home to help out…or is she just there to help herself?

Set in locales from Miami and Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, these eight emotionally absorbing stories are rich with hard-won wisdom and humanity. At once wide in scope and intimate, Everything Inside explores with quiet power and elegance the forces that pull us together or drive us apart, sometimes in the same searing instant. incredibly moving, haunting, and profound.

For readers who have engaged with America’s legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I’m Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God’s ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness—if we let it—can save us all.

Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call from the ever-so-powerful Glennon Doyle. It is the story of how she learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries and live our fullest lives.

What do you get when you combine a dysfunctional family with a Mediterranean cruise? The Jetsetters. In the vein of The Nest and The Vacationers, this book is a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood.

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Set in Depression-era America, it’s a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic.

We’re so thrilled that Fair Play is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick! In Reese’s own words, this book is “a hands-on, real talk guide for navigating the hot-button issues that so many families struggle with.” With four easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a figurative card game you play with your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what’s important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore from laundry to homework to dinner.

The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story–the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago’s heroine, Lara–with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group, their beautiful lead singer, and their mysterious break up. Perfect for those feeling nostalgic about the 1960s and ’70s, this story will captivate all readers and transport them back in time to an era of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.

Jasmine Guillory has been making her name known in the romance genre since her debut, The Wedding Date. The Proposal is about every girl’s worst nightmare: being proposed to in front of a stadium full of people and saying no! When freelance writer Nikole Paterson turns down her boyfriend’s proposal at a Dodgers game, their relationship comes to an end. She quickly (but unexpectedly) finds a casual hookup to fall back on and as things get steamy, she realizes their no-rules relationship might be getting too serious.

There’s nothing better than cozying up with a great romantic read during the holiday season. Reese’s December book club pick is the perfect heartwarming love story for the cold winter month. One Day in December is about love at first sight, second chances, and the role that fate plays in bringing people together.

When discussing this pick on her official book club website, Reese said, “I didn’t want this story to end!” which is enough endorsement for us. Kya Clark is known in her area of North Carolina as “Marsh Girl” since she has lived alone in the marsh since she was a young girl. While there are rumors swirling about what kind of person she is—some even suspecting her of being the one behind a local murder—Kya could not be more different from what people say, and only wants the chance to be loved.

Always keeping her picks timely, Reese chose the perfect summer read, Next Year in Havana. The book follows two women: freelance writer Marisol, living in Miami in 2017, and her grandmother, Elisa, who fled Havana during the revolution. When Marisol visits Havana for the first time to scatter Elisa’s ashes, she discovers long-hidden family secrets and falls for a man with some secrets of his own.

Documentary filmmaker Erin and her new husband, Mark, are excited to finally set out on their romantic honeymoon in Bora Bora. While out scuba diving, the two find more than they bargained for in the water, and must decide whether to speak out or conceal it.

As with some of Reese’s other favorite picks, she’s already bought the rights to this title for another exciting TV adaptation. Curtis Sittenfeld’s story collection centers around themes of real women who aren’t afraid to express themselves, whether at work or at home. While each story’s quite different, you’ll leave the collection feeling like you just had a long chat with a close friend.

We were excited to see Reese choose a romantic pick! Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors in Columbia on a life-changing day: September 11, 2001. The events of the day bring the two together, and instills in both a need to spend their lives helping others. Their relationship seems perfect—until the careers that meant so much to them threaten to pull them apart, setting them on a journey to find what really matters in life.

After starring in the adaptation of Wild, we can understand why Reese would pick this book about going into the wilderness to find yourself. Brené Brown’s latest explores how our culture demands perfection and pleasing others, and how people can overcome that feeling in order to be their true selves.

Reese is already set to star in the television adaptation of this book alongside Kerry Washington, so it comes as no surprise she picked this book when it debuted. Artist Mia and her daughter, Pearl, think they’re finally finding their permanent home when they move to Shaker Heights, Ohio. As Pearl befriends the Richardson siblings, their mother becomes intrigued with Mia and makes it her mission to discover the backstory Mia’s been hiding.

This book’s been a favorite of many since it came out, so it comes as no surprise that it would be Reese’s first pick—she even optioned the film rights. Eleanor’s a bit of a recluse, living alone in an apartment in Scotland and spending her weekends drinking vodka by herself. Everything starts to change when she meets coworker Raymond and begins to see that life can be more fun when you’re not alone.