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There's nothing we at Good Housekeeping love more than losing ourselves in a good book. Maybe you know the feeling: You sit down in your favorite reading spot with a new page-turner, a cup of something comforting and crack open that cover. Next thing you know, hours have gone by and your head is in an entirely different world than your body. Those beautiful books — the ones that wrap around you like a big hug and transport you away from your everyday life — are the kinds of great reads you'll find when you join the Good Housekeeping Book Club.
In the GH Book Club, we focus on what we call feel-good reads, because reading makes us feel good, period. But beyond that, our feel-good picks have that extra special something. Maybe it's a narrator who instantly feels like a best friend or characters who rise above their circ*mstances to do something amazing (even if that's pulling off a heist or pulling one over on a dastardly man). Maybe there's a lesson to be learned, a setting that's gloriously different from our mundane world, or a dramatic plot that leaves you muttering "OK, just one more chapter" over and over again. Whatever it is, these books found a place on our list because we know you'll love them as much as we do.
Since 2021, we've been recommending a new pick every month — here, you'll find reviews of every book we've ever featured in the GH Book Club. Go ahead and grab a copy, then pass it along to a friend — we think you'll agree that the only way to make a great read better is sharing it with a fellow bookworm!
When you've made your way through this list, check out our new, membership-only GH+ Reads perk to get your hands on even more fantastic reads and the chance to have your review featured on our website.
Breeze down to the Delaware shore with Jack Schmidt, owner of a family restaurant he's worked at since boyhood. A corporate chain wants to buy him out, and Jack (an "old" 52) is tempted. The unlikely temptress: the chain's rep, Nicole, a loud but intriguing woman who won't take no for an answer. But what about the loyal Schmidt's crew, whose livelihoods depend on Jack? When an ex turns up with shocking news, this endearing man realizes his life is changing whether he likes it or not.
Brodesser-Akner's follow-up to her hit debut Fleishman Is in Trouble centers on the kidnapping of a wealthy factory owner and the decades of family trauma that follow his return — but if anything has ever proven that laughter is the best medicine, it's this book. The saga of the Fletchers in their ritzy Long Island suburb delivers brilliant psychological insight and spot-on cultural context along with dialogue so funny, it hurts.
Jolene has found the key to surviving her soul-sucking corporate job: Venting about her colleagues in white ink at the bottom of her emails. That is, until she gets caught and put into sensitivity training with the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff. But when a computer glitch gives her access to her coworkers’ emails and chat logs, she learns layoffs are on the horizon (not to mention lots of gossip). Can Jolene save her job before she’s found out, or will her inconvenient feelings for Cliff get in the way? This laugh-out-loud funny workplace drama is a balm for anyone who’s ever gotten fed up at work.
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Stella has always lived simply in defiance of her neglectful, glamorous mother. But when her mom dies and leaves Stella with a plane ticket to Paris, she decides to go, against her better instincts. There, a chance discovery sets off a grand adventure that includes a benevolent art collector, a historic bookstore and its residents, and Stella’s senses awakening to all the delectable indulgences life has to offer. This book is a banquet of food, fashion and found family.
Lauren comes home from a bachelorette party to find her husband waiting. There’s just one problem: She’s never met the guy. When he goes into the attic, a different man returns. When Lauren’s attic begins supplying a never-ending stream of husbands, she has to decide to choose one, or perpetually seek a better option. This hilarious, time-bending novel is a commentary on dating, love and appreciating the life you’ve got.
Cuban artist Anita de Monte died tragically in 1985, just as her career was taking flight. By 1998, when art student Raquel discovers her, Anita is almost forgotten. The parallels between their stories are striking: Raquel is struggling to find her footing in the art world, and she’s also losing herself to a powerful man. This touching, vibrant story asks us: Who gets to have a legacy?
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Fields of corn rustle in a warm breeze; teens whisper behind the Galaxy Swirl; a group of older ladies play games and gossip; and a retired sheriff has a thing or two to tell his granddaughter’s beau about love. This story takes place over one unremarkable day in a small Indiana town. It’s a tale that seems small at first but feels more consequential as it goes on, just like the lives it describes.
In this hilariously offbeat mystery, Alice and Joe move to a sleepy village before their first baby arrives, expecting to take up hobbies like knitting and woodworking. But when a dead body turns up during a prenatal class, Alice joins her new also-pregnant pals to figure out who did it.
Rachel never expected to go back to her New England hometown. She didn’t expect her ex-husband to be dying in the home they still share, her job to fall apart or her first love to marry her sister’s neighbor either. Oh, and her mother has died and left her a house. This is a book about midlife challenges and wisdom and picking up the pieces when they haven’t fallen where you thought they would. It's an engaging read that will make you feel seen, no matter what stage of life you're currently going through.
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Watch the seasons pass with this lush love letter to the beauty in the author’s own backyard. With meditations on how the natural world changes as the years march on and what that means for our lives, this is a story of hope and grief, joy and sorrow, accompanied by 52 gorgeous illustrations by the author's brother, Billy Renkl. It’s a warm hug of a book, just in time to help you reflect on your own year and look to the next.
A thick smog descends upon the world, crops wither and die, livestock starve and food becomes little more than sustenance. One floundering chef mourns the loss of not only the flavors that sustained her, but her career. When she's hired to cook for a secluded colony of the global elite, she rediscovers that ingredients can be alchemy and her body's appetites reawaken.
But soon enough, her enigmatic employer and his brilliant and seemingly fearless daughter entice the chef into a world where decadence isn't dead, but neither is avarice. Grab a snack before reading this fresh and ultimately hopeful take on climate change and how humanity might persevere.
Every page of this book feels like it's revealing long-held secrets, similar to those whispered to the beloved dolls young girls across the world adopt as their companions. It follows three generations of Native women and their treasured dolls: Cora, born in 1888 and shipped off to a brutal boarding school to be "civilized;" Lillian, born in 1925, who endures unspeakable horrors inflicted on her by the nuns running the "Indian school" she attends; and Sissy, born in 1961, whose mother's unpredictable anger and mercurial moods keeps her on the edge of danger.
Told through alternating perspectives and by turns touching, heartbreaking and even a little scary, this book reminds us of the importance of family and history.
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Things aren't exactly going great for Simi Chopra. She's lost her job (again), her basem*nt apartment would be better suited to an unwashed college dude and her bff has been accused of stealing a multimillion-dollar necklace. When she meets the handsome and frustratingly elusive Jack, her luck is about to change. Sure, he has a habit of disappearing right when she needs him. But when he offers to help steal back the necklace and clear her friend's name, Simi can't resist the challenge.
They'll just need a heist crew — and a ruse to distract the criminals while they get the goods. The ruse? A high-society wedding. The crew? Ragtag bordering on incompetent. The stakes? Higher than Simi's blood pressure when Jack is around. To Have and to Heist is what happens when you take Oceans Eleven-style capers, turn the sexiness up to eleven and slather it in some good ol' fashioned Desi family drama. The pitch-perfect banter will have you rolling and you won't be able to put it down until the bag is secured — or is it?
After enduring a devastating breakup and leaving her graduate program, Kathleen Cheng is back living with her mom in Oakland and trying to figure out her next steps. But you know what they say: You really can’t go home again. Her mom, Marissa, isn’t the wallowing mess Kathleen cared for while growing up — she’s happy, working out and drinking green juice as she prepares to marry a tech entrepreneur.
When Kathleen takes a job as a professional cuddler, she finds herself figuring out not only her relationship with intimacy and what she owes the clients who come to her for comfort but also what she and her mom need from each other in their new relationship. Perfect for anyone who’s ever had or been a mom, this is a story about cultural barriers and connection, how relationships can shift over time and what we really owe one another that’s both refreshingly unique and as familiar as a hug from a loved one.
College friends Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig and Marielle made a somewhat morbid pact to throw one another “living funerals” whenever one of them needed to be reminded that life was worth living, and over the 28 years since graduation, some of them have called in the promise. They’ve come together to lift up Marielle as her marriage fell apart, to comfort Naomi after her parents died and to support one another when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud.
But now Jordan has a secret that could mean the end of these life-affirming gatherings and damage their bond forever. This funny, poignant, heartfelt novel is a testament to the importance of friendship, especially when life gets hard.
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After teen sisters Eve and Vera lose their father, they find themselves spending their summer on an Arctic expedition with their scientist mom. But when the girls discover a 4,000-year-old baby mammoth, what follows is even more unexpected. Follow the trio from Siberia to Iceland to a private Italian estate on a caper that’s delightful, poignant and occasionally heartbreaking.
Born at the turn of the 20th century, Sallie Kincaid is determined to live up to the towering image of her father, Duke Kincaid. But when she’s just 8, a horrible accident gets her sent to stay with an aunt. When she returns to her father’s house nine years later, she finds scandal and secrets waiting for her.
As she steps into her own life and out of her father’s shadow, Sallie has to decide what kind of person she’s going to be and whether she’ll follow in her father’s lawless footsteps or blaze her own righteous path. You’ll fall in love with Sallie on the very first page and keep rooting for her all the way through to the last.
March 2023
A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness: Stories by Jai Chakrabarti
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In 14 touching, heartfelt and vividly painted stories, characters grapple with the meaning of family and all the complications that arise within it. You’ll laugh, cry and gasp as you read about a closeted gay man who seeks to have a child with his lover’s wife, an Indian woman balancing her cultural identity with that of her Jewish fiancé and a young woman who travels from India to care for a biracial couple’s toddler, among many other tales about families that may even challenge you to reflect on your own.
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Freaky Friday meets Cinderella in this delightfully poignant romp from the beloved author of The Giver of Stars, and Me Before You, among many others. Nisha Cantor has become accustomed to a certain standard of living, but then her husband announces he's divorcing her and leaves her scrambling to hang onto her cushy lifestyle. When she accidentally leaves behind a gym bag containing a pair of red six-inch Christian Louboutin crocodile heels, it feels like the last straw. And Sam Kemp is hanging by a thread too, trying to keep her family afloat through some serious challenges.
When Sam accidentally picks up Nisha's gym bag and tries on the shoes she finds inside, she's hit by a lightning bolt of confidence that shows her there's another way to approach her problems — and look great doing it. But of course, Nisha's not about to let her fabulous footwear go and neither is her ex-husband in this charming caper that will keep you locked in all the way to the last page.
Everybody in Geeta’s remote Indian village thinks she murdered her husband, and she’s in no hurry to correct them. Being a “self-made” widow comes with some measure of respect, or at least invisibility, which enables her to run her handcrafted-jewelry business (not to mention her life) without interference. But when other women start consulting Geeta for her presumed expertise, she finds herself with an unsavory side hustle on her hands — and without as much control over her own destiny as she thought.
This funny, feel-good read is a rollicking ride rife with memorable characters involved in ill-fated hijinks. It also serves up clever commentary on class, power dynamics and the role of women in society, with a feminist history lesson to boot.
Lizz Schumer
Senior Editor
Lizz (she/her) is a senior editor at Good Housekeeping, where she runs the GH Book Club, edits essays and long-form features and writes about pets, books and lifestyle topics. A journalist for almost two decades, she is the author of Biography of a Body and Buffalo Steel. She also teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies and creative nonfiction at the Muse Writing Center, and coaches with the New York Writing Room.
