Find Your Book Besties!

By Ashly Moore Sheldon • May 22, 2026

I love sharing and discussing books with the people in my life. I'm not the fastest reader, but I am voracious. I was a kid who spent much of my leisure time curled up with a good book. And as an adult, I crave and covet uninterrupted reading time. Even so, it can take me a while to get through books I love because I pore over the precious words. I reread segments I particularly enjoy sometimes to myself, sometimes aloud to whomever happens to be nearby. This interest in close-reading made me an excellent addition to my literature classes when I was a student. And for a long time, it also made me an enthusiastic book club member.

I have been in book clubs my whole adult life and these experiences have been positive, even at times when I was the only one who enjoyed (or maybe even read) the book. But over the last few years, I have been drifting away from the book club I've enjoyed for nearly two decades. It's made up of a wonderful group of brilliant women who have excellent taste in books, food, and more. Our gatherings at each other's comfortable homes have always been fascinating, delicious, and spirited. So why am I disenchanted?

There are a variety of reasons I could list: Going out in the evenings feels increasingly difficult as I get older. The pressure of hosting often feels overwhelming. There are a lot of personalities and a lot of schedules and a lot of book suggestions and, well, it's just a lot. So I stopped going. But I haven't stopped sharing and discussing books. Book buddies, old and new, have sprung up to fill the void.

Micro-book clubs

A new book-loving friend suggested we form a two-person book club and we did! Since then we've invited my favorite neighbor to join, so now we're three. We meet mid-day at either my house or my neighbor's. We each bring something tasty to nosh on. The scale and coordination of this smaller gathering appeals to the introvert in me and it's just a better fit for my life right now. We've all suggested titles to read and some of our favorites have included:

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro—From a Nobel Prize-winning author, this historical fantasy is a luminous meditation on the act of forgetting and the power of memory.
• The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck—From another Nobel Laureate, comes the epic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (and Oprah pick!) about a vanished China and one family's shifting fortunes.
• We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman—Edi and Ash have always been best friends. But now Edi is dying. This raucous, poignant novel celebrates life, love, and friendship at its imperfect and radiant best.
• The Searcher by Tana French—The first in a series of atmospheric thrillers about a former Chicago cop who retires to a bucolic Irish village where he soon learns that even small towns shelter dark secrets.
• Recitatif by Toni Morrison—A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Nobel Prize winner. With an introduction by Zadie Smith.

A micro book club doesn't have to be formal or organized. A friend of mine recently mentioned her mother-daughter book club. "How did you find it?" I asked. "Who's in it?" She explained that it's actually just her and her teenage daughter sharing reads with one another. "After we finish a book, we go to lunch together and discuss it," she said. This is such a great example of the way that books can serve as a bridge across generations. Here are some of the books that my friend has enjoyed with her teen:

• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden—A wild and willful young woman finds herself at the center of a tale of spirits, ancient evils, and the mysterious winter-king in the first novel of The Winternight Trilogy.
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins—Haymitch takes center stage in this thrilling prequel to the dystopian Hunger Games series.
• The Martian by Andy Weir—Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt—Two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends in this moving story of love, grief, and renewal.
• Educated by Tara Westover—An unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family to get an education.

My book bestie

When I'm reading a book, I often think of specific people in my life who might like it. My sister is my favorite book buddy. She lives across the country from me, but whenever I read something I love, I send her a text of the cover and say something like, "I want you to read this so we can talk about it" and it goes on her TBR list.

When I left home to go to school, this sister inherited my room, and with it, a bookcase filled with my old books. I'm the oldest of seven children. She's number five, eight years younger. We weren't close then and didn't really keep in touch for a number of years. But as adults, we've become the best of friends. A few months ago, she sent me a letter. She wrote: "It was such a gift to inherit that book collection and to always have something to read. And I'm not sure it's possible to understand how much that shaped me."

It fills me with a fierce, tender joy to think about the two of us—far apart in age and distance—finding this unlikely connection over those old dog-eared paperbacks. This was the beginning of our powerful literary bond and I didn't even know it was happening. Here are some of the books we both remember enjoying from those childhood shelves:

• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card—A Hugo and Nebula award-winning sci-fi classic about a young boy's recruitment into an interstellar war.
• One Child by Torey L. Hayden—The true story of a tormented six-year-old and the brilliant teacher who found a way to break through to her.
• Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm by Betty MacDonald—Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves children good or bad and never scolds but has positive cures for Answer-Backers, Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders, and more.
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare—In this Newbery Medal-winning historical fiction classic, a girl faces prejudice and accusations of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Connecticut.
• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh—A clever, observant eleven-year-old girl learns the power of words when her notebook falls into the wrong hands.

And here are some of the books we are loving together nowadays:

• Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll—This exhilarating thriller examines our culture's obsession with serial killers and true crime as it follows two women pursuing justice against all odds.
• The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai—A dazzling novel of friendship and redemption in the face of tragedy and loss set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris.
• Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe—A hilarious and heartwarming story about a young woman navigating adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account.
• Big Swiss by Jen Beagin—A weird and wonderful novel about a sex therapist's transcriptionist who falls into an affair with one of the patients.
• All Fours by Miranda July—In this profoundly funny, sexy novel, a middle-aged artist abandons her plan to drive across the country and embarks on an entirely different journey.

If you're looking for your own book besties, I hope this post gives you some ideas. And please let us know if you have any of your own suggestions for creating community around reading. We'd love to hear them!

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