November National Book Club Picks

Looking for a new book club read? Check out these titles that were chosen as national book club picks this November!

SWEET PEA by Kit de Waal is the Read with Jenna pick for November!

When Paulette arrived in England as a young girl, she left behind a grandmother in St. Kitts who called her “Sweet Pea,” taught her to cook, and admonished her to avoid temptation and embrace love and forgiveness, in that order. Now, Paulette’s twenty-nine and within reach of her dream; a wedding, a baby and a little house. She’s got the man, handsome Denton, and a good job as an assistant nurse. But when tragedy strikes, her baby comes from Denton’s friend, a relationship that can’t last. Soon it’s just Paulette, grieving the life she almost had, and her son, Bird. It seems like enough, until another boy, the same age as Bird, appears. Now, there’s someone new to take under wing and worry about, someone who calls her Sweet Pea and makes her laugh. Through friendships, motherhood, and connections that emerge in the most unexpected places, Paulette discovers strength in everyday acts of kindness.

A luminous and lyrical novel of the trials of life and the compassion that can follow, SWEET PEA introduces readers to an indelible heroine who never turns away from her capacity to love.

THE GREAT WHEREVER by Shannon Sanders is Reese Witherspoon’s new book club pick!

The dead are relentless gossips, or at least these dead are. . .

At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling through adulthood. Underpaid and working multiple jobs in Washington, DC, she’s grieving the end of a serious relationship and the recent loss of her father. When Aubrey learns she has inherited his stake in a sizable Tennessee farm, she sees an opportunity to get out of the city—and to erase a mounting pile of debt.

Watching her arrival with great interest are four ghosts—Aubrey’s ancestors, who’ve staked their own claims to the farm and who never hesitate to pass judgment on the mistakes made by the living, be they romantic, financial, or sartorial. As Aubrey reconnects with her living family, another story unfolds in parallel: the history of the land, beginning with its purchase by Thomas, Aubrey’s great-grandfather and one of the first Black landowners in his community. Though Thomas hopes to give his children a homestead on which they could flourish, the land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it turns the Lambs against one another, culminating in a catastrophic tragedy that splinters the family and echoes through the decades.

Now, as the clock ticks on a potential sale of the farm, the ghosts fear expulsion from the home they’ve made, and Aubrey must weigh the hopes and burdens of her forebears with the very real needs of her future.

An expansive family saga told with a wry and distinctly modern voice, THE GREAT WHEREVER is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our families, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us.