8 Great Diverse Book Club Picks for Summer Reading

8 Great Diverse Book Club Picks for Summer Reading Ive heard many book club leaders and participants  lament how  difficult it is to find diverse authors and books. And I get it. Sometimes, whats marketed as book club fiction can be pretty predictably white bread. Summer is a great time to branch out and try something new. These eight diverse book club picks for summer, from memoir to YA to fiction, will capture readers attention while slipping outside the comfort zone and into the experiences by diverse  authors. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Roxanne Gay (Memoir) Somehow, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body  is the first work Ive read of  prolific essayist and writer Roxanne Gay. When I began this memoir about Gays struggle with eating and acceptance of her body,  I was worried it would be a trigger for me since I have struggled with an eating disorder most of my life. Instead, her incredibly intimate duel between battling and embracing food and weight was an inspiration. This excellent memoir is a great pick for book clubs because Gays reflections are so complex, ones that get at the heart of being a woman of weight in todays brutal body image culture. Readers will likely  find themselves in Gays memoir, leading to discussion about  our personal relationship to food. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Arundhati Roy (Fiction) Doubtless one of the most anticipated novels of the year,  The Ministry of Utmost Happiness lives up to the hype. From the author of the astonishing Man Booker Prize-winning  The God of Small Things, Roys first novel in twenty years is a  sweeping saga of India, rooted in characters so vividly drawn they seem real.  The Ministry of Utmost Happiness  delivers a soaring look at ambition, love, and activism, among other themes. Book clubs will appreciate a story so immersive in another part of the world while trying to tease out the universal threads of history, modernity, and change that are familiar  all around the globe. The Leavers Lisa Ko (Fiction) Debut novelist Lisa Ko wins over readers in her ballad of Deming Guo, the son of a formidable Chinese woman, Polly, who comes to America seeking to abort her unwanted son. Instead, Polly is grounded in the Bronx, eventually recalling her son to live with her and her boyfriend and his sister and son, Michael. When Polly vanishes without a trace, Deming is puzzled and heartbroken and soon adopted by an affluent couple to be raised in all-white Upstate New York. Years later, Michael reappears offering possible answers to Deming, now reborn as Daniel Wilkinson, about his mothers disappearance. This novel explores themes of social justice, the undocumented experience in America, and women who reject gender norms. Book discussion groups will be moved by this multi-layered saga and the hard questions it provokes about identity, responsibility, and reinvention. No One Is Coming to Save Us Stephanie Powell Watts (Fiction) If youre going to reinterpret F. Scott Fitzgeralds  The Great Gatsby, you better bring your A game to adapt one of the so-called Great American Novels. Debut author Stephanie Powell Watts situates her story in 21st century Pinewood, a North Carolina town devastated by the loss of factory jobs. Following a predominately African American family, Eva manages some economic stability with her steady job in a bank. When Evas old high school classmate and friend JJ (Jay) Ferguson returns to a self-made success, he hopes to fashion a mansion and woo Eva. But Pinewood has changed, and so has Eva. Jays tragic quest is both quixotic and tragic. Book clubs will want to draw parallels between the plots between  No One Is Coming to Save Us and  Gatsby, but Powell Watts novel stands aloneâ€"maybe even surpassesâ€"Fitzgeralds canonical work. Come for the premise, stay for the lush writing and sobering, astute landscape of contemporary America: the things that never change, the things that still coul d. Rich People Problems    Kevin Kwan (Fiction) In Rich People Problems,  Singaporean novelist Kevin Kwan concludes  his compulsively readable trilogy that  started with  Crazy Rich Asians (2013). Kwans acerbic, satirical look at wealth and excess in todays China, based on his own experiences, has won a cult-like readership. In this  final novel, the rich matriarch of the Tyersall Park, the richest estate in Singapore (think Downton Abbey), lies on her deathbed while family from around the world descend like flies to honey trying to inherit the 64-acre property. In a novel where the rich dont blink about spending tens of thousands of dollars on plastic surgery for fish (which Kwan insists is a real thing), expect over-the-top dysfunction and Kardashian-level drama. Readers will want to binge read  Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend  (2015) before starting on this outrageous tale and being prepped for the film adaptation of  Crazy Rich Asians  starring Constance Wu. With a billionaire in our White House,  Kwans trilogy lif ts the curtain back on the outrageous excess of todays rich and powerful. (PS: check out this A-Z list of terms within the gilded world of  Rich People Problems  from the Toronto Star.) Little Lion Brandy Colbert (Fiction YA) I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of Brandy Colberts Little Lion since I first heard Book Riot editor Kelly Jensen talk it up  earlier this year. In this novel by the author of  Pointe, Suzette returns to her family in L.A. on break from the boarding school she attends in New England. Immediately, Suzette is pushed back into the ongoing whirlwind of her twin brother Lionels struggle  with bipolar disorder.  Suzette finds herself unexpectedly attracted to the same girl her brother loves. When Lions illness  worsens, Suzette has to try to not get taken down, too. This novel  questions the strain of caregiving, the tragedy of illness, and love we cannot ignore. The Hate U Give Angie Thomas (Fiction YA) If you read one YA book this year, well, if you read one  any book this year, make it Angie Thomas debut,  The Hate U Give. This powerful novel  likely needs no introduction at this point, but just in case you missed it,  The Hate U Give follows one Black teen, Starr, caught between two worldsâ€"her predominately white suburban private school and the predominately Black urban neighborhood she goes home to each day. When Starr becomes the only witness to her close friends murder by a white cop during  a traffic stop, Star is pushed into the spotlight and forced to choose her allegiances with the stakes higher than ever. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement,  The Hate U Give  is a visceral look at the tensions that divide us and the continuing injustice in America. This provocative novel will demand readers confront their own response to a tragedy and guarantee a strong discussion. You Dont Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir Sherman Alexie (Memoir) From The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian  to Reservation Blues,  National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexies  reputation for compelling characters  and unforgettable stories  is legendary. So it should come as no shock that his memoir,  You Dont Have to Say You Love Me, translates his fiction storytelling prowess to his own personal history. Alexies memoir examines his relationship with his mother growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. A formidable  woman whose alcoholism nearly tore his family apart, his mother held expectations  for her son that were complicated by her own imperfections but unrelenting belief in him. After her death, Alexie works through his memories of his mother and  childhood in this moving, intimate account of family, legacy, and love. What are your favorite diverse book club picks? To really get the conversation going at yours, check out 40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions.   Save