10 Books To Wake Up Your Book Club

Originally published on Kirkus . For more from Kirkus, click here .

Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century by Chuck Klosterman

Even those who only dimly remember Royce White, Pavement, or Gnarls Barkley will find the reflections on them engaging. A collection of journalistic pieces that remain provocative, or at least interesting, even if the subjects that inspired them have faded from memory. Read full book review .

Love and Trouble by Claire Dederer

Insightful, provocative, and fearlessly frank, Dederer seduces readers with her warmth, wit, and wisdom. A fierce new memoir from the essayist and longtime New York Times contributor. Read full book review .

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki

Always enjoyable if not always believable, this novel succeeds by staying light on its feet. Or, as one character puts it, Please dont monetize my bunny. In the Hollywood Hills, a smart, damaged mother of two hires a nanny so she can work on a memoirbut the younger woman is no less a piece of work than she is and intent on an art project of her own. Read full book review .

The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah

A meditation on a timely subject that never forgets to put its characters and their stories first.(Fiction. 12-17) An Afghani-Australian teen named Mina earns a scholarship to a prestigious private school and meets Michael, whose family opposes allowing Muslim refugees and immigrants into the country. Read full book review .

Change Agent by Daniel Suarez

A natural at making future shocks seem perfectly believable, Suarez (Influx, 2014, etc.) delivers his most entertaining high-tech thriller yet. In the year 2045, Singapore-based Interpol agent Kenneth Durand's campaign against black-market gene editing is set back when he's injected with a synthetic "change agent" that transforms him into the spitting image of his evil nemesis. Read full book review .

No One Cares About Crazy People by Ron Powers

This hybrid narrative, enhanced by the authors considerable skills as a literary stylist, succeeds on every level. Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Powers (Mark Twain: A Life, 2005, etc.) presents two searing sagas: an indictment of mental health care in the United States and the story of his two schizophrenic sons. Read full book review .

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

One of the most bittersweet love stories in modern memory and a book to savor even while despairing of its truths. Hamid (Discontent and Its Civilizations, 2014, etc.) crafts a richly imaginative tale of love and loss in the ashes of civil war. Read full book review .

A Separation by Katie Kitamura

A minutely observed novel of infidelity unsettles its characters and readers. Dread and lassitude twist into a spare and stunning portrait of a marital estrangement. Read full book review .

The Golden Legend by Nadeem Aslam

Brooding and beautiful: a mature, assured story of the fragility of the world and of ourselves. This world is the last thing God will ever tell us: an aching, lyrical story of schisms and secrets in present-day Pakistan. Read full book review .

Imagine Wanting Only This by Kristen Radtke

Powerfully illustrated and incisively writtena subtle dazzler of a debut. Insights and images combine in a meditation on loss, grief, and the illusions of permanence. Read full book review .