Year in Review: Check Out Every Feel-Good Read Chosen for Our Book Club (2024)

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.