From the Russian ballet world to a small Irish town at Christmas, this month’s book club picks will take you on a cozy diversion from the holiday hustle. These celeb-backed books are the perfect excuse to curl up with a new read or enjoy the audiobook version while dashing around like Santa’s elf.

Make it a true book club and connect with fellow readers, learn more about the author, or join the discussion by visiting their websites or social media listed below. If you don’t have a book club of your own, hopping on the celebrity book club bandwagon is a fun, casual way to be part of a community of like-minded book lovers.

Check out the selections for December 2024! Load your Libby app with these picks you can borrow free from your library.

Read with Jenna

Devotions by Mary Oliver
🎧 Audiobook

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last 50 years.

Carefully curated, these 200+ poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

Oprah's Book Club

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
🎧 Audiobook

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

This was adapted into a film earlier this year starring Cillian Murphy.

Reese’s Book Club

City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim
🎧 Audiobook

A once-famous ballerina faces a final choice—to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke her, or to walk away forever—in this incandescent novel of redemption and love.

Painting a vivid portrait of the Russian ballet world, where cutthroat ambition, ever-shifting politics, and sublime artistry collide, this book unveils the making of a dancer with both profound intimacy and breathtaking scope.

Good Morning America

The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall
🎧 Audiobook

Thrown into a desolate land of sickness and unnatural beasts, Kai wakes in the woods with no idea who she is or how she got there. All she knows is that if she cannot reach the Sea of Devour, even this hellscape will get worse.

But when she sees the village blacksmith fight invaders with unspeakable skill, she decides to accept his offer of help. As she searches for answers, Kai only finds more questions, especially regarding the blacksmith who can ignite her body like a flame, then douse it with ice in the next breath. And no one is what—or who—they appear to be in the kingdom of Vinevridth, including the man whose secrets might be as deadly as the land itself.

Library Science (Kaia Gerber's Book Club)

Set My Heart on Fire by Izumi Suzuki
🎧 Audiobook

Set in the underground bar and club scene of 1970s Tokyo, this book tells the story of Izumi in her turbulent twenties. Through a series of disarmingly frank vignettes, the author presents an unforgettable portrait of a young woman encountering missteps and miscommunication, good music and unreliable men, powerful drugs and disorientating meds. Izumi usually keeps her relationships short but complicated, until she meets Jun.

Set My Heart on Fire is a visceral novel about mistaken relationships and the convolutions of desire, about regret and acceptance. Pulsing through the narration is the protagonist’s love of music, a vital soundtrack spanning the Zombies, T. Rex, and the Rolling Stones as well as underground Japanese psychedelic-rock bands such as the Tigers and the Tempters.

Belletrist (Emma Roberts & Karah Priess)

Darkly by Marisha Pessl
🎧 Audiobook

When an ad for an internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation appears, Arcadia 'Dia' Gannon rushes to apply. Veda's game-making empire, Darkly, was renowned for its ingenious and terrifying games back in the day and Dia is as obsessed with them as anyone. The remaining games are priced like highly sought-after works of art, with the rarest and most notorious commanding tens of millions of dollars at auction. Now, Dia is thrust into the enigmatic heart of the operation. But who are these other interns? Why do they all seem to have something to hide? And why was she really chosen? It soon becomes clear that this summer will be the most twisted Darkly game of all.

If you’re looking for a club, be part of ours! Big Library Read is a worldwide digital version of a local book club and it’s free through your library. Just download the Libby app and enter your library card to get started. Subscribe to Libby Life for updates on the next selection!

*Title availability may vary by library & region.

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