Celebrity book club picks for April 2026

by Woody Brown

🎧 Audiobook

This is the story of an adult daycare center in Los Angeles, Upward Bound, and all of those who inhabit it, either as residents or employees. Each has their own story and battles, and we have a chance to learn about them all, told from the point of view of our narrator, Walter, who has returned to Upward Bound after a family tragedy. Be ready for an amazing cast of characters who will live on in your mind long after the book is over.

From Jenna: ...“[I] read it on a single airplane ride, unable to tear myself away from the beauty in its pages.”

by Maria Semple

🎧 Audiobook

From the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, we have the story of another woman trying to find her place in the world. Adora thinks she’s figured out the secret to happiness in middle age: only want what you already have. This is turned on its head when she meets a handsome stranger and suddenly finds herself steeped in a world of art and intrigue, along with that thing that she’s been avoiding for so long: wanting more. Enjoy this fun, funny book that lets us all know that we can never stop wanting.

From Oprah: “For all those who crave a good page-turner, this is one wild ride of a story that carries equal parts wit and wisdom.”

by Emma Brodie

🎧 Audiobook

Get ready for some 2000s nostalgia in this romantic read about second chances, long buried secrets, and following your dreams. AJ is convinced her life is stuck when Noah Drew, of the Drew acting dynasty, walks into the video store where she works. They quickly form a friendship and acting partnership, which fizzles as fast as it was formed when Drew disappears. Seven years later, AJ finds herself cast on the same sci-fi show as Drew, and the two are forced to reconcile their past, the secrets it holds, and see if they can have a future.

From Reese: “I was so drawn to the way it explores fate versus choice.”

by Caro Claire Burke

🎧 Audiobook

This is the book that everyone on the Libby Librarian team cannot stop talking about! A tradwife social media influencer has it all in from of the camera, selling her simple pioneering lifestyle to the masses. That is, until she wakes up one day to discover that she’s in 1855 and the lifestyle that was a choice for her in her old life is now very much a reality. But how did she end up here? Is this real or an elaborate prank or a reality show? Trust nothing and no one as you find out the truth.

From GMA: “No Wi‑Fi. Just pioneering.”

by Tracy Deonn

🎧 Audiobook

The first in an explosive fantasy trilogy, this Arthurian-inspired magical realism tale will have you hooked from the first page. After her mother’s tragic passing, Bree knows that she needs to get away from her family home, and UNC-Chapel Hill’s high-school program seems the perfect place to do so—until she sees a magical demon attack on her very first night on campus. It’s here that she’s introduced to the secret society, “Legendborn,” that exists to hunt these demons that seem to hold the secret to what really happened when her mother died. Now she must infiltrate the group to find out the truth, and decide for herself what side she wants to be on in the upcoming fight.

From GMA: “gut-punching and unapologetic”

by Jez Butterworth

This award-winning play might be one of the first that you’ve read since Shakespeare in high school! However, you’ll find that contemporary plays read much differently than the Bard’s! In contemporary England, Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron has a quandary. He’s about to be evicted, so he’s hiding out in his home, but his son wants to be taken to the local fair. Also, his angry father is looming in the background. And his “mates” want to partake of his supply of drugs and alcohol. What chaos can this day bring? Enjoy reading this play, and maybe you’ll pick up some more in the future!

From Dua: “What I love most about Jerusalem, and why I’ve chosen it as our first play, is how alive it is on the page as well as the stage... It’s funny, tragic, fantastically alive, and the best reminder that reading plays is not only for school.”

by Emilia Hart

🎧 Audiobook

If this beautiful cover doesn’t capture your interest, then the story of nature and witchcraft certainly will! This is the story of three women, all in different times, connected by the same magic. Kate is in the present, who has found her way to Weyward Cottage to escape an abusive partner. Altha is in 1619 and awaiting her trial for witchcraft for with the death of a local farmer. Violet is in 1942 and waiting out WWII and hoping for more from her life than what society promises women. Their stories interweave across the centuries, proving that women in all times are stronger than they appear.

From Reagan: “A story of three women connected across generations, nature, and quiet strength.”

by Casey Scieszka

🎧 Audiobook

What would you do if you could live forever? Vera is 26 forever, and has returned to the Catskill Mountains to find out exactly what happened over 150 years ago to cause this curse to befall her and her family. Posing as a forest ranger (just the newest in many disguises she’s had over the decades), she discovers that a local company is buying up all of the properties in the area, no matter the cost. She becomes convinced she’s getting close to the truth. And time is of the essence, for the first time in years, as her brother shows up with a woman who seems to be too familiar with their family. Can she solve this mystery before someone else solves it for her?

From Belletrist: “This is the kind of book you carry with you even after you’ve finished it, the kind you want to talk about, underline, and return to.”

by Tara Menon

🎧 Audiobook

This is the type of book that sticks with you for a long time, just like grief. Marissa’s life is built on grief. When her mother passes away when Marissa is six, her father upends her life and moves them to Thailand to complete her mother’s research. She befriends the daughter of the owner of the resort they live on during the week, and the two girls are inseparable, spending their weeks together and their weekends on an island full of marine biologists and researchers. They learn to swim, dive, and be one with the water around them, never fearing it. Until one day, tragedy strikes again, and her friend’s young life is lost. Years later, Marissa is living in New York and confronted with another life-altering phenomenon that she must confront in order to have a future.

From Dakota: “It’s about friendship, love grief, and healing. There will be tears fyi”

by Giada Scodellaro

This award-winning novel tells the story of six women living in a run-down apartment tower, all sharing the same space, in a time that may be the future. Told in sparce, quick prose, we learn of all of these women, their connection, and also the space around them. This novel is really unlike any that you’ve read before, and the writing itself is captivating and beautiful, almost like poetry.

From Kaia and Alyssa: “Our highlighters are running out of ink ⚠️ this book is so special.”

by Edward Abbey

🎧 Audiobook

You can never go home again, and George Washington Hayduke III finds that out when he returns home to the West, from war in the jungles of Southeast Asia. What was once pristine beauty and unspoiled wilderness is now strip mines and damns, put up to make corporations and the government rich. With a cast of quirky characters, he plans to take all of them down, along with all of the infrastructure that they’ve built. This environmental classic is as funny as it is timely, and is a classic text that still feels relevant today.

From John: “The novel is as hilarious, weird and American as a classic Robert Altman movie.”

by Tennessee Williams

🎧 Audiobook

It’s a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared. Decades after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the ‘40s and ’50s.