September Book Club Poll
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September Book Club: Bring the Tissues
For September, we’re embracing books that might break our hearts a little. This month’s choices span historical fiction, mythology, family sagas, and unforgettable stories of love and survival—but they all have one thing in common: you may want to keep the tissues nearby.
Vote for the book you’d most like to read!
The Song of Achilles — Madeline Miller
A lyrical reimagining of the story of Achilles, told through the eyes of Patroclus, the awkward young prince who becomes his closest companion and great love. As the two grow up together and are eventually drawn into the Trojan War, their relationship unfolds against a backdrop of prophecy, honor, ambition, and fate. Even if you know how the myth ends, Miller creates a deeply intimate story about devotion and the terrible cost of loving someone destined for greatness. Beautiful, romantic, and famously devastating.
The Nightingale — Kristin Hannah
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, two very different sisters are forced to make impossible choices about survival, resistance, family, and courage. Vianne tries to protect her daughter and home while German soldiers occupy her village, while rebellious Isabelle becomes increasingly involved in the French Resistance. Their separate experiences reveal different forms of bravery and the often-overlooked roles women played during the war. Sweeping, suspenseful, and deeply emotional, this is a story of sisterhood, sacrifice, and the lasting consequences of war.
West with Giraffes — Lynda Rutledge
Inspired by an incredible true story, this novel follows 17-year-old Woody Nickel as he helps transport two giraffes across Depression-era America after they survive a hurricane. What begins as an unusual cross-country adventure becomes a story about human connection, survival, hope, and the unexpected ways animals can change our lives. Told by an elderly Woody looking back on the journey decades later, the novel blends humor and adventure with increasingly poignant reflections on memory and loss. It's the gentlest option on our tearjerker list, but still packs an emotional punch.
Buckeye — Patrick Ryan
Set in a small Ohio town beginning around World War II, Buckeye follows two families whose lives become intertwined by a secret that reverberates across generations. As marriages, friendships, children, and loyalties are tested over the decades, the novel explores the difference between the lives people imagine for themselves and the ones they actually end up living. It's an intimate family saga about love, betrayal, regret, forgiveness, and the complicated ways parents' choices shape their children. A quieter kind of tearjerker for readers who love character-driven stories and complicated families.
A Thousand Splendid Suns — Khaled Hosseini
In Afghanistan, Mariam and Laila are born nearly a generation apart and grow up under dramatically different circumstances before war and tragedy bring their lives together. Forced into the same household, the two women gradually develop a profound bond that becomes a source of strength amid violence, oppression, and enormous personal loss. Their story unfolds alongside decades of upheaval in Afghanistan, making the novel both an intimate portrait of two women and a larger story about survival. This is arguably the heaviest selection on the list—but also one of the most powerful stories of friendship, sacrifice, and enduring love.
Hamnet — Maggie O'Farrell
Inspired by the real family of William Shakespeare, Hamnet imagines the life of his wife Agnes and the devastating loss of their 11-year-old son during the plague. Rather than focusing on Shakespeare's fame, the novel centers domestic life, marriage, motherhood, and the enormous presence a child's absence leaves behind. O'Farrell explores how two parents experience the same loss differently and how grief can both separate and connect the people left behind. Atmospheric, beautifully written, and quietly heartbreaking.
Fruit of the Drunken Tree — Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Set in Bogotá during the violent era of Pablo Escobar, this novel follows seven-year-old Chula and Petrona, the teenage maid who works for her wealthy family. Although they live in the same city, the girls experience Colombia's instability from opposite sides of class and privilege, and their lives become increasingly entangled as danger moves closer to home. Inspired in part by the author's own childhood, the story explores innocence, inequality, family, violence, and the impossible decisions people make to survive. It's tense and heartbreaking while also offering a fascinating portrait of childhood during political turmoil.