Join our Instagram channel to discuss The Nod Book Club's book of the month as we read it. 

The Nod Book Club | Virtual | Fiction 

The Nod Book Club 

A virtual literary hangout where we handpick one unputdownable book every month

The Names

Why ‘The Names’ by Florence Knapp is our May pick 

About: In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register the birth of her son. Her husband, Gordon, respected in the community but a controlling presence at home, intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and name the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates....Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of their lives, shaped by Cora's last-minute choice of name. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities for autonomy and healing.

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'The Names' by Florence Knapp

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Join our Instagram channel to discuss the book of the month as we read it. From every-thought-you-had-while-reading to the author's notes, there's a lot going on here. 

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Kiran Desai in conversation with Sonam Kapoor for The Nod Book Club

Getting Kiran Desai and Sonam Kapoor in a room to talk about 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' (and then some) was pure magic. There was laughter, goosebumps, a few misty eyes—and everything in between. We couldn’t have dreamed up a better duo to kick off The Nod Book Club’s very first event.

About: Frankie and George have been best friends since they were eight years old. Both passionate, impulsive, and headstrong—they’ve always clashed . . . and come back together. Until now. It’s the eve of Frankie’s wedding weekend, and she doesn’t know where they stand or even if George will show up as her best man.Then, at the start of the festivities, in walks George. For one glorious evening, surrounded by her loved ones, Frankie’s life is finally perfect. But it all comes crashing down when her fiancé dumps her the next morning, leaving only a note as an explanation.Crushed and confused, Frankie returns to her family’s home to wallow. But George has a different idea and a plan for healing Frankie’s broken heart. He wants her to go on her honeymoon. With him. For one week, to the lush rainforests and misty beaches of Tofino.Frankie agrees, seeing the trip for what it really is: one last chance to repair their friendship. Even if it means unearthing secrets and long buried feelings neither knows how to handle. Even if it means falling apart for good.Release date: 5 May, 2026

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'Our Perfect Storm' by Carley Fortune

About: Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.Release date: 19 May, 2026

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'Canon' by Paige Lewis

About: Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates—and Meg's—converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what's rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.Release date: 5 May, 2026

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'The Calamity Club' by Kathryn Stockett 

About: Artie Dam is living a double life. He spends his days teaching history to eleventh graders, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbors, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad—at himself and the people around him—and turns a question over and over in his How is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear—and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.Release date: 5 May, 2026

'The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout

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'The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout 

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The Nod Book Club

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‘Yesteryear’ is what happens when tradwife content goes too far

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Belle Burden’s buzzy divorce memoir has a not-so-subtle message for women

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Caroline Palmer had one constant companion while writing ‘Workhorse’—a $50 leopard coat 

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6 stunning art books that aren’t just decor props 

‘Workhorse’ is more feral than ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ 

About: At the turn of the millennium, editorial assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: She doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’s boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system—or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners—and who are we if we share her desires?Themes: Workplace drama, Ambition, New York high society

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'Workhorse' by Caroline Palmer

‘The Correspondent’ is Virginia Evans’s first novel—and also her eighth

About: Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.&nbsp;Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

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'The Correspondent' by Virginia Evans

Why ‘One Golden Summer’ is the perfect pick this February

About: Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer there at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

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'One Golden Summer' by Carley Fortune

19 years ago, she wrote a Booker-winning novel. Now she’s back with another contender

About: In the snowy mountains of Vermont, Sonia is lonely. A college student and aspiring writer homesick for India, she turns to an older artist for inspiration and intimacy, a man who will cast a dark spell on the next many years of her life. In Brooklyn, Sunny is lonely, too. A struggling journalist originally from Delhi, he is both beguiled and perplexed by his American girlfriend and the country in which he plans to find his future. As Sonia and Sunny each becomes more and more alienated, they begin to question their understanding of happiness, human connection, and where they belong.Back in India, Sonia and Sunny's extended families cannot fathom how anyone could be lonely in this great, bustling world. They arrange a meeting between the two—a clumsy meddling that only drives Sonia and Sunny apart before they have a chance to fall in love.The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next.&nbsp;Themes: Family saga, Immigration, Love

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'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' by Kiran Desai

Why you need to read ‘A Guardian and a Thief’ by Megha Majumdar  

About: In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their treasured immigration documents, has been stolen.Set over the course of one week, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as they stave off encroaching catastrophe.Themes: Climate change, Family saga, DisplacementRelease date: October 31, 2025

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'A Guardian and a Thief' by Megha Majumdar 

Book Club

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Beyond the Book: Meera Ganapathi in conversation with Megha Majumdar

In times like these, picking Megha Majumdar's ‘A Guardian and a Thief’ as The Nod Book Club's December read was a no-brainer. To wrap up our last pick of the year, we got writer Meera Ganapathi to chat with Majumdar about climate change, why Kolkata anchors the novel, and the uneasy, fascinating questions that sit at its heart.Social Media Editor: Diya ParakhVisuals editor: Ria Rawat~Join our Instagram channel to read along with us: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbaiNjee79flVG5f/More about The Nod Book Club here: https://thenodmag.com/book-club&nbsp;

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Beyond the Book: Parmesh Shahani in conversation with Mahesh Rao

We get attached to our books—and Mahesh Rao’s 'Half Light' was particularly hard to let go of. So, to process this novel's emotional whiplash, we got writer Parmesh Shahani to chat with Rao about queer clichés, why Ahaan Pandey and Taha Shah are their dream leading men, and whether a sequel might be lurking in Rao’s drafts.&nbsp;&nbsp;~Join our Instagram channel to read along with us: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbaiNjee79flVG5f/&nbsp;More about The Nod Book Club here: https://thenodmag.com/book-club

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 Beyond the Book: Namita Dubey in conversation with Adelle Waldman

We’re still not over Adelle Waldman’s 'Help Wanted'—our October pick for The Nod Book Club. So, we called in actor and bookworm Namita Dubey to do what she does best: ask a lot of questions. In this chat, Waldman spills on how her day job inspired the book, who she’d cast in a movie version, and a whole lot more.~The Nod Book Club's Instagram channel: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbaiNjee79flVG5f/More about The Nod Book Club here: https://thenodmag.com/book-club?utm_source=wa

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Beyond the Book: Ria Chopra in conversation with Amrita Mahale

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Beyond the Book: Ahilya Bamroo in conversation with Shelby Van Pelt

To wrap up The Nod Book Club's August read, 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' (aka “that octopus book”), we got author Shelby Van Pelt and content creator Ahilya Bamroo to chat with us about what makes this story feel like a warm hug (literally), why Lewis Pullman is the best ever, and if an octopus can actually operate a copy machine 🐙~Join our Instagram channel to read along with us: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbaiNjee79flVG5f/More about The Nod Book Club here: https://thenodmag.com/book-club

The Nod Book Club

MAY PICK

The Names

By Sheya Kurian

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