As summer winds down, book lovers across the country are finding themselves spoiled for choice—with August 2025 bringing a bumper crop of new releases, major book club picks, and a renewed focus on diverse voices. From virtual author chats to in-person gatherings, readers are coming together to celebrate stories that span continents, cultures, and genres. This month’s selections, as highlighted by Book Riot on August 12, 2025, and Chicago Reader the same day, reveal a literary landscape that’s as varied as it is vibrant.
Among the most anticipated releases is The El, the latest novel by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., an author whose roots in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood run deep. Van Alst, now a professor of Indigenous nations studies at Portland State University and an enrolled member of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians, has made it his mission to preserve and celebrate the stories of working-class and Native communities in Chicago. His new novel, set over a single sweltering day in August 1979, follows Teddy—a teenage member of the Simon City Royals gang—as he leads his friends on a perilous journey through the city’s Red and Brown train lines.
“I’m missing Chicago every day, and I miss taking the el,” Van Alst told Chicago Reader. He described how his memories of riding the train to school, downtown movie theaters, and anywhere else he needed to go became the heartbeat of The El. The book teems with sensory details: the screech of rusty wheels, the crackle of the intercom, and the unique smells and sights of Chicago’s elevated trains in the late 1970s. It even includes a hand-drawn map of the train system as it was then, complete with gang symbols marking the territories of Teddy’s friends and rivals.
But Van Alst’s work is more than just a nostalgic trip through the city’s past. “Our stories just don’t get told, and they live in a whole world that a lot of people just don’t notice,” he explained. He’s passionate about portraying working-class characters who, like Teddy, care deeply about literature, music, and art. “There’s a whole group of folks in this city who are not filler, who are not just background, who are not just the people who fix your lighting or take your orders or do whatever. It’s really important to understand that our lives are equally as important to making Chicago what it is.”
Van Alst’s commitment to authenticity has resonated with readers and critics alike. His previous trilogy of mosaic novels—Sacred Smokes, Sacred City, and Sacred Folks—and his work as coeditor of the national bestseller Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology have established him as a powerful voice for communities too often overlooked in mainstream literature. His appearance at the Printers Row Lit Fest on September 6, 2025, is already generating buzz among Chicago’s literary faithful.
As Teddy muses in the closing pages of The El: “Elders always said we’re only our stories, it’s important to keep them alive.” It’s a sentiment that echoes across this month’s book club selections, many of which center on the importance of storytelling, memory, and identity.
Book Riot’s August roundup showcases 13 major book clubs, each bringing its own flavor to the literary table. The Subtle Asian Book Club, founded by Tiffany and Alexandra in 2020, highlights The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha—a work of translated magical realism described as full of “rhythms of a Thai soap opera.” Eclectix The Book Club and Mocha Girls Read, both prioritizing Black authors and diverse genres, have chosen S.A. Cosby’s King of Ashes, a southern thriller lauded for its “gore and angst.”
Reality television fans have something to look forward to as well. Roxane Gay’s book club spotlights Parvati Shallow’s memoir Nice Girls Don’t Win, with Gay praising it as “a bold book, a chronicle of survival, the obstacles that hold you back, and the dreams that usher you forward.” She’ll be in conversation with Shallow on August 28, 2025, at 8 pm EST—a virtual event sure to draw a crowd.
Reese’s Book Club, famous for centering women’s stories, has picked Ashley Jordan’s debut Once Upon a Time in Dollywood. Reese Witherspoon herself gushed, “Ashley’s voice is vibrant, funny, and full of heart. I read this in one sitting, it’s that good!” Meanwhile, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer is the focus for The Stacks Book Club, with the club noting, “Kimmerer offers a framework for humans to take care of and be in community with the living beings around us.”
Other standout picks include Emma Nanami Strenner’s My Other Heart (Read With Jenna), Holly Jackson’s twisty thriller Not Quite Dead Yet (Good Morning America Book Club), and Jessica Berger Gross’s Hazel Says No (Matzah Book Soup), the latter of which will feature a live Zoom chat with the author on August 28, 2025. Jack Edwards’s Inklings Book Club, a new addition to the scene, dives into Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna, described as “the hottest book of the summer (literally, it’s set during a heatwave).”
Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Book Club is getting in on the action with A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst, while Sapph-Lit, born from TikTok, embraces queer love and immigrant stories with Sarah Thankam Mathews’s All This Could Be Different. And, of course, Oprah’s Book Club continues its storied tradition with Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo, which Oprah herself describes as a “timeless novel you can really sink your teeth into.”
The sheer range of genres—memoir, magical realism, crime, romance, thrillers, and more—reflects a growing appetite for stories that challenge, comfort, and connect. Many of these clubs offer virtual participation, author interviews, and lively discussions, making it easier than ever for readers from all backgrounds to join in. Whether it’s the story of a young woman solving her own murder in Holly Jackson’s thriller or the “profound immigrant story and saga of queer love” in All This Could Be Different, there’s something for everyone this month.
What ties these selections together is a shared belief in the power of storytelling to shape identity, preserve memory, and foster community. As Van Alst’s Teddy puts it, being a keeper of stories is no easy task: “Timing and timeliness, rhythm, volume, inflection, delivery. Those skills took years to learn, let alone master. Was there a harder job? Probably not. Was there a better one? No. Definitely not.”
With August’s offerings, readers are invited not only to escape into new worlds but also to reflect on the stories—both personal and collective—that define who we are. For anyone looking to end the summer on a literary high note, the message is clear: grab a book, join a club, and let the stories live on.
