Many book clubs prefer to wait for a book to come out in paperback before selecting it for a group read. Paperbacks are less expensive than hardcovers and more portable, and by the time they are released, the book is often easier to find in libraries.
Well, good news: These 17 great reads — many former or current bestsellers — are now out in paperback.
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Publishers Weekly described Age of Vice as “Succession meets The Godfather but set in India” — a pithy if insufficient summary of this action-packed 2023 page-turner that explores issues of class, power and morality. The complex saga begins with a tragic traffic accident in New Delhi, then shifts back in time to detail how the lives of the three main characters become entangled. There’s reporter Neda (Kapoor also worked as a New Delhi journalist); wealthy, tortured Sunny, heir to his father’s corrupt business empire; and Ajay, Sunny’s quiet, exceptional servant.
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo
Woo tells the true story of William and Ellen Craft, who fled two different enslavers in Macon, Georgia, and traveled nearly a thousand miles to freedom in Philadelphia. Author Woo describes how they hid in plain sight, with light-skinned Ellen dressed as a wealthy Southern disabled man and William as her servant. They succeeded, though their pursuers kept pushing them farther north.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
O’Farrell proved her mastery of the historical fiction genre with 2020’s Hamnet, a fictionalized story about Shakespeare’s family and winner of the National Book Critics Award for Fiction. Her newer (2022) novel is just as transporting. It’s set in 16th-century Italy, where the young duchess Lucrezia de Medici is wed to the mercurial ruler of another region for political purposes. It’s soon clear the marriage won’t end well. Like Hamnet, it’s richly detailed and totally absorbing.
To see the remaining list of 17 new books available in paperback, from AARP, CLICK HERE.
