Bookshop Santa Cruz staff recommendation:

The following books are recommended by our staff as great choices for book groups. Sign up for our Book Ends email newsletter to receive more great book group recommendations.

Looking for more book group recommendations? Find curated book lists for the following categories:

Surviving 2020: Books That Will Make You Believe in Humanity
Strong Women Through the Ages
Book Group Sleepers: Great Books Your Group May Have Missed

And There Was Light by Jon Meacham

Portrays Lincoln as a complex, ultimately human, person
Positive and uplifting
New perspective on an oft biographied president
Explores the power a president can hold

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (Paperback)

By Jon Meacham

$25.00

ISBN: 9780553393989

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - October 17th, 2023

Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora

Award-winning poet
Story of his immigration from El Salvador to the US
Told through the eyes of a nine year old Zamora
Deeply moving and hopeful

Solito: A Memoir (Paperback)

By Javier Zamora

$18.00

ISBN: 9780593498088

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Hogarth - June 6th, 2023

Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu

Coming of age story taking place in Berkeley
A search for belonging
Meditations on what friendship means
Overcoming grief

Stay True: A Memoir (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (Paperback)

By Hua Hsu

$17.00

ISBN: 9780593315200

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Anchor - September 12th, 2023

Crying in the Bathroom by Erika L. Sánchez

Author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Written as a number of essays
Deep, insightful, emotional, yet also hilarious
Her experience being a non-white woman in America

Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir (Paperback)

By Erika L. Sánchez

$18.00

ISBN: 9780593296950

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Penguin Books - July 11th, 2023

Women: The National Geographic Image Collection by National Geographic

Spans 100+ years & 50+ countries
Organized into sections from joy to hope
Features diversity in race, sexuality, age, occupation, and politics
Inspiring interviews with famous women

Women: The National Geographic Image Collection (National Geographic Collectors Series) (Hardcover)

By National Geographic

$19.99

ISBN: 9781426223198

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: National Geographic - February 7th, 2023

Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs by Henry Carroll

What it says on the tin!
50+ great photo examples
Concepts explained in a single page
For photographers at every level!

Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs (Paperback)

By Henry Carroll

$19.99

ISBN: 9781399606950

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Laurence King Publishing - June 27th, 2023

The Loft Generation by Edith Schloss

Compiled by the son of the artist "Best known for knowing everyone who counted" after her death
Fast-paced, funny, and deeply immersive
Features everyone from de Kooning to Ginsberg
A "Ghostly archive" of a pivotal moment in art