Book Club Kits

Expand the options your book club has through CALS Book Club Kits, made possible by Friends of Central Arkansas Libraries. Request a kit to be sent to your branch for pickup. Kits contain copies of a title and a discussion guide, and can be checked out for six weeks. Click on the tabs below for available book titles.

What is a CALS Book Club Kit?

A book club kit is a handy canvas tote that holds:

  • 10 paperback copies of one title and;
  • 1 discussion guide to assist book club leaders.

How do I reserve a CALS Book Club kit?

Download and complete the Book Club Registration Form, then deliver or mail it to any branch of the Central Arkansas Library System.

What rules apply to a CALS Book Club Kit?

  • Kits may be reserved up to a year in advance
  • Kits are checked out to one person (must be 18 years or older) who will be responsible for returning it.
  • Each book club kit will be checked out for 6 weeks. (Sorry, no renewals are allowed.)
  • The complete kit must be returned to the Circulation Desk of any branch library during regular library hours. Do not use a book drop to return your kit.
  • The fine for overdue book club kits is 10¢ per day per kit.
  • If a kit is not returned, the replacement cost is $100. Replacement costs will be prorated for missing or damaged items.

Are there special requirements for the Juvenile/YA book kits?

We only require that an adult (18+) check out each book kit. Adult book clubs as well as book clubs for children and teens are encouraged to consider the award-winning literature offered through our Juvenile/YA book kit program.

As with all books your club selects, we recommend that a member of your group reads the book to see if it is a good fit for your club. To find out more about any selection, click “Check Library Catalog” below to view each CALS online catalog record.

For more information

To print a complete list of available book club kits, please choose from the lists below. For more information, contact CALS at bookkitsinfo@cals.org.

Book Club Kits A – Z Book Club Kits By Genre

Available Titles

22 Britannia Road
by Amanda Hodgkinson

100-Year-Old Man who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson

The Alice Network
by Kate Quinn

All Boys Aren’t Blue
by George M. Johnson

All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion
by Fannie Flagg

All Over But The Shoutin’
by Rick Bragg

All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr

All the Missing Girls
by Megan Miranda

The Amateur Marriage
by Anne Tyler

Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver

The Arabian Nights
Wafa’ Tarnowska

The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein

The Aviator’s Wife
by Melanie Benjamin

Back When We Were Grownups
by Anne Tyler

Bastard Out Of Carolina
by Dorothy Allison

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
by Amy Chua

Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter

Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate

Behold the Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue

Being Mortal
by Atul Gawande

Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett

Belgravia
by Julian Fellowes

Beloved
by Toni Morrison

Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Birds of America
by Lorrie Moore

The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison

The Body Keeps the Score
by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The Book of Bright Ideas
by Sandra Kring

The Book of Lost Things
by John Connolly

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak

The Bookmaker’s Daughter
by Shirley Abbott

Born a Crime
by Trevor Noah

Bossypants
by Tina Fey

The Boston Girl
by Anita Diamant

The Boys in the Boat
by Daniel J. Brown

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Brain on Fire
by Susannah Cahalan

Breakfast with Buddha
by Roland Merullo

Breathing Lessons
by Anne Tyler

Bringing Maggie Home
by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown

Caleb’s Crossing
by Geraldine Brooks

Call the Midwife
by Jennifer Worth

Camp Nine
by Vivienne Schiffer

Cantoras
by Carolina de Robertis

Carry On, Warrior
by Glennon Doyle Melton

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson

The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway

Central In Our Lives: Voices From Little Rock Central High School, 1957-1959
by Ralph G. Brodie

Cinderella Ate my Daughter
by Peggy Orenstein

Circe
by Madeline Miller

The Circle
by Dave Eggers

Circling the Sun
by Paula McLain

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour
by Lynne Olson

The City of Ember
by Jeanne Duprau

Climbing the Mango Trees: a Memoir of a Childhood in India
by Madhur Jaffrey

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

The Color of Water
by James McBride

The Complete Stories
by Flannery O’Connor

The Condition
by Jennifer Haigh

Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole

Confederates in the Attic
by Tony Horwitz

The Coral Thief
by Rebecca Stott

Crazy Brave: A Memoir
by Joy Harjo

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
by Tom Franklin

Crossing The Line
by Bibi Belford

The Crying Tree
by Naseem Rakha

Cuckoo’s Calling
by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J.K. Rowling)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
by Mark Haddon

Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese

Dad is Fat
by Jim Gaffigan

Daring Greatly
by Brené Brown

Dark Places
by Gillian Flynn

Dead Wake
by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Music, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
by Erik Larson

Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
by Mara Leveritt

The Die is Cast: Arkansas Goes to War, 1861
edited by Mark Christ

The Dinner
by Herman Koch

The Dirty Life
by Kristin Kimball

Dispatches from Pluto
by Richard Grant

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz
by Lucy Adlington

Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

Educated
by Tara Westover

Eighty-Dollar Champion
by Elizabeth Letts

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman

The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery

Emma
by Jane Austen

Empire of the Summer Moon
by S. C. Gywnne

Enemies: A Love Story
by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Everyone Brave is Forgiven
by Chris Cleave

Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
by Matthew Desmond

Exit West
by Moshin Hamid

Firefly Lane
by Kristin Hannah

Five Days at Memorial
by Sheri Fink

Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir of Appalachia
by Jennifer McGaha

Flight of Dreams
by Ariel Lawhon

Fourth of July Creek
by Smith Henderson

Fun Home
by Alison Bechdel

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
by Casey Cep

Garden Spells
by Sarah Addison Allen

Gender Queer
by Maria Kobabe

A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles

The Ginger Tree
by Oswald Wynd

The Glass Universe
by Dava Sobel

Going Away Shoes
by Jill McCorkle

Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations
by Mira Jacob

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman

The Great Alone
by Kristin Hannah

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

H is for Hawk
by Helen MacDonald

Half Broke Horses
by Jeannette Walls

The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Attwood

The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
by David Treuer

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo
by Paula Huntley

Her Daughter’s Dream
by Francine Rivers

Her Fearful Symmetry
by Audrey Niffenegger

Her Mother’s Hope
by Francine Rivers

Here on Earth
by Alice Hoffman

The Heretic’s Daughter: A Novel
by Kathleen Kent

Hidden Figures
by Margot Lee Shetterly

Hidden Valley Road
by Robert Kolker

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis
by J.D. Vance

History of Love
by Nicole Krauss

Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford

The Hours Count
by Jillian Cantor

The House in the Cerulean Sea
by TJ Klune

The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros

How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman, M.D.

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins

I am Malala
by Malala Yousafzai

Ida B. the Queen
by Michelle Duster

I Feel Bad About My Neck
by Nora Ephron

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou

I Was Told There’d be Cake
by Sloane Crosley

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot

In The Dream House
by Carmen Maria Machado

In the Garden of Beasts
by Erik Larson

In the Woods
by Tana French

Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Into The Beautiful North
by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
by Wendy Mass

A Jewish Refugee in New York
by Kadya Molodovsky

Just Kids
by Patti Smith

Just Mercy
by Bryan Stevenson

Killers of the Flower Moon
by David Grann

Kindred
by Octavia Butler

The King’s Speech
by Mark Logue

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain

Kitchens of the Great Midwest
by J. Ryan Stradal

The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver

Land More Kind than Home
by Wiley Cash

Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Last Girls
by Lee Smith

Lawless
by Matt Bondurant

Lawn Boy
by Jonathan Evison

The Leavers
by Lisa Ko

Less
by Andrew Sean Greer

Lessons In Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Liberating Paris
by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
by Bill Bryson

The Life We Bury
by Allen Eskens

Light in the Ruins
by Chris Bohjalian

Lilac Girls
by Martha Hall Kelly

Little Bee
by Chris Cleave

Little Black Lies
by Sharon Bolton

Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng

Lone Wolf
by Jodi Picoult

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann

Lost in Shangri La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
by Mitchell Zuckoff

The Love of a Good Woman
by Alice Munro

Loving Frank
by Nancy Horan

Lucky Boy
by Shanthi Sekaran

The Magicians
by Lev Grossman

The Magician’s Elephant
by Kate DiCamillo

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
by Allison Pataki

Magpie Murders
by Anthony Horowitz

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will
by Stephanie Land

Maine
by J. Courtney Sullivan

Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
by Helen Simonson

A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman

Manhunt: The 12-Day Hunt for Lincoln’s Killers
by James L. Swanson

March
by Geraldine Brooks

March, Book One
by John Lewis and Nate Powell

March, Book Two
by John Lewis and Nate Powell

March, Book Three
by John Lewis and Nate Powell

Maus
by Art Spiegelman

Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes

Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris

The Middle Place
by Kelly Corrigan

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind
by Ann B. Ross

The Mistress of Spices
by Chitra Divakaruni

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee
by Charles J. Shields

The Moonflower Vine: A Novel
by Jetta Carlton

Mostly Dead Things
by Kristen Arnett

Mrs. Everything
by Jennifer Weiner

Mudbound
by Hillary Jordan

Murder in Matera
by Helene Stapinski

The Music Shop
by Rachel Joyce

My Dog Skip
by Willie Morris

My Life As An Experiment
by A. J. Jacobs

My Life in France
by Julia Child

The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander

New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance
by Elna Baker

News of the World
by Paulette Jiles

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern

The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah

Nine Parts of Desire
by Geraldine Brooks

Nineteen Minutes
by Jodi Picoult

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-first Century
by Jessica Bruder

North Toward Home
by Willie Morris

A Northern Light
by Jennifer Donnelly

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith

Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson

An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic
by Daniel Adam Mendelsohn

Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout

Olympus,Texas
by Stacey Swann

On Beauty
by Zadie Smith

The Once and Future Witches
by Alix E. Harrow

One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
by Garrett M. Marquez

Ordinary Grace
by William K. Krueger

Orphan Train
by Christina Baker Kline

The Other Typist
by Suzanne Rindell

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
by Wes Moore

Outer Banks
by Anne Rivers Siddons

Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee

The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender

The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters

Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger

People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks

Perfect Peace
by Daniel Black

Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi

The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict

The Piano Tuner
by Daniel Mason

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels
by Ree Drummond

A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
by Terry Ryan

Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that can’t Stop Talking
by Susan Cain

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi

Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier

Red Tent
by Anita Diamant

Remarkable Creatures
by Tracy Chevalier

Rise: How A House Built A Family
by Cara Brookins

Room
by Emma Donoghue

The Rosie Project
by Graeme C. Simsion

The Round House
by Louise Erdrich

Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward

Same Kind of Different as Me
by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, with Lynn Vincent

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
by Yuval Noah Harari

Sarah’s Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
by Beth Hoffman

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Shack
by William P. Young

The Shadow Catcher
by Marianne Wiggins

Sharks in the Time of Saviors
by Kawai Strong Washburn

Short History of Women
by Kate Walbert

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
by Lindy West

Silver Linings Playbook
by Matthew Quick

Silver Sparrow
by Tayari Jones

Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Small Great Things
by Jodi Picoult

The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See

So You Want to Talk About Race
by Ijeoma Oluo

Spool of Blue Thread
by Anne Tyler

A Star for Mrs. Blake
by April Smith

The Stars are Fire
by Anita Shreve

Still Life
by Louise Penny

Still Missing
by Chevy Stevens

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin

Strength in What Remains
by Tracy Kidder

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley

Sugar
by Bernice McFadden

Sully : My Search for What Really Matters
by Chesley Sullenberger

Swamplandia!
by Karen Russell

Tender at the Bone
by Ruth Reichl

Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor’s Son
by Sholem Aleichem

There, There
by Tommy Orange

The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield

The Things They Carried
by Tim O’Brien

This is Where I Leave You
by Jonathan Tropper

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini

The Thursday Murder Club
by Richard Osman

The Tiger’s Wife
by Téa Obreht

The Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar
by Cheryl Strayed

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Wolfe

Too Much Happiness
by Alice Munro

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith

Trials of the Earth: the True Story of a Pioneer Woman
by Mary M. Hamilton

True Grit
by Charles Portis

The Truth According to Us
by Annie Barrows

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
by Ayana Mathis

Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand

The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead

Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
by Martha S. Jones

The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett

Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High
by Melba Beals

The Watchmen
by Alan Moore

Water for Elephants
by Sara Gruen

We Need to Talk about Kevin
by Lionel Shriver

We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates

The Wednesday Sisters
by Meg Waite Clayton

The Weird Sisters
by Eleanor Brown

What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty

When All Is Said
by Anne Griffith

Where the Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens

Where’d You Go, Bernadette
by Maria Semple

The Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig

Wicked
by Gregory Maguire

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed

The Windfall
by Diksha Basu

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod
by Gary Paulsen

Wish you Well
by David Baldacci

The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
by Elaine Weiss

Wonder
by R.J. Palacio

The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
by Therese Ann Fowler

The Zookeeper’s Wife
by Diane Ackerman