Like many IRL book clubs, this London-based, feminist community
founded by writer Sheree Milli has migrated into the digital
stratosphere over lockdown – under normal circumstances, its group
had come together at The Curtain, The Hoxton and members’ club AllBright.
Recommendations dance between genres but are all penned by women or
authors of colour. Past picks include Madeline Miller’s Circe and
Hunger by Roxane Gay. Its bookshop.org page makes it easy to support indie
booksellers when picking up titles.

This club was set up by fans of Florence Welch in
2012, and the singer has since thrown her support behind this
lit-loving community, recommending titles as well as reeling in big
names to suggest their favourite books too – Grayson Perry went for
In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki while The Argonauts by
Maggie Nelson came with Greta Gerwig’s seal of approval. Head to
Instagram for video readings and discussion prompts.
Currently themed around chaos and creativity, the club is working
through Patti Smith’s Year of the Monkey.

Not your ordinary book club. With around 2,000 members across
the UK, ShelterBox is a charitable outfit that uses
book-lovers’ membership fees (minimum donation of £10 per month) to
help support people affected by conflict and natural disasters
around the world. The community votes on a shortlist of
character-led titles, the winner of which is sent out to members.
Six weeks later, everyone gets together on video calls and Facebook
groups to share their thoughts. Titles encourage readers to see the
world through different eyes; past picks include The Thing Around
Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and The Girl with Seven
Names, Hyeonseo Lee’s account of her escape from North Korea.

Founded in 2012 as a book club for introverts, Silent Book Club
isn’t the kind of get-together that forces you to stand up and make
awkward conversation over a glass of wine. Small talk? No thanks.
Instead, its 260-plus groups – or “chapters” – gather across more
than 30 countries simply to read silently in the company of others.
Chitchat only happens if you want it to. Check online to find
virtual meet-ups hosted from the US, Canada, South Korea, Germany
and beyond.

It would be remiss of us not to mention the mother of celebrity
book clubs: Oprah Winfrey. What was born as a segment on her talk
show in 1996 started a new chapter as the social-media-savvy
Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 in 2012. Expect videos of Winfrey sharing the
stack that helped her through hard times, join more than
50,000 members on the club’s Goodreads discussion boards or sign up to the
newsletter for reviews and author interviews. Like this? Check out
Reese’s Book Club, which celebrates female
storytelling.

Salon London is a club that really delivers on big ideas. Its
evenings with experts, authors and academics toe the line between
entertainment and enlightenment. With real-life meetings on hold,
its book club has stepped up a gear online, with regular, ticketed
live-streamed Q&As with authors such as Terri White and
green-travel pro, Juliet Kinsman.

Though it was only launched in March 2020 by writer and
podcaster Emma Gannon, The Hyphen’s cheery Instagram feed has already amassed
10,000 followers. Here you’ll find title recommendations,
discussion prompts, live recordings with authors and the odd
giveaway. Past picks include Candice Brathwaite’s I am Not Your
Baby Mother, On Being 40(ish) edited by Lindsey Mead and Gannon’s
debut novel, Olive, which hit shelves earlier this year.

“Read more. Learn together. Take action.” So says Rebel Book Club, a
“community of readers, thinkers and doers”. This group is suited to
curious minds and bookworms battling the curse of tsundoku – that
being the Japanese word describing the pile of unread books on your
bedside table/ shelf/ Kindle. Membership starts from £10 per month.
For that, you’ll enjoy a new title and twice-monthly Zoom calls
featuring discussions, guests and games.

Any book-lover worth their weight in paperbacks has spent a few
hours scrolling through Goodreads reviews and stacking their virtual
shelves of have-reads. The platform hosts thousands of virtual
groups, great for finding your tribe – whether it’s one united by a
love of adventure travel or Harry Potter roleplay. The Goodreads
Choice Awards Book Club is hot on recommendations: the group works
its way through top-rated titles from the site’s readers’ choice
awards.

Strengthening its community of readers in the age of isolation,
the New York Public Library teamed up with US radio station WNYC in
April to start its Virtual Book Club, which kicked off with James
McBride’s novel Deacon King Kong. Chosen books can be read for free
through NYPL’s e-reader app and subsequent discussions
with authors are presented as part of Get Lit, the monthly book
club of WNYC’s arts-and-culture show, All of It. Past shows –
featuring authors such as Emma Straub and Colson Whitehead – are
available for catch-up.