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A guide to some of Boston’s unique book clubs
Boston area residents are connecting through a thriving ecosystem of niche book clubs, bonding over shared interests and lively conversations one page at a time.
For some, their purpose is to help make friends in a new city. For others, they serve as an intellectual outlet, separate from work. For many, they are a space to unapologetically express oneself.
Boston area residents are connecting through a thriving ecosystem of niche book clubs, bonding over shared interests and lively conversations one page at a time.
Boston.com spoke with the organizers of just a few of the dozens of specialized book clubs in the Boston area.
Eastie Book Babes
For vibrant conversationalists and zealous readers
Eastie Book Babes’ inaugural summer camp included s’mores dip, friendship bracelet making, chic-camp outfits, and of course, a discussion of the monthly book club pick.
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Organizers Caroline-Nicole Figueroa and Jenna Keegan pride themselves on going “all-out” for their meetings, hosted twice a month due to demand. Club members rotate hosting, fostering a tightly knit community that spans ages.
The club reads books across diverse genres, chosen by the monthly host who either selects a book or does a group poll.
“We really have members across generations who all come together and bring different perspectives,” Figueroa said. “It’s gone above and beyond my expectations.”
The vibrant, women-only club celebrated its one year anniversary in May. Keegan and Figueroa hosted a special meeting for the occasion, while also celebrating Latino Book Month with discussing “Anita de Monte Laughs Last” by Xochitl Gonzalez.
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“I would have been pleased if this ended up being five or six regulars talking about a book every month, but it’s grown so far beyond that it is a little mind blowing,” Keegan said.
To join Eastie Book Babes, click here.
Common Reads
For women looking to make friends, while bonding over books
For Elie Delaney, one of the most daunting parts of post-grad life in a new city was finding a community.
What started as a book club between her coworkers quickly blossomed into a thriving space for women in their 20s to embrace reading and new friendships.
“It went viral on Tiktok, and then from there, I had the idea that, clearly, there’s a need for book clubs and communities for girls in Boston,” Delaney said.
Common Reads’ Instagram broadcast channel has more than 4,500 members, with more than 200 people attending outdoor book club meetings, Delaney said.
The club reads trending books across different genres, gravitating toward romance, fiction, and thrillers. Its September book, chosen through a group poll, was “These Summer Storms” by Sarah MacLean.
At meetings, Delaney organizes seating by neighborhoods in close proximity, with the hope of the readers finding friends located near them.
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“The worst case scenario is you read a book, the best case scenario, you read a book and you make a friend,” Delaney said.
At each meeting, Delaney hands out matchbooks with the Common Reads logo, and sometimes a theme fitting the occasion.
“We did a floral arrangement workshop in February for Valentine’s Day, so the matchbooks had flowers on it,” Delaney said. “And I always love giving back to the community, so there’s always a giveaway at every Common Reads event.”
To join Common Reads, click here.
Tough Guy Book Club
For men seeking a safe space to discuss books and make friends
There are two rules in the Tough Guy Book Club. The first: No talking about work. The second: Be a good person.
“You can’t talk about work because so many people define themselves by their job, especially men,” Peter Dudko, the club’s Boston chapter organizer, said. “It leads you to get out of your comfort zone, to talk about the book or talk about something else and it forces you to get to know people better.”
Dudko had made his 2024 New Year’s resolution to read more books when he stumbled upon the Australia-based national nonprofit organization and decided to start a Boston chapter.
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“This is the first community I’ve really seen tackle the problems with men’s depression, men’s isolation, and stuff like that, and not be shy about it, but also try to put a positive spin on it,” Dudko said.
A memorable moment for Dudko was in April, when the national chapter flew him out to Australia for “Camp,” a yearly club retreat that was “basically a weekend Boy Scout camp with alcohol,” Dudko said.
“That was definitely a moment where I can remember saying ‘Oh, I wonder how this will change my life,’ then flash forward to me boarding a flight to Australia,” Dudko said.
The club, which draws men of all ages, meets on the first Wednesday of every month at Joe Sent Me, a bar in Cambridge.
To join Tough Guy Book Club’s Boston chapter, click here.
Morbidly Curious Book Club
For inquisitive nonfiction lovers
A black and gold bedazzled skull resting on a picnic blanket signals that a meeting for the Morbidly Curious Book Club has begun.
Kris Luca, organizer of MCB’s Boston chapter since 2024, figured the skull would be easily identifiable to members — and convey a theme of the book club.
“It’s a very low pressure place to have discussions about topics that are maybe not considered polite to bring up at the dinner table,” Luca, who works at Boston Public Library’s Brighton branch, said.
MCB is an exclusively nonfiction book club, whose book pickings delve into unique, sinister topics. With books picked by the national chapter, the club has read about the history of cannibalism, hypothermia in medicine, true crime, and the invention of the lie detector.
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The group recently read a book about the history of surgery, and met near Massachusetts General Hospital, as it was mentioned in the book.
“People are always going down these little rabbit holes that the books bring up,” Luca said. “It can be hard to meet other people as an adult, and [the club] is a nice way to have some good conversations.”
To join the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Boston chapter, click here.
Silent Book Club
An introvert-friendly, come-as-you-are book club
If the premise of a traditional book club doesn’t sound appealing, the Silent Book Club may be the right fit.
Meeting monthly at the Widowmaker Brewery in Braintree, the Silent Book Club is geared for those who simply want to read and discuss any book they want without constraint.
“It doesn’t have the homework feel of finishing a book before a book club, or someone’s going to ask me to answer questions about this book,” club organizer Jamie Bevins said. “There isn’t any pressure, it’s very much like everyone kind of does it at their own pace.”
Bevins started the Weymouth/Braintree club chapter with her best friend, Jennifer Manning, in 2023. The two also co-owns a mobile bookshop pop-up called Bookworm, which has appeared at various community events like the Quincy Multicultural Festival and Trillium Fall Fest.
“It’s great because you don’t have to read an assigned book,” Bevins said. “Especially if it ends up being a book that people don’t like, that tends to be the downfall of book clubs a lot of times.”
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The club starts off with everyone reading quietly for the first hour, and then transitions into conversations about everyone’s respective books
“The best part of the book club is always the chatting,” Bevins said. “We get to talk to each other about the books everyone is reading, so it’s a good way to learn about other books.”
To join Silent Book Club’s Weymouth/Braintree chapter, click here.
All She Wrote Books‘ Book Clubs
For those interested in nonjudgemental, laid-back book clubs
All She Wrote Books, a feminist and queer bookstore in Somerville, hosts three book clubs, all centered around reading books about or by the LGBTQ+ community.
A cornerstone of the clubs — Queer Romance Book Club, The Breakfast Club, and Dani’s Queer Bar x All She Wrote Books — is an inclusive, welcoming community.
“We want people to feel like they’re part of the group, that’s really, really important for us when we do these book clubs,” owner Christina Pascucci said.
The bookstore offers a book club in partnership with Dani’s Queer Bar, Boston’s first lesbian bar. The club will celebrate its one year anniversary next month.
“At Dani’s, we specifically focus in on queer voices for that, and we try to change it up thematically,” Pascucci said. “We were bouncing back and forth between some classic LGBTQ books and then contemporary versions of them.”
Breakfast Club, which Pascucci directly runs, alternates between fiction and nonfiction each month. Each meeting offers coffee and pastries from nearby French bakery Michette.
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Pascucci said personally running the book club allows her to connect on an interpersonal level with customers, and have conversations deeper than store-small-talk.
“The coolest part about our book clubs is you’re not necessarily going to see all the same faces every single time,” Pascucci said. “There’s always new people at each and every single one, which I think is really special about what we do.”
To learn more about All She Wrote Books’ book clubs, click here.
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