So Far Gone by Jess Walter

Retired journalist Rhys Kinnick has lived off-grid in a cabin for the past seven years. With no cell phone and not much human contact, he is unprepared when his two grandchildren, Leah and Asher, show up on his front porch. Their mother Bethany, who is Rhys' daughter, left them with instructions to be taken to Rhys rather than left with her husband, Shane. While Shane is a good man, he is part of a group with extremist beliefs that are antigovernmental and religious. So Far Gone is the story of Rhys trying to protect his grandchildren from the people that Shane is associated with. It is also a tale of a father and daughter trying to heal and find their way back to each other. While the plot of the novel sounds grim, Walter infuses it with humor and vivid characters.

The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson

Nova works at the St. Tredock Community Center and is due to be married in a few days to her boyfriend Craig. When £10,000 that was designated for a new roof for the center is stolen, it puts Nova's job in jeopardy. Nova was the one to lock the building the previous evening after a meeting of the community book club. The book club members, Phyllis, Arthur, and teenager Ash wonder if the fifth book club member Michael was the culprit, since he left the meeting abruptly. Then Michael's mother dies suspiciously and he disappears, which leads the quartet on an amateur investigation lead by Phyllis, who has a fondness for Agatha Christie. Will the group find the murderer and uncover who took the money? The Busybody Book Club is a humorous novel of friendship similar to Clare Pooley and Jenny Colgan. 

The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa

In this novel, we meet some people who travel on a train line in the Kansai region of Japan and hear their lightly interconnected stories. A man named Masashi develops an attraction for Yuki, who has similar reading tastes to his own.  Meanwhile, Shoko is on the train in a wedding dress, having just been to the wedding of her former fiancee. Grandmother Tokie is taking a journey with her young granddaughter Ami, while they chat about Tokie getting a dog. Misa's ride on the train helps empower her to leave her abusive boyfriend Katsuya. Lastly, college student Kei'ichi meets a woman named Miho who attends the same school as he does, and it looks like a possible romance might develop between them. The reader then meets the same characters six months later and sees how their lives have moved forward. A read-alike for Yeonnam-Dong Smiley Laundromat.

The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark

Olivia is a ghostwriter, helping people tell their life stories. When her estranged father Vincent, a best selling horror writer, has his publisher reach out to Olivia asking if she'll help him finish his next book, Olivia agrees-- except this story is not fiction, it's a story from almost fifty years ago when Vincent's siblings Danny and Poppy were murdered. The crime was never solved. Olivia has grave misgivings about taking the job, but she's in need of money, since she was sued by a fellow writer and owes him half a million dollars. When Olivia arrives at Vincent's home, she finds him in bad shape. He has been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and has a caregiver, Alma, who has been helping him out. In addition, Olivia's and Vincent's relationship hasn't been great since he sent her to boarding school in France when she was a teenager. As Olivia and Vincent begin to collaborate, it becomes clear that the book needs a lot of work and more questions than answers about what happened all those years ago are raised. Who killed Danny and Poppy? Was it Vincent or someone else? Julie Clark keeps the reader turning the pages to find out what really happened.

The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly

Mari has come to Martha's Vineyard under the guise of taking a private painting class with artist Elizabeth Devereaux. Mari's mother Nancy died recently and among her things were Elizabeth's name and some items that suggested Nancy was planning a trip to visit Elizabeth. Mari wonders what connection she has with Elizabeth and Copper Pond Farm, Elizabeth's residence. As Mari confesses the real reason she's come to the island, Elizabeth begins to tell her the story of siblings Tom, Cadence, and Briar, as well as their friend Bess, and their grandmother during World War II. It's a story full of love, secrets, Nazi U-boats, and betrayal.