The Best Beach Reads For Your Summer 2025 Reading List From Oprah's Book Club

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Your summer 2025 beach reading conundrum is solved. Oprah's Book Club, launched in September 1996, has been serving curious readers for decades, and Oprah knows a good book when she reads one. What makes her book club so appealing is its range: she boosts the classics, praising established American authors like Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Steinbeck. But Oprah also introduces readers to new and lesser-known authors, giving emerging writers a chance for much greater exposure.

Oprah also celebrates a range in style and genre; there are deep, cerebral books that make it onto our list, but there are also compelling, entertaining reads that are sure to keep readers hooked. The best Oprah's Book Club picks of the 2020s proves that the longtime TV host loves heady gems as well as celebrity memoirs, all deserving of their places on our bookshelves (or in our beach bags). 

This range is exactly what we're after when choosing beach reads for the summer of 2025, and there are plenty of options to choose from — not just from Oprah. The best summer 2025 beach reads from Read With Jenna's Book Club are varied and magnificent. And Reese's Book Club offers a stellar reading list for entertaining beach reading this summer. Likewise, with Oprah's literary aesthetic in mind, we've curated a selection of impossible-to-put-down books that are sure to enrich your summer getaway.

If Marilynne Robinson's beautiful 2004 novel "Gilead" hasn't changed your life yet, then it's time to pack it for your summer vacation. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, a well-earned reward for an astounding piece of work. Robinson is such a tour de force as a writer that when Oprah Winfrey included "Gilead" in the her book club, she also name-checked the whole of Robinson's "Gilead" collection, including "Home," "Lila," and "Jack:" the first time Oprah had ever chosen four books at once. 

"Marilynne Robinson is one of our greatest living authors and in the Gilead novels she's written a quartet of masterpieces," Oprah said of her choice. "The more closely I read them, the more I find to appreciate, and the more they show the way in seeing the beauty in the ordinary."

"Gilead" centers around protagonist Reverend John Ames, who lives in Iowa and is writing letters to his young son as he faces death. Ames, in light of the fact that he won't be there to raise his son into adulthood, recounts their family history. Ames' own father was a pacifist while his grandfather was an ardent, and sometimes even violent, abolitionist. The novel is a gentle exploration of a father's anguished attempt to impart all of the wisdom he wishes to leave to his child after he's gone.

Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" is a work of historical fiction, and one that Oprah proudly included in her book club. The novel also went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 2017, and while it's certainly not your typical light, summer vacation read, it's a novel that will completely absorb and possibly even change you. 

"The Underground Railroad" is a deep, resonating, and worthwhile look at a dark part of American history. The novel focuses on Cora and Caesar, two enslaved people who decide to escape together using the underground railroad. In Whitehead's incredible imagination, the underground railroad is literally a system of tracks underground that Cora, Caesar, and others use to flee. 

Oprah spoke of Whitehead's novel with raw and honest praise. "'Blown away' is an often-used expression, but with this book it was to the point of sometimes putting it down and saying, 'I can't read anymore. I don't want to turn the page. I want to know what happens, but I don't want to know what happens,'" she said (via CBS). Clearly, Whitehead's book is immersive.

Elizabeth Strout's 2024 novel "Tell Me Everything" returns readers to a world that many, if they're fans of Strout, will be familiar with. Part of the Amgash series, "Tell Me Everything" brings readers back to Crosby, Maine, with leading characters like Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess returning to the page. It's like meeting up with old friends. 

The incredible novel follows its predecessors, "My Name is Lucy Barton," "Anything Is Possible," "Oh William!" and "Lucy by the Sea." The fifth installment, "Tell Me Everything," centers around a murder investigation in the town. It's full of suspense as well as the magic and simplicity of daily life. Strout, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for her novel "Olive Kitteridge," is a master at creating characters and keeping them interesting throughout a series. 

Oprah called the text a "marvelous" book, adding, "'Tell Me Everything' has all the things: romance and mystery and secrets and even a possible murder." It's everything a person could ask for in a summer read; the novel is engaging, addictive, and impossible to put down.

Colm Toibin's 2024 novel "Long Island" is a deeply heartfelt novel about what a woman chooses to do with unexpected — and unwanted — information. The Irish Eilis Lacey lives in Lindenhurst, Long Island, in 1976 with her Italian husband Tony Fiorello and their two teenage children. One day, a man arrives at her door telling her that his wife is having a baby and that Fiorello is the father. Lacey, who misses and longs for Ireland, has to make a decision about how she will respond to her husband's indiscretion. 

Fans of Toibin will know him for his other beloved novels, like "The Magician" and "Brooklyn," where readers first met Lacey. So for those who loved the author's previous novels, this is a must-read. Toibin's work stands the test of time because of his ability to bring quotidian struggles alive and infuse daily life with tension and grace. 

Oprah praised the exceptional novel in which a woman must "grapple with infidelity, with long-lost love, with secrets, and the universal struggle we all have to figure out where we truly belong." The novel is a great beach read because of its depth and soul, but also its gripping capabilities. It explores deeply the idea of where a woman belongs and where her roots truly lie.

Tayari Jones' "An American Marriage" is a poignant look at relationships, the duration of love, and the decisions that characters make when their lives are upended. The 2018 novel revolves around Celestial and Roy, who are newlyweds in the South. Both have their whole lives ahead of them when, unexpectedly, Roy is unjustly arrested and imprisoned. Celestial believes in his innocence, but can do nothing to help him. She begins to turn to Andre, a longtime friend, and finds comfort with him. After five years in prison, when Roy's sentence is cut short, and Celestial must reconcile her diminished love for him with his return home.

The tragic but realistic novel earned a place in Oprah's Book Club in February 2018, and the media mogul had touching things to say about Jones' work. "I love this title because the novel redefines the traditional American love story,"  Oprah said. "It's really a love triangle and places it inside a world that a lot of people don't know about, but impacts all of us in really big ways." Oprah promised readers were going to come away with greater empathy because the novel delves into difficult subjects. But she also loved it because it was so "juicy" and impossible to put down. Sounds like the perfect read on a relaxing getaway. 

We chose these five great books for our summer 2025 beach read list from Oprah's Book Club, so each book was read and loved by Oprah Winfrey herself. Since Oprah's Book Club boasts more than 100 selections, we focused on books that resonated within the literary community, especially books that had won the Pulitzer Prize, because the award offered further proof of the book's excellence and merit. 

We also prioritized diversity, giving attention to writers who offer a variety of perspectives, voices, and stories. The books in our selection aren't necessarily "light" beach reads: While we adore genre writing, like romance novels or mystery thrillers, these novels are layered. They're deep, even difficult sometimes, but it's our belief that even on vacation, compelling and heartfelt stories are always welcome. The bottom line is that these are all novels that will change the way you look at life, and nothing's better than a vacation where you come back renewed, restored, and even a little bit changed.