Reading may seem like a solitary hobby, but books have always sparked conversations. From literary debates to casual recommendations, talking about a book often becomes part of the experience itself. Online book clubs and book club podcasts make those conversations easier to join by offering a digital space where readers can explore stories together.
1. Oprah's Book Club: In-depth author conversations
This is the original celebrity book club, so of course I had to rank it first. Oprah's Book Club moved into the Apple Books app in 2019, with Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Water Dancer as its first pick. A year later, the club expanded into both an Apple TV+ interview series and a standalone podcast. That podcast launched in September 2020 with eight episodes about one book.
The format shifted again in December 2024, folding into a new weekly show which now carries a recurring book club segment presented by Starbucks. Fun fact: The Starbucks tie-in isn't new. It goes back to 1997, when the chain first sold Oprah's Book Club picks in its stores, and by 2014 a branded chai tea collaboration had raised more than 21 million dollars for youth education programs.
2. Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club: Celebrity book chats
In 2017, Reese Witherspoon started the beloved Reese's Book Club. She doesn't host the podcast built on that club, though. That's Danielle Robay, a journalist who also hosts Question Everything and E!'s While You Were Streaming. Bookmarked, the official Reese Witherspoon book club podcast, launched in June 2025 with Emily Henry and screenwriter Yulin Kuang discussing Henry's adaptations.
Each episode blends author interviews with pop culture chat, closing with listener book club questions pulled from a dedicated hotline. Fun fact: At an event for Amy Griffin's memoir ‘The Tell’, Oprah Winfrey spotted Witherspoon and Jenna Bush Hager together in the crowd and pulled them both onstage, joking that it was the first time the three book clubs had shared one roof.
3. The Readheads Book Club: Monthly friend-group picks
Jackie Oshry runs this show with an actual friend group. She's better known as half of The Morning Toast, a celebrity news podcast she hosts with her sister Claudia. Each month belongs to a different member of the Readheads group. Whoever's month it is, picks the book.
Every episode closes with a Readheads rating, out of five. December brings a Year in Review, ranking the group's favorite picks of the year against each other. The show has passed 70 episodes and is distributed through Dear Media. Fun fact: When Dana returned from maternity leave, the group opened her first episode back with her sharing the birth story before getting to that month's book.
4. The Book Club Review: Book club debates
Kate Slotover and Laura Potter both came out of publishing before they started podcasting about books. The two have recorded together since March 2017, Potter now from Vancouver and Slotover from the UK.
Episodes alternate between two formats. Book Club covers the book club reads their in-person groups just finished. Bookshelf covers whatever they're reading outside of that. Vogue, Stylist, and BBC Radio 5 Live have all written about the show, which recently held its first-ever live recording at the Barnsbury Book Festival. Fun fact: For an interview marking the anniversary of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Kate and Laura recorded on site in Tavistock Square, London, where Woolf once lived and where a statue of her now stands.
5. Book Club Girl Podcast: Listener-driven interviews
Tavia Kowalchuk has hosted every episode of Book Club Girl Podcast; first alongside Eliza Rosenberry, then alongside Bianca Flores once the second season began. Every episode covers one author and one book.
The name goes back further than the podcast does, by more than a decade. Book Club Girl started in 2007 as a blog recommending titles for reading groups. Then it became a call-in radio show, Book Club Girl on Air, and finally turned into a podcast (which wrapped its final season in June 2022). Fun fact: Jennifer Hart came up with the Book Club Girl persona while working as a vice president and associate publisher at Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks.
6. The Cookie Bookie Club: Mother-daughter book chats
Mary hosts this as a mother-daughter book club, with Sandra and Mary Kate. Each episode has a spoiler-free review of that week's book, a cookie taste test comparing bakeries like Crave Cookies and Levain, then a fuller spoiler-filled discussion once the warnings are out of the way.
Topics have ranged from a Book vs. Movie debate over It Ends With Us to a running scorecard of which bakery makes the better cookie. Fun fact: One episode reveals that Sandra was almost named Callandra, a detail that only came up because a book got the three of them talking about names in the first place.
A good book does not have to be a one-person experience. These book club podcasts bring readers together to share opinions, unpack stories, and celebrate the books that keep conversations going. All that is left is to find the one that fits your reading taste.